Developing Collections of Web-Published Materials

Abstract

Librarians and archivists face challenges when adapting traditional collection development practices to meet the unique characteristics of Web-published materials. Likewise, preservation activities for Web-published materials must be undertaken at the outset of collection development lest they be lost forever. Standards and best practices for Web-collection development are still emerging, and librarians are struggling with the often daunting financial, staffing, and infrastructure challenges posed by collecting and preserving these materials. The results of a needs assessment with librarians, information providers, and academic researchers informed the identification of key collection development activities for Web-published materials. This research was conducted as part of the Web-at-Risk project, a collaborative effort of the California Digital Library, the University of North Texas, and New York University.     

Archiving the Web: It's Going to Have to Be a Group Effort

Important content is increasingly published on the Web, and not all of it is being preserved by large projects such as the Internet Archive's “Wayback Machine.” As new technologies transform the publishing industry, libraries will need to identify new forums for scholarly communication as they develop, and take steps to ensure that relevant materials do not slip through the cracks. Local content, government documents, and database-backed websites are three areas in which libraries may find that existing Web archives do not contain the content that users are likely to need.     

Impacts of government website information on social sciences and humanities in China: A citation analysis

The purpose of this research is to investigate the current state and trend of government website information cited by social science and humanities (SS&H) journal articles in China. The Chinese Social Science Citation Index (CSSCI) was used as the benchmark and the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) journals as the reference samples. It analyzed 204,019 web citations (N = 5,063,237) found in 925,506 articles that were published in CSSCI journals during the 1998–2009 period. The findings unveil that web citations accounted for only 4.03% of the total number of citations (N = 5,063,237), and that citations of Chinese government websites constituted 6.6% of the total number of web citations (N = 204,019). The study disclosed detailed information regarding citations derived from ministries and commissions directly under the State Council websites (N = 69), government online media (N = 7), government website citation subjects (N = 21), and various types of government website information (N = 5). Although government website information has limited influence on SS&H, their impact is currently growing rapidly. In comparison with international research community, influence of government web information on Chinese social science is higher, while its influence on humanities is lower. Essentially, Chinese scholars put emphasis on citing information from authoritative central government websites or highly visible state-owned media information as supporting evidences in their articles. In general, the citation of information from Chinese government website tends to hot social issues of society. Finally, it is necessary to promote the visibility of local government websites, to develop policies and guidelines to encourage the disclosure and the diversity of data, so that there will be more citation balances between social and technological topics.     

The Online Government Information Movement

Abstract

The National Commission on Libraries and Information Science published recommendations for a national information policy in 1976, and concerns regarding the protection of privacy and equal public access to online information were introduced. From the mid 1970s to the early 1990s, federal government agencies were beginning to publish materials and maintain records electronically. Most current U.S. government information was available on the Internet by the late 1990s, and depository libraries were required to provide workstations that would facilitate access to documents. Documents librarians, already concerned with the lack of attention to archiving online federal information, were provided with an example of the vulnerability of online publications in the early 2000s when federal agency Web sites were made inaccessible-quickly and easily. The possibility that too much government information was available to anyone with access to the Internet was becoming a national concern. Using government documents as resources, this article retraces the events that were occurring in federal government agencies during the movement of government information to the Internet.     

How responsive is E-Government? Evidence from Australia and New Zealand

Governments around the world are increasingly moving toward online service delivery in what is commonly called e-government. There are high hopes for e-government, particularly that the associated technologies provide the scope to make government services more responsive. This article reports on a 2006 study of one aspect of e-government responsiveness, namely, the basic capacity to answer a simple question posted by email. To this end, federal and state agencies in Australia, and central and local government agencies in New Zealand were emailed (n = 273). Data related to locating contact email addresses and subsequent responses was collected. The key finding was that the Australian agencies consistently did not perform as well as their New Zealand counterparts, bringing into question one component of their higher ranking in international e-government studies and also their potential to deliver on the Australian government policy that e-government means more responsive government.     

Pakistani University Library Web Sites: Features,Contents, and Maintenance Issues

ABSTRACT

This study explores the current status and features of Pakistan's academic library Web sites. A checklist describing features and content was prepared based on a review of the literature related to academic libraries’ Web sites. Then, all 85 library Web sites of Pakistani universities and degree-awarding institutions recognized by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan were surveyed and analyzed using the checklist. Interviews with library professionals were conducted to learn more about the problems and issues with building and maintaining library Web sites. Results indicate that Pakistani academic library Web sites have effective features such as contrasting color schemes, easily readable text, minimal use of horizontal scrolling, and English-language text. Staff information, OPACs, and navigation features are also widely found on the Web sites. Features found less frequently include the use of Web 2.0 technologies, Web site aid tools, information about library buildings, and general library information. By offering information about the status of Pakistani academic library Web sites, the study can serve as a foundation for discussion between libraries and other parts of the university, as well as a benchmark for evaluating the progress of academic library Web sites in Pakistan     

欧美国家图书馆网络信息保存的收集策略研究及启示

20世纪90年代中后期,一些西方国家图书馆开展了各种的网络信息资源保存项目。在信息收集策略上,澳大利亚、瑞典、法国、美国和荷兰五国的项目很具代表性,分别采取选择性收集、全面收集、联合收集、专题收集和与出版者协商合作收集等策略。五种收集策略各具特色,对我国国家图书馆的网络信息资源保存项目的信息收集都有一定的启发意义。     

Web Archive存档策略分析*

选择Web Archive有效存档研究中几种典型的存档策略：基于外部索引的压缩存档、基于多文件服务的存档、基于格式迁移的存档、基于特征抽取的存档,对它们的保存背景、策略应用以及实现特点进行分析,希望为我国在Web Archive存档研究的发展提供一些参考。     

An exploratory usability evaluation of Colorado State University Libraries' digital collections and the Western Waters Digital Library Web sites

In an exploratory study, participants (n = 18) completed 11 usability tasks to assess ease of use of two Web sites, and then a Web site perception questionnaire for each. Participants rated both Web sites positively, but 25% and 36% could not complete all tasks; doing so required more than a minute to complete.     

Developing a generic tool to routinely measure the impact of health libraries

Background

Health libraries contribute to many activities of a health care organisation. Impact assessment needs to capture that range of contributions.

Objectives

To develop and pilot a generic impact questionnaire that: (1) could be used routinely across all English NHS libraries; (2) built on previous impact surveys; and (3) was reliable and robust.

Methods

This collaborative project involved: (1) literature search; (2) analysis of current best practice and baseline survey of use of current tools and requirements; (3) drafting and piloting the questionnaire; and (4) analysis of the results, revision and plans for roll out.

Findings

The framework selected was the International Standard Methods And Procedures For Assessing The Impact Of Libraries (ISO 16439). The baseline survey (n = 136 library managers) showed that existing tools were not used, and impact assessment was variable. The generic questionnaire developed used a Critical Incident Technique. Analysis of the findings (n = 214 health staff and students), plus comparisons with previous impact studies indicated that the questionnaire should capture the impact for all types of health libraries.

Conclusions

The collaborative project successfully piloted a generic impact questionnaire that, subject to further validation, should apply to many types of health library and information services.     

Preserving digital scholarship: the future is now

The Cedars project in the UK has been set up to explore some of the issues associated with archiving of digital materials and to make recommendations to libraries about preserving digital materials. Cedars, which is led by the Consortium of University Research Libraries (CURL), is funded as part of the Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib) by the Joint Information Systems Committee of the Higher Education Funding Councils.     

Web Mirror Sites

SUMMARY

Libraries can play a key role in ensuring permanent access to primary legal information, both domestic and international. Web mirror sites present a particularly efficient and cost-effective way to collect, disseminate, preserve, and ensure accessibility to information far into the future. Through partnerships with the issuing governments and organizations, databases of official information can be loaded on a local server, updated directly from the issuing site, and captured at regular intervals to get a snapshot of the status of legal instruments as of a certain date. The result is similar to adding the various editions of a print book. The Cornell Law Library has recently made freely available two Web mirror sites for researchers and the public. These are the ILO (International Labour Organization) and the ICJ (International Court of Justice) mirror sites. The Law Library is archiving these sites every six months, thereby providing access to previous versions of a treaty article, or other information that was superseded, or amended. The many additional advantages of creating these partnerships with domestic and international institutions are discussed, as well as the process used to create the mirror sites, and maintaining them. The article ends with a proposal for collaboration among libraries to create the research library of the future. The preservation of digital law is a critical issue because information is disappearing. Libraries have a role to play because it is part of their fundamental mission to preserve information for future researchers.     

Meeting Reference Responsibilities Through Library Web Sites

Summary

Among the many ways the World Wide Web has changed libraries are the additional tools gained by librarians and library users for answering reference questions. In addition to the growing number of licensed resources providing the full text of articles from newspapers, magazines, academic journals, and reference works are the millions of free Web sites offering an incredible variety of information about everything. Locating the most useful of these sites and organizing them into categories on library Web sites can be enormously beneficial both to patrons and libraries. After deciding to make their sites reference portals, librarians must make a number of important decisions.     

Application of semi-automatic metadata generation in libraries: Types, tools, and techniques

Analysis of a survey of the types and extent of tools and techniques related to semi-automatic metadata generation applied in real-world library settings indicates that practical applications in libraries seem to be at an incipient stage. More than half (n  = 149, 52.5%) of the survey participants (n  = 285) specify that semi-automatic metadata generation has not been utilized for metadata creation and management in their libraries. This figure becomes even higher when adding the response “don't know,” constituting an additional 13.7%. The results of the survey also show that the semi-automatic metadata generation tools described by participants mostly concern metadata format conversion (38.6%) and metadata templates and forms (27%) for populating certain metadata values. Complex tools and the generation and extraction of metadata directly from the content and context of the digital objects are rarely applied in libraries. This indicates that more research is needed on the development of automatic metadata generation for semantic metadata in usable and practical settings.     

Distributions of citations of papers of individual authors publishing in different scientific disciplines: Application of Langmuir-type function

The distribution of cumulative citations L and contributed citations L_f to individual multiauthored papers published by selected authors working in different scientific disciplines is analyzed and discussed using Langmuir-type function: y_n = y₀[1 − αKn/(1 + Kn)], where y_n denotes the total number of normalized cumulative citations l_n* and normalized contributed citations l_nf* received by individual papers of rank n, y₀ is the maximum value of y_n when n = 0, α ≥ 1 is an effectiveness parameter, and K is the Langmuir constant related to the dimensionless differential energy Q = ln(KN_c), with N_c as the number of papers receiving citations. Relationships between the values of the Langmuir constant K of the distribution function, the number N_c of papers of an individual author receiving citations and the effectiveness parameter α of this function, obtained from analysis of the data of rank-size distributions of the authors, are investigated. It was found that: (1) the quantity KN_c obtained from the real citation distribution of papers of various authors working in different disciplines is inversely proportional to (α − 1) with a proportional constant (KN_c)₀ < 1, (2) the relation KN_c = (KN_c)₀/(α − 1) also holds for the citation distribution of journals published in countries of two different groups, investigated earlier (Sangwal, K. (2013). Journal of Informetrics, 7, 487–504), and (3) deviations of the real citation distribution from curves predicted by the Langmuir-type function are associated with changing activity of sources of generation of items (citations).     

Development of a universal book and journal donation resource

This article describes the creation and development of The Donation Programs for Books, Journals and Media Web page housed on the Health Sciences Library (HSL), University at Buffalo (UB) Web site []http://ublib.buffalo.edu/hsl/donationprogram.html]. The evolution of the page is traced from its beginnings in February 1998 to the present and other donation resources are mentioned. Gifts and Exchange (G&E) practices in libraries are discussed. Figures showing the Web page as it appeared at three different points in time are included, as well as a separate related story of a local UB initiative to collect and ship medical books to Afghanistan.     

The Accessing and Archiving of Electronic Journals

ABSTRACT

This dissertation focuses upon the challenges and problems that libraries face relating to the accessing and archiving of electronic journals (EJs) and considers the implications these issues will have on those involved in the information profession. This topic is becoming an increasingly important issue for libraries, which can no longer be ignored, as the usage of EJs has increased radically. The problems associated with the archiving of EJs are great. If archiving continues to be ignored, much information will be lost. This must be prevented at all costs.

The dissertation is broken down into 10 chapters. The introduction gives an overview and details the methodology and layout. This is followed by a discussion on the background and current context that EJs operate in. The following chapters then consider the main problems associated with the accessing and archiving of EJs. This involves topics such as what should be archived, who should be responsible for the archiving process, how the materials should be archived and where they should be archived. This requires the study of numerous technical, economic, business, organisational and legal models.

The focus is predominantly on libraries but the study would be incomplete without looking at others involved in the information profession, namely publishers and trusted third party archives. The argument is that although technically the archiving process is feasible, poor relations between libraries and publishers make this difficult to achieve. It is hard to reach a consensus on how the process should be carried out and the lack of developed standards exacerbates this problem. Economic, legal, business and organisational models must be considered before the archiving of EJs can be facilitated effectively. The dissertation looks at how these can be achieved and highlights the importance of further detailed research in this field.     

How to Have an Intelligent Conversation About Digital Conversion: Advice for Curators

ABSTRACT

This article provides advice to curators and reference staff on how to discuss digital conversion projects that include Slavic materials with technical staff who will implement the project.