Access To Library Research Articles

Academic libraries and their legal obligation for content accessibility

U.S. academic libraries exist in an unusual space, as they are both providers of access to computers, the Internet, and databases and electronic products, and producers of electronic content through digital repositories and electronic journals. They are part of larger organizations, yet the other parts of these larger organizations are not libraries or even library-related. In addition, there are factors — beyond merely decision-making processes — that make accessibility a far more fraught concern for academic libraries. U.S. academic libraries are also influenced by the policies of new media content creators that maximize their profits through streaming on their own platforms. Further, academic libraries have taken on new roles related to information access, including the collation and distribution of electronic materials through campus digital repositories of preprints, theses, and other works created by faculty, staff, and students. Moreover, in some cases, libraries have stepped into the role of publisher, particularly with respect to open-access electronic journals. For people with disabilities, accessibility in all of these facets is essential for their ability to be equal users of the library. These various roles of academic libraries create a distinct set of legal, technological, and ethical pressures related to ensuring accessibility for individuals with disabilities, which will be explored in this article, along with the potential for academic libraries to become leaders in accessibility in libraries and in broader society.

(In)accessibility and the technocratic library: Addressing institutional failures in library adoption of emerging technologies

Since 2015, there has been a rapid increase in academic libraries focusing their services on artificial intelligence (AI), immersive technologies (XR), big data, and other technologies that align their interests with corporations in the tech industry. However, there are broad ethical failures within this industry that libraries are not equipped to manage and instead risk importing those failures and discriminatory thinking into library services and technologies. This paper draws on the authors’ research on XR accessibility in academic libraries to illustrate how broader trends in technocratic thinking in academia are producing socio-technical configurations that often exclude disabled library users. It argues that critical failures in designing and implementing accessibility programs for emerging technologies in academic libraries point to the broader technocratic imperatives of contemporary universities operating under the logics of neoliberalism. Accessibility is an afterthought in this context, forcing users to adjust their bodies and senses to conform to the master plans of technology designers and evangelists.

Sci-Hub use among Spanish researchers: Enemy or a learning opportunity for libraries?

Access to scientific literature is the cornerstone of scientific knowledge and numerous scientific-technical and social advances. However, in 2018, major difficulties in accessing the scientific literature have been reported. Despite Open Access has made more than 50% of scientific literature accessible without paywalls, during this year’s access to pirate scientific resources, such as Sci-Hub, has increased. It is one of the most popular resources among researchers and university students. The key aspect is to differentiate between these kinds of resources (black open access or shadow library) and the Open Access movement. Black open access violates copyright regulations, and Open Access wants to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited. We conducted a questionnaire with 17 items about the use of Sci-Hub among Spanish-speaking sciences and social sciences researchers. Libraries must learn from these kinds of resources how to improve the access to their scientific resources, and propose to the editors a different way of business, more similar to Spotify or Netflix than the journal bundles offered nowadays, usually with numerous journals with an embargo period or no relevance to the scientific community.

New Perspectives of Equity, Access, and Meaningful Use of School Library Resources and Services

ABSTRACT Data collected from a study of school libraries in Massachusetts provide source material that identifies barriers and enablers related to equitable access and meaningful use of school library resources and services. These quantitative and qualitative survey data supplied by school librarians across rural, urban, and suburban schools describe staffing, resources, instruction, and funding which suggest barriers and enablers related to equitable access and meaningful use. An in-depth analysis reveals underlying factors that determine policies and practices such as traditional library values, educational beliefs, and social justice principles that are operational in the access and use of school libraries.

The 1918 Influenza Pandemic in Popular Media and the Roles of Public Libraries in Supporting Health Information Access, Health Literacy, and Health Justice during Pandemics: Learning from the Past to Prepare for the Future

Events unfolding around the COVID-19 pandemic have historical parallels, particularly relating to health disparities and health injustice; limited health information literacy; failure of the US federal government to launch an organized response and clearly inform the public; and widespread misinformation and disinformation, along with their health-damaging and life-threatening impacts. These themes have been prominent during earlier pandemics, including smallpox outbreaks and the 1918 influenza pandemic. In this article, we discuss these themes and findings from our exploratory investigation into how the 1918 influenza pandemic was portrayed in women’s magazines, how extensive misinformation and disinformation circulated (especially patent medicine advertisements), and how libraries strove to overcome numerous challenges (similar to today’s) to continue to meet the public’s needs and help them navigate the flood of misinformation and disinformation. In conclusion, we discuss important lessons learned from previous pandemics that can help libraries to serve the public optimally during future pandemics.

Universal NicE-Seq: A Simple and Quick Method for Accessible Chromatin Detection in Fixed Cells.

Genome-wide accessible chromatin sequencing and identification has enabled deciphering the epigenetic information encoded in chromatin, revealing accessible promoters, enhancers, nucleosome positioning, transcription factor occupancy, and other chromosomal protein binding. The starting biological materials are often fixed using formaldehyde crosslinking. Here, we describe accessible chromatin library preparation from low numbers of formaldehyde-crosslinked cells using a modified nick translation method, where a nicking enzyme nicks one strand of DNA and DNA polymerase incorporates biotin-conjugated dATP, dCTP, and methyl-dCTP. Once the DNA is labeled, it can be isolated for NGS library preparation. We termed this method as universalNicE-seq (nicking enzyme-assisted sequencing). We also demonstrate a single tube method that enables direct NGS library preparation from low cell numbers without DNA purification. Furthermore, we demonstrated universalNicE-seq on FFPE tissue section sample.

Online public access catalogues and library discovery systems

Online public access catalogues and library discovery systems

Construction of Copyright Rules for Public Library Access to Digital Resources

Construction of Copyright Rules for Public Library Access to Digital Resources

Пути организации параллельного доступа к структурированным данным

This paper explores ways to achieve the highest possible exchange performance with files containing structured data. The research was carried out on file systems with supercomputer systems parallel access designed to solve problems of physical and mathematical modeling of various processes and objects. For example, parallel access to raw data is considered using the Lustre file system. The article suggests a way to organize parallel access to structured data based on a specially developed PSIO storage format and the psio access library. A comparative analysis of the I/O performance of the developed data storage format and the HDF5 parallel version format is performed.

Erratum to “Diet and Feeding Habits of Bagrus bajad (Fabricius, 1775, Bagridae) from Lake Albert, Nile Basin, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)” [Open Access Library Journal, 2022, Volume 9: e9470

Erratum to “Diet and Feeding Habits of Bagrus bajad (Fabricius, 1775, Bagridae) from Lake Albert, Nile Basin, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)” [Open Access Library Journal, 2022, Volume 9: e9470

Undergraduate Students’Awareness, Usage and Attitude towards Digital Library in Kathmandu

The study aims at assessing the perception of undergraduate students towards awareness, usage and attitude to digital library in Kathmandu. The study employed a cross-sectional descriptive research design for the primary data collected through structured questionnaire from the sample of respondents with 218 useable responses, 39 percent response rate, from the pool of students of special programs of management faculty of Tribhuvan University, BBA and BBM. The findings of the survey depicted that students were aware of the digital library, found the search function to be useful, and were pleased display output. Students were interested in learning on new advancement, found speedy download, accessible, improved research skills, high-quality research and prompt information in digital library. However, fewer respondents used the 20 mentioned digital library portals than expected and found difficulty due to limited access of digital library that impacted on material collection, compelled to visit other libraries physically, enhanced fear of finishing work and affected research work.

Representational work and ‘reverse order’ essentialism: Digitisation of local information in Thailand and Bhabha’s Third Space

The Local Information Working Group (LIWG) of Thailand’s provincial university libraries holds main responsibility for digitising Thai local information (LI), a resource that shares many characteristics with what in other contexts is described as Indigenous and local knowledge (ILK). This study therefore explores how the digitisation activities of the LIWG correlate with claims of culturally responsive and responsible ILK representation, and how this work can be understood through the perspective of Bhabha’s Third Space. The study is based on interviews with 23 LIWG members, collected in 2016–2017. A guided, qualitative content analysis focused on uncovering themes of digitisation tools and methods with Third Space relevance as supporting or hindering essentialism, fixity and hybridity in LI representations. The findings illustrate that whereas the digitisation itself, field studies, language choices and outreach activities offer certain Third Space potential, this is underdeveloped and largely circumstantial. Third Space potentials are further likely to be restricted or hindered by uneven distribution of internet access, digital literacy, standard Thai proficiency and university/academic library accessibility among the Thai public in general and LI holders in particular. Overall, marginalised groups are excluded, and LI holders are positioned as passive contributors and recipients of digitised LI, suggesting a reversed sort of ‘self-essentialism’ on behalf of the dominant culture. In conclusion, two aspects in particular require further attention for libraries engaging with digitisation of ILK types of resources: the inclusion of national, societal level participation into participatory approaches; and the incorporation of functionalities for user interaction, holistic knowledge representation, multiple languages and cultural protocols into ICT for representation and use. The study provides a unique application of Third Space as analytical perspective on library digitisation of LI/ILK types of resources. Methodologically, the study is case specific, limited to a cross-section in time, and to data from interview accounts of LIWG members.

Healthcare 4.0: recent advancements and futuristic research directions.

In recent years, Healthcare 4.0, the fourth healthcare revolution, has piqued the interest of numerous researchers around the world. Healthcare 4.0 is a relatively new term that has evolved from Industry 4.0 to meet diverse requirements in the healthcare domain. Healthcare 4.0 serves as a technological catalyst for accelerated growth by integrating cutting-edge industrial technologies. Despite the evolving nature of Healthcare 4.0 research, a complete and systematic survey of recent research on it has been scarce. Conspicuously, this study intends to present a systematic survey by investigating the recent trends, key constraints, and application areas of Healthcare 4.0. Further, a comprehensive survey of the research is used to identify the essential technologies required for the effective adoption of Healthcare 4.0. The research was conducted using the PRISMA methodology and an exhaustive search of all easily accessible libraries and academic repositories was made to obtain the relevant literature. At last, a diversity of outstanding issues are also presented to assist scholars and professionals who are interested in undertaking futuristic research in the current field.

Grantseeking, Technology Renovation, and Creative Solutions to Support Library Access and Online Teaching and Learning During the Global COVID-19 Outbreak

The sudden global epidemiological outbreak in early spring 2020 challenged the academic libraries’ Access and Resource Sharing (ARS) department and prevented staff from providing the types of essential services that its users expect and require. With the full closure of campus and all courses moving online within a week, ARS staff were put on the front lines of finding ways to continue providing patrons with access to the library’s physical collections while library buildings were closed. This paper details how the ARS community and a large research university library’s ARS department responded and adapted to these rapid changes, acted creatively, and reinvented services through collaboration, creative solutions, grantseeking, and technology renovation. ARS staff continued to test a scan-beside-the-stacks methodology through a grant-funded project to create an Interlibrary Loan (ILL) mobile cart. This mobile cart allowed for a single employee to handle all items to complete the digital conversion of print materials and reduced the risk of coronavirus transfer between library staff members during the COVID-19 pandemic. An on-demand book digitization program in collaboration with multiple departments opened up access to resources to effectively fulfill patrons’ needs. Through these and other adaptations, ARS staff retained their professional commitment to provide materials and a high level of services to their users.

Developing Intellectual Property Rights as Joint Assets Post-Marriage Decisions Based on Justice

The purpose of this research is to develop IPR as joint property and how to distribute it after divorce based on justice. The method used in this research is socio-legal (Socio-legal Research). This study uses primary data and secondary data. Meanwhile, the technique of collecting data is through library research and field studies analytical descriptive data analysis. The results of this study indicate that this research also finds a new legal norm/rule: that the economic value obtained from all types of intellectual property rights, namely Copyrights, Patents, Trademarks, Trade Secrets, Industrial Designs, Plant Variety Protection, Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits registered during Marriage becomes joint property of husband and wife as long as it is not stipulated otherwise in the marriage agreement and the distribution after the marriage breaks up each gets half as long as husband and wife carry out their responsibilities, roles and duties properly as head/housewife, whereas if husband and wife are not/less able to carry out their duties properly responsibilities, roles and duties properly in the household, then the distribution is in accordance with the size of their contribution in the household and the process of creating/discovering IPR. The results of the distribution, either in a decision or an agreement in front of an authorized official, must be recorded at the Directorate General of Intellectual Property Rights, because the transfer of Economic Rights of Intellectual Property Rights only has legal consequences for third parties after being registered at the Directorate General of Intellectual Property Rights. Legal Structure Side, increasing knowledge, understanding and experience of law enforcement in the field of intellectual property rights through formal education, training, certification, seminars, workshops, library access, field practice and other means. Legal Culture Side, increasing public knowledge and understanding in the field of IPR through legal education, both formal and non-formal.

Implementasi Program Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka: Perpustakaan yang Efisien dan Aman Berbasis Teknologi Informasi

Information technology is one of the factors that affect the success of a program. Information technology can be used as a potential tool that can support the Merdeka Learning Program for the Independent Campus, considering that library access is very necessary to information sources that are multidisciplinary subjects, multiformat, integrated search, local, national and international collections as well as advanced services needed by its users, especially students who study outside their campus through the stages of socialization, education and evaluation to achieve the success of Merdeka Learning Merdeka Campus. The research used in this research is qualitative. Research conducted on natural objects. A natural object is an object that develops as it is, is not manipulated by the researcher and the presence of the researcher does not affect the dynamics on the object. In qualitative research the instrument is a person or human instrument, that is, the researcher himself. To gain a broader and deeper understanding of the social situation under study.

Next generation experimental data access at NSLS-II

The NSLS-II network and computing infrastructure has been significantly updated recently. The re-IP process in 2020-2021 enabled the NSLS-II network to be routable to the rest of the BNL campus. Then, standardization of the operating systems and deployment procedures helped to deliver a consistent environment to workstations and servers used by all NSLS-II beamlines. In particular, the RedHat Enterprise Linux 8 was deployed to 700+ machines using the RedHat Satellite infrastructure management product, and all critical services (IOCs, databases, etc.) were migrated to the new OS. NFS users’ home directories are consistent across all of the machines, which eliminates the need for the individual configuration of the user environment on each host. The standard suite of software packages is available to the beamline staff and users, which includes the system packages (deployed via RPM) as well as the conda environments for data acquisition and analysis. Security measures were implemented to comply with the industry standards, which include multi-factor authentication (using Duo), secure screen lock for the beamline machines, and advanced access control to the experimental data that is stored in shared central storage available on all hosts. These major enhancements facilitated sharing the experimental data (currently for a number of selected beamlines, with a plan to extend it to the whole facility in the nearest future) with the users via an externally facing JupyterHub instance - https://jupyter.nsls2.bnl.gov. The beamlines keep using the Bluesky data acquisition framework to orchestrate their experiments, and the new infrastructure enabled them to use a next-generation data access library called tiled.

Dallas Hanbury. The Development of Southern Public Libraries and the African American Quest for Library Access, 1898–1963.

Dallas Hanbury. <i>The Development of Southern Public Libraries and the African American Quest for Library Access, 1898–1963</i>.

The critical role that spectral libraries play in capturing the metabolomics community knowledge.

Spectral library searching is currently the most common approach for compound annotation in untargeted metabolomics. Spectral libraries applicable to liquid chromatography mass spectrometry have grown in size over the past decade to include hundreds of thousands to millions of mass spectra and tens of thousands of compounds, forming an essential knowledge base for the interpretation of metabolomics experiments. We describe existing spectral library resources, highlight different strategies for compiling spectral libraries, and discuss quality considerations that should be taken into account when interpreting spectral library searching results. Finally, we describe how spectral libraries are empowering the next generation of machine learning tools in computational metabolomics, and discuss several opportunities for using increasingly accessible large spectral libraries. This review focuses on the current state of spectral libraries for untargeted LC-MS/MS based metabolomics. We show how the number of entries in publicly accessible spectral libraries has increased more than 60-fold in the past eight years to aid molecular interpretation and we discuss how the role of spectral libraries in untargeted metabolomics will evolve in the near future.

Editorial: Open Access on the move

Editorial: Open Access on the move