Global Library Research Articles

Data and Decisions about Scholarly Knowledge

Data and Decisions about Scholarly Knowledge Daniel Goroff (bio) and Josh Greenberg (bio) current discussions about scholarly knowledge do not necessarily concern great discoveries, disciplinary advances, or epistemological puzzles. Words that often come up instead are "measurement," "autonomy," and "accountability." Sometimes explicitly and sometimes implicitly, academics worry about potentially punitive policies or other possible threats to the scholarly enterprise as we know it. While it can be easy and engaging enough to speculate about institutions and incentives this way, what ultimately matters are not discussions but decisions. How, after all, should we allocate scarce resources? Scholars are remarkably free to make their own choices, of course, and routinely trade off what others value against their own values. But what about funders and other functionaries? This note presents an idiosyncratic sample of how two program directors at a foundation that supports scientific research see the role that measures of scholarly knowledge play in making decisions. (Note, however, that opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.) Of course, decisions these days are supposed to be made based on data. The revolution in information technology is ultimately responsible for much disruption and anxiety in the world at large as well as in academia. What good is all this data? Perhaps there is some irony here. When trying to publish an empirical paper, academics are often cavalier about overlooking the extent to which correlation masquerades [End Page 733] as causation in contemporary data science. But when data scientists turn their bibliometric analyses on academia, suddenly we hear scholarly cautions against placing too much weight on correlations, measurements, and rankings that could not possibly tell the whole story about what it means to be a scholar. Here are four examples of resource allocation questions that involve the measurement of scholarly knowledge. ALLOCATION OF RESEARCHERS' ATTENTION TO ONE SCIENTIFIC RESULT OR RESOURCE AS OPPOSED TO ANOTHER Everyone knows that finding what you are looking for among all the information available is a great and growing challenge. This is especially true as we move from a system of filtering-then-disseminating (think of traditional journals) to one of disseminating-then-filtering (think of the arXiv and similar preprint servers). Just as search engines help with navigating the web generally, bibliometrics can be quite helpful to scholars in particular. Data analysis can surface and explore hidden relationships, connections, or patterns among various references and resources—including data-sets, models, code, and other artifacts as well as papers. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has therefore funded projects ranging from Wikipedia and the Digital Public Library of America to international data citation standards and planning for a global library of mathematics. How to search for mathematical results is a particularly intriguing problem, for example, that for-profit companies have little incentive to address but that could greatly enhance the usefulness of the scientific literature. ALLOCATION OF CURATORIAL STEWARDSHIP TO ONE SCIENTIFIC PRODUCT AS OPPOSED TO ANOTHER We really cannot and should not keep everything, so some triage is necessary. It sometimes seems otherwise because the marginal cost of one more call on a resource that is already online may be negligible. [End Page 734] But editors, publishers, librarians, and archivists still perform important and costly services. Their work requires judgment and not just bibliometrics. In fact, curation by humans is arguably becoming even more valuable as computers and computing begin to dominate so much else. Given all the unfiltered dissemination of everything from books to bits, what is worth curating? In the sciences, this question is tied up with the reproducibility of research. There are calls for openness and transparency, particularly concerning research data, which push towards preserving everything a scholar ever thinks or does. But reproducibility is not a monitoring problem as much as it is a methodological one. Exploratory work with data may be fun, creative, and all the rage, but perhaps all that matters at that stage are the plausible hypotheses generated. Confirmatory research to test those hypotheses then deserves careful methods, fresh data, scholarly scrutiny, and detailed dissemination of both positive as well as null results. Science simply cannot progress efficiently if we continue conflating, in publications and in...

Ensuring global preparedness and response management capability in the current staff-and cost-constrained environment

The planning-training-exercise-respond cycle is essential to ensure a company's preparedness and ability to respond. How do you develop and maintain these critical skills in your global operations? How can you support global affiliates to deliver a safe and effective response to an oil spill or other major event? This paper will present recommendations and techniques to achieve these goals. The first recommendation is to establish the Incident Command System (ICS) as a global standard in your operations. ICS is a best practice methodology for response management that is flexible, is used by global OSROs, and has been adapted in many countries. The effort to set and achieve global training and exercise requirements will pay off in many ways, e.g., by facilitating the integration of out-of-country resources to support a response.- Set clear, relevant training objectives:+ Personnel demonstrate a basic understanding of ICS: structure, roles and responsibilities, deliverables, and key processes (e.g., planning, resource management, communications).+ Personnel are thoroughly familiar with company plans (local, regional, and global), incident management handbooks, and other internal resources.+ Other objectives address regional regulatory requirements, areas for improvement identified in exercises and/or incidents, etc..- Establish a global template for spill response plans. Include modules to address regional and operational requirements. For example, modules for onshore and offshore facilities, terminals, wellhead operations, pipeline operations, etc. Standard formats will support compliance, facilitate audits, and also facilitate the sharing of areas for improvement.- Leverage the development of a core training program with simple modifications to make materials applicable for global affiliates.- Establish a global library of scenarios for training and exercises to support compliance with requirements. Using a basic set of scenarios globally has the additional benefit of facilitating the sharing of lessons learned and areas for improvement.- Integrate training and exercise programs with complementary objectives.- Exercises are always a challenge and can be costly to develop and conduct. Prepare exercise-development kits to facilitate the definition of exercise objectives, adaptation of standard scenarios, documentation of injects and activities, accommodation of local and cultural differences, and the preparation of after action reports.- Use exercises to improve plans, build teamwork, build relationships with key stakeholders, and improve individual skills.- To ensure effective training, incorporate adult education techniques into lesson planning and development and modify as needed for compatibility with local language and culture.

Real-time 3D work-piece tracking with monocular camera based on static and dynamic model libraries

PurposeThis paper aims to propose a novel real-time three-dimensional (3D) model-based work-piece tracking method with monocular camera for high-precision assembly. Tracking of 3D work-pieces with real-time speed is becoming more and more important for some industrial tasks, such as work-pieces grasping and assembly, especially in complex environment.Design/methodology/approachA three-step process method was provided, i.e. the offline static global library generation process, the online dynamic local library updating and selection process and the 3D work-piece localization process. In the offline static global library generation process, the computer-aided design models of the work-piece are used to generate a set of discrete two-dimensional (2D) hierarchical views matching libraries. In the online dynamic library updating and selection process, the previous 3D location information of the work-piece is used to predict the following location range, and a discrete matching library with a small number of 2D hierarchical views is selected from dynamic local library for localization. Then, the work-piece is localized with high-precision and real-time speed in the 3D work-piece localization process.FindingsThe method is suitable for the texture-less work-pieces in industrial applications.Originality/valueThe small range of the library enables a real-time matching. Experimental results demonstrate the high accuracy and high efficiency of the proposed method.

Report from Central Asia: How Electronic Resources Are Reshaping Libraries in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan

COLUMN EDITOR'S NOTESThe “Digital Trends and the Global Library Community” column examines technological advances internal and external to libraries. The focus is on how technology is changing the way services are provided to users, the methodologies used in the provision of those services, and the resulting scope of responsibilities of libraries and parent institutions. Interested authors are invited to submit proposals and articles to the column editor at marta.deyrup@shu.edu. Please include “IILR Submission” in the header.

Die Buchpublikationen der Nobelpreis-Ökonomen und die führenden Buchverlage der Disziplin. Eine bibliometrische Analyse

Zusammenfassung Rezente Beiträge in der wachsenden Disziplin der Szientometrie und Bibliometrie haben begonnen, nicht nur den „Impact“ der Veröffentlichungen in Fachzeitschriften, sondern auch von Büchern zu studieren. Diese Methode kann auf einzelne Autoren oder sogar auf den „Impact“ eines gesamten Verlags-Unternehmens angewendet werden. In unserem Aufsatz analysieren wir die Publikationsmuster der Nobelpreisträger für Wirtschaftswissenschaften, 1994–2014. Mehr als 50% der besten und zweithäufigsten global vertretenen Buchpublikationen dieser Autorinnen und Autoren geschahen bei nur 8 Verlagen, die alle durch ihre strenge Peer-Review bekannt sind. Wir diskutieren dann die bisherigen Rankings der Verlage in der Literatur, und präsentieren dann unseren eigenen multivariaten Versuch, der folgende Dimensionen kombiniert: – Die Veröffentlichung der Ergebnisse der Wissenschaft, – Zitate und Ranking in der akademischen Gemeinschaft, – Marktdurchdringung in zwei typischen westlichen Industrieländern, – Die Beachtung der veröffentlichten Bücher durch internationale Entscheidungsträger, – Marktdurchdringung in Entwicklungsländern, – Beachtung in den internationalen Medien. Die 6 Indikatoren für die 57 Unternehmen mit vollständigen Daten werden präsentiert und die Ergebnisse vorgestellt.

Paths to Protecting Patron Privacy

Column Editor's NotesThe “Digital Trends and the Global Library Community” column examines technological advances internal and external to libraries. The focus is on how technology is changing the way services are provided to users, the methodologies used in the provision of those services, and the resulting scope of responsibilities of libraries and parent institutions. Interested authors are invited to submit proposals and articles to the column editor at marta.deyrup@shu.edu. Please include “IILR Submission” in the header.

Digital libraries: A scientometric assessment of global publications output during 2007–16

The paper examines 12104 global publications on digital library research, as covered in Scopus database during 2007-16. Digital library research registered annual average growth rate of 7.83% and averaged 4.40 citations per paper. Digital library research is dominated by top 15 most productive countries accounting for 81.61% global publications share in 10 years during 2007-16. USA accounted for the highest global publications share (26.89%), followed by China (10.42%), etc. Computer Science accounts for the largest publication share (62.48%) in global digital library research, followed by social sciences and engineering (30.86% and 19.75%), mathematics (15.74%), etc. The top 20 most productive research organizations and productive authors contributed 13.64% and 6.90% global publication share respectively and 15.98% and 10.05% global citation share respectively during 2007-16. The top 30 journals contributed 35.15% share to the global journal output during 2007-16.

ITIJAHAT AMNA MAKTABAH FI MALAYSIA NAHW TA'ALUM AL-LUGHAH AL-'ARABIYAH LI AGHRADH KHASHAH

The concept of teaching Arabic for specific purposes (ASP) is the new concept in teaching Arabic to non-native speakers. This study was intended to look at the Trustees of the global library Dar al-Hikma Islamic University in Malaysia where a class of employees imposed working conditions need to learn Arabic; to make them easier to deal with their clients from the Arabic-speaking countries. Therefore, it was a need for the employees to learn Arabic in specific purpose. The study was conducted through descriptive and analytical approach and the data were obtained through personal interview and made up the sample of nine members. The paper concluded the results of the most important: the desire of Trustees of the Dar al-Hikma library to learn Arabic for the purposes of office, and they see the need to focus on speaking and writing skills. DOI: 10.15408/a.v3i2.4591

Globetrotting Students and Faculty: Adapting Library Instruction to Global Sites

ABSTRACTAs e-resources become more ubiquitous, and the technologies available to access them more sophisticated, libraries have greater opportunities to reach out to global users. However, this same distance means that some users never even set foot in a physical library. This case study will describe how one large academic library started a business, economics, and marketing library online instruction pilot for global users in an effort to replicate library instruction offered at the home institution. Librarians assessed global library use and research needs; prepared unique lesson plans for each global site; and created digital learning objects using synchronous and asynchronous methods to establish an instruction strategy for Business and Economics courses. The goal was to test instruction practices and develop an online instruction template that would be replicable and sustainable for library instruction in other subject areas in New York University Libraries and other institutions.

Scholarly Identification Systems in a Global Market: The ORCID Solution

Column Editor's NotesThe “Digital Trends and the Global Library Community” column examines technological advances internal and external to libraries. The focus is on how technology is changing the way services are provided to users, the methodologies used in the provision of those services, and the resulting scope of responsibilities of libraries and parent institutions. Interested authors are invited to submit proposals and articles to the column editor at marta.deyrup@shu.edu. Please include “IILR Submission” in the subject line of the e-mail.

Researching the impacts of information policy an imperative for the global library community

Researching the impacts of information policy an imperative for the global library community

Implications of the Google Books Project Settlement for the Global Library Community

Column Editor's NotesThe “Digital Trends and the Global Library Community” column examines technological advances internal and external to libraries. The focus is on how technology is changing the way services are provided to users, the methodologies used in the provision of those services, and the resulting scope of responsibilities of libraries and parent institutions. Interested authors are invited to submit proposals and articles to the column editor at marta.deyrup@shu.edu. Please include “IILR Submission” in the subject line of the e-mail.

COMMERCIAL OFF THE SHELF GROUND CONTROL SUPPORTS CALIBRATION AND CONFLATION FROM GROUND TO SPACE BASED SENSORS

Abstract. The need for rapid deployment of aerial and satellite imagery in support of GIS and engineering integration projects require new sources of geodetic control to ensure the accuracy for geospatial projects. In the past, teams of surveyors would need to deploy to project areas to provide targeted or photo identifiable points that are used to provide data for orthorecificaion, QA/QC and calibration for multi-platform sensors. The challenge of integrating street view, UAS, airborne and Space based sensors to produce the common operational picture requires control to tie multiple sources together. Today commercial off the shelf delivery of existing photo identifiable control is increasing the speed of deployment of this data without having to revisit sites over and over again. The presentation will discuss the processes developed by CompassData to build a global library of 40,000 control points available today. International Organization for Standardization (ISO) based processes and initiatives ensure consistent quality of survey data, photo identifiable features selected and meta data to support photogrammetrist, engineers and GIS professionals to quickly deliver projects with better accuracy.

COMMERCIAL OFF THE SHELF GROUND CONTROL SUPPORTS CALIBRATION AND CONFLATION FROM GROUND TO SPACE BASED SENSORS

The need for rapid deployment of aerial and satellite imagery in support of GIS and engineering integration projects require new sources of geodetic control to ensure the accuracy for geospatial projects. In the past, teams of surveyors would need to deploy to project areas to provide targeted or photo identifiable points that are used to provide data for orthorecificaion, QA/QC and calibration for multi-platform sensors. The challenge of integrating street view, UAS, airborne and Space based sensors to produce the common operational picture requires control to tie multiple sources together. Today commercial off the shelf delivery of existing photo identifiable control is increasing the speed of deployment of this data without having to revisit sites over and over again. The presentation will discuss the processes developed by CompassData to build a global library of 40,000 control points available today. International Organization for Standardization (ISO) based processes and initiatives ensure consistent quality of survey data, photo identifiable features selected and meta data to support photogrammetrist, engineers and GIS professionals to quickly deliver projects with better accuracy.

A systematic review of published literature describing factors associated with tuberculosis recurrence in people living with HIV in Africa

A summary of factors associated with recurrent tuberculosis (TB) in the African HIV-infected population is lacking. We performed a systematic review to address this. We performed a literature search within PubMed and The WHO Global Library with specific inclusion and exclusion criteria to identify manuscripts emanating from the African continent which potentially described factors associated with recurrent TB in persons living with HIV. The literature search yielded 52 unique manuscripts, of which only 4 manuscripts were included in the final systematic review following application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Baseline CD4 count, baseline HIV viral load, a positive tuberculin skin test, prior active TB disease, cutaneous hypersensitivity reaction to treatment, having < 3 lung zones affected by prior TB disease, and anaemia were associated with recurrent TB in HIV-infected individuals, whilst age and antiretroviral status were not. The lack of studies describing recurrent TB in Africa which stratify results by HIV-status is a hindrance to understanding risk factors for recurrent TB in this population. This might be overcome by implementing guidelines related to the publishing of data from observational studies in peer-reviewed medical journals reporting recurrent TB in populations with a high-burden of HIV infection.

Digital Trends and the Global Library Community

ABSTRACTThis year's theme of International Open Access Week was Open for Collaboration, and centered on the political and legal gains open access communities have made worldwide. Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition has been the major organizer of Open Access week since its beginnings in 2007. The world-wide participation of so many different communities in this event, which was celebrated on every continent except Antarctica, shows that the issue of open access, which a few years ago was mainly a concern of the U.S. academic community, now has international backing and is shaping how scientific research will be disseminated in the future.

The Global Publishing Trajectory of a European Political Science Community: Indices, Trends, and Implications

This article estimates the global publishing activities of a European political science community (Austria). We first provide OCLC Worldcat figures (“libcitation figures”) on the global library outreach of this community (best placed books, and the number of works present at 300 and 100 global libraries). We also analyse their results for three important Western scientific “subcultures” (France, Japan and Sweden), and try to find the determinants of the global library presence indicators. Journal publishing is the key to understanding global and regional libcitation success rates. We also extend our analysis to look into the presence of the analysed scientific community in the libraries of international bureaucracies and Western security establishments. For more than 70 senior researchers, we also developed an index of global publishing market presence, based on 15 subcomponents. The article arrives at a very positive assessment of the globalized trajectory of Austrian political science during the last decade.

Die Buchpublikationen der Nobelpreis--konomen und die ffhrenden Buchverlage der Disziplin. Eine bibliometrische Analyse (The Book Publications of the Nobel-Prize Economists and the Leading Book Publishers of the Discipline. A Bibliometric Analysis)

Die Buchpublikationen der Nobelpreis--konomen und die ffhrenden Buchverlage der Disziplin. Eine bibliometrische Analyse (The Book Publications of the Nobel-Prize Economists and the Leading Book Publishers of the Discipline. A Bibliometric Analysis)

The evolution of Global Libraries’ performance measurement and impact assessment systems

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the evolution of a common approach to impact assessment across the Global Libraries (GL) portfolio of grants. It presents an overview of two systems, the Performance Metrics (PMs) and the Common Impact Measurement System (CIMS). By providing a standard set of definitions and methods for use across countries, these systems enable grantees to collect data that can be compared and aggregated for the purpose of collective learning, improvement, accountability, and advocacy. Design/methodology/approach – The PMs offer a standard methodology to collect library project performance management data, whereas the CIMS is a standard survey of public library users. The paper describes how the PM and CIMS data are being visualized and used, with examples of findings and lessons learned. Findings – The paper cites examples of the type of PM and CIMS data available, with a focus on employment, gender, and case studies from Botswana and Indonesia. These highlights illustrate how libraries’ user demographics differ from other types of public internet access venues and how libraries can contribute to strong employment and growth. Research limitations/implications – The measurement systems rely on different partners collecting data for the same metrics across different countries; while each grantee adheres to a standard methodology, small procedural, and methodological differences are inevitable. Future research could focus on conducting similar studies elsewhere, outside the cohort of countries in the GL portfolio of grants. Practical implications – The paper offers insights and lessons for library agencies or institutions interested in implementing a common measurement system. Recognizing that few library projects have the resources to track a comprehensive set of indicators, a case study is presented about how smaller initiatives can adapt these systems to their needs. Social implications – The indicators described in this paper enable public libraries to shift their focus from services provided to the outcomes they help individuals and communities realize, potentially increasing the potency of their programming and advocacy. Originality/value – Common measurement systems are not new, but their application in the public library field is novel, as is the Data Atlas, a platform grantees use to compare results across metrics, track progress, and conduct advocacy.

From impact to advocacy: working together toward public library sustainability

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to outline the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Libraries (GLs) initiative approach to advocacy and how it informs, guides, and integrates impact data to support sustainability of GL program results. Design/methodology/approach – The paper defines advocacy in the context of GL, and explores the GL grant planning process, tools, and collaboration between advocacy and impact specialists. Results are demonstrated through grantee examples that illustrate a variety of approaches to library advocacy using impact data at local, country, and regional levels. Findings – The paper demonstrates the importance of identifying community needs, designing impact measures to demonstrate how libraries help to address those needs, and the variety of ways impact evidence can be used to effectively advocacy for public libraries. This basic formula can be applied to advocacy efforts ranging from a broad national policy to a small incremental change in perceptions of libraries by local decision makers. Originality/value – This paper reinforces the essential link between library impact measurement data and successful advocacy.