Be Creative, Determined, and Wise: Open Library Publishing and the Global South

Nowadays, global health information is emphasized in the courses of the front line of nursing education. Therefore, the demand for global health information aids and teaching materials for various topics is extremely urgent in nursing. Virtual Reality (VR) or Augmented Reality (AR) is currently the effective method for solution to the above problems. However, these auxiliary devices are not only expensive and inconvenient to wear but also are mostly only suitable for personalized learning and cannot teach the entire class at the same time. With the current technology and price, AR&VR cannot truly become digital teaching methods in the front line of nursing education. Creating an intuitive global health information teaching system will change the current teaching lacking creativity and innovation and form a new teaching aid tool with its powerful digital and interactive functions. The purpose of this project is to develop a highly interactive digital teaching system suitable for the front line of nursing education and try to effectively solve the current problem of lack of digitization and interactivity in teaching based on using the superior features of this system. To effectively and gradually improve the practicality and usability of the system by conducting systematic empirical research on the system, which can completely change the current dilemma of insufficient digitization of the present teaching situation of this global health information topic.

The purpose of this paper is to explore some of the major issues surrounding the development of digital libraries in the developing countries of the English-speaking Caribbean known also as the Caricom region. The impetus for digital libraries comes from the desire of these countries to become integrated in the new, global information economy. As part of this global information trend, digital libraries technology holds the key to improved information access. Digital libraries, which have become affordable and manageable provide increased access to global information and at the same time, increase the visibility of indigenous Caribbean information resources. The paper looks at the major issues that must be addressed in the process of digital libraries development. These include the current state of ICT infrastructure, economic and data sustainability, issues of interoperability and the generation of local content. Examples of current digital library projects undertaken in academic, public and special libraries are identified. The paper ends with a set of recommendations that can be used by information professionals and other stakeholders in developing countries to organize the way forward for the application, growth and development of digital libraries.

This article addresses the issue of the information revolution and international affairs. It makes three arguments. First, the evolution of a global digital information network is likely to diminish state capacity and autonomy, but the specific nature of the effects of new information technologies are indeterminate because the technology and the politics are inextricably intertwined and the technology itself is not yet ‘complete’. Second, the effects of a mature digital information infrastructure are best understood as the outcome of a three-way political struggle between centralized political authorities (states), centralized economic entities (firms) and individuals as both consumers and citizens. Third, in spite of the indeterminacy of technological change, a matrix of possible outcomes can be constructed. The globalization argument is partially correct: state capacities will drop, relatively speaking, and firm capacities will increase unless states and people can reconceptualize their relationship and guide technological development to suit their interests. The article analyses three representative pieces of a mature global digital information network—the physical network media, cryptography, and digital money—to show how the new information technologies are deeply political and their effects therefore indeterminate.

The total digital information today amounts to 3.52 × 1022 bits globally, and at its consistent exponential rate of growth is expected to reach 3 × 1024 bits by 2040. Data storage density of silicon chips is limited, and magnetic tapes used to maintain large-scale permanent archives begin to deteriorate within 20years. Since silicon has limited data storage ability and serious limitations, such as human health hazards and environmental pollution, researchers across the world are intently searching for an appropriate alternative. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is an appealing option for such a purpose due to its endurance, a higher degree of compaction, and similarity to the sequential code of 0's and 1's as found in a computer. This emerging field of DNA as means of data storage has the potential to transform science fiction into reality, wherein a device that can fit in our palms can accommodate the information of the entire world, as latest research has revealed that just four grams of DNA could store the annual global digital information. DNA has all the properties to supersede the conventional hard disk, as it is capable of retaining ten times more data, has a thousandfold storage density, and consumes 108 times less power to store a similar amount of data. Although DNA has an enormous potential as a data storage device of the future, multiple bottlenecks such as exorbitant costs, excruciatingly slow writing and reading mechanisms, and vulnerability to mutations or errors need to be resolved. In this review, we have critically analyzed the emergence of DNA as a molecular storage device for the future, its ability to address the future digital data crunch, potential challenges in achieving this objective, various current industrial initiatives, and major breakthroughs.

Limitations in Global Information on Species Occurrences

The Live E! project, www.live-e.org, is an open research consortium among industry and academia to explore the platform to share the digital information related with the Earth and our living environment. We have getting a lot of low cost sensor nodes with Internet connectivity. The deployment of broadband and ubiquitous networks will enable autonomous and global digital information sharing over the globe. In this paper, we describe the technical and operational overview of Live E! project, while discussing the objective, such as education, disaster protection/reduction/recovery or business cases, and goal of this project activity

The Live E! project is an open research consortium among industry and academia to explore the platform to share the digital information related with the Earth and our living environment. We have getting a lot of low cost sensor nodes with Internet connectivity. The deployment of broadband and ubiquitous networks will enable autonomous and global digital information sharing over the globe. In this paper, we describe the technical and operational overview of Live E! project, while discussing the objective, such as education, disaster protection/reduction/recovery or business cases, and goal of this project activity

The Live E! project is an open research consortium among industry and academia to explore the platform to share the digital information related with the earth and our living environment. We have getting a lot of low cost sensor nodes with Internet connectivity. The deployment of broadband and ubiquitous networks will enable autonomous and global digital information sharing over the globe. In this paper, we describe the technical and operational overview of Live E! project, while discussing the objective, such as education, disaster protection/reduction/recovery or business cases, and goal of this project activity.

The author discusses possible directions for the formation of a global international legal system for countering cybercrime and its further development. The results of the activities of international organizations in the development of international legal mechanisms for countering cybercrime are briefly analyzed. An attempt is being made to search for other international legal problems, the experience of solving which can act as a conceptual basis for the formation of a global international legal system for ensuring cybersecurity. The main characteristics of modern digital information and communication systems, especially Internet technologies, are investigated. An attempt is made to create a theoretical model of international legal regulation of countering modern digital threats based on the global nature of modern cyber threats. The special role of international organizations in the development of international law is stated. The opinion is given about the current global digital information system covering the entire international community. A parallel is drawn between the conceptual foundations of the problem of money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/FT) and cybercrime. The conceptual similarity of these two problems with the justification of such a conclusion is stated. In this regard, it is proposed to use the organizational structure of the international legal framework for countering ML/FT as a conceptual basis for a similar counteraction to cybercrime. In particular, the article proposes to create a specialized international organization within the framework of the UN, whose activities will be devoted to ensuring global cybersecurity. It is proposed to use organizational bases similar to those used within the framework of the Intergovernmental Commission on Financial Monitoring as the basis of activity. In particular, the organization's activities are proposed to be carried out on the basis of a list of recommendations on improving national organizational and legal measures to counter threats in the field of digital technologies, as well as mechanisms for mutual assessment of member states.

Building on the success of the 2002‐2004 Global Information Village Plazas, this symposium maintains its interactive format, allowing ASIS&T members an opportunity to express their personal views about the challenges and opportunities that the information society represents in their personal and professional lives.The discussion will focus on the issue of trust in information ‐ specifically on how information professionals and members of a general public judge the authority of the information they receive. The discussion will pay particular attention to the way in which perceptions of trust change in different cultural contexts ‐ for example in societies and cultures that allow their citizens greater individual freedoms in comparison to more rigid or collective societies and cultures.This topic relates specifically to the theme of this year's conference ‐ Shaping the Digital Future for All ‐ in that information crosses national boundaries on a daily basis. Information shared between cultures can be subject to diverse perceptions of trust, which in turn affects a person's views of the value of an increasingly global information society in their personal and professional lives. The issue of trust in information is also relevant to librarians and information professionals, who must address questions such as what their role in building trust is, and how they may accomplish this in an era of global digital information, where users may turn to multiple sources of information of varying degrees of authority or subjectivity.This year's Global Information Village Plaza adds a new information and communication tool in the form of a blog, built and maintained by the same team who maintained the blog for the 2005 ASIS&T conference. This online interactive forum will be reachable by any professional, thereby allowing ASIS&T to expand its circle of interaction and offering the information professional community around the globe who will be unable to attend the 2006 Annual Meeting an opportunity to contribute their thoughts on trust in information.

In the context of an evolving digitally-oriented library and/or information science (LIS) discipline and framed by Andrew Abbott’s Chaos of Disciplines theory, this article presents an epistemological overview of evolving competency requirements for a global digital information environment and the implications of this for future LIS education. In doing so it draws from both an international case study of ongoing research by the IFLA BSLISE (Building Strong LIS Education) Working Group into the development of an international framework for the assessment of quality standards in LIS education and a national (South African) case study involving the compilation of an LIS competency index in a highly digitally oriented information environment. The Chaos of Disciplines theory was originally conceptualized to demonstrate the evolution of disciplines in the social sciences. Its core principles of the interstitial character of a discipline and fractal distinctions in time are employed as a heuristic tool to connect the empirical evidence from these two purposively selected case studies to the inherent nature of the LIS discipline and the implications of this for competency requirements for professional practice in a highly digitized global information environment and for future LIS education responding to these competency exigencies.

Fast and slow health crises of Homo urbanicus: loss of resilience in communicable diseases, like COVID-19, and non-communicable diseases

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-104) provided sweeping reforms to the US telecommunications industry, to developing concepts and applications of Universal Service, and to supporting libraries and schools to connect to the global networked information environment. Indeed, the Clinton Administration has a long record of supporting improved and equitable access, to the Internet and supporting public libraries in that role. But the Universal Service aspects of the law, and especially the awarding of monies to schools and libraries through the E-rate, to support Universal Service continue to be controversial (Gilroy, 1999). For a combination of reasons, it may be that the expectations of how public libraries will serve to promote equitable access to the Internet and a range of networked services and resources are simply unreasonable, are unfunded, and unlikely to be realized. A question to consider is the degree to which public libraries can: take on additional responsibilities for providing community access to the Internet; assist residents in how to best use the Internet so they can find the services and resources needed; and deploy a range of networking infrastructure, hardware, and software are needed for high quality public access to the Internet.

The number of studies on submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) and the evidence of its significance in biogeochemical cycling and potential impacts on the chemical and ecological status of coastal waters is increasing globally. Here, we briefly present SGD studies from the Baltic Sea identified along the coastlines of Denmark, Finland, Germany, Poland, Sweden and Russia in the southwestern, southern and north–northeastern parts of the Baltic Sea. We introduce a digital SGD map viewer and information platform enabling easy overview and access to information on identified SGD sites in the coastal areas of the Baltic Sea. SGDs potentially transport critical pollutants from urban and agricultural areas on land to the marine environment. The pollutants include nutrients, dissolved organic and inorganic carbon, metals, pharmaceuticals, and other emerging contaminants, potentially harming marine ecosystems and biodiversity and possibly contributing to the poor chemical or ecological status of coastal waters, affecting human and environmental health. We focus on case studies from Finland, Germany, Poland and Denmark that include the results and interpretations from the applied geochemical, geophysical and geological methods, as well as bionic autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for locating, investigating, modelling and visualizing SGD sites in 2D and 3D. The potential Pan-European or even global SGD information platform established within the European Geological Data Infrastructure (EGDI) enables the easy combination and comparison of map layers such as seabed sediment types and coastal habitats. The EGDI map viewer provides easy access to information from SGD studies and may serve as an entry point to relevant information on SGDs, including contents of pollutants, for the scientific community and policy-makers. The information potentially includes the results of model simulations, data from near real-time sensors at permanently installed monitoring stations and surveys in time and space conducted by AUVs. The presented digital SGD information platform is particularly pertinent to the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No. 14, which focuses on the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and marine resources.

A Review of: Begum, D., Roknuzzaman, M., & Shobhanee, M. E. (2022). Public libraries’ responses to a global pandemic: Bangladesh perspectives. IFLA Journal, 48(1), 174–188. https://doi.org/10.1177/03400352211041138 Objective – Examine quantitative and qualitative data to determine the level of preparedness and capacity to provide key resources during the recent COVID-19 global pandemic with the goal of recommending measures to better cope with future similar situations. Design – Online questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze quantitative data, followed by a narrative analysis of the qualitative data. Setting – Public libraries in Bangladesh. Subjects – Heads of the libraries such as directors, librarians, or librarians-in-charge. Methods – A survey was distributed to all 71 government public libraries in Bangladesh administered and governed by the Department of Public Libraries under the Ministry of Cultural Affairs. The survey elicited 50 valid responses, resulting in a response rate of 70%. A structured form questionnaire was prepared using Google Forms and included 12 closed-ended questions with multiple options and one open-ended question to collect librarian views on handling services and key functions post pandemic. Telephone interviews were conducted with eight librarians from the district public libraries. Main Results – The data revealed that all the libraries reported having some level of preparedness for pandemics and disasters. However, few libraries reported high levels of confidence in this regard. For example, 82% responded that they either had a “low” or a “minimum” preparedness for dealing with a pandemic. The survey revealed that none of the responding libraries were fully open to provide user services during the COVID-19 pandemic while 100% were open for administrative functions. Additionally, 72% reported having some sections open but others closed, while 22% indicated that the library only provided specified services, most of these in an online environment. Only 12% indicated that they provided access to mobile library services. The libraries responses to crisis management included creating public awareness through social media campaigns (50%), supporting other government bodies to mitigate the pandemic (46%), providing counseling services for particular users (40%), promoting authoritative and authentic national and global strategies on the pandemic for the public (34%), providing pandemic-related information via phone or email on demand (32%), and distributing relief to affected people (30%). Other activities included organizing online social and cultural programs to reduce public anxiety with special reference to vulnerable groups (24%), online staff training (22%), monitoring and supervising government programs (20%), and providing research data on the pandemic (10%). The response to needs regarding redesigning library programs and services for the post-pandemic world revealed that 90% of libraries identified a need for a dedicated online service platform, 80% saw the need to create policies related to health and safety, while 72% indicated a need for more emphasis on digital content. The responses indicated 56% were in favor of introducing innovative online services. Conclusion – In response to the results of their study, the authors make several recommendations regarding helping the libraries of Bangladesh to cope with consequences of future pandemics similar in scale to COVID-19. The first recommendation is to move away from “providing services in a traditional manner,” while developing dedicated online platforms running on high-bandwidth Internet connections (Begum et al., 2022, p. 183). These include introducing a secure cloud-based library automation system to provide a robust and stable information gateway. The development of digital resources should also be a priority. This includes both the digitization of library resources and more widespread access to an increasing number of subscription databases. The data indicated a strong desire among librarians to introduce innovative library services which the authors identify as digitized content delivery, remote access to online resources, online chat reference, current awareness services, online programming mirroring face-to-face programming, home delivery service for books, strategic disaster policy development, online information literacy programs, online career counseling, and leadership along with online training, workshops, and seminars. The authors conclude that: libraries face challenges, such as transitioning to virtual services, breaking long-established service models, funding for digital resources and its impacts on library operations in the future, enforcing social distancing measures, creating social awareness, and the lack of formal pandemic plans and policies …. (Begum et al., 2022, p. 179)