European Libraries Research Articles

Assessment of the use of Open Educational Resources at five European Library and Information Science higher education institutions during and post-COVID-19 pandemic

This article presents an analysis of the impact of Open Educational Resources (OER) during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as their potential use in the post-pandemic, in Library and Information Science (LIS) higher education institutions. The research explored how OER were used and created, what were the main barriers and drivers in practice and some main lessons learned that can help to improve the quality and increase the use of OER beyond times of crisis. The research was based on fieldwork carried out in the LIS departments of the universities of Barcelona (Spain), Hildesheim (Germany), Osijek and Zagreb (Croatia) and the University of Library Studies and Information Technologies in Sofia (Bulgaria). The methodology approach was qualitative and was based on interviews with faculty and focus groups with students. Results show that faculty members were still hesitant to adopt OER since they generally did not consider them. Moreover, those who did use them did so on their own initiative and as additional resources. We discuss the different speeds of OER implementation that have been observed depending on the faculty’s prior level of knowledge, and on whether their institutions and countries are prepared to support the use of OER. The promotion of post-pandemic OER involves greater capacity building, as well as collaboration and institutional support. Students’ attitudes about the usefulness of OER focus on their availability. The large number of teachers and students who participated in the study, as well as the international scope of the study, constitute a strength in the treatment of a topic such as the use of OER where the user perspectives and LIS context have been little addressed in the literature.

Poetic recipes from Nidāʾī, an important sixteenth-century physician, in Durr-i Manzūm

It has been known that some of the medical works in the Islamic world in the Middle Ages were composed in verse to create concise information, be easily memorised, and be beneficial for students and the public. This practice has also been observed in Turkish medicine throughout history. The present study aims to introduce Physician Nidā’ī from Ankara, an important sixteenth-century physician, and his renowned poetic work, Durr-i Man ūm, focusing on the sections related to urinary system problems. In this study, we evaluated Durr-i Man ūm, which has many copies in Turkish and European libraries and has been found in Istanbul Süleymaniye Manuscript Library, Nuruosmaniye Collection, Nr. 3556. Nidā’ī has poetic compositions regarding six common nephrological problems: Urinary incontinence, bedwetting in children, haematuria, urinary retention, urination difficulty, and bladder stones. Every subject consisted of a different number of couplets; the difficulty of the disease was briefly mentioned in some couplets, and then appropriate compositions were written in detail in a poetic style. Nidā’ī used poetic recipes excellently and wanted to show that medicine is not an incomprehensible and complicated science by recommending concise and straightforward treatments for certain diseases. The fact that it was copied until the beginning of the nineteenth century, with numerous copies available in both national and international libraries, demonstrates that his work is readily comprehensible to both the public and medical professionals, thereby earning it considerable respect.

Something out of nothing

Written from within Lyrik Kabinett, Munich, holding the second-largest poetry library in Europe, this essay provides a practice-based perspective on how the concept of ›literature as social practice‹ can find articulation in an institutional setting. Starting with a brief overview of poetry libraries internationally, the contribution subsequently focuses in on the artist’s book and poetry holdings at Lyrik Kabinett, our user and audience engagement, and on the way we initiate contemporary poetic responses to poetic histories. The concept of social practice is thereby also given a diachronic perspective, yet one that is attentive to the significance of decanonisation as much as of canonisation.

Post-COVID-19 assessment of the use of Open Educational Resources at five European Library and Information Science higher education institutions

This article presents an analysis of the impact of Open Educational Resources (OER) during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as their potential use in the post-pandemic, in Library and Information Science (LIS) higher education institutions. The research explored how OER were used and created, what were the main barriers and drivers in practice and some main lessons learned that can help to improve the quality and increase the use of OER beyond times of crisis. The research was based on fieldwork carried out in the LIS departments of the universities of Barcelona (Spain), Hildesheim (Germany), Osijek and Zagreb (Croatia) and the University of Library Studies and Information Technologies in Sofia (Bulgaria). The methodology approach was qualitative and was based on interviews with faculty and focus groups with students. Results show that faculty members were still hesitant to adopt OER since they generally did not consider them. Moreover, those who did use them did so on their own initiative and as additional resources. We discuss the different speeds of OER implementation that have been observed depending on the faculty’s prior level of knowledge, and on whether their institutions and countries are prepared to support the use of OER. The promotion of post-pandemic OER involves greater capacity building, as well as collaboration and institutional support. Students’ attitudes about the usefulness of OER focus on their availability. The large number of teachers and students who participated in the study, as well as the international scope of the study, constitute a strength in the treatment of a topic such as the use of OER where the user perspectives and LIS context have been little addressed in the literature.

On the Hunt for Anti-Jesuitica: A Report from a 2023 Research Trip to European Libraries and Archives

On the Hunt for Anti-Jesuitica: A Report from a 2023 Research Trip to European Libraries and Archives

The Issue of Using Certain Copyrighted Iems Whose Right Holders are Unknown: Foreign Experience and Solutions

Introduction. The relevance of this work is due to a significant number of works whose author or right holder is unknown, the impossibility of legally using such works in civil circulation, the urgent need for normative fixation of the status of a work whose author or right holder is unknown, and establishing opportunities for legal use of such works, taking into account the analysis of foreign practice in regulating this issue. The aim of the study is to analyse foreign practice in regulating the use of works whose author or right holder is unknown, to identify the key features of this legal institution, and to evaluate its proposed incorporation into the Russian laws. The task of the study is to analyse the legal institution of using a work whose author or right holder is unknown, and to identify common features of this legal institution in different countries. The scientific problem that the research aims to solve is to establish legal regulation for the use of works whose author or right holder is unknown, taking into account the peculiarities of the Russian laws. Methods. The work used methods of analysis such as general scientific, formal and legal, comparative and legal and system and structural. Results and Discussion. The number of works whose author or copyright holder is unknown in the largest European libraries is estimated at 20—30 %, and some estimates suggest that the proportion of such works in Russia is even higher. The works whose author or right holder is unknown are not given in international treaties of a universal character, but is reflected in some regional (Directive 2012/28/EC of the European Parliament and Council of the European Union) and national regulations of about 30 countries. The legislation of each of the countries reviewed (France, Germany, Norway, Hungary, UK, US, Canada, India, Japan, Korea) has its own peculiarities. Draft Federal Law No. 411043-8 "On Amending Part Four of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (in terms of establishing a procedure for the use of certain objects of copyright and related rights whose right holders are unknown)" establishes the concept of an object of an unknown author (right holder), and sets up a mechanism for the use of these objects, the authors (right holders) of which, if identified, will be able to receive remuneration for such use. The proposed mechanism fits seamlessly into the existing system of collective rights management, contains provisions aimed at developing this system (the possibility of using a nominal account to collect and store funds owed to other right holders) and ensuring the interests of authors (right holders) of orphan works. Conclusion. There are no unified approaches in different national legal systems with regard to almost all elements of the works whose author or right holder is unknown, at the same time, the content of applicable laws reveals common ways in the development of regulation. In the absence of a universal international regulation of this issue, each country establishes its own mechanisms to provide the possibility of using orphan works, to return such works to the cultural, scientific and educational environment, to prevent their oblivion and loss, which from time to time make it possible to re-establish contact with their creators, authors or right holders.

The spiritual life of society through the prism of the activity of libraries in Europe at the intersection of the Middle Ages and Modern Times

The article is devoted to the historical influence of European libraries on the spiritual life of society, in particular, by the example of the phenomenon of witch hunting. In accordance with the basic principles of historical science, based on the analysis of a number of historical sources and modern research, the question of the influence of libraries on the phenomenon of witch hunts in Europe is being clarified. Research methods include both general scientific and specific historical methods. A comparative historical and descriptive approach is applied to the cited historical sources. The influence of libraries on the phenomenon of witch hunting in Europe is shown based on a review of historical sources about libraries on the phenomenon of witch hunting in Europe. Based on a review of historical sources about libraries dedicated to the phenomenon of witch hunting in Europe, the first attempt has been made to study the direct impact of libraries on the phenomenon of witch hunting in Europe. In this study, comparative historical and descriptive approaches of the above historical sources were used. Using these methods of processing archival documents, information on the influence of European libraries on the phenomenon of witch hunts is revealed on the basis of available sources. A review of some historical sources is proposed in order to clarify the influence of European libraries on the phenomenon of witch hunts in the context of certain chronological frameworks and socio-political conditions. The object of the study is the literature and libraries of Europe in transition. A problem-chronological method was used to study the influence of libraries on the phenomenon of witch hunts. The basis of the research consists of the main principles of historical science. Historicism and scientific research make it possible to assume the main influence of European libraries on the phenomenon of witch hunts according to the chronology of events against the background of the specified historical period of time. At the same time, the array of historical materials found and currently published is strictly taken into account. General scientific and special historical methods constitute the methodology of the presented research.

COVID-19 Emergency Remote Teaching: Lessons Learned from Five EU Library and Information Science Departments

Abstract Analysis of the context and response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown of five European Library and Information Science Departments: University of Barcelona (Spain), University of Hildesheim (Germany), University of Osijek, University of Zagreb (Croatia), and University of Library Studies and Information Technologies in Sofia (Bulgaria). Data about this situation in relation to higher education were collected 1 year after the lockdown when countries had returned to normality. The methodology consisted of holding focus groups with students and individual interviews with teachers. The data were analysed by unifying the information collected from each country into a centralized dataset and complemented with texts from the transcripts highlighted by each partner. The results indicate that each partner experienced a unique situation; as COVID-19 lockdowns were different in every European country, each university or even each teacher responded to the crisis differently. Nevertheless, there are points that are common to all five universities analysed in the study, such as work overload in students and teachers or the replication of face-to-face teaching models in a remote format. Moving in the future to online or hybrid learning activities will require training teachers in a more systematic way and the appropriate infrastructure.

Peculiarities of Europeana Metadata as a Set of Information for Describing Digital Cultural Heritage

The relevance of the research. European integration is the main and unchanging foreign policy priority of Ukraine. Further development and deepening of relations between Ukraine and the EU are the main direction of its development. A new stage in the development of EU-Ukraine treaty relations, which began with Ukraine’s accession to the EU candidate status in June 2022, requires further raising awareness of Ukraine’s European integration among all members of society. Libraries can contribute to the formation of objective motivations among the population by understanding the practical benefits of cooperation with the EU. One of the ways of such integration for Ukrainian libraries is to become part of the European library network.
 The purpose of research is to identify the features of Europeana metadata for further digitization of library collections in Ukraine in order to preserve cultural heritage.
 The methodology. To achieve this goal, theoretical and general scientific research methods, such as analysis, synthesis, induction, and deduction, were used. The data visualization method and the method of generalization were used to present the Europeana data models.
 The results. The article defines the types of the Europeana operational model, provides a general overview of the classes defined in the Europeana data model and the process of interaction between Europeana data and wikidata.
 The scientific topicality. The article summarizes previous, primarily foreign, research on the peculiarities of the development of the Europeana funds. The article presents the data models of the Europeana that function to fill the web portal.
 The practical significance. The results of the research are presented in the form of Europeana data models and the definition of Europeana metadata types (descriptive, structural, administrative, markup language).
 The conclusion. The current operating model of Europeana uses the Open Archives Initiative’s Metadata Collection Protocol (OAI-PMH) and the Europeana Data Model (EDM) to import data through Metis, Europeana’s data collection and aggregation service. However, OAI-PMH is an outdated technology that is not web-oriented, resulting in high maintenance costs, especially for smaller institutions. Metadata can be divided into several categories, or types, for different data management purposes. Traditional library cataloging focuses, for example, on the identification and description of resources, but there are obviously other types of metadata that carry valuable information (structural, administrative, markup language).

Kardynał Bessarion i jego księgozbiór

Cardinal Bessarion (ca. 1400–1472), a theologian born in Trebizond and educated in Byzantium, made a career in the hierarchy of the Byzantine clergy and attracted the attention of the imperial family. He was one of the most active participants of the Council of Ferrara-Florence (1438–1439). Following the failure of the church union in Constantinople, Bessarion came to work for the papal curia in Rome. As a cardinal he used his income and contacts to help Byzantine refugees and Greeks living under the rule of the Republic of Venice, especially after the fall of Constantinople. Fearing that the loss of statehood could mean that the heritage of Greek culture would fall into oblivion, Bessarion created a great library containing the masterpieces of Ancient Greek literature, the classical philosophical works, and the texts of the Eastern Church Fathers. In 1468, he donated this collection to the Republic of Venice, and in such a manner founded one of the first public libraries in Europe.

Efficiency of remote access services by global libraries

In the context of modern challenges and increasing demand for digital services, questions of remote library work, the use of interactive technologies aimed at the development of education, science, and civil society are quite relevant. The purpose of this study is to explore the global experience of remote access utilization in library activities, the historical peculiarities of the formation and development of distance library services in European and North American countries, the characterization of its effectiveness and prospects for its application in Ukraine. During the research, methods of generalization, comparative, and source analysis were applied. The features of remote access functioning of global libraries are highlighted, its effectiveness, advantages, and disadvantages are revealed. The development of information technologies and their impact on publishing, library attendance, scientific activities, exchange of experience, etc., are characterized. Trends in the development of global libraries are identified. It is established that for most European libraries, the priority direction has become digitization and opening access to books, press, documents, archives. It is found that remote access accelerates scientific research. In the second decade of the 21st century, there is a growth in online visits to library collections. The development of remote services provision by Ukrainian libraries is highlighted, as well as the main trends in this process in the context of the RussianUkrainian war. The importance of copyright protection in the context of remote access provision is disclosed. One of the measures was the introduction of electronic lending (e-lending), which involved receiving payment for the use of copyrighted materials. It is found that remote access to library databases will face a number of challenges related to copyright protection. The results of this study have practical value for libraries, research institutions, educational institutions, local government bodies in the context of implementing remote access to sources, materials, and books. The research materials are important for further scientific research in information and library science, document and information communications, public administration, and administration

The whiteness of European Library and Information Science

This paper studies the state of discussions on DE&I and racism within LIS in EU higher education institutions.

Konrad Haebler’s Album of Incunabula in Moscow Libraries

The paper discloses the unusual treatment of duplicates and defective copies, characteristic of European libraries at the time when Haebler’s works were created and published (beginning of 20th century) and stresses the necessity of correct bibliographic treatment of the valuable printed materials in modern libraries. The paper also presents the famous album of West-European incunabula (Der westeuropäische Wiegendruck in Original-Typenbeispielen), compiled by Konrad Haebler in 1928, two copies of which are held in Moscow at the Russian State Library and the State Public Historical Library of Russia.This fundamental work in the history of typography by the prominent German expert on incunabula, one of the inventors of the Proctor-Haebler method in bibliography and founder of the world incunabula catalogue Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke, is analyzed in the aspect of the specific early 20th-century bibliographic principles underlying the composition of the album and the way the original old prints are presented in it. The album consists of a collection of 15th-century original fragments enclosed in a 20th-century overall structure (text booklet, case and set of labeled passe-partouts).This unusual composition can present classification problems in some modern public libraries, when the album is recorded as a whole, whereas the separate incunabula fragments are not catalogued. Moreover, a comparative study of several copies of the album available for analysis on- and offline, carried out in the study, proved that their sample collections were composed of different authentic incunabula leaves, thus making each album unique.

On the occasion of the centennial of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1923: Nicolae C. Paulescu-between scientific creativity and political fanatism.

On the occasion of the centennial of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1923: Nicolae C. Paulescu-between scientific creativity and political fanatism.

Pre-War Collecting at Cornell & Columbia: A Note

ABSTRACT The author provides a capsule sketch of important collectors and collections of Slavic & East European library materials obtained by Cornell and Columbia University libraries in the years leading up to the Second World War.

ADELE: Advancing Digital Empowerment for Libraries in Europe

L’ar ticolo descrive il proget to Erasmus+ ADELE (Advancing Digital Empowerment for Libraries in Europe), volto a realizzare e testare un tool per l’autovalutazione delle competenze e delle strategie digitali nelle biblioteche di pubblica lettura. Il tool si ispira ad un analogo strumento, il SELFIE tool, frutto di un altro progetto finanziato dalla Commissione Europea per valutare le strategie digitali nelle scuole. Nel contributo vengono raccontati nel dettaglio gli obiettivi del progetto ADELE e le attività realizzate nel primo anno di lavoro, come anche le potenzialità e la possibilità di riuso di questo importante strumento che potrà essere utilizzato anche da altre tipologie di biblioteche grazie alla sua possibile personalizzazione. L’ADELE tool è uno strumento che esprimerà la sua forza soprattutto nel lungo termine, perché sarà proprio l’uso costante a permettere il monitoraggio della biblioteca e a indirizzare il suo miglioramento in campo digitale.

Kitâbu’t-Tahrîş ve Kitâbu’l-Makâlât’ın Tahkikinde Esas Alınan El Yazmaları Üzerine

With this study, it is aimed to clarify some ambiguities about the origin of the manuscripts that the edition of Kitāb al-Tahrīsh and Kitāb al-Maqālāt, which we published recently, rest on. Those editions which we expect to open new horizons in terms of the history of Islamic theology and hadith criticism, have reached today via Yemeni libraries, like other Muʿtazila cultural heritage items. Due to the political instability caused by the long-term civil wars in the country, a detailed inventory of private or official libraries in Yemen, which has rich collections of manuscripts on Islamic culture, has not been made until now. Although some of these manuscripts were collected in the Sanaa Library (Maktabat al-Awqāf), most of them are still preserved in mosques’ libraries or private collections under inappropriate conditions. Since there are no reliable records or indexes of these manuscripts, it is not possible to give reliable information about the origin of each item especially the status of those found in private collections or family libraries as called Buyūt alʿilm. Today, most of the Yemeni manuscripts found in the libraries of Europe, America and Islamic countries have been purchased by manuscript collectors, merchants, foreign researchers, or other illegal ways. The ones that have been published so far are either based on these manuscripts or similarly on copies from Yemen. This ambiguity about the origin of the manuscripts can sometimes lead to unjust accusations that target the editors of them, as if they used illegal copies on purpose. In this article, we tried to clarify the ambiguities and controversial points related to those manuscripts which our edition is based on by giving information about the obtaining manuscripts and edition processes.

Possibility and Necessity in the Time of Peter Abelard by Irene Binini

Reviewed by: Possibility and Necessity in the Time of Peter Abelard by Irene Binini Wolfgang Lenzen Irene Binini. Possibility and Necessity in the Time of Peter Abelard. Investigating Medieval Philosophy Series. Leiden: Brill, 2021. Pp. xii + 326. Hardback, $166.00. This book is an impressive work written by a young Italian scholar who received her PhD only five years ago in Pisa. It is divided into three parts. Part 1 gives a survey of "Early 12th-Century Debates on Modal Propositions"; part 2 is devoted to "Abelard's Modal Logic"; [End Page 327] part 3 deals with the views of "Abelard on the Metaphysics and Epistemology of Modalities." The author displays a profound knowledge of the relevant literature. The primary sources comprise twenty manuscripts preserved in various European libraries, plus forty-eight printed works (from Abelard to William of Sherwood). The list of secondary sources contains altogether 136 items from A (Astroh) to Z (Zagzebski), but, interestingly, it does not mention a monograph that, by its very title, claims to give an exposition of Abelard's logic, namely Maria Teresa Beonio-Brocchieri Fumagalli's La Logica di Abelardo (Firenze: La Nuova Italia, 1964). As far as I can judge (as a nonnative English-speaker), the linguistic quality of Binini's book is quite good. The explanations in the main text, including the translations from Latin sources, are easily comprehensible, and the many quotations (distributed over no less than 655 footnotes) are almost without any fault. Thus, the book rightly deserves inclusion in the prestigious series Investigating Medieval Philosophy. Yet, at least according to my taste, the book contains many redundancies. Again and again, the author first explains a certain issue at some length, then confirms the correctness of her interpretation by means of a longer (English) quotation, and finally reconfirms it by fully quoting the Latin text in the footnotes. As Binini explains in the book's concluding chapter, her aim is to present "an all-encompassing reflection on [Abelard's] works on modalities" and "a comparison between these works and the parallel reflections advanced by other masters and logicians in the early 12th century" (308). She undoubtedly achieves this goal. The comparison of Abelard's views on possibility and necessity with the views of other logicians is mainly carried out in chapters 1–3. Ancient and early medieval logicians such as, in particular, the Stoics and Boethius favored the basic idea that "something," p, is necessary if and only if p is always the case (or true). Accordingly, p is possible if and only if p is at least sometime the case. Abelard, however, was not willing to accept that each possibility has to become realized at some time. He instead offered a "nature-based characterization of possibility" that can "account for unrealized, past, counterfactual, and even unactualizable possibilities" (308). Abelard's idea is that something, x, is possibly a P if and only if the property of being P is compatible with the nature of x. Hence this view basically amounts to a de re conception of possibility that attributes modalities to things, while the temporal view attributes modal properties primarily to propositions (or states of affairs) and hence can be labeled de dicto (or de sensu). Let us now turn to Binini's twofold aim (as formulated on the back cover of her book) to present a "uniform and consistent" reassessment of Abelard's theory of modalities and of his modal logic. The former task is tackled in chapters 8–10. After summarizing, in chapter 8, Abelard's general views on "Nature and Modalities," chapter 9 is devoted to a detailed discussion of the "Many Senses of Possibility." In five consecutive sections, Binini investigates the conception of (1) possibility as "non-repugnancy with nature" (illustrated by the thesis that "any man can be a bishop" [235]); (2) unrealizable but "conceivable" possibilities (such as the existence of humans lacking the ability to laugh [240]); (3) determinate potencies (like that of an amputee who nevertheless "can walk" [248]); (4) past and counterfactual potencies (like that of a blind person who might be able to see); and (5) other puzzling de re possibilities (such as "irrational humans" [261]). The final...

Hernando Colón’s New World of Books: Toward a Cartography of Knowledge

Hernando Colón’s New World of Books: Toward a Cartography of Knowledge

The Rhetorical Arts in Late Antique and Early Medieval Ireland, by Brian James Stone

The Rhetorical Arts in Late Antique and Early Medieval Ireland, by Brian James Stone