Lund University Libraries Research Articles

Validation of overall survival extrapolations made by TLV in the assessment of cost-effectiveness of oncology drugs in Sweden – A pilot study comparing extrapolated and observed life-years gained

Aim The aim of the study is to assess the accuracy of overall survival (OS) extrapolations in cost-effectiveness analysis made by the Dental and Pharmaceutical Benefits Agency (TLV) to decide on the reimbursement and use of oncology drugs in Sweden. Material and methods TLV appraisals for oncology drugs were identified during a 5-year period (2013-2017). To be included each appraisal and health economic model must include a TLV base case extrapolation of OS. Further, Kaplan-Meier (KM) estimates on OS from the original and follow-up clinical trials must be available. Potential follow-up trials on OS were identified in ClinicalTrials.gov and the Lund University Libraries databases, and in the Swedish Medical Products Agency (MPA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) databases. In cases where the KM estimates were not available, data points from figures published in TLV’s appraisals were extracted using the semi-automated tools Digitizelt and WebPlotDigitizer. The accuracy of survival extrapolations was assessed by comparing extrapolated and observed life-years (LYs), using three different measures: 1) difference in LYs between the treatment and control group; 2) LYs in the treatment group, 3) LYs in the control group. Results We study TLV’s preferred OS extrapolations and show that on average they overestimate the observed mean gain in LYs by 24%, and underestimate observed LYs by 3% and 11% in the treatment and control group, respectively. Conclusions We conclude that it is feasible to validate OS extrapolations by comparing extrapolated and observed life-years. Even if survival extrapolations are reasonably accurate for the treatment group, this may still imply that extrapolations of LYs gained deviates to a larger extent. Follow-up studies on OS should be carried out to an increased extent to be able to validate, update and improve OS extrapolations in cost-effectiveness analysis of oncology drugs.

The Eastern Turkic Translation of Kalila wa-Dimna

Kalila wa-Dimna is a version of Panchatantra, a work comprising the writings of Indian oral culture, extended across a long period of time. With these extensions of time, in fact, entirely new works were created in different languages and cultures. Translations of Kalila wa-Dimna were made in both the Eastern Turkic areas and in Anatolian lands. For this study, a translation of Kalila wa-Dimna into Eastern Turkish, archived in Sweden with the Lund University Library’s Jarring Collection (Prov.) 46, has been examined. The book contains 97 pages with 10 lines on each page. The work under examination was brought to Sweden from the Eastern Turkistan region by the Swedish orientalist Gunnar Jarring. The language of the work is similar to a dialect spoken in the Kashgar-Yarkant area. Despite having aspects of Eastern Turki, this Kalila wa-Dimna translation contains different phonological features.

The discovered book <em>Das Hauß=Ʒucht= und Lehr=Buch Jeſu Syrachs</em> (1671) by Georg Mancelius and relations with its earlier publications

This article consists of two following parts: presentation of discovered book (section 2) and its analysis (section 3, 4 and 5). The third edition of the Book of Sirach by Mancelius published in 1671 was up to this day considered not to be extant but it was found in very good state stored in the Lund University Library (call number: lub.1356710). The discovery of the book made it possible to compare it with the previous ones and to examine the statement that it differed very little from the others, mostly in spelling. The comparison of the Sir3 text with its earlier editions disclosed a relatively high number of various linguistic differences, differences in the verse structure and other peculiarities. The scope of this article only allowed to examine the following text modifications (44 cases): additions (35), omissions (6) and verse distribution (3). The largest number of the changes was identified in the first part of the translation, especially towards the middle of the text. A common trend that emerged in examining the changes was that they occurred as a result of a more conservative approach of the editors which manifested in the attempts to bring the translated text closer to Luthers Bible having chosen the strategy of more literal (word-for-word) translation. In order to determine the motivation of the changes, the article has also attempted at exploring the issue of the source of the translation. Analysis seems to suggest that the main source of the translation of Sir by Mancelius was the German text by Luther but it is also obvious that other texts were used as translation ancillary sources too.

Nordplus Project

The Nordplus Project: The Digital University Library, http://library.au.dk/blogs/nordplus 
 Nordplus (NP) is the Nordic Council of Ministers' most important programme in the area of lifelong learning (http://www.nordplusonline.org/) and provides funding for activities and networking projects across the Nordic and Baltic region. This development project has applied for and received funding from the NP2016 and NP2017 programmes – and have applied again in 2018 – Lund University Libraries, University of Bergen Library, and The Royal Library Aarhus University Library. 
 The aim of this project has been to meet and establish partnership with faculty and students as co-creators in the emerging blended learning environments. One important way of doing this has been (NP2016) to develop subject specific digital learning objects, supporting academic skills and students’ digital practice. The project group has leant on the method ABC (Arena Blended Connected) curriculum design, introduced to us by researchers from pedagogical departments at the universities. 
 The NP2017 part of the project is focusing on the implementation and evaluation of the new practice. Regarding evaluation, the project is again leaning on research expertise at the universities, having been introduced to “Argumentativa kursusutvärderingsmodeller” (Carola Aili, Lund University), qualitative research design and mixed methods (Rune Krumsvik, University of Bergen).
 In addition comes a very important issue; the intercultural aspect of sharing experience and knowledge within the three Nordic organisations of Higher Education.
 A special sessionFirst we will present and discuss not only the products, but also the work processes and various methods used in the projects as well as the benefits of the intercultural Nordic collaboration. The format will we short presentations (pitches and posters) – and discussion.
 Secondly, the NP18 application includes a plan for extending the existing project network to several Nordic educational settings. Therefore, the project group invites Nordic conference colleagues, who would like to discuss an extended Nordic network, to join this session. The format for this part will be network dating and discussion in an open space framework.

Prácticas de exploración y colonización. Relatos de Mauricio Jesperson sobre el Gran Chaco durante la primera mitad del siglo XX

El objetivo de este artículo es brindar un primer acercamiento a la vida y las obras de Mauricio Jesperson (1888-1969), explorador y colonizador del Gran Chaco, nacido en Suecia quien llegó a la Argentina en 1913 con 25 años. La figura de Jesperson y su rol en la colonización del Gran Chaco, han pasado desapercibidos en la historiografía sobre esta región. El artículo presenta y analiza dos tipos de documentación, una selección de documentos del fondo Jesperson alojado en la biblioteca de la Universidad de Lund y algunas de sus obras publicadas durante su estadía en Suecia en la década de 1940. La mayoría de las fuentes tanto editas como inéditas están en sueco. Nos ocupamos principalmente de sus relatos sobre las relaciones interétnicas en zonas de frontera en el Chaco Austral y sobre las prácticas de colonización llevadas a cabo en estas zonas en el Chaco Boreal.En este trabajo destaco que sus publicaciones constituyen valiosas fuentes históricas que no solo nos hablan de formas convencionales de representar el territorio y su población sino que también pueden contribuir a discutir las imágenes que emergen en los escritos a partir de la praxis y la experiencia del autor en el territorio. Se trata de narraciones acerca de los conflictos y la vida cotidiana en la frontera, a la vez que, de prácticas de colonización hasta el momento no abordadas por la historiografía, especialmente en lo que concierne la avanzada del Estado boliviano sobre el Pilcomayo en cuanto a políticas de colonización antes de la Guerra del Chaco.

RDA – An Opportunity for Library and Archive Collaboration

RDA (Resource Description & Access) is a new cataloging standard that has been implemented in libraries in several countries over the world. It is based on the conceptual model FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographical Records) and its rules have been influenced by archival descriptive rules. Thus RDA provides an opportunity for collaboration between archives and libraries. Umeå University Library is currently running the project RDA – An Opportunity for Archive and Library Collaboration, with support from Lund University Library, the National Library of Sweden and the National Archives. The aim of this project is to explore how RDA can be applied on archival materials and how FRBR entities can be related to aforementioned materials. RIMMF (RDA in Many Metadata Formats) is a cataloging training tool and has been used to visualize RDA and FRBR. RDA Toolkit has been used as a support tool in the cataloging process. Different models for applying RDA on archival materials have been developed in the project. The models have separate advantages and disadvantages, for example when it comes to creating searchability and to link archival materials with published materials. Using RDA brings possibilities to create linked data useful for archives, libraries and other interested parties. RDA has the potential to work as a standard for describing both archival and bibliographic materials.

Supporting Researchers - Back to the Future!

Introduction: Traditionally, the academic librarian has served as an information specialist working in close professional contact with researchers to provide support in the process of scientific investigation. When the Internet entered the academic world, the belief emerged that researchers could handle information on their own. Thus, the value of personal professional interaction between the academic librarian and the researcher diminished and was no longer prioritized in the library organization. The support provided by academic librarians shifted to represent a more service-oriented relationship. Concomitantly, the researchers regarded lack of time as the predominant factor interfering with their ability to improve their information retrieval skills in order to stay updated in their field. By looking back on the value of having a professional role as information specialists interacting closely with researchers, we can recreate, develop, and expand the support we offer in the future. Background: The Lund University Libraries network completed a project in 2013. The aim of that work was to identify areas that needed to be strengthened and developed to support researchers. We analyzed the results related to the Faculty of Medicine, focusing specifically on the local setting and the researchers’ need for support within the health sciences and medicine which led to initiation of the present in-depth study. Aim: The aim of our current project is to gain a better understanding of the researchers´needs of tailored support in their scientific process. Further, we want to identify what expertise, and knowledge that are needed in the organization in order to provide and develop professional support. The study also aims at an understanding of how the organization should carry out continued professional development and strategic planning for future recruitments. Method: We are conducting individual semi-structured interviews with selected researchers working in the areas of health sciences and medicine. Preliminary results: The researchers at the Faculty of Medicine are heterogeneous with respect to their publishing practices, information retrieval behavior, use of scientific methods, and approaches for evaluating research. Our results thus far show that there is uncertainty among the researchers with regard to the individual skills of the librarians and the concrete ways in which the library can provide support. A continued professional development program for the librarians is a necessity. (Less)

The e-book as a pedagogical resource

This roundtable proposes to present and discuss a project about the e-book as a pedagogical resource. The project will run from Spring 2013 until December 2013 and is a collaboration project between Center for Educational Development (CED), Lund University, and Lund University Libraries (LUB). It will be part of a larger collaboration project involving the universities in Southern Sweden. New possibilities in the digital learning environments The importance of digital texts is growing. A rapidly increasing number of e-books are made available by publishers and the large majority of scientific journals are published in fulltext. There are many advantages with digital texts: They are immediately available independently of time and space, in computers and mobile devices They are searchable Created in a correct format they are available also for people with reading difficulties An e-book can be integrated with othjer meda, such as sound clips, video clips etc They are relatively easy to revise and update Many teachers at Lund University produce study material for their courses, such as course packs, tutorials, instructions and other types of texts. This material is distributed to the students in either print or digital format. The digital formats are mainly pdf-files and word-files. It is important to give the teachers access also to more advanced tools for producing course literature in digital form. Most interesting are tools making it possible to integrate other media (i.e. video and sound clips) with text. A toolbox for production of course material in digital form The project will explore the possibilities to facilitate the production of e-books at Lund University. It will consist of an inventory of the teachers' requirements and expectations, an inventory of the production process including pilot studies of e-book production and an inventory of the need for support and training for teachers producing e-books. It will result in a toolbox for production of e-materials and for the use of Creative Commons licenses. Roundtable In August the first part, the inventory of Lund University teachers' requirements and expectations will be finished. A survey study at Blekinge Technical University and a focus group study at Kristianstad University on the same issues will also be finished. The roundtable will discuss and problematize the findings. After a short presentation the participants will discuss in smaller groups, and in the end the group discussions will be summed up in plenum. The focus will be on university teachers' view and willingness to produce e-materials and the participants will be invited to share their experiences and reflections. The summing up will be documented and distributed to all participants.

Editorial

This special issue of the Nordic Journal of Information Literacy in Higher Education summarizes the conference Creating Knowledge VII held in Lund, Sweden, August 14-16, 2013. The conference was hosted by Lund University Libraries in cooperation with NordINFOLIT. The title was Win-win ways: educational enhancement through collaborative partnership between students, academics, and librarians.

Discover collaboration: Collaborative learning from the implementation of a discovery system

Background Lund University Library purchased and implemented a new discovery system in the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012. Historically there has been no collaboration between the digital library unit and the pedagogical unit at the University Library. The conditions for the implementation were quite difficult; an extremely tight time frame, changes of the member of staff, high demands from the library network, a bad relation with current system supplier, a dependency of the current system and its functionalities. What to do? In order to reach trustworthiness and to make sure that we have a learning perspective in all the processes we initiated a close collaboration between the digital unit and the pedagogical unit and formed an implementation group. We also initiated a close and active collaboration between the implementation group and an expert group formed by members from the faculty libraries i.e. the super user group. Activities We had four workshops about pedagogical issues regarding discovery systems. The workshops turned out to be a forum for a dialogue between the digital library, the pedagogical unit and the teacher librarians. They resulted in an action plan which was integrated in the implementation process. We also invited colleagues to informal discussions about the pedagogical use of the discovery system. We encouraged all teaching librarians to share their educational materials on our intranet. Conclusion We found the collaborative strategy fruitful and not only did it result in a closer collaboration between the digital library and the pedagogical unit but also with the library network. Due to several reasons we conducted a new tender of a discovery system during 2012. The tender resulted in a new system with a different supplier. In the implementation started in the autumn 2012, we implemented the experiences and learnings gained by our previous implementation.

Genetically modified organisms: Do the benefits outweigh the risks?

The objective of this literature review is to analyze the implications of using genetically modified organisms (GMOs) as well as international and European position regarding such organisms. Review of international and European legal requirements and ethical guidelines and relevant publications, found and accessed with the help of PubMed and Lund University Library databases. The article discusses the main application areas of GMOs, the expansion of using GMOs in the world as well as the advantages and disadvantages of the implications of their usage. It further provides an overview of the suggested ways to tackle or avoid the GMO-related risks. The international and European positions regarding the application of GMOs are discussed and European Directives, Regulations, and ethical guidelines are overviewed. The article further presents the public attitudes towards GMOs in Europe as well as overviews surveys conducted at the national level. Suggested steps to tackle the challenge of developing and managing biotechnology for the benefit of public health and the environment are presented.

When Is Open Access Not Open Access?

Since 2003, when PLoS Biology was launched, there has been a spectacular growth in “open-access” journals. The Directory of Open Access Journals (http://www.doaj.org/), hosted by Lund University Libraries, lists 2,816 open-access journals as this article goes to press (and probably more by the time you read this). Authors also have various “open-access” options within existing subscription journals offered by traditional publishers (e.g., Blackwell, Springer, Oxford University Press, and many others). In return for a fee to the publisher, an author's individual article is made freely available and (sometimes) deposited in PubMed Central (PMC). But, as open access grows in prominence, so too has confusion about what open access means, particularly with regard to unrestricted use of content—which true open access allows. This confusion is being promulgated by journal publishers at the expense of authors and funding agencies wanting to support open access.

Lund Virtual Medical Journal Makes Self-Archiving Attractive and Easy for Authors

This article highlights the importance of communication and collaboration with units outside the library to make self-archiving attractive to authors. The monthly electronic publication, Lund Virtual Medical Journal (LVMJ), published by the Department of Strategic Communication of the Faculty of Medicine at Lund University, started as a response to the need to increase the visibility of ongoing research by the Lund University faculty, and with the aim of showing all published faculty-authored articles. At the time the journal was launched, Lund University Libraries Head Office had set up their institutional repository for the university, LU:research. This article describes features of LVMJ and the synergistic relationship between LU:research and LVMJ. It also discusses some of the challenges in producing LVMJ and future plans for the journal. (Less)

ELIN@

Libraries subscribe to thousands of electronic journals and they are difficult for end-users to find. Journal and publisher interfaces and functionalities differ considerably. The recent development in e(lectronic)-media calls for central management of the resources. Lund University Libraries' Head Office has developed a service for presentation and administration of e-journals, ELIN@. The service is used by ten Swedish academic libraries. This article describes the ELIN@ user interface and the administration tool. ELIN@ offers a one stop shop that makes e-journals searchable on an article level in one single interface together with other selected material, e.g., e-print archives. Personalisation and easy ordering are other user facilities. The consistent statistics obtained in ELIN@ provide administrators with tools for selection and acquisition, and library branding puts the quality stamp on the material that users and funding agencies need.

Libraries in Sweden

Surveys the history of the major libraries of Sweden. The Royal Library in Stockholm, Uppsala and Lund University Libraries and the City and University Libraries of Gothenburg are featured. The development of public libraries in Sweden is also considered.

Lund University Libraries and the move to Virtua in a networked environment

The reason for moving from one library system to another or from one generation of a library system to the next must be to improve the library’s ability to serve its users in a better and more effective way. An integrated library system, today, is very complex and multi‐moduled, which makes it difficult to distinguish one system from another. The article describes the long and bumpy road from the first generation VTLS classic library management system to the third generation VTLS Virtua at Lund University Libraries in Sweden.

SAP — a new way to produce subject descriptions of books

Within the scope of the Subject Access Project - SAP, at the Lund University Library, a new version of on-line catalo gue for monographic publications has been developed; an effective aid for searches by subject as well as bibliographic data. Using the SAP-indexing method, existing bibliographic catalogue records have been enriched with terms selected from the tables of contents and book indexes. The idea of SAP is to produce subject descriptions of books taken from the books themselves and to make more use of the 'inherent' attributes of a publication. It is also an approach to eliminat ing the known shortcomings of existing standard library classification systems in describing the varied and extensive contents of a book by means of limited numbers of classifica tion codes. By this augmented subject description of the con tents of books (SAP), we provide retrieval capabilities for the user of monographs at a comparably low cost.

Sweden's foreign trade and shipping around the year 1700

Abstract The Swedish foreign trade conditions during the decades around 1700, i.e. during the later stage of Sweden's position as a Great Power, forms an interesting chapter. Eli F. Heckscher in this sphere, as in so many others, has made the first attempt at a synthesis. Because my own researches1 have produced results which deviate from those of Heckscher and, furthermore, have given rise to some discussion with Heckscher, 2 This discussion with Heckscher took place in 1948 in connection with the appointment of the first professorial chair in Economic History at Lund's University when Heckscher served as an academic advisor. Heckscher handed over to me privately at that time a memorandum criticising my methods of calculation to which I replied. This inspired Heckscher to a new and enlarged memorandum, which was added to his stencilled report to the appointing authorities, thereby, according to Swedish law, making it public. (This report is now in the Lund University Library.) My reply to this second memorandum was not included in that report, although my reply to the first memorandum was. This made what was in the beginning a private discussion and then later a public one seem somewhat strange. Heckscher's criticism was not publicised in any other form than the stencilled report. This is one of the reasons why it became important to me once more to take up those problems that are discussed in this article. The discussion with Heckscher has given me reason to express more precisely my arguments. It is also my hope that my methods and fmdings will be of some interest to scholars in other countries studying foreign trade and shipping and perhaps using the same kind of source material. it seems natural to begin this article with an account of Heckscher's report.3

A survey of the public records system in Sweden

Abstract The public records system in Sweden consists of the National Archives (Riksarkivet) in Stockholm, the provincial archives (landsarkiv) at Lund, Uppsala, Vadstena, Gothenburg and Harnosand, the county archives (lansarkiv) at Visby and Ostersund and the municipal archives (stadsarkiv) of Stockholm and Malmo, the National Archives being the supreme authority for this system. The military archives system has its own authority: the Royal Archives of the Army and Navy (Krigsarkivet) in Stockholm. Some of the central administrative boards (centrala ambetsverk) have also archives administered by their own staff, e.g. the Royal Survey Board (Lantmateristyrelsen) and the Central Bureau of Statistics (Statistiska Centralbyran). There are, of course, also a great number of private archives outside the public records system, e.g. the archives of the Royal Family (Bernadotteska familjearkivet) in the Royal Palace in Stockholm and the archives of the de la Gardie Family kept in Lund University Library. With the...