Library Holdings Research Articles

HathiTrust as a Data Source for Researching Early Nineteenth-Century Library Collections

An intriguing new opportunity for research into the nineteenth-century history of print culture, libraries, and local communities is performing full-text analyses on the corpus of books held by a specific library or group of libraries. Creating corpora using books that are known to have been owned by a given library at a given point in time is potentially feasible because digitized records of the books in several hundred nineteenth-century library collections are available in the form of scanned book catalogs: a book or pamphlet listing all of the books available in a particular library. However, there are two potential problems with using those book catalogs to create corpora. First, it is not clear whether most or all of the books that were in these collections have been digitized. Second, the prospect of identifying the digital representations of the books listed in the catalogs is daunting, given the diversity of cataloging practices at the time. This article will report on progress towards developing an automated method to match entries in early nineteenth-century book catalogs with digitized versions of those books, and will also provide estimates of the fractions of the library holdings that have been digitized and made available in the Google Books/HathiTrust corpus.

Evaluating the impact of books in Chinese Studies: A case study of books authored by UCLA scholars

This study is the first comprehensive analysis to evaluate the impact of books in a particular field, namely, Chinese studies, authored by scholars at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Bibliometric and altmetric indicators were applied to evaluate the impact of books, and correlations between different indicators were analyzed using Spearman correlation coefficients. The results showed significant differences between impact ranks using both indicators. Bibliometric indicators, including citations, library holdings, and book reviews, mainly reflect the academic impact of books, while altmetric indicators, including Amazon sales and Goodreads ratings, mainly reflect the social impact of those books. The most influential books and scholars were obtained based on each of the two indicator types. This effort can benefit academic efforts to evaluate the impact of books using multiple indicators.

Library Catalog Analysis and Library Holdings Counts: origins, methodological issues and application to the field of Informetrics

Library Catalog Analysis and Library Holdings Counts: origins, methodological issues and application to the field of Informetrics

Formation of the Library Collections of Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1940-ies

This study expands the understanding of rare books — witnesses of the events of the World War II.The initial stage of formation of the library collections of Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IOC RAS, Department of the Library for Natural Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences) occurred in the 1940s. Acquisition sources of literature were very diverse, so the collections contain books from the libraries of various institutions of the Russian Empire and the USSR. Among foreign publications, there are monographs and periodicals from the displaced collections of libraries of the German industrial organizations and educational institutions, received after the Great Patriotic War. Monographs of the library of the German Chemical Society were returned to the GDR in 1956. Books of industrial companies “Vereinigte Stahlwerke”, “Deutsches Kalisyndikat Bucherei”, “Berndorfer Metallwarenfabrik Arthur Krupp A.G.”, “I.G. Farbenindustrie” and other are hitherto stored in the library holdings of IOC RAS. I.G. Farbenindustrie was the largest German chemical concern; it had its own laboratories for carrying out scientific research. Many famous chemists, including four Nobel laureates, worked there. The concern collaborated with the Nazi regime, developing artificial fuel, synthetic rubber, toxic substances. It had its own factories (Werk Auschwitz) and concentration camp in Auschwitz. The laboratories conducted chemical studies, and prisoners were involved in it. Providing scientific work with literature was an important component, so the laboratories had their own libraries. After the end of the War, most of the books probably remained on the territory of the plant, which was given to Poland. On its basis, the scientific and technical library of the laboratory was formed there, which later became part of the Chemical Institute. Some of the books from the Werk Auschwitz library got to the USSR, and some of them were transferred to the library of IOC RAS.This article for the first time considers the collections of IOC RAS from the point of view of the field-specific literature published before 1945. Copies with marks of domestic and foreign organizations, personal signs and autographs of scientists are especially valuable. These books can be attributed to the book monuments of the World War II. Thus, one of the most important tasks of the library now is to preserve and study them.

Scientific Bibliographic Description of the Collections of Russian Literature Abroad in the Russian State Library (to the History of Problem)

Scientific bibliographic description of collections, which includes bibliographic description of the holding items, their systematization and scientific research, serves to disclose the library holdings. The purpose of the article is to study the process of scientific bibliographic description of the collections of Russian literature abroad in the Russian State Library (RSL) in its historical development. The author shows the evolution of this activity carried out by specialists of various departments of the RSL, and using reference to specific scientific articles on the theory of bibliography explains the importance of scientific bibliographic description of collections for creation of retrospective national bibliography.The author analyses and systematizes several dozen works related to the scientific bibliographic description of the Russian literature abroad in the RSL. This part of Rossika in the Library is mainly a single array. The work on its scientific bibliographic description is carried out in the traditional (printed) form, in modern (electronic) form, responding to contemporary trends, as well as in parallel in both forms.The article presents the consolidated list of local databases (DB) of Russian literature abroad, created in the RSL. Two main types of DB are distinguished: 1) Established on the basis of the collections of Russian literature abroad and intended mainly for their disclosure. The names of these resources fully reflect their essence: “Photographs in the Collection...”, “Publications with the owner’s marks from the Collections...”, “Displaced cultural values in the Collection...”; 2) Consolidated databases based on the collections of Russian literature abroad and a number of other sources. It is reflected and even underlined in the title, for example: “Consolidated catalogue of periodicals and continuing editions of Russian abroad in Moscow libraries”.The author collected and analysed scientific articles of the RSL researchers, revealing the history of these databases, the principles of their construction, the goals, objectives, opportunities and prospects. The article presents correlation between the database and traditional bibliographic indexes of Russian literature abroad in the RSL, as well as lists the cases when the DB is based on the index or, conversely, database serves as the basis for it. The author lists, systematizes and briefly describes traditional bibliographic indexes of the collections of Russian literature abroad created by the staff of the Russian State Library, as well as shows how to use technical possibilities in the indexes placed on electronic media.

Assessing Repetitive Work When Processing Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Materials

This article looks at the repetitive tasks faced by East Asian Studies Librarians and considers how to automate them. By confirming the most repetitive tasks in East Asian Librarianship, the author, who is a selector for Japanese language materials, identified checking donations and user requests against library holdings as a task that was highly repetitive and automatable. The article explains the factors for assessing how to automate checking for duplicates. The basics of creating a script with the automation tool AutoHotKey are introduced and demonstrate how to create a basic macro. Finally, the macro for duplicate checking is assessed for efficiency, accuracy, and unanticipated benefits/challenges for using macros.

Role of Librarians in Child Abuse Sensitization in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State

The study investigated the “Role of Librarians in Child Abuse Sensitization in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State’’. Simple random sampling was used to select 32 librarians (16 males and 16 females) from four libraries in four tertiary institutions (University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State University, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education and Rivers State School of Nursing). The instrument used for data collection was a self-structured questionnaire titled “Role of Librarians in Child Abuse Sensitization in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State (ROLCAS)”. The instrument was structured in four point rating scale of agreement; that is (Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree). The validity of the instrument was carried out by two research experts in the department of Library and information science in Ignatius Ajuru University of Education. The reliability of the instrument was determined using test- retest method. The result was correlated using Pearson Product Moment Correlation, and yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.93, which indicated that the instrument was reliable. The gathered data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation and hypotheses was tested at 0.05 level of significance. It was found that flogging/beating, denial of food, hawking, sexual abuse, verbal abuse, denial of books, unpleasant touches among others are forms of child abuse in the society. Also, it was found that disabilities, death of parents, poverty, unemployment, violent parents, low education, social isolation of families, among others are the causes of child abuse. The study also concludes that it is necessary to disseminate research information to social services, promoting awareness of child abuse by recommending novels, enhance supply of child abuse literatures in schools and develop programmes on child abuse and its prevention among others. Finally, it was also found among others that efforts should be made to educate parents and children about child abuse through the promotion of reading culture in the library, improve positive parenting through reading related literature, and provide community based reading activities on preventing child abuse. The study recommends that librarians should contribute to solving the menace of child abuse by the utilization of library holdings for awareness and sensitization. KEYWORDS: Role, Librarian, Child, Abuse, Sensitization DOI : 10.7176/IKM/9-5-06 Publication date :May 31 st 2019

Digital Copies of Bibliographic Publications in the Structure of Information Resources of Federal National Libraries

Modern libraries have considerable information resources. Digital copies of publications, including bibliographic ones, are an integral part of information resources. The author studies the activity of the Russian libraries of Federal level on creation of digital copies of bibliographic editions, basing on the own library holdings. There are three national libraries — the Russian State Library, the National Library of Russia and the Presidential Library named after B. Yeltsin. The purpose of the study is to analyse the array of digitized bibliographic publications and to identify the place of digital copies of bibliographic publications in the information resources of the national libraries. The author considers the content of the electronic catalogues of these libraries by entering the same type of request. The article presents the results of study of the volume and content of electronic catalogues, obtained by the method of bibliographic keyword search. The author analysed the array of digital copies of bibliographic publications on various parameters — chronological coverage of digitized documents; language features; terms of access to electronic documents. The author notes that the priority is now given to the digitization of publications in the national language. The article presents the types of access to digital copies of bibliographic publications from the user’s point of view. The author considers the statistical data on the availability of digital copies of bibliographic publications in the collections of electronic documents and the presence of special electronic collections. The emphasis is made on the study of open access to digitized documents. The study revealed that the volume of digital copies of bibliographic publications in the national libraries is very small for the implementation of their inherent scientific and educational function; the access to bibliographic information resources is mostly limited. The author concludes that the level of availability does not meet expectations of the user; and Russian libraries should develop their activities to expand open access to bibliographic information resources.

Qualitative and quantitative efficacy measurement of TERI library and information centre resources

Purpose The purpose of the paper is to evaluate print and electronic resources of TERI’s Library and Information Centre (LIC) with an aim to maximize the net marginal benefits and minimize net marginal costs, without compromising the quality of the library resources. Design/methodology/approach The parameters considered for analyzing the value of the library resources for this exercise were resource access costs, strategic value of the resource based on subject area coverage, frequency of use, citations, direct and indirect benefits to users. The data regarding these parameters were provided from wide range of sources (both tangible and intangible), to come out with the qualitative and quantitative assessment through an optimization and simulation based model. Findings Out of the total holdings in TERI LIC that were analyzed, 85 percent of book collections and 63.5 percent of journals were found to be useful for the researchers. The least-used books and journals were identified for weeding to optimize the value of library for users and make space for new and topical library collections. Research limitations/implications A sample of data sources out of the total library collections was defined for the evaluation. Practical implications The paper demonstrates the value of library resources that is of critical importance to libraries for an effective and efficient delivery of services for generating future knowledge. Evaluating the value of libraries resources has implications both for librarians as well as library users. Originality/value The evaluation exercise established the efficacy of the TERI library holdings for research and academic purposes in the domain of sustainable development. The library collection was found to be cost effective and beneficial to meet the future demand from the user community.

Worlding the Library: Language, Nationality and Translation in Two Multilingual Libraries

Drawing on Venkat Mani's concept of bibliomigrancy, and his suggestion to interconnect the study of libraries with the study of world literature, this article analyses two libraries with an explicit multilingual profile: The Nobel Library of the Swedish Academy and the International Library, both located in Stockholm. The primary aim is to examine the agency of these libraries in the construction of world literature, i.e. how foreign works are amassed and arranged with respect to nationality and language. The study begins with a comparison of the two libraries in terms of accessibility, users and acquisition policies. Special attention is then given to the arrangement of their online catalogues of literature from the perspective of nationality, translation and, in particular, language. The most frequent languages of each library's holdings are compared to their linguistic capital both in the global language hierarchy and specifically in Sweden, as well as to their literary capital. These comparisons reveal substantial differences between the libraries and call into question certain assumptions about the impact of location on the construction of world literature.

Prologue

Prologue Laura Bass and Elizabeth R. Wright Click for larger view View full resolution As the Bulletin of the Comediantes enters its eighth decade of continuous publication, we present volume 71, numbers 1 and 2, together. The occasion that inspired this departure from our twice-yearly publication was particularly auspicious: this double issue serves, in effect, as the selected proceedings of a colloquium held in Madrid on 6–7 July 2018 in honor of Margaret R. Greer, professor emeritus of Duke University. The director of the Biblioteca Nacional de España (BNE), Ana Santos Aramburo, launched the colloquium with an eloquent assessment of Greer's impact. The inaugural statement struck us as a powerful distillation of the research agendas that have long inspired this journal. For this reason, we were delighted that Santos agreed to reprint her remarks here as a preface. The ten articles that follow align well with the remarkable breadth of Greer's multifaceted contributions to comedia studies. In particular, they encompass key approaches to the field as practiced on both sides of the Atlantic: scholarly editing and philology, historicism and gender studies, and the digital humanities. Putting together this issue reminded us of the profound thanks due to those who made the colloquium in Madrid a success. Elvira Vilches of Duke University collaborated in the organization from the beginning. The administration and staff of Duke in Madrid hosted us in their luminous headquarters and spared no effort to make the logistics flawless: Marcos Canteli, Katie Lorentson, Nuria García, and Eva Barroso. Richard Rosa, chair of Duke University's Department of Romance Studies, provided financial support. Antonio León-Sotelo and Javier Docampo of the BNE granted us special access to the library's splendid Sala del Patronato for a book and manuscript exhibit tied to the colloquium. In turn, [End Page 5] the section heads of three special collections areas worked with us for months before the colloquium to design a meaningful display of the library's holdings associated with theater history: María José Rucio (Manuscritos e Incunables), Isabel Ortega (Dibujos y Grabados), and Javier de Diego (Música Antigua). Space in this issue did not permit us to offer a catalogue of the exhibit, but we are working to reconstruct the display in volume 72, given its potential to draw attention to important sources. The publication of this current issue coincides with another important milestone for the Bulletin of the Comediantes. The Council of Editors of Learned Journals has honored us with their award for Best Journal Design (2019). We are gratified by this honor, which recognizes the talent of Salvador Alarcó of Argonauta Design (Madrid) and the astounding grasp of theater's visual dimensions that Víctor Pagán has shared with us. Support for the journal's redesign came from the University of Georgia's Franklin College of Arts and Sciences spearheaded by Associate Dean Martin Kagel. ________ Even as we have so much to celebrate, we must close on a very sad note. At the start of this academic year, we learned of the death of John Jay Allen, a colleague beloved and esteemed for his invaluable contributions to comedia studies and known as well for his scholarly generosity. We are grateful to José María Ruano de la Haza for sharing his remembrances, which seem a fitting way to begin. [End Page 6] Copyright © 2019 Bulletin of the Comediantes

Галузевий інформаційний ресурс Державної науково-педагогічної бібліотеки України імені В. О. Сухомлинського: стан та шляхи розвитку

The paper covers the main aspects of book acquisition at V. O. Sukhomlynskyi SSPL of Ukraine. It is noted that the library was based on the holdings of two special education libraries: the Scientific Library of the Institute of Pedagogy at the AES of Ukraine and the Central Education Library of the Ministry of Education of Ukraine, which were liquidated. The attention is paid to the book acquisition at V. O. Sukhomlynskyi SSPL of Ukraine, based on the law of correspondence (congruence). The law provides for the formation of the library holdings in accordance with the library tasks and purpose and taking into account user needs. The main ways of accession to the library holdings are analysed: required copy, subscription periodicals, book exchange, gifts, and document reproduction. The paper deals with e-journals acquisition as an alternative to traditional journals. The attention is paid to the peculiarities of the current situation in library document support, that is increasing the ways of acquisition by increasing the number of acquisition sources, changes in traditional acquisition technology in connection with the emergence of new technologies and opportunities to use information resources through the Internet, the economic partnership between the library and publishing houses under the conditions of limited budget financing. It is noted that the automation of acquisition furthers qualitative formation of the holdings, significantly accelerates the process of document processing, improves the accuracy of accounting and reporting information, and extends the possibility of organisation to use information resources.

Księgozbiory klasztorów franciszkańskich w Prusach Zachodnich w okresie ich kastaty

At the turn of the 19th century, the Prussian state began the dissolution of the religious houses, including in West Prussia. Of the 28 monasteries existing in this area before the dissolution, 15 were part of the Franciscan religious family: six Bernardine monasteries (Kadyny, Lubawa, Nowe, Świecie, Torun, Zamarte), six monasteries of the Reformed Franciscans (Brodnica, Dzierzgon, Gdansk Chelm, Grudziądz, Łąki Bratianskie, Wejherowo), two monasteries of the Conventual Franciscans (Chelmno, Chelmza), and one monastery of the Capuchins (Rywald). After 1840 only two monasteries survived, in Wejherowo and Łąki Bratianskie near Nowe Miasto Lubawskie. During the dissolution of the monasteries, the monastic book collections and archives were secured and translocated by Prussian officials. Using the surviving archival material, the author presents the holdings of the individual monastic libraries and their history.

Using Data Mining for Citation Analysis

This paper presents a new model for citation analysis, applying new methodological approaches in citation studies. These methods are demonstrated by an analysis of cited references from publications by the Geological Sciences faculty at the University of Colorado Boulder. The author made use of simple Python scripting, the Web of Science API, and OpenRefine to examine the most frequently cited journals and compare them to library holdings data to discover materials absent from the local collection. Of the more than 20,000 citations analyzed, 80 percent cited approximately 10 percent of all titles (412 journals). A notable finding was the heavy reliance of faculty members upon works between zero and two years of age. The streamlined model presented here removes the constraints of time and effort encountered by academic librarians interested in conducting citation analyses.

Big Data and Their Impact on Libraries

Academic libraries have a large amount of primary and secondary data with academic content. These contents can be linked and supplemented with freely available data on the Internet and generate benefit for their customers. This includes, for example, the date for indexing of library holdings as well as customer data and their media usage for the development of new helpful services. Thus, methods and knowledge of Big Data applications are required. With the help of Big Data technologies, these added values can be created. However, this presupposes that the limitations and possibilities of Big Data technology are being taken into account and that correlations are accepted as sufficiently accurate. Especially classical librarians have to cut back on their accuracy requirements. This paper gives an overview of the possibilities and chances of using large data amounts in libraries, presents hypotheses and explains practical examples.

Картотека методичних рішень як допоміжний службовий апарат каталогізатора

The paper explores the peculiarities of the creation of auxiliary service apparatus for a cataloguer, that is formed at cataloguing and document processing departments. It was found out that the full use of library holdings is not possible without reference aids. Reference aids (hereinafter referred to as RA) is a system of library catalogues and card files that presents a library stock. It is proved that the efficiency and purposefulness of the library reference and information service depend largely on how well RA is organised, in particular, it concerns the system of catalogues and card files. It was outlined that the library RA is used as an additional methodological base for developing general and special methods of document processing, introducing changes to state standards, classification tables, lists of subject headings, etc. It was stated that the main aims of methodical decision card file regarding the bibliographic document description and systematsation are as follows: to establish the methodological unity in classifying and presenting the literature of the same type, to ensure the implementation of the adopted methodological decisions, to assist cataloguers in processing complex documents, and improve their job performance. The paper characterises the essence, functions and technology of working with a methodical decision card file, in particular, the attention is paid to document systematisation. The main aim of card file is considered, and the process of making methodical decisions is described. Problem issues are highlighted and methodological solutions regarding the systematisation of complex documents are given. It is proved that the presence of RA, which is constantly developing and improving, is an important condition for the qualitative functioning of the system of catalogues and card files.

Popularization of Materials about Life and Creative Work of A.I. Solzhenitsyn in the Ryazan Regional Library

Public libraries, realizing their social functions, contribute to the social and cultural development of the region. One of their main functions is education, dissemination of knowledge that forms the culture of person and worldview attitudes. The article reveals the long-term activity of the Ryazan regional universal scientific library named after Gorky on the information resources representing the pages of life and work of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Nobel Prize laureate in literature, Honorary citizen of Ryazan, the world famous writer and publicist, educator, public and political person. The author reveals the significance of creative work of A.I. Solzhenitsyn in the public life of Ryazan and the region; analyses the experience of library work with the documents from the library holdings. As example, the author presents educational projects implemented in the partnership with organizations and institutions of the city: the Scientific and educational centre for the study of heritage of A.I. Solzhenitsyn, the Ryazan Solzhenitsyn society, as well as with writers and local historians. The article considers classification of types of resources on A.I. Solzhenitsyn, including personal documentary sources of the writer’s life, the documents of book collections of libraries, bibliographic databases, catalogues and card files, electronic resources created by librarians; provides examples of the above resource groups, including electronic ones collected through partner organizations and posted on the website of the Ryazan regional universal scientific library named after Gorky.

Digital Services of the National Library of Korea: Current State and Tasks

The National Library (NL) of Korea holds about 16.3 million digital information materials. Since 2016, the NL has been receiving legal deposit copies of e-books, digital copies of publications, magazines and newspapers. The article analyses digital services of the NL of Korea and identifies the main problems in this area.The NL of Korea is the main library of the country, actively developing the inter-library relations, cooperating with libraries of the Republic of Korea and around the world. It developed the Reference service “Ask a Librarian”, created the Catalogue of digital books, the System “Free Access to Korea” and offers the services on providing information in alternative forms for people with disabilities. The NL designed the automated library system and implemented it in 1094 library. The NL of Korea started the work on creation of the China-Japan-Korea Digital Library Portal. There is a number of problems: acquisition of electronic legal deposit copies, lack of the content for some projects, lack of information services, optimized for the users requirements. The purpose of this study: professional dialogue in the world library community for the exchange of experience, knowledge information resources and for sharing of library content. The article presents the Three-year digital service plan. The author describes the goals and objectives of the NL of Korea: the expansion of the library holdings in the digital environment, the improvement of operation of digital resources, the activation of mobile services and popularization of humanities knowledge through digitization.The principle of operation of all Korean libraries is changing from data collecting and information storage to implementation of information. The author concludes that libraries should quickly respond to the information technology changes. Nowadays, there increases the importance of collecting and storing of all information resources of the national value.

Evaluation of Cultural Impact on Regional Economic Development in Russia

Paper is devoted to Dependence of economic development of the Russian regions on their cultural level indicators. It determines and analyzes the influence degree of cultural components of the region development on its economic factors. The investigated statistical base consists of selected cultural and economic indices taken in the period of 2000-2015 years. The hypothesis of significant influence degree of the visits to museums and in particular, theatres number, on the amount of implemented innovational technologies was confirmed. A hypothesis about the close relationship between the volumes of expenditures of the Russian budget for culture and the level of research and development work, as well as directly the number of innovative industrial technologies introduced was confirmed. Hypotheses about the close interaction of cultural indices and such macroeconomic parameters as GDP growth, the volume of the capital investments have not been confirmed. A weak correlation between library holdings volume and the studied economic indicators was noted. The research can be used in design of the regional development programs, in forming budget priorities of budgets projects, or in taking other management decisions programming the basis for effective social and economic policy of the regions.

An Introduction to “Visualizing Russian History” The Russian Revolution Centennial: Exhibitions, Collections, Audience

ABSTRACTThe Russian Revolution Centennial has called forth many exhibitions of the vast holdings of libraries, archives, museums and other collections. This special issue reviews major exhibitions, the history of the collections and the conceptions and strategies of curators. Revolution’s centennial in 2017 called forth numerous conferences, programs, lectures, publications, and other events. One of the richest avenues of celebration and scholarship was the many brilliant exhibitions organized by archives, museums, and other repositories. The centennial provided an occasion for assessing and for rethinking the modes of presentation and the significance of many types of collections. What to show, how to show it, and for whom became big questions to which curators, archivists, art historians, and many others came up with big answers. These exhibitions and initiatives have pointed the way toward new and welcome collaboration between curators, archivists, historians of art and photography, and political and social historians of the Russian Revolution.