Out of the nest: the cataloger in a public services role

In today’s libraries, catalogers must often assume other roles. Because of outsourcing, shrinking staffs, expanded services, and shifting priorities, specialization in cataloging is frequently no longer an option. Taking on other types of responsibility can be quite daunting to those who have been in technical services for an entire career. This paper examines the benefits and challenges for a cataloger who is working in public services. It discusses what qualities a cataloger can bring to public services work along with the advantages for the cataloger in working with the public. Some survival strategies will be offered for the cataloger making the transition to public services work or working with multiple departmental assignments. The overall approach is positive, but realistic in the acknowledgment that this role change can be very demanding for catalogers.     

Applying participatory design and collaboration in digital public services for discovering and re-designing e-Government services

E-Government projects are currently service oriented, focusing on the implementation and diffusion of digital public services through one-stop points of access for citizens. E-Government strategic plans are political, directed at cost and time minimization during the execution of public services, and they do not take into account citizen needs or public administration operating procedures. Although these plans have led to the development of projects that have succeeded in cost and time savings for both citizens and public administration, surveys conducted around the world show that users evaluate digital public services and do not hesitate to return to traditional methods rather than using digital channels to transact with the public administration again; neither would they recommend the use of digital services to others. This article presents collaborative and participatory tools and methods designed to exploit the knowledge and experience of public servants in the improvement and execution of custom and non-automated public services. Collaborative tools can succeed in the development of real one-stop shops for e-Government, while on the other hand they can encourage both citizens and civil servants to participate in the e-Government era.     

Artificial intelligence in public services: When and why citizens accept its usage

Interest in implementing artificial intelligence (AI)–based software in the public sector is growing. First implementations and research in individual public services have already been carried out; however, a better understanding of citizens' acceptance of this technology is missing in the public sector, as insights from the private sector cannot be transferred directly. For this purpose, we conduct policy-capturing experiments to analyze AI's acceptance in six representative scenarios. Based on behavioral reasoning theory, we gather evidence from 329 participants. The results show that AI solutions in general public services are preferred over those provided by humans, but specific services are still a human domain. Further analyses show that the major drivers toward acceptance are the reasons against AI. The results contribute to understanding of when and why AI is accepted in public services. Public administration can use the results to identify AI-based software to invest in and communicate their usage to perceive such investments' high acceptance rates.     

Bringing public services experience to technical services: Improvements in practice

Service to our users is the principal basis for a library's existence and as users' expectations increase, libraries must continually change their organization's policies, procedures and workflows to meet these expectations. In order to achieve this in the Acquisitions Monographs Unit at Texas A&M University (TAMU) Libraries, Library Administration utilized a public service librarian who has a strong user oriented background to provide a fresh look at established procedures. This librarian examined TAMU Libraries Acquisition Monographic policies, procedures and workflows from a user perspective and found some of them to be out of date. Then the librarian researched other businesses and libraries best practices which she then adopted and modified to fit the needs of her unit. These “New Best Practices” could be transferable to any library facing similar organizational needs.     

Multicultural Libraries' services and social integration: The case of public libraries in Montreal Canada

Montreal is a multicultural city, with a high percentage of immigrants where great value is given to culture. The city has a network of public libraries, which are located in the different districts. The provincial government has just opened the new Bibliothèque Nationale du Québec, which combines a national library service with those of a public library. The Bibliothèque Nationale du Québec and the public libraries in Montreal have set a goal to facilitate the integration of immigrants into Montreal society. In this context, the objective of this research is to find out to what extent the public libraries in Montreal are facilitating the integration of immigrants into society and to discover what important role the libraries actually play in this process.     

The use of information systems in the Greek public financial services: The case of TAXIS

One of the most important transactions between government and citizens is taxation. The modernization efforts of the public sector using information and communication technology (ΙCT) have led to the application of large information systems. TAXIS (TAX Information System) is a major information system in the Greek public financial sector. It supports the Inland Revenue Services' employees to serve the citizens and the state. This study investigated the TAXIS usage and its evaluation by the tax office employees. An appropriate questionnaire was developed and distributed to tax office employees in three branches. The analysis of one hundred responses revealed useful results for governmental policy makers, tax officials as well as public information system developers. Most responders were pleased with TAXIS' characteristics except of the handbooks' effectiveness and the system's speed. Gender differences were located in their daily usage, problems' awareness, feelings and considerations about the security of TAXIS.     

The economic value of library services for children: The case of the Czech public libraries

Public support of library services must be targeted towards children because these services play a key role in their development. However, no prior research has investigated the value of public library services for children. Specifically, earlier studies evaluated the value of public libraries as a whole, without considering library services for different stakeholders. The fact that children are not autonomous economic agents is another problem to address. These barriers can be overcome by using the contingent valuation method with parents/caregivers as the subjects queried and children used as the objects in this study. Thus, the economic value of library services for children can be obtained to support managerial decisions on services specifically designed for children. More precisely, this study is unique in that it develops a contingent valuation methodology for estimating the value of children's library services based on adults' willingness to allocate a proportion of municipal budgets. Both users and non-users were surveyed to verify the proposed methodology empirically. The results show that the perceived effectiveness (ratio between perceived benefits and costs) of children's library services is 11.2 (11.2 units of benefits for each unit invested) in Czech public libraries compared with 4.3 for a library as a whole. This finding confirms the essential role of children's library services, implying that public libraries should offer a broader selection of children's books and other services. The study also shows that the value of children's library services depends on the age, education and economic structure of the adults queried. In addition, their satisfaction with library services is another important determinant, indicating that public libraries can influence the perceived benefits of children's library services.     

Proactivity in digital public services: A conceptual analysis

Public organizations are looking for new ways to use digital technologies to increase the efficiency of their internal processes and improve their interactions with clients, whether citizens or businesses. In response, scholars suggest that public organizations be proactive in digital public services such that the organizations approach their clients, rather than the other way around. In the most extreme form of proactivity, clients do not have to do anything to receive a public service. Although various examples of proactive public services are in use, how proactivity changes the conceptual understanding of digital public services remains unclear. Therefore, we derive the changes that proactivity causes in a conceptualization of digital public service by means of a conceptual analysis through the lens of a seminal theoretical work on proactivity. The results indicate that proactivity can ensure equal accessibility to a subset of public services, rely on more comprehensive integration of IT systems on the back end, and change how value is co-created in the service process. We formulate the changes as propositions that future work can investigate empirically and discuss proactive digital public services as a way to reduce clients' administrative burden. We contribute to theory by clarifying the conceptual changes in digital public services that proactivity invokes and call for joint research by scholars of public administration, information systems, and service management to relate the research streams of administrative burden and proactive digital public service.     

Bridging the gap between acquisitions and public services: One approach

Rather than perpetuating the misunderstandings between public services and technical services librarians, a series of statements were written, setting forth the internal agreements, policies, and general procedures that existed within an academic library. The statements have also been a useful tool in the orientation of new staff members.     

Determining research data services maturity: The role of library leadership and stakeholder involvement

As technology and the stewardship of research data continue to improve, academic libraries have made progress in establishing themselves as hubs and leaders for research data services on campus. They have been called on to assure cross-campus collaboration and support to develop a united service to meet their community's needs. However, evidence as to how libraries play a crucial role in leadership, whether other stakeholders' involvement makes a difference, and if so, how that involvement makes a difference is not well-documented. The findings of this study add empirical evidence in supporting the value of library's leadership and stakeholder engagement in developing research data policy and services. The secondary analysis of the survey data found that libraries tend to offer more extensive services when they take primary responsibility for developing the policy and service. It also found that the more internal stakeholders involved in developing the policy and service, the higher level of service maturity the libraries offer. Partnership with external stakeholders leads to more comprehensive and deeper services.     

Patient information provision: its effect on patient anxiety and the role of health information services and libraries

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Electronic services in the public sector: A conceptual framework

Electronic services provided by governmental organizations, here referred to as public e-services, are frequently discussed in the e-government literature. There is, however, little consensus on the meaning of the concepts used to describe and discuss these e-services, and hence, the literature is full of synonymous terms and concepts. This paper is conceptual and presents efforts to understand e-services in the public sector domain by unpacking the public e-service concept into three dimensions; as being (1) a service, (2) electronic, and (3) public (as contrasted to being private). Based on a hermeneutic analysis, these dimensions are discussed in a number of combinations, illustrating that a multi-dimensional take on public e-services must be adopted in order to capture the complexity of governmentally supplied e-services and contribute to theory development, as well as practical utility.     

e-Cognocracy and the design of public policies

Designing public policies using information technology as a communication support system is one of the most important current issues in the public policy making field. This work presents a methodology for the design and selection of public policies based on the cognitive democratic model known as e-Cognocracy. In addition to facilitating debate between representatives and the represented (deliberative democracy), this model allows for co-decision making between citizens and politicians. Furthermore, and of even greater importance, e-Cognocracy generates a process of continuing education that is concordant to the lifelong process of living systems (cognitive process). The methodology contemplates multiple rounds (usually two) when incorporating the preferences of the actors implicated in decision making and takes advantage of the creative capacity of human beings when solving complex problems. At the same time, the methodology permits the evaluation of both the individual and social learning that is derived from the scientific resolution of the problem and the democratisation of the knowledge that is extracted. This methodology was applied to a real-life experience in the Spanish municipality of Cadrete.     

The quality of academic and public library reference service provided for NTIS products and services: Unobtrusive test results

This article reports on the use of unobtrusive testing to gather data on a performance measure—correct answer fill rate. Personnel from 12 academic and public libraries participating in the U.S. Government Printing Office's depository program were asked 5 pretested questions and the accuracy and efficiency of their search outcome were measured.Although the article reports a pilot project, the findings and discussion of study results should have broad interest. They document the inability of a number of staff members to negotiate successfully reference questions pertaining to NTIS and technical report literature. Clearly, the study merits replication on a broader scale and library staff should review their search skills with the test questions appended to this article.     

The role of training in the reorganization of cataloging services

The Cataloging Services Department at Widner Library, Harvard College, was restructured into teams in mid-1993. Two types of training for staff were implemented. This paper discusses the new organizational culture based on the library's vision statement, the Group Process Training and Functional Training modules, the working assumptions, and the strengths and weakness of each training module.     

The institute of Ethiopian studies library and its documentation services

During the last few decades research activities have grown rapidly in Ethiopia. Introduction of higher education and foreign assistance for this purpose have led the Ethiopian Government to set up several research institutes in the country. The Institute of Ethiopian Studies is one of them, set up to enable research activities in various areas of Ethiopian culture as well as to provide a documentation centre for them. Information and documentation are considered to be the infrastructure of research work. The present state of information and documentation services of the Institute is briefly described along with its history, activities and sections. The importance of introducing some new devices, such as compiling bibliographies, cumulative indexes, book lists and starting a newsletter to keep the researchers abreast of new developments at the Institute.