ITAL Information Technology and Libraries (E-Journal)
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Using Qualtrics XM to Create a Point-of-Use Survey to Assess the Usability of a Local Implementation of Primo
Get PDFIn 2020, Libraries and Cultural Resources (LCR) at the University of Calgary used Qualtrics XM to design and pilot a point-of-use survey to collect user feedback on the usability of our implementation of Primo, Ex Libris's web-scale discovery service. Over a two-week period, users were presented with the pop-up survey while searching and asked to provide feedback. This article summarizes how we designed and implemented this point-of-use survey and the lessons learned from this project
Decision-Making in the Selection, Procurement, and Implementation of Alma/Primo: The Customer Perspective
Get PDFThis case study examines the decision-making process of library leaders and administrators in the selection, procurement, and implementation of Ex Libris Alma/Primo as their library services platform (LSP). The authors conducted a survey of libraries and library consortia in Canada and the United States who have implemented or plan to implement Alma. The results show that most libraries use both request for information (RFI) and request for proposal (RFP) in their system selection process, but the vendor-offered training is insufficient for effective operation. One-third of the libraries surveyed are considering switching to open-source options for their next automation system. These insights can benefit libraries and library consortia in improving their technological readiness and decision-making processes
Exploring Final Project Trends Utilizing Nuclear Knowledge Taxonomy: An Approach Using Text Mining
Get PDFThe National Nuclear Energy Agency of Indonesia (BATAN) taxonomy is a nuclear competence field organized into six categories. The Polytechnic Institute of Nuclear Technology, as an institution of nuclear education, faces a challenge in organizing student publications according to the fields in the BATAN taxonomy, especially in the library. The goal of this research is to determine the most efficient automatic document classification model using text mining to categorize student final project documents in Indonesian and monitor the development of the nuclear field in each category. The kNN algorithm is used to classify documents and identify the best model by comparing Cosine Similarity, Correlation Similarity, and Dice Similarity, along with vector creation binary term occurrence and TF-IDF. A total of 99 documents labeled as reference data were obtained from the BATAN repository, and 536 unlabeled final project documents were prepared for prediction. In this study, several text mining approaches such as stem, stop words filter, n-grams, and filter by length were utilized. The number of k is 4, with Cosine-binary being the best model with an accuracy value of 97 percent, and kNN works optimally when working with binary term occurrence in Indonesian language documents when compared to TF-IDF. Engineering of Nuclear Devices and Facilities is the most popular field among students, while Management is the least preferred. However, Isotopes and Radiation are the most prominent fields in Nuclear Technochemistry. Text mining can assist librarians in grouping documents based on specific criteria. There is also the possibility of observing the evolution of each existing category based on the increase of documents and the application of similar methods in various circumstances. Because of the curriculum and courses given, the growth of each discipline of nuclear science in the study program is different and varied
Drained-pool Politics Versus Digital Libraries in U.S. Cyberspace
Get PDFThough the capability to ban one book exists as it does in the physical world, access to digital libraries has become all-or-nothing in many instances around the nation. States, municipalities, nor school districts are united on the issue with federal law applying only on a case-by-case basis. Call it switch flipping or drained-pool politics: just don’t call it right. A refusal to share digital shelf space should not result in the eradication of digital libraries. Intellectual freedom is wrapped up in a possessive kind of love for libraries with the cost being the loss of millions of books in cyberspace. In the United States of America, the land of the free, a nation-wide balancing act is taking place that makes the horror of Fahrenheit 451 seem more like a documentary on our already eerily futuristic world
To Thine Own 3D Selfie Be True: Outreach for an Academic Library Makerspace with a 3D Selfie Booth
Get PDFTo promote an academic library makerspace, the University of Mississippi Libraries hosted a “3D selfie” booth which used body scanning technology. This booth, advertised on campus and set up outside the library during the first weeks of class, was designed to attract attention and perform outreach through the use of body scans to be printed in the makerspace at a later date. Although the hoped-for printing of “selfies” did not materialize, the project resulted in data about interested patrons and ideas for similar projects going forward. This paper serves as a case study for other academic library makerspaces interested in similar outreach
Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of a Mobile Application for Academic Library Services: A Study in a Developing Country
Get PDFUniversities and scientific educational institutions today need targeted information services to ensure that their user communities have the information they need. This study aims to design, develop, implement, and evaluate a mobile application for academic library services at Tarbiat Modares University (Tehran, Iran). A four-stage process was utilized to accomplish this aim. In the first phase, relevant literature was reviewed to obtain appropriate data requirements for the app. A questionnaire was designed and administered to survey expert librarians on the most suitable data requirements. The second phase involved the design of the user interface and user experience with the assistance of experts, followed by the evaluation of the experience. The third phase involved the development of the app in the Android Studio environment using the Java programming language, based on the requirements identified in the first and second phases. The app was then made available to the user community. Finally, the app was evaluated in the fourth phase using a questionnaire tool. The researchers found this approach to application development to be both economical and effective in the context of a developing country
Managing Your Library’s LibGuides: Conducting a Usability Study to Determine Student Preference for LibGuide Design
Get PDFThis paper discusses how the William G. Squires Library conducted a usability study on their LibGuides to identify student design preferences. The results of the study support previous research concerning best practices for LibGuide creation. This paper offers insight into how librarian-centric design hinders student success and provides suggestions for how to best develop a student-centric template design that offers consistency and increased user proficiency across all guides
Rarely Analyzed: The Relationship between Digital and Physical Rare Books Collections
Get PDFThe relationship between physical and digitized rare books can be complex and, at times, nebulous. When building a digital library, should showcasing a representative slice of the physical collection be the goal? Should stakeholders focus on preservation concerns, high-use items, or other concerns? To explore these conundrums, a special collections librarian and digital services librarian performed a comparative analysis of their library’s physical and digital rare books collections. After exporting MARC metadata for the rare books from their ILS, the librarians examined the place of publication, publication date, and broad subject range of the collection. They used this data to create a variety of visualizations with the open-source digital humanities tool Tableau Public. Next, the authors downloaded the rare books metadata from the digital library and created illuminating data visualizations. Were the geographic, temporal, and subject scope of the digital library similar to that of the physical rare books collection? If not, what accounts for the differences? The implications of these and other findings will be explored
Library Management Practices in the Libraries of Pakistan: A Detailed Retrospective
Get PDFLibrary and information science has been at an infant stage in Pakistan, primarily in resource management, description, discovery, and access. The reasons are many, including the lack of interest and use of modern tools, techniques, and best practices by librarians in Pakistan. Finding a solution to these challenges requires a comprehensive study that identifies the current state of libraries in Pakistan. This paper fills this gap in the literature by reviewing the relevant literature published between 2015 and 2021 and selected through a rigorous search and selection methodology. It also analyzes the websites of 82 libraries in Pakistan through a theoretical framework based on various aspects. The findings of this study include: Libraries in Pakistan need a transition from traditional and limited solutions to more advanced information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled, user-friendly, and state-of-the-art systems to produce dynamic, consumable, and sharable knowledge space. They must adopt social semantic cataloging to bring all the stakeholders on a single platform. A libraries consortium should be developed to link users to local, multilingual, and multicultural collections for improved knowledge production, recording, sharing, acquisition, and dissemination. These findings benefit Pakistani libraries, librarians, information science professionals, and researchers in other developing countries. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind providing insights into the current state of libraries in Pakistan through the study of their websites using a rigorous theoretical framework and in the light of the latest relevant literature