Town Library Research Articles

Comparative Study of Academic Library Websites Using Web Content Management Systems

This study aimed to investigate and compare the features and functionality of academic library websites built on Web Content Management Systems (CMS) at four universities in Africa. The specific objectives included examining design and layout, identifying content types and resources, assessing interactivity and engagement, evaluating accessibility and usability, and reviewing performance and maintenance. Analysis of the four websites revealed that the University of Cape Town Libraries stood out for its excellent quality in design, layout, content availability, interactivity, accessibility, usability, and performance. In contrast, the Makerere University Libraries showed areas needing improvement, particularly in design, content accessibility, interactivity, and usability. The University of Pretoria Libraries exhibited high-quality performance across all categories, ensuring a positive user experience. Meanwhile, the University of Nairobi Libraries demonstrated potential for enhancement in design, interactivity, and accessibility, while maintaining strong performance and security. Based on these findings, several recommendations were made to enhance the websites' quality and user experience. For Makerere University Libraries, suggestions included improving design and layout, addressing content gaps, implementing accessible forums, and enhancing responsiveness. For the University of Nairobi Libraries, recommendations focused on improving design, providing accessible resources, incorporating online chat or forums, and enhancing overall accessibility and usability.

Present scenario and challenges of district and town libraries in Paschim Bardhaman District: A study

Present scenario and challenges of district and town libraries in Paschim Bardhaman District: A study

Use of social media as a marketing and information provision tool by the City of Cape Town Libraries

Background: Social media use by libraries has facilitated communication and marketing of services to user communities. The City of Cape Town Libraries adopted social media usage in the 2015–2016 financial year. This study is set out to assess librarians’ perception and response to the implementation and adoption of social media for library services.Objectives: The research sought to appraise the City of Cape Town public librarians’ experiences of social media use in the provision of information services, evaluate librarians’ perceptions of social media use for information provision services and recommend ways in which social media information services provision can be improved upon.Method: A quantitative research method and a descriptive survey research design approach was adopted for the study, and a web-based questionnaire was used for data collection. The study was anchored on the technological acceptance model, and employed total enumeration sampling to collect data from the 102 City of Cape Town librarians-in-charge.Results: City of Cape Town librarians have positive perception and acceptance towards the use of social media to perform library-related duties. Librarians utilised social media in engaging with library users, including marketing of library services, and promotion of library events. Experiences including lack of guidance in dealing with copyright issues and organisational policy favouring a single social media platform were reported.Conclusion: Library services through is vastly positive but expansion across multiple social media platforms is necessary to encourage further engagement with users. A third construct: preference of choice is proposed for the TAM model.

Practice and Enlightenment on the Construction of Special Subject Libraries in Universities：Take the Law Research Center of Shenzhen University Town Library as an Example

Practice and Enlightenment on the Construction of Special Subject Libraries in Universities：Take the Law Research Center of Shenzhen University Town Library as an Example

Public libraries of Ukraine under nazi occupation in 1941—1944: civil administration area

The purpose of the study is to look into the daily reading leisure of an average urban dweller under Nazi occupation of Ukraine by examining activity of public libraries (which were called "mass libraries" in the Soviet tradition). The substance of the study. The study developed understanding of the "normal" town library network in the area of civil administration under occupation (per town: one public library for adults and (possibly) a library / branch for children) through characterizing operating conditions and working schedule of the facilities and specific features of library service; the library staff lists were ascertained. The commercial element of the activity of public libraries was examined in detail as it was the main means of their subsistence. Conclusions. Summarizing population's life with regard to activity of town libraries during the occupation period, it is worth to note: 1) despite the Nazis' view of the local population only as labor force of the Reich, the occupation authorities allowed library services in public libraries but only in urban areas; 2) it was the local authorities who determined the scale (the number of facilities, the amount of their staff) and the operating conditions (working schedule, cost of library services) of public services; 3) there was a certain idea of the library service "standards": the number of facilities, the staff, working hours, paid services, rules of service. Some of them stem from the Soviet experience, and some were the cost of survival under conditions of occupation; 4) public libraries were in popular demand despite the fact that readers had to pay for services; 5) apparently, reading played the role of a psychological compensatory mechanism under conditions of occupation. Thus, public libraries were an active functional part of the cultural environment during the Nazi occupation of Ukraine.

Classified by their classifications: nineteenth-century library classifications in context

ABSTRACT This paper investigates influences upon the development of library classification systems in nineteenth-century Britain. Two case studies – Edward Edwards's ‘scheme of classification for a town library’ of 1859 and the Bibliotheca Lindesiana of the earls of Crawford who made a number of significant contributions to the development of library classification over a fifty-year period – are deployed to explore how classification schemes reflected the habituses of their creators and how they were shaped by their socio-economic, epistemological and geographical contexts. The paper also investigates the discourse of classification, examining authors’ claims for the legitimacy, widespread applicability and superiority of their schemes, while revealing how these claims were compromised or modified by practical considerations. The case studies suggest that a modernizing narrative of a transition in the second half of the nineteenth century from an aristocratic, largely rural and amateur paradigm of knowledge formation to a bourgeois, urban and professional model requires significant modification: a more nuanced approach is required, which recognizes the permeability of geographic and social boundaries and the continued relevance of aristocratic libraries as key sites of knowledge formation until the end of the century.

Investigation Of The Theme Of Sports And Healthy Life In Children’s Storybooks

Bu araştırma, çocuk hikâye kitaplarında yer alan sağlıklı yaşam ve spor temalarını ortaya koymak amacı ile yapılmıştır. Bu kapsamda, Elazığ İl Halk Kütüphanesi’nde ve ilköğretim okullarında yer alan kütüphanelerde yer alan 100 kitap incelenmiştir. İncelenen eserlerde sağlıklı yaşam teması olarak en yüksek düzeyde, düzenli beslenme, çevre temizliği dinlenme gibi etkinliklere yer verildiği görülmüştür. Kitaplarda, spor teması olarak güreş, kano, basketbol gibi sporlara yer verildiği tespit edilmiştir. Sonuç olarak, çocuklar için hazırlanan kitaplarda spor aktiviteleri ve sağlıklı yaşama yönelik çeşitlilik fazla görülse de sportif aktivitelerini anlatan metinlere düşük düzeyde yer verildiği görülmüştür.

Reading Opportunities in a Provincial Russian City during the First World War (Materials from the Volga Region)

The article deals with the problem of resources for reading for the townspeople in the Volga city during the First World War. It is noted that the dealing with the problems, allows the researcher to identify the mechanisms that allowed society to adapt to the conditions of extreme reality. The provision of the Volga cities with libraries has been studied. The possibilities of reading in the provincial and district cities of the studied region are compared. The novelty of the research is seen in the fact that the development of a complex of public and private resources (libraries), available for leisure reading in the Volga city during the First World War, was revealed. The relevance of the study is due to the importance of analyzing the sociocultural practices of society as a compensatory mechanism, as well as a resource reflecting mass sentiment in extreme periods of state development. Comparison of provincial and county city libraries in terms of ownership, attendance, material security is carried out. The conclusion is made about the diversity of reading opportunities as a form of leisure for the Volga region residents during the First World War. The cities of the Volga region were identified, in which the resource of libraries was more diverse. It is shown that there were more libraries in the provincial towns than in the county ones; they had a different organizational basis and more complete funds.

Koncentracije i hemijski sastav suspendovanih čestica PM10 i PM2.5 u biblioteci u Boru, Srbija

This paper presents the PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations and results of chemical analyses of PM samples collected at the public library in Bor town, Serbia. Two sampling campaigns were carried out during six consecutive working days in June 2015 and in March 2016. The results show that PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations in the library were strongly connected with the respective PM concentrations in ambient air. So, most PM particles in the library originate from the outdoor air. High PM2.5/PM10 ratios in both indoor and outdoor environments indicate the considerable influence of anthropogenic air pollution sources, in this case, metallurgical processes in copper smelting plants. Because the new copper smelting plant started operating in 2016, it is necessary to conduct a new measurement campaign to determine whether there are changes in the concentration levels and chemical composition of PM in the indoor air of public and residential buildings in Bor

THE MINUTE BOOK OF THE CAPE TOWN BRANCH OF THE CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH AFRICA, 1927-1940

This article surveys the contents of archival material found in the manuscript and archives section of the Special Collections of the University of Cape Town Libraries. In particular, it scrutinises the activities recorded in the Minute Book of the Cape Town Branch of the Classical Association of South Africa, 1927-1940. The details found in the Minute Book shed valuable light on the teaching and research of classical antiquity in South Africa in the early part of the twentieth century, illuminating a lesser-known period of the history of the Classical Association of South Africa.

Status of Library 2.0 Model in Cape Town Public Libraries

The Library 2.0 model is one of many library service models. It has its origin in and has borrowed concepts from Web 2.0, which is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information-sharing, interoperability, user-centred design and collaboration on the World Wide Web. The focus of Library 2.0 is on user-centred change and participation in the creation of content. The purpose of this study was to investigate the implementation of Library 2.0 in the libraries of the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality (hereafter City of Cape Town) and the challenges they encountered in using Library 2.0 technologies to deliver services. The website of the City of Cape Town Library and Information Services Department was visited to explore the implementation and usage of Web 2.0 tools, including blogs, really simple syndication (RSS), wikis, social networking, and social bookmarking. In addition, data were obtained from an interview conducted with the manager at the said department in charge of technical services, which included the implementation of new technologies. It was found that City of Cape Town libraries were slow in adopting Library 2.0 technologies in their services—there was no evidence on the website of the use of popular Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis, video- and photo-sharing/-streaming, RSS, social bookmarking, and mash-ups. The research shed some light on the Web 2.0 tools used by public libraries other than those in Cape Town and it also highlighted how they were used and what their benefits were. More importantly, the research demonstrated the need for public libraries to embed Web 2.0 tools in their services and to keep abreast with and embrace emerging technologies.

What were librarians doing while Otlet was inventing documentation? The modernization and professionalization of librarianship during the Belle Époque

In the historiography of librarianship and information work, the development of librarianship during the Belle Epoque (1871-1914) has been somewhat overshadowed by the heroic and ultimately unsuccessful projects of Otlet, the Royal Society, and others to bring about bibliographic control of the world’s scholarly literature. In this article, an attempt is made to determine the issues which preoccupied an emerging Anglo-American library profession during this period. It is based on evidence provided by a selection of British and American documents and events from the 1850s onwards which were influential at that time, including Britain’s Public Libraries Act of 1850; the first world’s fairs in the early 1850s; Edward Edward’s Free town libraries of 1869; the formative events surrounding the 1876 United States Centennial Exposition; Melvil Dewey’s School of Library Economy (established 1887); and James Duff Brown’s Manual of library economy of 1903. Librarians’ concerns at the turn of the twentieth century are discussed in relation to societal trends affecting the modernization and professionalization of librarianship.

The Use of Video Tutorials to Enhance Library Instruction at a South African Higher Education Institution

The purpose of this paper is to report on how a team of librarians from the University of Cape Town (UCT) Libraries introduced and implemented a project involving instructional video tutorials. Faced with a growing number of students, a decline in the number of library staff as well as the limited ability of librarians to reach out to students through traditional means of face-to-face library instruction, the librarians started creating video tutorials using Camtasia Studio. Another impetus for developing video tutorials was the introduction of lecture recording at the university and the need for the library to align itself with these developments at the institution. Through a narrative, the paper outlines the video development process. The challenges encountered are presented and a set of guidelines drawn up to ensure efficient and effective production. The number of videos created grew from one in 2012 to 62 by 2018. An examination of video usage analytics indicates that the average view duration of the videos is between 52 per cent and 71 per cent. The guidelines presented in this paper will provide valuable insights for other librarians to develop video tutorials. The paper is a valuable addition to existing literature on the subject and more importantly addresses a unique South African experience.

Escaping from the City Means More than a Cheap House and a 10-Minute Commute

Escaping from the City Means More than a Cheap House and a 10-Minute Commute

Public libraries in mid size towns in the state of Amazonas, Brazil

Resumo Consiste no resultado de estudo diagnóstico sobre bibliotecas públicas realizado nos municípios de Coari, Itacoatiara, Manacapuru, Parintins, Tabatinga e Tefé, localizados no estado do Amazonas, Brasil. Apresenta dados de pesquisas de campo desenvolvidas entre os anos de 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016 e 2017 que objetivavam analisar as instalações físicas, bem como serviços, frequência de usuários, atuação profissional e entre outras coisas, o nível de interação do Sistema Estadual de Bibliotecas Públicas do Amazonas com os municípios. A pesquisa de cunho qualiquantitativo utilizou parâmetros metodológicos estabelecidos pelo Núcleo de Estudos e Pesquisas das Cidades da Amazônia Brasileira que busca observar e entender o modo de viver dos cidadãos entre cidades amazônicas a partir de estudos da rede urbana. Sem se deter sobre aspectos teóricos da Geografia Urbana, apresenta as seis cidades consideradas médias no contexto amazonense, bem como um panorama das condições de suas bibliotecas públicas municipais.

Before the Public Library: Reading, Community, and Identity in the Atlantic World, 1650–1850

For most library users, the idea of a public library is something that has always been a part of their daily experience. But actually, the concept of a publically funded community space devoted to the collection and maintenance of reading materials for all to access is only a little more than 150 years old. In the Anglophone world the public library officially began in the United Kingdom with the Public Libraries Act of 1850, and in America with the founding of the Peterborough Town Library in 1833. But for at least two centuries prior to this, there were libraries for the public and those libraries—in all their variety—are the subject of this excellent collection of essays smoothly edited by Mark Towsey (University of St. Andrews) and Kyle Roberts (University of Pennsylvania).The essays in Before the Public Library represent some of the research that has come out of a collective effort of over eighty scholars interested in exploring the relationship between reading and libraries in the period before the emergence of the modern public library that took place in the mid-nineteenth century. For Towsey and Roberts's book, sixteen authors from this scholarly group representing institutions from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean contributed their recent findings on a wide range of library types that existed between 1650 and 1850 in the United Kingdom and the Americas—both North and South.As is often the case with reviews of anthologies, space constraints make it difficult for anything more than a cursory summary of the articles—many of which are excellent—found within the volume. The book's context and purpose is thoroughly outlined in the editors' finely wrought introduction, which is nearly thirty pages long and itself worth the price of admission. The actual text is then divided into four chronological sections with four or five essays within each. Thus, for example in part 1 (“Empire and Enlightenment”), Louisiane Ferlier examines Quaker and Anglican transatlantic libraries during the last part of the seventeenth century, while Junia Ferreira Furtado explains the significance of the Brazilian naturalist José Vieria Couto's personal library. In part 2 (“Revolution and Nation Building”) Cheryl Knott surveys the late eighteenth-century subscription library in America, while Loveday Herridge and Sue Roe investigate the role of libraries and book clubs in Sheffield from 1771 to 1850.Part 3 moves the story along with Annika Bautz's review of the founding of the subscription library in Plymouth, England. On the other side of the Atlantic a library devoted to supporting the reading needs of apprentice mechanics is the subject of Lynda Yankaskas's study. The essays mentioned here are by no means a complete summary of all that the volume contains, but only representative examples. The concluding part contains two valuable essays by long-time library historians Tom Glynn and Alistair Black. Glynn, who has written extensively on the history of public libraries in New York City, reviews the early years of the public library in America. Black, whose credentials as an historian of the British public library are well established, provides a similar keen assessment of the establishment of public libraries in England.As this book clearly shows, the world of libraries and their users was quite dynamic and varied during the twenty decades that preceded the advent of the publically funded library. And this world has been, for the most part, little known to scholars of libraries and librarianship until only the past couple of decades. Towsey and Roberts have done all of us a great service by putting together this outstanding group of scholars whose industrious and skillful efforts have brought this under examined period into the light of modern day scholarship.Before the Public Library has an excellent and thorough index (something that is not always the case!) and a nice summary bibliography of all the literature cited in the essays. Frankly, I have not seen another work of this type that surveys the world of Anglo-American libraries and librarianship for the period under review. Towsey and Roberts's undertaking is unique and sets a new standard for historical exploration of library history. Without hesitation, I recommend this important book for all libraries whose mission is to support and maintain access to quality research. It is well worth the price.

Local History Collection in Public Libraries of South 24 Parganas: A Study

Public library has the social responsibility to meet the local community requirements for knowledge, information, education, culture, recreation, and so on. The responsibility includes preserving local history materials of a particular locality. This paper reflects the present scenario of collection, preservation, dissemination, use pattern of local history materials and user demand for such collection in the Government-sponsored public libraries (District Library, Sub-divisional Libraries and Town Libraries) in South 24 Parganas district in West Bengal. Every library was visited personally to interview the Librarian/In-charge and data were collected through a structured questionnaire. Library users were also interviewed through a separately structured questionnaire by applying random sampling method. Collected data were analysed to find out the present situation and issues related to building local history collection and rendering effective associated services. Findings reflect the major hindrances responsible for the state of sources of local history in the South 24 Parganas. Some recommendations have been made.

Let's Tell a Tale: Storytelling Events in English L2

Let's Tell a Tale:Storytelling Events in English L2 Elisa Bertoldi (bio) In Italy, cultural organizations and associations promote children's literature and the pleasure of reading through storytelling initiatives. These initiatives support reading from very early childhood to adolescence, starting from parental storytelling and gradually proceeding to autonomous engagements with books. The initiatives are organized and take place in libraries, theaters, cultural centers, and schools where volunteer narrators and librarians run open-access storytelling events based on books for children or adolescents (Nati per Leggere, Crescere Leggendo, Youngster). To cater to the many different languages used in Italy and to promote inclusion through activities and initiatives that are relevant at the intercultural level for children, local libraries in Italy also organize storytelling events in languages other than Italian. For many years, the collaboration between the University of Udine and the Municipal Library "Vincenzo Joppi" in Udine (Northeast Italy) has given rise to initiatives that promote plurilingualism through children's literature. A few years ago, a lecturer of the University of Udine, Maria Bortoluzzi, and the librarians of the main municipal library decided to offer some storytelling events in English as a second language (from now on English L2) in the main library of the town. For the children and the narrators, English is a foreign language. The main aim was to promote the acquisition of English L2 through narrative and informal modalities in libraries as significant and familiar contexts for children. Thanks to the local librarians, teachers, and educators, a series of storytelling meetings called "Let's Tell a Tale" was organized. The events in English L2 have been taking place in the town libraries and focus on children from four to eight years old. The volunteer narrators have been offering to little boys and girls the opportunity to listen to stories in English inspired by books for children. The initiative promotes English acquisition not only as a second language but also as a multicultural means to offer a wider perspective on children's literature in languages different from the native languages. The events have been taking place in recent years at the children's section [End Page 51] of the Municipal Library of Udine, and they are based mainly on picture-books of stories in English. In June 2018, regional funding resulted in the initiative "Let's Tell a Tale" being transformed into a research project of the Udine University entitled "Storytelling in English L2 for Young Learners and Adolescents in Informal Contexts of Acquisition: Innovative and Inclusive Approaches for Local Library Networks." The project (directed by Maria Bortoluzzi, Udine University) is organized in collaboration with the librarians of the Children's Section of the Municipal Library of Udine, led by Tiziana Danna. I (Elisa Bertoldi) am involved in the project as a research assistant. My role is to identify best practices and effective actions to support students from nursery, primary, and middle school in their approach to English L2 through narration used informally in extra-school contexts such as libraries. The initiative "Let's Tell a Tale" has been extended to four district libraries of the Udine area. The project is also used to conduct qualitative research about the use of children's literature in informal contexts to approach English L2 in an effective, emotionally positive, and motivating way. This gave me the opportunity to organize and supervise sixteen storytelling events from October 2018 to May 2019. The local libraries that have been chosen to host "Let's Tell a Tale" 2018-2019 share some common characteristics: even though they are quite small in terms of space, they have a large catchment area, and they are not yet equipped with a multilingual section for children. Click for larger view View full resolution The decision to host these events in the district libraries was also aimed to reach a wider number of parents and caregivers in order to disseminate the importance of giving children the opportunity of an early approach to a second language through literature. Recent scientific research in the field of second language acquisition has demonstrated the extraordinary advantages of acquiring and learning languages different from the native tongue especially, but not exclusively, at a...

Truth and Consequences: On Writing and Not Writing Poetry

Truth and Consequences: On Writing and Not Writing Poetry Pauletta Hansel (bio) From this vantage point, the ten-year silence in my writing life, from my mid-twenties until my mid-thirties, no longer seems particularly important. Or rather, it seems as if it should not be. I am in my late fifties. I have been writing again for longer than I stopped, for longer than what I’ve called my first writing life, which began in my early teens and ended with that silence. Since age thirty-five, I have [End Page 106] published six books of poems, have poetry and prose in several journals, written and performed a one-woman play, carved out a meager living as a creative writing teacher, and earned an MFA. But I cannot write about this abundance without addressing the silence, the negative space in my life with words. I began writing poetry when so many girls begin, at age thirteen when there is simply nothing else to do with all of that. When I was not writing, I was crying, though nothing in particular was wrong, then, in my life. I oozed adolescent angst. It had to go somewhere; it might as well be on the page. Do I exaggerate? Of course I exaggerate. I was thirteen. But I am not exaggerating when I say that no one—not my parents nor their friends, not my peers nor teachers—related to me as if I were thirteen. I looked older. I spoke older. I read older, jumping quickly over the “Young Adult” section of the local library in my small Appalachian town into the 19th Century Romantics in the library of the college where my father taught. Only my heart was thirteen, but that was not obvious from the physical and intellectual package. Within a year, I embarked upon a “relationship” with a man ten years my senior; my poems no longer cried out for a nameless, formless love, but chronicled an emotionally abusive relationship which I longed to transform into true love or, at least, to maintain. Within two years, I was a published poet, first through Scholastic’s national high school competition and then in some of the new Appalachian literary journals. I traveled to conferences and participated in readings with writers my parents’ age. Within three years, I was included in a feature article in Ms. Magazine as an up-and-coming Appalachian woman writer. And woven into that brief autobiography: anorexia, promiscuity, alcohol abuse, depression. [End Page 107] Throughout all of that, I kept writing, though the “I” in those lyric poems I wrote bears little resemblance to the self I now remember. The picture that emerges from those poems is that of a young woman who is operating from a core of strength and self-sufficiency and whom you know will emerge largely unscathed from the chaos of which she writes. I was not that girl. She was my mask. ________ Former poet laureate Billy Collins is a strong proponent of the “poet as persona” theory, having said, “[T]he important breakthrough moment for a poet is when he or she has developed a kind of character through which he or she can speak with ease. This character—or persona—resembles the poet in many ways but is clearly a refinement of the actual person.”1 During those prolific years of my first writing life this is exactly what I was doing—unconsciously, perhaps, and certainly without ever having heard the advice of the not-yet poet laureate, I had created a persona from which I could stand at some distance from my life. And this was a logical, even laudable progression for me as a young writer; my poetry had climbed up out of the primordial ooze into something more crafted, literary. My persona (I named her “the lady”) allowed me Wordsworth’s “emotion recollected in tranquility” in order to write and revise increasingly mature poems.2 But like the rest of my life at that time, this maturity, this [End Page 108] temporary distance from the muddled reality of my life, was too much, too soon. ________ “Poetry found me. / It almost saved me...

2017 Shenzhen International Conference on Libraries and Digital Humanities

The University Town Library of Shenzhen hosted the three-day International Conference on Libraries and Digital Humanities from December 6th to 8th, 2017.