Library Perspective Research Articles

AI and Research: Methods and Best Practices for Conducting Research Using AI

This video presentation provides an overview of methods and best practices for using AI in academic research, emphasizing its significance from a library perspective. It introduces key concepts, strategies, and the importance of AI literacy, incorporating a brief review of frameworks for the evaluation and use of AI technologies. This video also offers a concise summary of popular AI research tools and best practices based on select recommendations from reputable institutions and industry scholarship. The inclusion of visual and auditory elements detailing key matters pertaining to the use of AI in higher education contributes to a multimodal and diversified approach designed for a broader audience. Video formats may complement other traditional forms of publication by providing visual explanations that are intended to enhance accessibility and engagement with complex concepts in scholarly discourse.

The Impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence Technologies on Chinese Librarians' information Behavior and Ethical Discussion: An Empirical Study Based on a Small Sample

This study used a combination of questionnaires and interviews to survey 68 librarians in mainland China. The questionnaire was divided into three parts: (1) providing descriptive statistics of the interviewed librarians; (2) exploring the impact of generative technologies on librarians' information behaviour from work scenarios; (3) investigating librarians' concerns about ethics and strategies for coping with ethical challenges. The results show that generative AI technologies had a greater impact on information seeking, information encountering, and information using behaviours, and an insignificant impact on information sharing behaviours. In addition, the results of the study reflect that 67.65% of librarians showed a very high level of concern about privacy and security; 66.18% of them believed that the content generated by the tools needed further validation. The study also provided six recommendations from the perspective of libraries and librarians to address ethical challenges such as the spread of disinformation and bias.

Globalisation Perspective of Libraries as Curators of Oral Tradition and Storytelling Activities

In today's increasingly globalised world, libraries have emerged as crucial institutions for preserving and promoting oral traditions and storytelling activities. This paper explores the globalisation perspective of libraries as curators of oral tradition and storytelling activities. The methodology adopted for this study was a systematic method, using relevant literature through a highly rigorous and systematic process. The systematic review of oral tradition in libraries highlighted that libraries had embraced the digital age and utilised technological advancements to digitise and archive oral traditions, making them accessible to a broader audience. Despite the growing significance of libraries as curators of oral tradition and storytelling activities, there is inadequate research and empirical evidence on the globalisation perspective of libraries regarding this. Consequently, this research gap hinders the development of strategies and frameworks that can effectively harness the globalisation potential of libraries as curators of oral tradition and storytelling activities. The linguistic model for this review was chosen to demonstrate how traditional oral forms convey perception and experience. Libraries, as curators of oral tradition and storytelling activities, contribute to preserving cultural heritage, enriching knowledge, and promoting cross-cultural understanding in an interconnected world. These will contribute to preserving, promoting, and sharing worldwide oral traditions, thereby deepening cross-cultural understanding and facilitating meaningful cultural exchange. Future research should explore using digital technologies and online platforms to reach global audiences and effectively bridge cultural divides.

Librarians as guardians of information quality: navigating the challenges of misinformation and disinformation

Purpose This study aims to explore the pivotal role of libraries in combating misinformation and disinformation in the contemporary information landscape, emphasizing their significance as guardians of information integrity. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on a review of literature and surveying librarian perspectives, this study examines the multifaceted strategies used by libraries to address misinformation and disinformation. It delves into the roles of librarians in distinguishing between different forms of false information, promoting information literacy and fostering community engagement. Findings Libraries serve as bastions of knowledge, curating diverse and reliable resources while actively combating false information through educational initiatives, technological innovations and community outreach. Librarians play a crucial role in empowering users with the skills to critically evaluate information and navigate the complexities of the digital age. Originality/value This study contributes to the scholarly discourse by highlighting the evolving role of libraries as guardians of information integrity in the face of misinformation and disinformation. It underscores the importance of libraries in promoting a more informed and resilient society, enriching public discourse with the values of truth and understanding.

Advancement of Smart Academic Libraries in Northern Nigeria: Issues and Way Forward

The 21st century is known as the beginning of the knowledge age; a millennium characterized by leveraging on information to stay ahead using technology. The library occupies a critical place in the quality of information accessed and leveraged on by researchers and students. Academic libraries in Nigeria are not disconnected from this technology-based-information revolution. This study looked at advancement of smart academic libraries in Northern Nigeria: issues and way forward. Its objectives was to determine smart services available, investigate the extent of deployment, examine the underlying issues that hinder effective smart service delivery and proffer strategies for way forward in Northern university public academic libraries in Nigeria. The study adopted a review of documents and literature on smart academic libraries in Nigeria. Five public universities were purposively observed and sampled on their smart library perspective and capacity. Google-Forms-structured questionnaire was used through different online platforms. Simple percentage and frequencies were used in analyzing data collected. Findings showed that there are existing smart library services in the academic libraries of Northern Nigerian public universities but the extent of deployment of smart library services in their academic libraries is low. The research also revealed the numerous issues faced in providing smart services. The study recommended that the institution and library managements of academic libraries in Northern Nigerian public universities step up on ICT policy framework, practical deployment of smart library technologies and training of library staff for improved smart services.

Librarian Perspectives on Technical Standards at Academic Institutions with Engineering Technology Programs

Technical standards are resources that are important for engineering and engineering technology students due to ABET accreditation requirements and future professional use of the documents. Previous studies have surveyed librarians at Association of Research Libraries (ARL) institutions with engineering programs and librarians at universities with top-ranked engineering programs about standards. This study fills a gap by focusing on librarians at institutions with engineering technology programs. We surveyed 34 academic librarians at institutions with four-year bachelor programs in the disciplines of mechanical engineering technology or electrical and electronics engineering technology to learn about standards access and challenges at their libraries, standards education for students, and librarians’ standards-related professional development experiences and needs. Key findings include: standards access and standards education efforts are skewed towards larger institutions; librarians encounter significant cost challenges in providing standards access; few librarians receive education about standards until moving into their careers; and there is a need for self-paced librarian training materials focused on standards. Further education for librarians about standards and increased standards access has the potential to have a significant impact on many students, given the reach of librarians in their liaison roles.

Data Privacy and Cyber Security in Digital Library Perspective: Safe Guarding User Information Rudrani Saha

In an era the security is very much important/essential for information and knowledge. As Knowledge/information enlarging the need to arrange it and to provide sufficient security become more processing. These study measure libraries to follow different standards, technology and rules to protect user data and ensure privacy when accessing e – resources and other information. Also discussing the importance of cyber security in the digital library landscape. Also different challenges associated with safe guarding sensitive information within library e - resources. It explores various dimensions of data privacy, user confidentiality, data encryption, access control and compliance with privacy regulations. By addressing these challenges comprehensively, libraries can ensure the preservation of user privacy while maximizing the benefits of digital resources in today’s information centric landscape. In October 2023 Rhysida, a hacker group, attacked the online information systems of the British Library. So, Data Privacy and cybersecurity is most important for Digital Library. Keywords: Data Privacy, Library e-Resources, Cyber security, Confidentiality, Access Control, Compliance, Ethical Considerations, Best Practices.

Factors affecting librarians’ intentions to engage in virtual storytimes

PurposeThis study investigated multiple factors associated with librarians’ intentions to engage in virtual storytimes in public libraries. Based on the theory of planned behavior, the study examined the aspects of attitudes, social norms, behavioral controls and organizational support about librarians’ intentions to engage in virtual storytime practices.Design/methodology/approachA survey was conducted to investigate the perceptions of public librarians who work in children’s services across the USA. The study collected 365 valid responses to assess the impact of the selected factors on librarians’ intentions. Structural equation modeling was employed for statistical analysis.FindingsThe results revealed that attitudes, subjective norms and behavioral controls were significant factors associated with librarians’ intention to engage in virtual storytimes. Among these, attitudinal factors were the most influential; however, organizational support was not a significant factor.Originality/valueMinimal research has been conducted to explore factors associated with online storytime practices, which served as a primary delivery mode during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study is among the first attempts to investigate various factors related to virtual storytimes in public libraries from the perspectives of librarians.

The Intersection of Public Policy and Public Access: Digital Inclusion, Digital Literacy Education, and Libraries

This study aims to examine the state of digital inclusion and digital literacy education in Chinese libraries and provide recommendations for improvement. The background section emphasizes the crucial role of libraries in promoting digital inclusion and sustainable development, as well as the challenges and opportunities presented by the current digital landscape in China, such as the digital divide and regional disparities in internet access. To achieve the study’s objectives, we conducted analyses of relevant policies, public libraries, and library training programs using a mixed-methods approach. The results highlight the policy landscape, initiatives, and implementation strategies for promoting digital inclusion and literacy education, emphasizing the role of libraries in driving digital inclusion and fostering user engagement. Insights from a university library perspective showcase the role of academic libraries in promoting digital literacy education and training. The findings underscore the importance of digital inclusion and literacy in a digitized society and the crucial role of libraries and academic institutions in achieving these goals. The study advocates for libraries’ pivotal role in bridging digital gaps and enhancing literacy to foster an inclusive, equitable digital society and urges policy support.

Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Insider’s Perspective in Public and Academic Libraries

This paper's purpose is to bring to light the social issue of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and how public and academic libraries are making strides to better serve this branch of the population. Definitions will be provided to better explain what challenges ASD patrons face. In turn, librarians across America, specifically in Illinois and Ohio in recent years, have come together to discuss in both literature and national forums what they are continually doing to better serve, educate, and support their patrons and train their librarians. ASD is a complex social issue faced by millions; one widely covered and not easily solved alone, but through strategic planning and partnerships, libraries are formulating some creative solutions to meet these challenges. Also touched on will be the perspectives of librarians with ASD; the challenges they face each day, and where they see the future for people with ASD working in a library setting. Let us discover how libraries are rising above these challenges and becoming better informed to equip one another to serve all their patrons

Collaborating to implement SeamlessAccess: A library’s perspective

In the past two years an ever-increasing number of publishers have implemented SeamlessAccess resulting in a better user experience and increased usage. However, to ensure more users benefit from federated authentication and seamless access more collaborations among publishers, libraries, and SeamlessAccess are needed. This brief paper will include a library perspective on the challenges to implementing federated access, the benefits that federated access brings to libraries and to their end-users in their research experience, and a brief walk-through of the SeamlessAccess experience that demonstrates how it enhances federated access.

Artificial intelligence literacy in libraries

The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) poses challenges as well as opportunities for anyone or anything dealing with digital technologies, including libraries. Libraries and librarians have a twofold challenge in that they simultaneously must consider AI applications in library operations as well as AI skills and knowledge as part of the information literacy (IL) training they provide for their users, whether it be in IL programmes or informal learning contexts. This study follows a learning circle in which 123 librarians in Sweden did a pre-existing online course about AI and met up at regular intervals to discuss its contents in a library perspective. The increased knowledge about AI and libraries and the confidence to pass on this knowledge to library users is measured through a self-efficacy test conducted on three separate occasions during the learning circle. The result from the test shows an increase in AI knowledge during the learning circle, although the small sample makes it difficult to draw definitive conclusions. A focus group from the learning circle was interviewed to get an in-depth understanding of librarians’ core topics of concern and excitement regarding AI and libraries. The results from the interview showed that there was a mainly positive view of AI in relation to making library collections more accessible and easier to manage, while there was more concern regarding AI’s impact on the media landscape and how this could impact library users. Introspectively, the focus group perceived challenges in including AI when teaching IL to users as well as in the lack of AI skills among colleagues that could make it difficult to apply or discuss AI in relation to the workplace and the library profession. This paper presents a method of increasing AI knowledge among librarians and library staff. It highlights topics relevant for several library types when faced with the development and application of AI in libraries and in society that based on the results of the study are difficult to escape. The insights may prove useful when planning educational endeavours and when considering library development and strategy related to AI and their implications for libraries and library users.

Exploring students’ perceptions toward the use of augmented reality for digital library services

PurposeThis study aims to investigate whether students would accept augmented reality technology in Al Ain University (AAU) libraries as part of digital library services.Design/methodology/approachThis study used a modified technology acceptance model–based survey instrument for data collection. Data was collected through an online questionnaire, which was sent to 400 students via email in March 2023. Out of the total participants, 176 students completed the questionnaire.FindingsThis study found that AAU students have a positive perception of augmented technology use in the library. They believe that augmented technology will be useful and easy to use, and students are willing to use it to access library resources and services.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the digital library perspectives in academic libraries.

Moving Between Scales

This dissertation employs the perspective of library and information science (LIS) to inform and guide methodological reflections in two interdisciplinary fields, computational social science (CSS) and digital humanities (DH). However, CSS often prioritizes recent digital trace data over archival material from earlier periods, and the large-scale methods used in DH face criticism from humanists for their incapability to capture perspectival and interpretative nuances.
 This dissertation blends humanistic and social-scientific approaches to study premodern China, emphasizing the importance of “moving between scales.” It bridges different scales of analysis by transitioning dynamically between them, examines small-scale structures to uncover how they reflect large-scale dynamics, and explores mid-range social phenomena by investigating prosopography of elite society members. Four research questions are posed: (1) What are the challenges and opportunities in investigating a social network based on biased text? (2) How can prosopographical data lead to conclusions about the shifting center of political power? (3) How can structural characteristics in multiple networks reveal changes in political culture? (4) What can bibliographic metadata reveal about the particularity of publishing history of 16th-to-19th-century Chinese books?
 By addressing these questions, this dissertation intends to leverage theories and practices of LIS to develop computational models unveiling historical trends. It seeks to contribute to CSS by enhancing social scientists’ understanding on how societies and cultural systems evolve over time, to DH by revealing the historical changes in the longue durée in premodern China, and to LIS by fulfilling its mission of providing an information perspective to traditional academic disciplines.

Overview of cultural capital theory's current impact and potential utility in academic libraries

This literature review introduces academic librarians and library administrators to Pierre Bourdieu's Cultural Capital Theory (CCT). CCT originates from the fields of sociology and education. People possess cultural capital in varying degrees according to their level of access to cultural resources, participation in cultural activities, and titles held in high regard by the cultural community. CCT argues that people can acquire certain forms of cultural capital, and those who are successful improve their social status. Academic libraries are in a prime position to be a source of cultural capital, and many already have an established ethos of assisting their vulnerable student populations. A survey of professional library and information science (LIS) literature was conducted to identify articles that substantially discuss cultural capital as it relates to education, libraries, and information literacy. We discovered that CCT has not been comprehensively studied in the LIS discipline. This literature review reveals the limited current understanding of cultural capital from an academic library perspective and posits that students may benefit from academic library leaders examining their services, resources, and programs through a cultural capital perspective. Challenges of this theory, its connection to other critical approaches, and recommendations for future research are also discussed.

Proposal of a Model for Smart Library Services to Achieve SDG: A Public University Library Perspective

The main purpose of the study is to explore user’s basic concept about smart library at Dhaka University Library (DUL). The more specific aims of the study are to: investigate e-services those are provided by DUL to its users, observe the effectiveness of smart library, propose a smart library model for DUL, identify the problems of smart library at DUL and determine parameters for converting DUL to the smart library. The authors designed a well-structured questionnaire as well as used both online and offline survey method to collect data and retrieved responses were 353. SPSS and MS Excel have been used to analysis data. The study reveals that smart library can meet the user needs and provide necessary information to users according to their demands. The paper also presents a review of DUL services where traditional services are converted into smart library services by using advanced technologies, but the concept of smart library is still unknown to maximum library users. The study also suggests that DUL has to improve service quality, ensure user cultivation and LIS professionals training in order to transfer DUL into smart library.

Heterogeneity issues in IoT-driven devices and services

<p>Internet of Things (IoT), which connects billions of devices and services to the Internet, is viewed as the future industrial and intellectual revolution in technology. These connected devices are available in a variety of types. Different technologies and standards use various protocols to interact with each other. Due to these difficulties with heterogeneity, the application of IoT on a broad scale is difficult. This inspired us to identify the problems from the literature and offer solutions to solve the IoT scalability problem. This study is based on the systematic literature review (SLR) to identify the diverse problems and their solutions. We chose 81 primary sources in total. We found 14 distinct IoT heterogeneity concerns after extracting and interpreting the data. The following issues have been noted as potential obstacles: heterogeneity in data formats, heterogeneity of devices, heterogeneity in communication, and interoperability difficulty because of heterogeneity. From the perspectives of digital libraries and timeframes, the stated challenges have been addressed. Additionally, we have discovered 81 solutions in total for these problems, with at least 5 different answers for every issue. In the future, we will use a multi-criteria decision-making issue to classify the problems and evaluate the solutions.</p>

It Takes a Researcher to Know a Researcher: Academic Librarian Perspectives Regarding Skills and Training for Research Data Support in Canada

Objective – This empirical study aims to contribute qualitative evidence on the perspectives of data-related librarians regarding the necessary skills, education, and training for these roles in the context of Canadian academic libraries. A second aim of this study is to understand the perspectives of data-related librarians regarding the specific role of the MLIS in providing relevant training and education. The definition of a data-related librarian in this study includes any librarian or professional who has a conventional title related to a field of data librarianship (i.e., research data management, data services, GIS, data visualization, data science) or any other librarian or professional whose duties include providing data-related services within an academic institution. Methods – This study incorporates in-depth qualitative empirical evidence in the form of 12 semi-structured interviews of data-related librarians to investigate first-hand perspectives on the necessary skills required for such positions and the mechanisms for acquiring and maintaining such skills. Results – The interviews identified four major themes related to the skills required for library-related data services positions, including the perceived importance of experience conducting original research, proficiency in computational coding and quantitative methods, MLIS-related skills such as understanding metadata, and the ability to learn new skills quickly on the job. Overall, the implication of this study regarding the training from MLIS programs concerning data-related librarianship is that although expertise in metadata, documentation, and information management are vital skills for data-related librarians, the MLIS is increasingly less competitive compared with degree programs that offer a greater emphasis on practical experience working with different types of data in a research context and implementing a variety of methodological approaches. Conclusion – This study demonstrates that an in-depth qualitative portrait of data-related librarians within a national academic ecosystem provides valuable new insights regarding the perceived importance of conducting original empirical research to succeed in these roles.

A detailed library perspective on nearly unsupervised information extraction workflows in digital libraries

Information extraction can support novel and effective access paths for digital libraries. Nevertheless, designing reliable extraction workflows can be cost-intensive in practice. On the one hand, suitable extraction methods rely on domain-specific training data. On the other hand, unsupervised and open extraction methods usually produce not-canonicalized extraction results. This paper is an extension of our original work and tackles the question of how digital libraries can handle such extractions and whether their quality is sufficient in practice. We focus on unsupervised extraction workflows by analyzing them in case studies in the domains of encyclopedias (Wikipedia), Pharmacy, and Political Sciences. As an extension, we analyze the extractions in more detail, verify our findings on a second extraction method, discuss another canonicalizing method, and give an outlook on how non-English texts can be handled. Therefore, we report on opportunities and limitations. Finally, we discuss best practices for unsupervised extraction workflows.

Transformative agreements and their practical impact: a librarian perspective

This case study aims at describing how transformative agreements (TAs) have affected our profession with new tasks and workflows at two university libraries in Sweden, namely Karolinska Institutet University Library and Södertörn University Library. TAs are one of the mechanisms by which scientific publications are made open access; they involve moving libraries’ contracts with publishers from payment to read toward payment to publish. We will summarize the status and progress of open access in Sweden, in particular the significant growth of TAs over a short time span. We will then focus on describing how TAs have affected our everyday work and what new tasks they have imposed. We will share our experiences and point out things we find challenging, for example, we will explore questions about eligibility, the verification process, publication types and title changes during the contract period. We will also give some recommendations on how we would prefer the workflows surrounding the TAs to be. Finally, we will share our conclusions and comments about the impact of TAs on the publishing landscape and speculate about what will happen next.