Library Project Research Articles

Use of Library Resources in Private Secondary Schools in Esan North East Local Government Area, Edo State

The content of this article was incorrect, this was amended on 10 August 2018. This research work x-rayed the use of library resources in secondary schools in Esan North East Local Government Area of Edo State. The research instrument was the questionnaire; and 195 copies of it were administered, while 190 were retrieved and analyzed. Having adopted the descriptive survey research method, the research found out that the library resources available in the secondary school libraries are monographs (textbooks), dictionaries, atlases, magazines newspapers, CD-ROM, audio-visuals and fictions (storybooks, novels, cartoons); of the available library resources, those mainly used by students are monographs (textbooks), dictionaries, newspapers, atlases. Also the research found out that improvement in academic performance, life-long learning skills, information seeking skills, self-study skills are some of the effects the use of school libraries has on the students. The research recommended that school students should be enlightened on the importance of the library, and the organized private sector should partner with schools to sponsor library projects as part of their corporate social responsibilities.Keywords: Library resources, Secondary schools, Use of library, School library

Heterogeneous distributed computing based on high‐level abstractions

SummaryThe rise of heterogeneous systems has given place to great challenges for users as they involve new concepts, restrictions, and frameworks. Their exploitation is further complicated in the context of distributed memory systems, which require the usage of additional different programming paradigms and tools. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to program heterogeneous clusters that is based on high‐level abstractions such as tiles and hierarchical decomposition combined with the powerful APIs that data types and embedded languages can provide in languages such as C++. Rather than building our proposal from scratch, we have implemented it as a natural integration of the existing Hierarchically Tiled Arrays (HTA) and Heterogeneous Programming Library (HPL) projects, ie, the first one being focused on distributed computing and the second one on heterogeneous processing. The result, called Heterogeneous Hierarchically Tiled Arrays (H2TA), is very intuitive and easy to use thanks to the global view of the data and the single‐threaded view of the execution that it provides at cluster level together with the transparency it provides with respect to the management of the heterogeneous devices. An evaluation comparing our proposal with MPI‐based implementations shows its large programmability advantages and the reasonable overhead incurred.

Architect A.N.Beketov. Life and Creative Work

In the article the features of creativity of the Kharkov architect A.N. Beketov were considered, who had graduated from the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg (with a Big Golden Medal, 1888). The very first of his works gave the new development of the central streets and squares of Kharkiv (in enlarged, really capital scale). He came to work in Kharkov at his own request, and in 1889 he won a competition for the project of Commercial School building, which was realised. In the 1890-s and the 1910-s, A.N. Beketov supervised his own design bureau, which dealt not only with the design, but with the organization of construction works. In 1894, for a library project for one and a half million volumes, he received the title of academician of architecture. In accordance with the obtained education, A.N. Beketov freely operated with forms of various historical styles and because this he was a typical for his time architect- eclecticist. In total, A.N. Beketov built more than 40 public and residential buildings in Kharkov and about 60 in other cities of the Russian Empire and in the USSR. The main buildings on Beketov's projects in Kharkov are concentrated in the area between Pushkinskaya and Sumskaya streets. Particularly interesting are the buildings of mansions, built on his projects, including three of his own. He designed public buildings in Neo-Renaissance, «Beaux-Arts» and Neoclassicism styles, and his projects of the mansions had more diverse stylistic solutions, taking into account their perception in the urban environment and the relations with surrounding buildings adjacent areas. On the street of Myrrhbearers was formed an interesting kind of ensemble of Beketov's mansions, which are now usedas the professional clubs and the central city's art museum.

National Digital Library of China: On the Way to the Formation of a Single Cultural and Information Space of the Country

The article examines the experience of the National Library of China (Beijing) on implementation of the National Digital Library Project. There is described the state policy of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on supporting digital library projects and informatization of the library sector, aimed at bridging the digital divide among the population, preservation and promotion of national book heritage, the growth of intellectual potential of the country and increase of its international prestige. The author considers the current state of the National Library of China, the results of its modernization, the projects included in the 13th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development of the PRC (2016—2020). Special attention is paid to the website of the institution, which presents extensive information on the library life of the country. The role of the National Library of China as the initiator and manager of the National Digital Library Project is shown; the main stages of its implementation are revealed (“Chinese Pilot Digital Library Project”, “China Digital Library Program”, “Digital Library Promotion Project”); the importance of the project in the formation of a single information and library space of the country is determined. The author describes the programs developed by the National Library of China for the implementation of a large-scale “Digital Library Promotion Project”, launched in 2011; the Project provides for the integration of digital resources of more than 3000 public libraries of provincial and municipal levels, ensuring the availability of these resources on the website of the institution from any public library of the country, via the Internet or mobile devices. It is emphasized that studying of the experience of the National Library of China can be relevant for our country and the national libraries involved in the creation of the National Digital Library of Russia.

Comprensiones sobre la práctica Pedagógica del profesor: la lúdica en la Hora del Cuento

Na atualidade, a reflexão pedagógica sobre educação, parece apontar, de diferentes lugares, para o estudo do que ocorre no microcosmo da sala de aula e mais especificamente com as práticas docentes. O objetivo deste artigo é compreender a importância da inclusão de processos de apoio pedagógico por meio de estratégias lúdicas desenvolvidas na hora do conto sobre a prática pedagógica de professores. A metodologia é qualitativa e a partir da perspectiva da Análise Textual Discursiva, se questiona sobre a reflexibilidade de quatro professores de uma escola pública de Porto Alegre no Brasil. Estes participaram de um processo de apoio em sala de aula estruturado como parte do Projeto Biblioteca Viva: espaço de apoio ao ensino e aprendizagem. Os resultados mostram que o apoio educacional, por meio de interações lúdicas se consolidada como espaço altamente valorizado pelos professores, na medida em que facilita, de uma forma prática e experimental, o resignificar, o reaprender, o lembrar-se e observar suas práticas de ensino, tanto em uma dimensão pessoal e de autoconhecimento como também de uma forma interativa, relacional e potencializadora para a aprendizagem de seus alunos.

Venue-Influence Language Models for Expert Finding in Bibliometric Networks

This article investigates the fundamental problem of traditional language models used for expert finding in bibliometric networks. It introduces novel Venue-Influence Language Modeling methods based on entropy, which can accommodate citation links based weights in an indirect way without using links information. Intuitively, an author publishing in topic-specific venues, either journals or for conferences, will be an expert on a topic as compared to an author publishing in multi-topic venues. The proposed methods are evaluated on real world data, the Digital Bibliography and Library Project (DBLP) dataset to test the performance. Experimental results show that their proposed venue influence language models (ViLMs) based methods outperform the traditional (non-venue based) language models (LM).

Heterogeneous and unconventional cluster architectures and applications

Heterogeneous and unconventional cluster architectures and applications

Seed Libraries: Sowing the Seeds for Community and Public Library Resilience

AbstractThis article reports the results from an exploratory study of seed libraries. Based on interviews with librarians working on seed library projects in their institutions, this study investig...

The library projects realized to the Institute jubilee

The Library of Natural Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) (a division of Pushchino Research Center RAS) has implemented several large-scaled projects in the light of preparing to celebrate the anniversary of the Institute of Protein Research RAS. Among them is a bibliometric analysis of publication activity of all researchers of the Institute including the information on the publications number, international cooperation, highly cited publications, distribution of papers by quartiles of the publishers with providing this information at the library website. Due to the interest shown in invention activities, we have analyzed the patents' thematic areas of the Institute. Another aspect of the study was to set up a portal on scientific schools of the Institute of Protein Research, which highlights the scientific area and schools significance, the leaders' part in every school, scientific papers of schools and its fellows, awards and honours, defended theses, bibliometric analysis of publications. The next research direction was to create a data base on the former researchers who live abroad in order to invite research scientists-compatriots to establish scientific-professional contacts.

‘Blacks Are Immune From Mental Illness’

‘Blacks Are Immune From Mental Illness’

Project Management Techniques at the Complutense University: Academic Librarians' Perceptions

ABSTRACTThis study examines how academic librarians at the Complutense University (Spain) perceive project management techniques that are becoming increasingly popular in library and information centers due to the need to comply with their strategic planning and services. To reach this goal, a quantitative and qualitative methodology was applied and a survey, in the form of a questionnaire, was used as a data gathering tool. The response rate was 31.2%. The key findings are based on respondents' education regarding project management skills and their expertise managing projects, as well as the presence of project management courses in the Library and Information Science Spanish curriculum. This study revealed that over one third of the academic staff completed their project management training by self-directed learning. Additionally, over half of them stated that they had not participated in any library project in the last five years, and almost half of the library staff concluded that project management techniques are quite important as formal courses in the Library and Information Science university programs. The study is interesting and revealing for those library and information services professionals who are facing day-to-day to users' demands and Library and Information Science challenges.

3D Models of Female Pelvis Structures Reconstructed and Represented in Combination with Anatomical and Radiological Sections.

We present a computer program designed to visualize and interact with three-dimensional models of the main anatomical structures of the female pelvis. They are reconstructed from serial sections of corpse, from the Visible Human project of the Medical Library of the United States and from serial sections of high-resolution magnetic resonance. It is possible to represent these three-dimensional structures in any spatial orientation, together with sectional images of corpse and magnetic resonance imaging, in the three planes of space (axial, coronal and sagittal) that facilitates the anatomical understanding and the identification of the set of visceral structures of this body region. Actually, there are few studies that analysze in detail the radiological anatomy of the female pelvis using three-dimensional models together with sectional images, making use of open applications for the representation of virtual scenes on low cost Windows® platforms. Our technological development allows the observation of the main female pelvis viscera in three dimensions with a very intuitive graphic interface. This computer application represents an important training tool for both medical students and specialists in gynecology and as a preliminary step in the planning of pelvic floor surgery.

A practical approach to measuring user engagement with the refined user engagement scale (UES) and new UES short form

User engagement (UE) and its measurement have been of increasing interest in human-computer interaction (HCI). The User Engagement Scale (UES) is one tool developed to measure UE, and has been used in a variety of digital domains. The original UES consisted of 31-items and purported to measure six dimensions of engagement: aesthetic appeal, focused attention, novelty, perceived usability, felt involvement, and endurability. A recent synthesis of the literature questioned the original six-factors. Further, the ways in which the UES has been implemented in studies suggests there may be a need for a briefer version of the questionnaire and more effective documentation to guide its use and analysis. This research investigated and verified a four-factor structure of the UES and proposed a Short Form (SF). We employed contemporary statistical tools that were unavailable during the UES’ development to re-analyze the original data, consisting of 427 and 779 valid responses across two studies, and examined new data (N=344) gathered as part of a three-year digital library project. In this paper we detail our analyses, present a revised long and short form (SF) version of the UES, and offer guidance for researchers interested in adopting the UES and UES-SF in their own studies.

Continuing Education in New Standards and Technologies for the Organization of Data and Information: A Report on the Cataloging and Metadata Professional Development Survey

This study uses data from a large original survey (nearly one thousand initial respondents) to present how the cataloging and metadata community is approaching new and emerging data standards and technologies. The data analysis demonstrates strong professional-development interest in Semantic Web and Linked Data applications. With respect to continuing education topics, Linked Data technology, BIBFRAME, and an overview of current and emerging data standards and technologies ranked high. The survey data illustrate that personal continuing education interests often varied from reported institutional needs. These results reflect the fact that library services and projects in these emerging areas have not yet progressed beyond the exploratory stage. They also suggest that cataloging and metadata professionals expect to be able to exercise a mixture of core professional skill sets including teamwork, communication, and subject analysis, and the ability to adapt and accommodate Semantic Web standards and technologies, digital libraries, and other innovations in cataloging and metadata services.

Public Libraries - Learning and Cultural Transfer Ecosystems. Case study: Cultural Agora @ Your Library

Libraries - as territories of collective experiences - can serve as an infrastructure for testing and validating the new learning paradigms, while being, at the same time, the outposts for initiating different categories of target-groups by mentoring and coaching. Moreover, libraries have the potential to become vibrant spaces for broadcasting and for calibrating new relationship models next to best practices in innovation sprouting, in close connection with everyday life. Via the Cultural Agora @ Your Library project, the National Association of Public Librarians and Libraries in Romania - ANBPR has tested a set of modern technology-based tools and techniques whereby library users belonging to different ethnic communities became original digital storytellers on cultural diversity, with the aim of encouraging intercultural dialogue and of preserving multicultural values. ANBPR supports public libraries to become leaders in information navigation, by promoting the library as a dynamic space that inspires the discovery and the connecting of people from different cultures. The library provides always a lot of information, but it rarely provides creations of its own users.

Disappearing Link Prediction in Scientific Collaboration Networks

It is a common sense that both the formation and dissolution of links are the fundamental processes of link dynamics in network organization. Previous studies have analyzed the formation of links with predicting missing links in current networks and new links in the future. However, little attention has been paid to the disappearing link prediction problem. In this paper, we investigate the disappearing link prediction problem. First, we define the disappearing link prediction in scientific collaboration networks. In contrary to the missing link prediction, we use structural similarity indices to estimate the disappearing links through dissimilarity of the node pairs. Then, we propose a novel method called modified preferential attachment (MPA) for predicting disappearing links. MPA is designed based on the preferential attachment considering both links’ weights and the different impacts of the nodes’ neighbor links. Finally, we evaluate the performance of MPA based on three real scientific collaboration networks extracted from Digital Bibliography & Library Project and American Physical Society datasets. Meanwhile, we explore the performance of the classical similarity methods on disappearing link prediction. The experiment results show that MPA achieves better performance than other classical similarity indices, which verifies the effectiveness of MPA.

Tactical interventions in libraries

“Tactical urbanism” is a catchphrase describing a wide range of ways in which ordinary people improve their neighborhoods, through interventions ranging from seed - bombing vacant lots to building impromptu parks. Tactical interventions are cheap, quick, and accessible to everyone. Libraries can adopt a tactical approach by consciously leveraging lightweight, experimental, iterative, and small - scale projects in support of larger strategies. This column will outline the characteristics ofsuccessful tactical interventions, and describe two real - world library projects that demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach.

Developing Personal Course Plans (PCPs) as an Example of Self-Directed Learning in Library Management and Project Management Education

ABSTRACTThis article examines the education of library (MLS) graduate students in courses of library management or in special topic courses in project management in libraries and information centers. To examine the specific skill of project management, a method was employed allowing students to set deadlines as a form of self-directed learning. The student-created syllabi milestones were piloted to search for a match between student abilities and development of project management processes upon degree completion. The use of a proposed and piloted technique was implemented here through a tool named the Personal Course Plan (PCP). It was designed to assist students in learning the value of setting personal schedules for their enrolled graduate course, much as a library project manager would use in practice in libraries. Personal Course Plans (PCPs) were effectively developed by students and allowed the ability to self-monitor their performance on completing project deliverables, meeting expectations of supervisors, and judging their own performance. As the experience was a positive one for both the instructor and students, this article provides not only an operational examination, but also proposes theoretical justification for using such a teaching method in library and information science education. Described are details LIS faculty should consider in implementing the method in teaching and gives future library employers of LIS program graduates a sense of what project management skills recent graduates are receiving.

Shortcomings in Library and Information Science (LIS) PhD Projects: Analyses of Examined and Supervised Theses for the Period 2008– 2016 at Select Universities in eastern, western and southern Africa

This article presents the experiential perspectives of the authors on the shortcomings in LIS PhD theses submitted for examination or supervised in 15 purposively selected universities in Kenya, Uganda, Botswana, Ghana, and South Africa. In all, 36 theses were examined and/ or supervised for the period 2008–2016. The shortcomings discussed here were isolated in the conception of the research topic, introduction (background to the study), review of literature, selection and use of theory, presentation and discussion of the results, as well as in the technical presentation of the theses. The authors conclude that the shortcomings identified in the LIS PhD projects may be attributed to a number of factors including, but not limited to inadequate preparedness on the parts of supervisors and the candidates, and limited support given to PhD candidates. The authors recommend rethinking the mode of offering the LIS PhD programmes from being exclusively research-oriented to a hybrid model of course work and research. The issues raised in this article have implications for PhD supervision capacity building, postgraduate support and mentorship.

“Appily ever after”: how to create your own library mobile app through easy to use, low cost technology

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that library staff can develop their own mobile app without having significant technology experience by using existing, easily accessible low-cost programs. Smart phones and tablets are here to stay. Libraries need to embrace this trend by developing mobile apps to encourage reading and provide access to resources that are safe and educational. It is about putting technology at the service of reading. Susan Boller and Marie-Pierre Preece, librarians at Les Marronniers Primary School at the International School of Geneva, received wide recognition when they were awarded the 2016 ALA Presidential Citation for Innovative International Library Projects for their mobile application “Marronniers Library”. Design/methodology/approach The search to develop a mobile application was challenging. “The process was long and complex, as we had a very small budget and no particular expertise in information technology”. While researching the best way to develop an app for her library, Susan Boller explored a wide range of options with differing costs ranging from a few hundred dollars to over $20,000 (for a custom-built app). Findings It is feasible for a school library with limited resources to develop its own mobile application. The library staff can develop such an app without having significant technology experience by using existing easily accessible low-cost programs. Developing and maintaining such an app do not require specialist IT knowledge, and these can be done internally by people interested in technology. The app is good value. The annual cost, excluding subscriptions to databases, is approximately $400. Such an app is well sustainable. The chosen platform is flexible and allows the content to be continuously maintained and updated internally at any moment without additional cost. Originality/value Having been awarded the 2016 ALA Presidential Citation for Innovative International Library Projects demonstrates the originality of the author's “Marronniers Library” mobile application. It is, to the best of the author's knowledge, the only one of its kind in a primary school library.