Flickr as a Digital Image Collection Host: A Case Study of the Alcuin Society

This report is a case study of the Alcuin Society's use of Flickr as a digital image collection host. It covers the selection, implementation, and promotion of Flickr as the place for its photographs and images.     

Managing Serials in a Large Digital Library: Case Study of the UNT Libraries Digital Collections

The Portal to Texas History (http://texashistory.unt.edu) and the University of North Texas (UNT) Digital Library (http://digital.library.unt.edu) contain more than 445,000 items collectively, hosted by the UNT Libraries. These collections include a variety of serial publications such as newsletters, magazines, scholarly journals, annual reports, and yearbooks. Many of these serials are key resources for the user groups of both repositories. In this article, we discuss the importance of serials within our collections, some of the challenges, the standards we use, and how we leverage metadata to facilitate access to serials for diverse global users.     

Advocating for Sustainability: Scaling-Down Library Digital Infrastructure

ABSTRACT

Academic institutions have a long tradition of using content management systems (CMSs) for the production of networked scholarship in the digital environment. However, CMSs are complex and rapidly changing infrastructures that do not always meet the needs of smaller ad hoc collaborative projects. CMSs are also difficult to preserve in the library environment given their obsolescence over time. This article uses the History of the Book and Literacy Technologies project at UCLA to illustrate why library administrators should advocate for the systematic production of scaled-down platforms that can withstand the constantly evolving technical environment within libraries and foster more sustainable platform practices.     

Selective Cataloging of Federal Documents:

To increase access to federal depository documents, the University of Southern Colorado Library has cataloged selectively approximately one percent of incoming publications, as well as frequently used older ones. Using the OCLC Prism Service, we download bibliographic records to the hard drive of a PC, then transfer records into the on-line catalog. This article describes the specific processing steps developed, the expenses encountered, and the criteria used for selecting documents to catalog.     

直面数字文献的挑战

探讨数字技术给文献管理带来的风险与新问题,论述相应的解决方案与正在开展的研究工作。建议全面、广泛地研究数字图书馆,以减少数字文献管理过程中的隐患。     

Russian Digital Collections in North America: A Survey

This article discusses an inventory of Russian digital collections that was gathered from publically available material on the Web in 2011. It touches on the opportunities and difficulties that come with the increase of digital material on the Web and how librarians can attempt to bring smaller collections to the attention of scholars and researchers.     

Digital Libraries and Librarians of the 21st Century

SUMMARY

New forms of scholarship and publishing are radically and rapidly changing the relationships among those who create, store, distribute, and use information. This paper will focus on the changes in library collections and library information technology organizations, the resulting advancements in scholarly research, and will discuss the attributes, attitudes, and skills needed by the librarians of tomorrow to develop the strong connections between the academic disciplines and research libraries that are essential for library development in the 21st century.     

Building a Shared Digital Collection: The Experience of the Cooperating Libraries in Consortium

Recognizing the digital opportunities available, the libraries of eight educational institutions in Minnesota built on a previously existing consortial relationship in order to explore the possibility of sharing a Digital Asset Management System (DAMS). This article discusses the experience of these institutions as they chose CONTENTdm and the considerations made when settling on an option viable for a consortium. It elaborates on the shared cost considerations, hardware purchases, and the consortium's experience as it purchased and implemented the software, formalized avenues of communication, and established collection standards. We close by discussing the opportunities, challenges, and rewards experienced by those involved.     

Music Reference Sources: Analog in a Digital World

ABSTRACT

Do we need print reference collections at all? In the case of music reference materials, the answer is definitely “yes.” At the University of Memphis, reference titles in the music library are used at about three times the rate of reference materials in the main library. This paper leverages local reference and reserve book usage to investigate how print reference sources support music research of various kinds, how music faculty integrate reference sources into their courses, and how librarians can make finding and using these resources easier for users accustomed to accessing materials online without an intermediary.     

User Navigation in Large-Scale Distributed Digital Libraries: The Case of the Digital Public Library of America

ABSTRACT

This article presents the findings of a case study that examined user navigation in a large-scale digital library in the context of academic use. Using the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) as a case, the study explored user navigation and understanding of a distributed model of large-scale digital libraries. The DPLA model involves two- or three-step navigation pathways. Most study participants could navigate the DPLA distributed, multilayered system effectively. This study found some confusion among the participants when they must move through a three-step process to locate digital objects provided by a metadata aggregator service hub. The study participants also pointed out the advantages of a distributed model in collocating digital resources and connecting users to a wide range of digital libraries.     

Digital Publishing from the Library: A New Core Competency

In the earlier years of the Web, libraries focused on moving services online and building digital collections, but in recent years, libraries have emerged as key players in the world of digital publishing. Librarians possess all of the necessary skills to act as digital publishers; they join the ranks of many others who have discovered the barriers around digital publishing are lower than ever. Library-based digital publishing solutions have matured to a point that the act of digital publishing could—and should—become a new core competency for the library profession. To explore this hypothesis, the researchers offer a working definition of digital publishing and assess the key roles that traditional publishers have historically offered over time. They find that librarians already possess the requisite skills to become digital publishers, and the collaborative culture of the library profession is a strength for this new role. Examples of digital publishing from two libraries at the University of California-Berkeley offer a proof of concept. Services at these libraries include the conceptualization of overall Web site strategies, a content plan that emphasizes distinctive and original material, and special projects that promote digital publishing at the local level, even as they take advantage of campus- or system-level services. Researchers find that offering library-based Web publishing services can reinforce overall information management programs and also advance the status of libraries within their respective host organizations. The comparative ease of digital publishing has opened an opportunity for librarians to follow the user as they use the Web in creative ways.     

We Are All Teachers: A Collaborative Approach to Digital Collection Development

ABSTRACT

In libraries and archives, efforts to document underrepresented communities and diversify collections can be fraught with political tension. We explore an interdepartmental collaboration to create and preserve a digital collection documenting the Urban Native Relocation Program of the mid- to late-twentieth century in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Involving the Grand Valley State University Libraries, the Kutsche Office of Local History, and the university's Native American Advisory Board, the project serves as a model not just for collaborative collection development but also for community engagement and outreach. We find that process is as important as product in developing collaborative digital collections.     

An Opportunity for Change: College Accreditation and the New Library Manager

Abstract

Administering special collections within an academic branch library presents challenges in the areas of public services, collection management, facilities planning, and staffing. In art and architecture libraries, special collections can include a variety of materials such as rare books, trade catalogs, builder's guides, graphic and visual materials, artists' books, archival records in many formats, and files of ephemera. Public service issues relating to the administration of special collections housed in an architecture branch library (and its off-site repositories) will be addressed. Collection care and access services will be examined in light of recent technologies.     

House of Cards: The Academic Library Media Center in the Era of Streaming Video

In a time of increasing financial pressures on universities, the expense of library resources—and the potential for cost inflation—threaten the academic library collection. This article asks whether the academic library media center will be able to continue to offer a stable inventory of films, given the legal and commercial structures currently in place. It provides a history of the film industry’s interactions with its intermediaries, forecasts some of the obstacles to ongoing feature film affordability and access in libraries, offers strategies for librarians, and suggests some cause for hope.     

新世纪的大学图书馆:变革创新,应对挑战

世纪之交 ,图书馆面临着许多挑战 ,以新技术武装自己 ,实行一系列的变革和创新 ,是图书馆应对挑战的正确策略。本文就此提供了一些个人的思考 ,对大学图书馆的发展提出了一些建议     

数字图书馆信息丰富化:概念、特征及框架

文章从理论与实践两个方面对数字图书馆信息丰富化进行分析、探讨。理论部分主要研究数字图书馆信息丰富化的概念、内涵和特征。实践部分主要从系统的角度对信息丰富化框架进行研究。     

The Complexities of Digital Resources: Collection Boundaries and Management Responsibilities

SUMMARY

The boundaries that define a discrete collection of intellectual or informational resources have never been precise or immutable. With the proliferation of born-digital and digitized analog materials, these boundaries are becoming even less well defined. Supporting users' information needs in the current digital environment requires redefining the responsibilities of persons responsible for executing traditional library collection development practices and archival appraisal strategies. Developing and supporting the necessary technical and organizational infrastructure for long-term sustainability of digital collections will require intentional collaboration among information professionals. This article explores these issues in the context of both academic and state government entities, clarifying the need for a shift in roles for information professionals.     

Improving Research and Learning in Higher Education in Portugal: Digital Resources,E-Books,and a Discovery System as Enabling Factors for Students

ABSTRACT

This article describes a library's implementation of digital resources for research, teaching, and learning at a higher education institution in Portugal. A school specializing in education and teacher education established strategic performance areas related to digital resources for the fulfillment of its mission, which included some functions of the academic library. The library implemented a discovery system, and the school invested in a wider range of resources, including e-books, both acquired and institutionally published. The library's training programs were also revised to promote the new system and electronic resources. This case study describes how an academic library in Portugal responded to institutional needs, illustrating how libraries everywhere must connect to the larger vision and demonstrate value through technologies, integrating digital and print resources to provide access built around users' needs.     

Boundary Objects/Boundary Staff: Supporting Digital Scholarship in Academic Libraries

In response to the increased construction of digital scholarship infrastructure in academic libraries this article articulates a new staffing model for the management of digital platforms in the academic library environment. Based on two cases, this article discusses the increased use of digital infrastructure in pedagogy by Library Special Collections at UCLA, and the workflow pressures these infrastructures created that challenge traditional staff roles. Digital infrastructures are then framed as types of boundary object, catering to multiple communities of practice. In order to tend to these boundary infrastructures, a new staffing model has been introduced—that of the boundary staff—whose primary purpose would be to support these hybrid infrastructures and more effectively integrate them into the general library environment. This approach to digital project collaboration can set the stage for more flexible and innovative digital instruction, building on the current skillsets of library staff to facilitate new modes of faculty and librarian partnerships.     

Bringing Content into the Picture: Proposing a Tri-Partite Model for Digital Preservation

Digital preservation is a complex field that is rapidly maturing and increasingly focusing on content as well as the human element of digital preservation. This conceptual article examines a number of digital preservation models meeting a variety of needs created by different communities. Given the guidance these models have afforded digital preservation, considering the present, and looking to the future, this article proposes a tri-partite model for thinking about digital preservation in an era of robust community involvement: the Digital Preservation Triad. The Triad focuses on 1) Management, including elements relating to documentation and human resources; 2) Technology; and 3) Content.