Alexa,Siri, Cortana,and More: An Introduction to Voice Assistants

Voice assistants are software agents that can interpret human speech and respond via synthesized voices. Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Google’s Assistant are the most popular voice assistants and are embedded in smartphones or dedicated home speakers. Users can ask their assistants questions, control home automation devices and media playback via voice, and manage other basic tasks such as email, to-do lists, and calendars with verbal commands. This column will explore the basic workings and common features of today’s voice assistants. It will also discuss some of the privacy and security issues inherent to voice assistants and some potential future uses for these devices. As voice assistants become more widely used, librarians will want to be familiar with their operation and perhaps consider them as a means to deliver library services and materials.     

运用EndNote批量编辑加工英文参考文献

为提高编辑加工英文参考文献的效率和准确率,本文提出将英文参考文献的编辑加工与参考文献管理软件EndNote相结合,找到利用EndNote的批处理编辑方法,针对参考文献的不同情况选择相应的方式,对参考文献进行批量导入及查新纠错,改进了参考文献编辑加工中逐一上网搜索和核查的工作方式,大幅提高了编辑加工英文参考文献的工作效率,并充分保证了正确率。     

From Archive,to Access,to Experience––Historical Documents as a Basis for Immersive Experiences

Libraries have been the key to preserving culture and historic legacy for centuries. One such treasure cataloged in The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) Libraries is a collection of over 33,000 Sanborn? Fire Insurance Maps. Originally kept safe in metal drawers, the library has embarked on a journey to digitize this abundance of information, combine it with other media such as photographs, and make it accessible through a web interface. Inspired by these efforts, we accessed this information and took it to the next level. Using state of the art 3D modeling and immersive technologies, we created a historic 3D model and immersive experiences of Penn State, exemplarily for the 1922 campus. The resulting experiences can be accessed through the web but also through head mounted displays (HMDs) and mobile phones in combination with VR viewers such as the Google Cardboard. Additionally, they can be used anywhere in the world or on the campus itself as a way to enable remote and in situ experiences and learning. Immersive experiences let us connect to the past, the present and the future, and as such offer value to digital cultural heritage efforts.     

Two Thousand Students,One Librarian: Balancing Depth and Breadth of Library Instruction for Online Graduate Students

Many librarians struggle with how to balance scalable instructional offerings with more personalized instruction for online students—scale tends to come at the cost of personalization and vice versa. This paper will discuss three methods for connecting with online students that range from one-to-one personalization to widely scalable instruction: individual consultations, scaffolded instructional webinars, and asynchronous video tutorials. The student engagement with each type of instruction will be discussed, with ideas for future directions provided.     

Placing Facebook

Facebook is challenging professional journalism. These challenges were evident in three incidents from 2016: the allegation that Facebook privileged progressive-leaning news on its trending feature; Facebook’s removal of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Napalm Girl” photo from the pages of prominent users; and the proliferation of “fake news” during the US presidential election. Using theoretical concepts from the field of boundary work, this paper examines how The Guardian, The New York Times, Columbia Journalism Review and Poynter editorialized Facebook’s role in these three incidents to discursively construct the boundary between the value of professional journalism to democracy and Facebook’s ascendant role in facilitating essential democratic functions. Findings reveal that these publications attempted to define Facebook as a news organization (i.e., include it within the boundaries of journalism) so that they could then criticize the company for not following duties traditionally incumbent upon news organizations (i.e., place it outside the boundaries of journalism). This paper advances scholarship that focuses on both inward and outward conceptions of boundary work, further explores the complex challenge of defining who a journalist is in the face of rapidly changing technological norms, and advances scholarship in the field of media ethics that positions ethical analysis at the institutional level.     

软件复用技术的理论与应用

阐述了软件复用技术的分类、益处和应用途径．并通过实例阐明了软件复用技术在考试系统中的应用，考试管理系统中的可复用部件主要分为常用键盘操作的复用、错误处理程序的复用、典型操作、典型结构的复用。     

音乐艺术院校实践教学平台构建研究

建立具有特色的实践与创新能力培养体系,使人才培养质量与培养目标和社会需求相符合,是当前高校教学改革的重点和难点。基于此,选择天津音乐学院作为主要调研对象,中央音乐学院等国内具有代表性的音乐艺术院校作为辅助调研对象,结合天津艺术演出场所的发展及需求现状,以音乐艺术实践教学平台构建为研究专题,探索艺术实践教学的新思路和新模式。     

Mixed Reality Lab at Mississippi State University Libraries

Virtual and Augmented Realities are advancing technologies that are becoming more popular in gaming and programming communities. However, virtual reality has been in development for decades. As libraries are often at the forefront of offering new and advancing technologies to their communities, virtual and augmented reality programs have become new additions to library services. While gaming is the prominent use of these technologies, virtual and augmented reality affords many educational opportunities. Mississippi State University Libraries have recently added a virtual/augmented reality lab as part of its library program.     

The role of a digital engineering platform in appropriating the creation of new work-related mind-set and organisational discourse in a large multi-national company

This paper reports on a case study involving a strategic and innovative approach to creation of an in-house multifaceted digital engineering platform (the DEP) in overcoming a number of organisational problems at a multinational engineering company. The DEP was to be used strategically for simplifying the operational complexity and to create and appropriate new work-related mind-set and new organisational discourse to achieve homogenous working across the organisation, which is a huge challenge. The need for this system emerged from the need to resolve many organisational services related problems that carried phenomenal amount of processes, health and safety risks and to regulate, and, control the running of engineering project. Research data were collected using a longitudinal case study approach over a period of six months. In order to make sense of how the DEP helped the organisation, the study used certain elements of Extended Structuration Theory as a lens to assess the case study. This research discovered that the DEP succeeded in creating and appropriating work-related mind-set and organisational discourse. It also had real influence on working processes and employees at all levels while encouraging transparency, responsiveness, agility and accountability. It continues to help the organisation to govern, manage and maintain good standard of service but many barriers still remain.     

Virtual Microscopy as a Learning Tool in Brazilian Medical Education

Virtual microscopy (VM) is a widely used teaching method in Medical Education in many developed countries. In Brazil, however, this is not the case for most medical schools, considering Brazilian social inequality and uneven access to technology. Recently, the Covid-19 pandemic has also challenged Universities to seek and make a transition toward more effective methods of full-time online education. Thus, the main goal of this work was to verify student's perception and academic performance, assessed upon VM implementation in a Brazilian Medical School. Ribeirao Preto Medical School students answered a 26-question survey with regards to optical microscopy (OM) and VM. Academic performance was compared between participants that were (year of 2019) or were not (year of 2015) exposed to VM. Taken the results together, subjective impressions such as handling, suitability, learning effectiveness, and pleasure using the tools, have shown a higher score for virtual microscopy (median = 29), when compared to optical microscopy (median = 24) with a P-value < 0.001 by Wilcoxon rank test, upon measurement using an ordinal scale. Regarding academic performance, no statistically significant differences were found between groups (P-value = 0.38, Cohen's d = 0.19). Therefore, VM proved to be adequate to the Brazilian medical education in light of Brazilian social contexts and Covid-19 pandemic.