Tech News Research Articles

Libraries in the age of Fourth Industrial Revolution: a systematic review based on scientometric and altmetric tools

Purpose Industries throughout the world have gone through four phases of the industrial revolution. Today, the authors are encountering the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0 or 4IR), which is characterized by the application of information and communication technologies in the industry. This study aims to evaluate the growth of literature in the context of libraries and the Fourth Industrial Revolution and then identify the active research actors, countries, affiliations and sources and the status of collaboration across various geographical locations. Design/methodology/approach A systematic literature review was conducted. The data were extracted from the Scopus database incorporating scientometric and altmetric indicators. The search terms were TITLE-ABS-KEY “Industry 4.0” OR “4IR” OR “Fourth Industrial Revolution” AND “Library 4.0” OR “librarian 4.0” OR “libraries” OR “library” OR “library service” without any limitation. The results identified 218 documents out of which 67 core documents are related to libraries. Analysis was performed using MS Excel and VOSviewer. Findings South Africa, Nigeria and South Korea were the three most productive countries in the field. Library Hi Tech News is the most productive journal. Collaboration among African countries like South Africa, Nigeria and Zimbabwe seems to be good and they constituted the largest share of documents. The research on the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the context of libraries still lacks social media attention. Originality/value This study is the first systematic review in this area using a combination of scientometrics and altmetrics. The results will serve as a valuable reference for future researchers and policymakers.

Between Promise and Peril: Observations on Moral Panic, Popular Culture, and Religion

The potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI), in its seemingly infinite possibilities and transmutations command the attention of contemporary popular culture, news, and social media. The landing pages of familiar streaming channels such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV are evidence of the continually growing collection of mediatised content wherein AI is featured as a central theme. In addition to films, tech news media sites, offering information and commentary related to AI developments are popular and accessible sources of information. Unfortunately, the contents on these sites, like the films are foreboding in tone, offering headlines that reflect issues and questions related to AI, as urgent and imminent. This article explores how mediatized representations in the form of films and tech news contribute to engendering collective public apprehension and concern about AI. It suggests that the agenda-setting function of media, especially its imperative to encourage public concern over matters that may or may not constitute threats to social order, can be more critically understood through the framework that the concept of moral panic provides. In doing so, the article conceptualises the current moment as the embryonic phase of a moral panic. It advances the idea that we are able, at this stage of the process, to acknowledge and abate growing concerns and fears about AI that may constitute a full blown moral panic. In conclusion, the paper suggests that while AI should certainly be approached with critical curiosity, the danger of a moral panic is that it may result in permanent, indiscriminate, and harsh admonishment of AI, undermining its potential to serve humanity in positive and life-affirming ways. Keywords: moral panic, AI, film, tech news, M3GAN, Wifelike

25 Years Ago April 1995

Multi-media links young minds with old tech; Women In Science & Engineering anniversary; Milan EMO technology trends; better business for Cincinnati Milacron & Platarg; Dugard gets Niigata; grinding tech news; new route to engineering

An interview with Lauren Maffeo

Lauren Maffeo is a research analyst who joined the global technology sector in 2012. She started her career as a freelance journalist covering tech news for The Next Web and The Guardian. She has also worked with CEOs of pre-seed to profitable SaaS startups on media strategy. Lauren joined GetApp, a Gartner company, as a content editor in 2016. She covers the impact of emerging tech like AI on small and midsize business owners. Lauren has been cited by sources including Forbes, Fox Business, DevOps Digest, The Atlantic, and Inc.com. In 2017, Lauren was named to The Drum's 50 Under 30 list of women worth watching in digital. She holds an M.Sc. from The London School of Economics and a certificate in Artificial Intelligence: Implications for Business Strategy from MIT's Sloan School of Management.

Publication trends in literature on eBooks: a Scopus based bibliometric analysis

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to analyze the global scientific outputs on eBooks research using Scopus database.Design/methodology/approachThis study collected literature published during 2001-2016 from the Scopus database. Following keywords were used: “eBook*”, “e-Book*”, “electronic book*” or “online book*” in title or keyword or abstract with time span covering 2001 to 2016. The authors further restricted their search limit to subject category of social science, computer science and arts and humanities. A total of 2,965 documents were found from the search strategy, including 1,582 research articles. Articles were considered for the analysis using Microsoft Excel 2007. The bibliometric analysis was performed to analyze the document types, language, publication output, citations, authorship pattern, journals, prolific authors, productive countries and most frequently appeared top words/phrases from the title of the articles.FindingsLiterature on eBooks grown exponential and eBooks was the hot topic of the research in recent decade. Most of the articles were contributed by the single authors, and the USA and the UK were the most productive countries; however, in recent times, Taiwan has also joined them. The articles published in the year 2009 have recorded highest citation rate. Publishing Research Quarterly was the most productive journal, which has published 61 articles on eBooks, followed by the Electronic Library (59) and Library Hi Tech News (35). Korat O. was the most productive author on eBooks research who was affiliated to Bar-Ilan University, Israel. The researchers were keen on investigating the experience of use of eBooks, reader, impact, challenges, access, reading habits and usage of the eBooks.Originality/valueThis is the first kind of study to quantify global research patterns and trends in eBooks, which might provide a potential guide for the future research.

Protein analysis: key to the future

Protein analysis is crucial to elucidating the function of proteins and understanding the impact of their presence, absence and alteration. This is key to advancing knowledge about diseases, providing the opportunity for biomarker discovery and development of therapeutics. In this issue of Tech News, Nawsheen Boodhun explores the various means of protein analysis.

Need a home? Put a blockchain on it

Heaven reports on the sale of a property in Kiev, Ukraine using blockchain. Michael Arrington, founder of tech news site TechCrunch, used real estate start-up Propy to help him snap up the home without setting foot in the country. The transaction took place entirely via smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain using cryptocurrency.

Current CITE-ings from the popular and trade computing literature

Purpose – This paper aims to play catch up with important articles from this past year with interest and implications for librarians. Design/methodology/approach – The approach adopted in this paper is a literature review. Findings – This paper found that there has been important developments in popular and trade computing literature which will interest librarians. Originality/value – This paper provides an update to the computing literature found in Library Hi Tech News over the previous year.

Dublin Core is still dead

Purpose – This article aims to update an earlier article by the same author published in Library Hi Tech News in 2004 and analyses the failure of the Dublin Core metadata standard. Design/methodology/approach – The article is a commentary. Findings – The article finds that the Dublin Core metadata standard is moribund and that a newer, competing standard has rendered it essentially useless. Originality/value – The paper updates Dublin Core’s increasing obsolescence and will help librarians understand the standard’s rapid rise and slow fall.

2012 Awards for Excellence Library Hi Tech News

2012 Awards for Excellence Library Hi Tech News

Jeff John Roberts: The Battle for the Books: Inside Google’s Gambit to Create the World’s Biggest Library

Nearly a quarter of U.S. adults read an ebook in 2012, and ebooks now make up over 20 % of big U.S. trade publishers’ revenues. With tablets, smartphones and e-readers becoming ever cheaper, it is clear that the digital reading revolution is here to stay. This revolution has potential to give everyday readers access to books they might never have had the chance to discover or read before, straight from any internet-connected device. But, as Jeff John Roberts makes clear in his new short ebook ‘‘The Battle for the Books: Inside Google’s Gambit to Create the World’s Biggest Library,’’ conflicts between authors, publishers and technology companies make the goal of creating a universal digital library difficult to achieve. In ‘‘The Battle for the Books,’’ Roberts—my colleague at GigaOM’s paidContent tech news website—explores Google’s seven-year quest to create a modern-day Library of Alexandria. Unlike the ancient Egyptian version, however, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s digital library could never be destroyed. Starting in 2004, Google began to explore how to carry out the gargantuan task of digitizing all the books in the world and creating a searchable Internet database where anybody could access them. In a 2004 editorial, the New York Times wrote, ‘‘the idea of making books available online is not new, but this plan represents an enormous shift in scale, so enormous that if it is carried out successfully, it may redefine the nature of the Internet and the university.’’ Working with big libraries— Stanford, Oxford, the University of Michigan, Harvard and the New York Public Library—Google began scanning truckloads of books in 2005. Yet the initiative did not look so good to everyone. Book publishers believed that Google Books, which officially launched at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2004, infringed on copyright. Google aimed to scan all books, including those that were out-of-print but still under copyright. In 2005, the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild sued Google for copyright infringement. Roberts

Exploring Gun Ownership as a Social Identity to Understanding the Perceived Media Influence of the Virginia Tech News Coverage on Attitudes toward Gun Control Policy

This study examines the perceived effects of the Virginia Tech shooting news coverage on self and others’ attitudes toward gun control policy and the moderating role of gun ownership. One hundred sixty-four respondents completed an online survey. Larger, third-person perceptions (TPPs) were reported for those who owned guns due to the reduction of the perceived effect on self. Exposure to gun-related news was associated with perceived effect on self, but only for non-gun owners. Results are discussed in light of TPP and intergroup research.

North Georgia Tech News and Notes

North Georgia Tech News and Notes

A Birthday Party for the Human Genome

BioTechniquesVol. 49, No. 2 From the EditorOpen AccessA Birthday Party for the Human GenomeThe EditorsThe Editors*E-mail Address: bioeditor@biotechniques.comBioTechniquesSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:3 Apr 2018https://doi.org/10.2144/000113470AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail It's been ten years since scientists completed the draft sequence of the human genome. At the time of its completion, many looked forward to an upcoming decade full of new clinical insights, which would in turn lead to cures for many human diseases. However, we have yet to see the series of new drugs and cures that we envisioned in 2000. On the other hand, basic biology has undergone a complete metamorphosis over this period. Perhaps the publishing of the human genome sequence is better celebrated not for its clinical impact, but for ushering in a new generation of high-throughput approaches and catalyzing a change in mindset among biologists.Prior to the sequencing of the human genome, most biological research was conducted on a small, hypothesis-driven scale. Large-scale studies were mostly restricted to clinical trials or initiatives involving multiple centers. But with the debut of the sequence, and the dissemination of the technologies developed for the effort, there has been a steady rise in 'omics research. Genomics studies are now performed in even the smallest of labs using million-feature arrays that can be purchased at fairly low costs. Proteomics is moving forward rapidly with an ever-expanding number of antibodies and advancing mass spectrometry technology. Metabolomics is giving old-school biochemistry a large-scale twist, and interactomics is sitting in the background, mapping out all the molecular networks within the cell. All of these fields owe a debt to the Human Genome Project.The move toward large-scale 'omics studies has unearthed a wealth of information about biological processes, protein interactions, and gene expression. But despite how naturally such studies lend themselves to the clinical realm, new and unique challenges have kept conclusions elusive. For instance, hundreds of genome-wide association (GWA) studies have been completed in the past ten years looking for the genetic underpinnings to a variety of human diseases, but most of these studies have failed to identify major sources of genetic susceptibility. Now, researchers are focusing on rare variants in the population with the hope that these are the missing pieces to the puzzle. Such rare variants are a challenge to identify, so many are looking to the new generation of DNA sequencing instrumentation—developed following the genome project and now at the cusp of the personalized medicine movement—along with a reference human genome, to help find these important variations within the human population. But whether these variants explain the risk for a particular disease or not remains to be determined.Decoding the human genome also established the base number of protein-coding genes, and now proteomics researchers are on the hunt for disease-predicting proteins. Protein biomarkers have had a long road to the clinic. While there are a large number of studies that have suggested potential biomarkers, very few have made their way to the doctor's office. The reason for this comes in validation: markers initially identified on a smaller scale can't pass the test when they are applied to a larger population of clinically relevant samples. Sarah A. Webb examines this issue, along with other challenges with biomarkers, in this month's Tech News feature.Similar to rare variants in GWA studies, protein biomarkers are usually found at extremely low concentrations in serum among proteins at very high abundance, which creates a dynamic range issue. The dynamic range of serum—that is, the range of protein concentrations from the most to least abundant—can be as much as 12 orders of magnitude. Mass spectrometry, which is the technology most often used to identify biomarkers, only has a dynamic range of 5–6 orders of magnitude. So while it is improving, current mass spectrometry technology can't yet provide the sensitivity required to identify these potential markers.Decoding the human genome was a mile-stone in the history of science, not only for the sequence it gave us, but also for the inspiration it provided when it came to large-scale studies. A decade of questions have been answered, but many more have also been uncovered. But as our understanding of the genetic basis of human biology and illness continues to grow, new drugs and treatments will one day be available for many diseases. In most cases, we will have the announcement ten years ago to thank for it. Happy Birthday. Please post your thoughts or comments to Molecular Biology Forums under “To the Editor” (http://molecularbiology.forums.biotechniques.com) or send an email directly to the editors (bioeditor@biotechniques.com).FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Vol. 49, No. 2 Follow us on social media for the latest updates Metrics History Published online 3 April 2018 Published in print August 2010 Information© 2010 Author(s)PDF download

Middle Georgia Tech News and Notes

Middle Georgia Tech News and Notes

Rethinking the Public Workstation

When I finished reading Amy Wallace's manuscript, I knew it needed to be the next Accidental Technologist column. Amy's experience with users' constantly changing technology needs will resonate with all frontline librarians. Her library's response is a readily available but often overlooked technology and her advice will be of great use to libraries in their quest to provide access to a variety of computer peripherals, both cutting-edge and legacy. As promised in my first column, I have provided my thoughts on emerging (and retreating) technologies in the sidebar.--Editor. OPen any glossy news magazine and you will find articles on all sorts of exciting technologies that are revolutionizing learning in our universities. The pervasive media coverage leads one to believe that every incoming student has a tablet PC, iPod, PDA, and cell phone that can do everything including cook dinner. Okay, maybe not actually cook dinner, but have it delivered to them their favorite take-out place. Many of these technologies are portable and will no doubt turn up in libraries sooner than we think. Colby Riggs, in her two part Library Hi Tech News article, details a number of such technologies, including the SanDisk Folding Universal Serial Bus (USB)/SD Card; the Pupillo video camera for video calls; the Cellstik that backs up information stored on cell phones; the TuneBuckle tPod Nano Belt that serves as an iPod case while holding up your pants; the Thanko MP3 Watch that records and plays music; the U3 Smart Drive that stores Windows settings and applications for use on other PCs; and the Eyebud 800 that records images directly to an iPod. (1) Additional items can be found by browsing the latest editions of popular computer magazines. Some examples include the Pure Digital single-use camcorder, the SanDisk Cruzer Crossfire drive with preloaded interactive games, and the Young Micro USB 2.0 Adapter for using old 2 1/2-, 3 1/2-, or 5 1/4-inch drives. (2) The pressure our users to support these technologies is enormous. Shoham and Roitberg's study on the uses of workstations concludes that from the user's point of view, learning is not divided into library and non-library uses. For the benefit of the students, libraries should offer them all learning tools under one roof and in one (3) Academic libraries everywhere are scrambling to meet these demands either by launching new services or finding new ways to support these must-have technologies with existing services. This scrambling, however, is nothing new and not just reserved for academic libraries. Libraries have always had to grapple with implementing new technologies to support user demands. In some cases, decisions to provide support for a new hip technology has paid off, and in other cases libraries invest many dollars and work hours to find out a technology is passe just as it is implemented. Walk into any library and you are likely to see remnants of technologies past, including computer towers with out-of-order zip drives, specialized workstations languishing off in a corner, microform readers, or massive televisions occasionally used to view VHS tapes and DVDs. LIMITS OF TRADITIONAL PUBLIC WORKSTATION PLANNING Because it seems like libraries are always playing catch-up, it might be a good time for them to revisit how they interface with emerging and legacy technologies in general, instead of considering each individual technology or groups of similar technologies as they come along. To do this requires libraries to rethink the concept of the workstation. The ideal workstation has been a one-stop shop that allows all users to accomplish any desired function without waiting. Library Technology Reports notes that public workstations in the library tend to offer the following features: access to the library catalog, access to Web-based electronic resources, access to CD-ROM-based electronic resources, productivity software, and e-mail and instant messaging. …

Intellectual Capital and Video on the Desktop

ORIGINALLY, I planned to write this column entirely about the $100 laptop, the brainchild of Nicholas Negroponte. For years, Negroponte headed MIT's famous Media Lab (www.media.mit.edu). In 2005, he and other visionaries from MIT, such as Alan Kay and Seymour Papert, formed a nonprofit corporation called Laptop Per Child (OLPC) (http://laptop.org). plan is to develop the $100 laptop and sell it at cost, in lots of from five to 10 million, to the governments of underdeveloped countries. In the mid- to late Eighties, when Alan Kay was an Apple Fellow, Apple was involved in various high computer access (HCA) projects that studied how classrooms were transformed when every child had his or her own laptop. HCA research done by Apple (and now many others) found five outcomes of HCA: 1) truancy dropped to near zero, 2) parents became more actively involved in school activities, 3) discipline problems were greatly reduced, 4) students were more active participants in classroom activities, and 5) students used the computer at home until the wee hours of the morning. vision Negroponte and the OLPC project have for the $100 laptop is intriguing. Some prototype models are battery operated, with a crank handle to charge the batteries. Other prototypes have two screens: one normal color screen and one black-and-white screen that is easy to see in the sunlight. Another prototype has wireless Ethernet that will allow any child to instantly network with up to 100 other children, as long as they are within a two-mile range. In other words, the $100 laptop could instantly network an entire village. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Where do I sign up? According to most tech news sources, the OLPC group has, to date, driven the price down to about $135--pretty close to the goal. I suspect that most computer component manufacturers will give you a good price if you tell them you want five to 10 million units at a time. While searching for information about Negroponte and the $100 laptop, I ran across the conference website (www.ted.com). stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design, although is also about science, education, business, and the arts. holds an annual conference that brings together about 1,000 of the brightest, most innovative, and creative thinkers in the world. Some 50 of the conferees are major speakers at the meeting. 2007 conference will be March 7-10 in Monterey, California. But with a conference registration fee of $4,400, it is unlikely that very many Kappan readers will be attending. gives several annual TED Prizes to outstanding TEDizens. 2007 winners are James Nachtwey, photojournalist; E. O. Wilson, evolutionary biologist; and President Bill Clinton. President Clinton won the prize for his outstanding work raising $10 billion to support his foundation's work fighting HIV/AIDS. A Prize comes with a $100,000 gift that is called The One World-Changing Wish award, which the winners can use as they see fit. With sponsorship from BMW and production assistance from WNYC/New York Public Radio, releases a weekly TEDTalk featuring past speakers. talks are available as digital videos or as audio files--both of which should play on an MP3 player. Currently, there are some 50 TEDTalks that can be played online or downloaded. Here is a small sample from that collection--intellectual capital for your desktop. * Nicholas Negroponte, recorded February 2006, duration 17:21. * Ray Kurzweil, inventor and author of Age of Spiritual Machines and Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, recorded February 2005, duration 23:41. Kurzweil is also a recipient of the President's Science Award. * Bono, rock star, activist, and a 2005 Prize winner, speaking about both our moral obligation and our economic incentives to help eradicate African poverty and disease, recorded February 2005, duration 28:37. …

The Future Is Bright

The Future Is Bright

News Readers and other Handy Utilities

MY DAILY ritual at the office starts with reading the morning news using Internet Explorer (IE) with a customized homepage at Netscape.com. I used to use Netscape's browser, but, after installing Mac OS X, I didn't like the way it worked -- or, rather, didn't work. If you haven't gone to the trouble of customizing a homepage, I encourage you to do so. My homepage has three columns, with panes or sections for news such as CNN Main Top Stories, CNN Tech, Market News from CBS Market Watch, Top News from Netscape, Tech News from ZDNet, and, of course, current weather in three cities from the Weather Channel. See what you are missing if you don't customize your home page? I am not especially happy with IE and prefer Apple's Safari browser, but I have been putting off upgrading it since it requires me to upgrade my entire operating system to OS 10.3. As I mentioned in a previous column, Safari is three to four times faster than either IE or Netscape. I tried to download FireFox 0.9.3, the new browser from mozilla.org, but I could not get it to install. By all reports, FireFox is the browser to have. But again, I will probably need to upgrade my operating system -- I must stop procrastinating. If you are using FireFox, I would like to hear from you. I doubt that I will change my routine, but lately I have been trying out an Internet News Reader. An Internet News Reader is a small program that reads various RSS news feeds from all over the Internet. Depending on whom you ask, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary -- probably the latter. But Web browsers don't read RSS feeds; instead, Internet News Readers do. A number of these readers are available as free or inexpensive downloads. I use NetNewsWire on my Mac (http://ranchero.com/netnewswire). Those who use PCs might try such readers as FeedReader, NewzCrawler, or AmphetaDesk. (The last works for PCs, Macs, and Linux systems.) After you download and install a news reader, you simply select the feeds you want. Most readers come with a fairly comprehensive list of feeds to choose from. If yours doesn't have the RSS feed from your favorite news source, simply use your browser to go to your favorite news site and use the site's search button to find RSS. For example, if you do this at National Public Radio (www.npr.org), you will find the RSS feed address for NPR Top Stories is www.npr.org/rss/rss.php?catId=2. Highlight and copy this address; then paste it into the Add Feed or Add Channels menu of your news reader. There are advantages and disadvantages to using an Internet News Reader instead of a Web browser. The major advantage is that you can read the headlines and short summaries of news articles from dozens of sources quickly. I find it fascinating to compare what various news organizations consider to be their stories. For example, on August 10, the BBC News had substantially more international top than any other source. Having students compare various news sources from around the world would certainly be an excellent social studies or media literacy activity. Another advantage to news readers is that you get a short text-only summary of the news, with less advertising. If you want to read the entire news article, you simply click on the provided link and your Web browser takes you to the originating site, such as the site for the New York Times or the Christian Science Monitor. I should also mention that there are news feeds in several languages other than English. About the only real drawback to news readers is that the software opens your browser whenever you want to read the entire text of a news article. And if you are a news junkie, there is another disadvantage: you can while away hour after hour with a news reader. I read news stories so long that I almost didn't meet the deadline for this column! A good source of useful information on RSS news feeds is located at Harvard (http://blogs. …

Tech Watch - Fall 2000

The latest tech news from the desk of the editor.