ITAL Information Technology and Libraries (E-Journal)
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Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI): Adoption and Advocacy
Get PDFThe field of explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) advances techniques, processes, and strategies that provide explanations for the predictions, recommendations, and decisions of opaque and complex machine learning systems. Increasingly academic libraries are providing library users with systems, services, and collections created and delivered by machine learning. Academic libraries should adopt XAI as a tool set to verify and validate these resources, and advocate for public policy regarding XAI that serves libraries, the academy, and the public interest
Using Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing to Analyze Library Chat Reference Transcripts
Get PDFThe use of artificial intelligence and machine learning has rapidly become a standard technology across all industries and businesses for gaining insight and predicting the future. In recent years, the library community has begun looking at ways to improve library services by applying AI and machine learning techniques to library data. Chat reference in libraries generates a large amount of data in the form of transcripts. This study uses machine learning and natural language processing methods to analyze one academic library’s chat transcripts over a period of eight years. The built machine learning model tries to classify chat questions into a category of reference or nonreference questions. The purpose is to predict the category of future questions by the model with the hope that incoming questions can be channeled to appropriate library departments or staff
Gathering Strength to Combat Access Inequality: How a Small Rural Public Library Supported Virtual Access for Public School Students, Staff, and their Families
Get PDFNestled on the northern edge of Lake Ontario, Prince Edward County is home to a six branch public library system that is proud to have created a robust and vibrant relationship with the local school board. Through the lens of access, this article explores the steps taken by the public library to create meaningful connections with administrative staff on the school board level in order to bring practical training and resources to teachers and students in order to enhance and support their learning. 
ResearchGate Metrics’ Behavior and Its Correlation with RG Score and Scopus Indicators: A Combination of Bibliometric and Altmetric Analysis of Scholars in Medical Sciences
Get PDFObjective: Social networking sites are appropriate tools for sharing and exposing scientific works to increase citations. The objectives of the present study are to investigate the activity of Iranian scholars in the medical sciences in ResearchGate and to explore the effect of each of the four ResearchGate metrics on the RG score. Moreover, the citation metrics of the faculty members in Scopus and the relationship between these metrics and the RG score were explored.
Methods: The study population included all SBMU faculty members who have profiles in ResearchGate (N=950). The data were collected through ResearchGate and Scopus in January 2021. The Spearman correlation coefficient was applied to examine the relationship between ResearchGate metrics and Scopus indicators as well as to determine the effect of each ResearchGate metric on the RG score.
Results: The findings revealed that the publication sharing metric had the highest correlation (0.918) with the RG score and had the greatest impact on it (p-value <0.001), while the question asking metric showed the lowest correlation (0.11). Moreover, there was a significant relationship between the RG score and Scopus citation metrics (p-value <0.05). Furthermore, all four RG metrics had a positive and significant relationship with Scopus indicators (p-value <0.05), in which the number of shared publications had the highest correlation compared to other RG metrics.
Conclusion: Researchers’ participation in the ResearchGate social network is effective in increasing citation indicators. Therefore, more activity in the ResearchGate social network may have favorable results in improving universities’ ranking
A Library Website Redesign in the Time of COVID: A Chronological Case Study
Get PDFIn November 2019, Binghamton University Libraries initiated a website redesign project. Our goal was to create a user-centered, data-informed website with refreshed content and upgraded functionality. Originally, our redesign plan included in-person card-sorting activities, focus groups, and usability studies, but when the Libraries went remote in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to quickly reassess and adapt our processes and workflows. In this article, we will discuss how we completed this significant project remotely by relying on effective project management, communication, teamwork, and flexibility
Perceived Quality of Reference Service with WhatsApp: A Quantitative Study from User Perspectives
No full textAcademic libraries are experiencing significant changes and making efforts to deliver their service in the digital environment. Libraries are transforming from being places for reading to extensions of the classroom and learning spaces. Due to the globalized digital environment and intense competition, libraries are trying to improve their service quality through various evaluations. As reference service is crucial to users, this study explores user satisfaction towards the reference service through WhatsApp, a social media instant messenger, at a major university in Hong Kong and discusses the correlation between the satisfaction rating and three variables. Suggestions and recommendations are raised for future improvements. The study also sheds light on the usage of reference services through instant messaging in other academic libraries
Using DPLA and the Wikimedia Foundation to Increase Usage of Digitized Resources
Get PDFThe Digital Public Library of America has created a process by which rights-free or openly licensed resources that have already been harvested can be copied over into Wikimedia Commons, thus creating a simple path for including those digital collections materials into Wikipedia articles. By meeting internet users where they already are, rather than relying on them to navigate to individual digital libraries, the access and usage of digital assets is dramatically increased, in particular to user groups that might otherwise not have a reason to interact with such digitized resources
Digitization of Libraries, Archives, and Museums in Russia
Get PDFThis paper discusses the digitization of cultural heritage in Russian libraries, archives, and museums. In order to achieve the research goals, both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies were adopted to analyze the current status of legislative principles related to digitization through the literature review and the circumstance of the latest projects related to digitization through the literature and website review. The results showed that these institutions seem quite successful where they provide a wide range of services for the users to access the digital collections. However, the main constraints on digitization within libraries, archives, and museums in Russia are connected with the scale of the work, dispersal of rare books throughout the country, and low level of document usage
Local Hosting of Faculty-Created Open Education Resources: Launching Pressbooks
Get PDFRising costs of secondary education institutions, coupled with the inflated cost of textbooks, have forced students to make decisions on whether they can afford the primary materials for their classes. Publishers working to supply digital access codes, which limit the ability of students to copy, print, or share the materials, or resell the textbook after the course is over, have further pushed students into forgoing purchasing materials. In recent years, institutions have moved to support OER (Open Education Resources) initiatives to provide students a cost-free primary text or supplement to their materials. This allows students unfettered access to quality resources that help drive engagement in courses, from homework to discussions. While larger institutions or in-state partnerships with resource sharing consortiums, such as the MnPALS cooperation with the state of Minnesota, provide access to platforms like Pressbooks, smaller institutions and private colleges don’t always have the ability to negotiate these types of relationships. In this case study, I will cover the foundations necessary to start a low-cost, self-hosted solution to support faculty creation of OER material and the available resources that the University of Dubuque utilized in their development process. This overview will briefly cover the skills and knowledge needed to support the growth of this initiative with minimal complexity and as little jargon as possible