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Summary

Introduction

During 1998 to 2002, Denmark's Electronic Research Library (DEF – Danmarks Elektroniske Forskningsbibliotek) was a large government-funded project that aimed to build a national virtual research library in Denmark. The project had a vision of a single virtual research library focused on the need to provide easy access to scientific information for researchers and students in Denmark.

In spring 2002 the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation evaluated the project. The project's results proved to be so successful that DEF was placed as a permanent activity on the government's budget proposal. In December 2002 the budget was approved, and the continuation of DEF became a reality. This paper describes the development of the project. A new organization has been set up and a framework for future activities has been designed.

The budget for the permanent DEF was reduced significantly compared with the budget allocated to it in the project period. However, it was a major achievement to get any funding – the initial planning was to give no money at all – and the resulting budget allows important activities to continue and new ones to start. The reduced budget stresses the need for there to be even closer co-operation in the library sector, and the existing co-operation has to be carefully maintained and developed.

With the same reasoning the existing international co-operation should be strengthened. International co-operation is crucial in order to get more fair terms and prices for the libraries, especially for licences for electronic resources. Other international activities such as SPARC (www.sparceurope.org/) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative should support these efforts in order to create change and to achieve some competition in the market.

Background to DEF

The national project – Denmark's Electronic Research Library – aimed to move the Danish libraries from being automated, conventional, co-operating individual libraries to the state of one large, coherent, electronic library structure providing integrated information services.

The project was defined in a project description of September 1996 by the three ministries involved: the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Research and the Ministry of Education. A governmental agency, UNI-C, and the management consulting firm, Ernst & Young, then conducted a study, and published a report (Denmark, Ministry of Culture, 1997), which described a vision for the development of the research libraries in Denmark.

Summary

Introduction

In Cultivating Communities of Practice, Etienne Wenger and his co-authors explicitly define only two member roles in a community of practice (Wenger, McDermott and Snyder, 2002). One is the co-ordinator, which is the community leadership role. The other is what they call the ‘community librarian’. By this the authors refer to activities such as current awareness, making notes on meetings and subject organization of material, and boundary work – connecting members to other experts in their field (2002, 102–3).

Given the level of excitement in the business world about communities of practice, and the increasing take-up of knowledge management ideas generally in government and the non-profit sector, that an information role is seen as central by influential authors is encouraging for the profession. Perhaps this is one path for librarians to take ‘out of the library into the organization’, as Davenport and Prusak put it (though not necessarily, as they advocate, having first ‘blown up the library’!) (Davenport and Prusak, 1993).

This paper explores the value of the ‘community of practice’ concept as a model of virtual work communities. It starts by defining the term and pointing to several problems with it as an ideal. It proposes, rather, that looser knit communities of interest or networks of practice are more common. Therefore, it is argued, community of practice might be better used as an ‘ideal type’ against which to explore social and informational dynamics, rather than as an ideal. A case study of one specialist IT community is explored to illustrate the approach. The paper concludes by arguing that if a community librarian role can contribute to user knowledge creation, it must be performed in a way that is sensitive to the specific culture that has developed in the community, with an awareness of social dynamics as well as informational issues.

What are communities of practice?

Definition

There is increasing interest in the communities of practice concept in many domains. Thus in the same month as Libraries Without Walls 5 (LWW5) was held, the annual UK learning technologists conference, Alt-C, was entitled ‘Communities of Practice’. The topic was also a significant strand in the Communities and Technology conference, which was taking place at the same time as LWW5 in Amsterdam. The commercial event organizers, Ark Group, had also organized a ‘Communities of Practice Masterclass’ in Brussels in the same month.

Summary

Current legal deposit legislation, passed in 1911, covers printed publications, yet over 60,000 non-print items were published in the UK last year – a figure that will increase by a factor of four or five by 2005. Non-commercial publications, including websites, add enormously to this number. At present, there are no systematic or comprehensive arrangements in place for the collection and preservation of such non-print publications. Without new legislation to ensure non-print materials are saved for future generations, the 21st century will be seen as a cultural Dark Age …

(Extension of legal deposit to non-print materials, www.bl.uk/news/webcase.html)

The development of new carriers for the storage of information, trad - itionally produced on paper, has brought about a fundamental change in thinking within national libraries about future collection policies and storage requirements and an awareness that in order to maintain comprehensive collections of national publications for present and future generations of users, it will be necessary to obtain an increasing amount of non-print material.

(The Legal Deposit of Electronic Publications, UNESCO, 1996)

Background

The story of the ‘electronic resource’ is an ever-changing one. In a sense, it goes back to the earliest library and mankind's first attempt to store and order data. For centuries the focus had always been on the codex, and then in the mid-twentieth century the digital age was upon us. Efforts were still centred on the compilation, distribution, and referencing of the printed or handwritten work, but in the latter decades of the century there was increasing awareness of the emergence of information and data stored in electronic form, which was falling under the remit of the librarian. For authors and readers alike, the internal structure of the book had been the subject of continued development, and readers witnessed the appearance of numerous navigational aids (for example, indexes, tables of contents, footnotes, annotated editions, and cross-referencing). Publishers too had been focusing entirely on this one area – the printing, marketing, and selling of the paper-based medium. Yet with the advent of the electronic resource there was a feeling that all this had changed, and that new understandings about the use and procurement of information in digital format needed to be developed.

Summary

Three years ago the first edition of this book was launched. Even by the time the preliminary reviews had reached the presses it was clear that some of the material was already out of date. Such, it is argued, is the nature of the beast. The world of electronic resources moves on apace, and the previous distinctive boundaries which originally existed between such sectors as digital libraries and e-learning are increasingly blurred. Three years on from the original text the time is ripe for a new edition. Many of the principles originally outlined are still valid, and are therefore built upon in this edition. Yet to reflect the changes in the field new sections have had to be added, for example, those that explore Virtual Learning Environments/Learning Management Systems, and reading and resource list software and issues. References have been checked, revised, and added to; and suggestions for additional material received from readers of the first edition have been included. We hope that this new edition will prove of use to librarians, information specialists, students, and publishers alike.

Summary

Introduction

The old adage ‘know your enemy’ perhaps best sums up the aim of this chapter. It is important that anyone new to the area of electronic resources should be familiar with the types of products that are available and some of the main issues that surround them. In order to facilitate this, therefore, in this chapter we approach both aspects of the subject. The first section deals with the major generic issues, unique in many cases, that arise when it comes to dealing with electronic resources. These range from the broad, sweeping implications of remote versus local access, to the finer issues surrounding such emerging technologies as connection files, OpenURL resolvers etc. The second section attempts to present an overall survey of the types of products currently available (e-journals, reference works, and so on).

This chapter can therefore be seen as an attempt to landscape the world of electronic resources. In so doing, however, it should be noted that the terms and categorizations used below are often unique to this book and would not meet with universal agreement. Furthermore, because of the vastness of the subject and the constant changes that are occurring, this summary will inevitably miss out some of the areas that certain subject specialists may deem to be important. To compensate for this readers are directed to Marian Dworaczek's exhaustive index and bibliography (http://library. usask.ca/∼dworacze/SUB_INT.HTM), Gerry McKier nan's ‘Beyond Bookmarks’ project (www.public.iastate.edu/∼CYBERSTACKS/CTW. htm), Laurence and Miller's (2000) subject guides to resources on the internet, Novak's (2003) look at the evolution of internet searching, and the Resource Guides offered by the UK's Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) (www.jisc.ac.uk/subject/). Nevertheless, as an introductory guide to the issues, products, and pitfalls a collection developer will encounter, this survey will be of general use (NB the terms are further defined in the Glossary at the end of the book).

The complexity of the landscape of electronic resources was originally addressed in 2000 by the United Kingdom's Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER) (JISC, 2000). In an attempt to bring together electronic resources in a seamless fashion for universities and colleges in the UK, the DNER had to confront the problem of mapping their collections so as to ascertain where there are gaps in provision.

Summary

Introduction

In Chapter 2 we outlined some of the issues that surround electronic resources which differentiate them from print publications. Furthermore we presented a general map of the range of products one might encounter with a few examples where appropriate. Here we focus on two of these types of product, e-books and e-journals. There are obviously clear differences in the issues these present to the collection developer (notably ebooks, for example, which can be marketed to individuals and may require special devices to read them, as we shall see), but there are clearly some strong similarities. Points to note include:

Summary

Introduction

Many see the recent scale and pace of global e-learning developments as providing one of the biggest challenges to the library profession since its inception. Technological advances constantly pose new challenges to the way that we support the e-learning experience. In the education sector virtual learning environments (VLEs) are now considered to be an essential tool by a growing number of traditional learning providers who until recently concerned themselves purely with face-to-face delivery. The perception is that the VLEs bring a new competitive edge to provision.

Equally, traditional distance learning organizations, which previously monopolized the distance learning market, are having to respond to increasing competition by looking for new ways of engaging e-learners with quality learning experiences that directly result in increased retention and progression. Much of this agenda is driven by political and economic strategy at a national and global level.

It is against this backdrop, and taking account of the competing perspectives of academics, librarians and learning technologists, that the DEViL project sought to identify and address key issues for e-learning stakeholders.

DEViL (Dynamically Enhancing Virtual Learning Environments from within the Library) is a UK Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) funded project forming part of JISC's ‘Linking Digital Libraries with Virtual Learning Environments’ Programme (JISC, 2002), and was undertaken in partnership between the University of Edinburgh and the Open University.

Disintermediated approaches to supporting the Learner

A key technical part of the project undertook to develop a prototype software tool that would enable the exposure of a range of previously non-interoperable digital repositories to proprietary and non-proprietary virtual learning platforms. The meta-evaluation strand of the project considered the implications for intermediating digital collections at the object or asset level, while disintermediating some of the traditional learner support services that libraries have provided.

The evaluation methodology employed a range of strategies, including developing scenarios from use cases, carrying out face-to-face and telephone interviews, presentations and brief workshops with library staff, and analysis of reflective reports from team members engaged in delivering various parts of the project within their respective institutions.

Summary

Introduction

The UK higher education (HE) information environment is amorphous. It is difficult to define and is constantly changing shape. The language that describes it can feel abstract and be difficult to grasp. The information environment is changing in form and nature. The government provides the canvas or frame that dictates the Higher Education Funding Council for England's (HEFCE) funding agenda, which in turn shapes the strategic plans and modus operandi of HE institutions. The objects within this, including the information environment, then take their shape, size and direction.

None of us know what the future holds, but we are all effectively aiming for a one stop shop at the press of a button to academic information relevant and accessible to a wide variety of users within the HE sector. This paper will not present a big new idea or grandiose vision. It will not try to predict the future, or shoehorn the evolving information environment into a rigid framework. Instead it will take four key themes of HE in the UK and look at how a university library, Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) Library, is playing its part in supporting the objectives of its parent institution. I will paint a picture of a changing environment; describe what we are trying to do and how we are doing it. Many of the areas covered will be familiar to you, your own institutions may be doing similar work, but it will give a full case study of how a fairly typical large UK university library is moving towards the future. The four key themes are: learning and teaching, research, widening participation and reaching out to business and local communities. First some brief background about MMU, its Library and electronic development.

Background

Manchester Metropolitan University (www.mmu.ac.uk/) is widely recognized for its diversity and flexible approaches to learning. It offers 1628 study programmes (part-time, sandwich, graduate apprenticeship, distance, online, foundation to PhD) and is constantly building in new modes of learning to widen access to quality education. It has seven campuses, five in the Manchester area and two at Alsager and Crewe in Cheshire. It is one of the largest universities in the UK with over 30,000 students.

Summary

Introduction

This paper introduces the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC, www.jisc.ac.uk) funded Exchange for Learning (X4L, www.jisc.ac.uk/index. cfm?name=programme_x4l) programme and highlights the approach of one particular project within the programme: Learning for a Healthier Nation.

JISC is a strategic advisory body, funded by all the UK post-16 funding councils, which provides the network infrastructure for learning, teaching and research, offers support and guidance in the use of information and communication technology (ICT), and acts as a national and international leadership body for collaboration across education and research.

The JISC Information Environment Development vision has evolved from an earlier initiative known as the Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER) and aims to enable seamless access to a diverse range of quality resources for learning, teaching and research in a secure way. Funding has been allocated to a number of development programmes that will contribute to the realization of this vision including:

Summary

Introduction

The library of the National Health Institute (ISS) is the most important Italian library in the biomedical science field. It is primarily used by researchers, scientific and administrative personnel of the Institute (more than 2000 people) but it is also open to external users.

A brief glance at its structure is useful to explain the duties of our Institute and our researchers’ fields of interest. The ISS is currently made up of 20 laboratories – in an already approved reorganization they will soon merge into seven departments and two national centres – embracing several biomedical disciplines, such as cell biology, epidemiology, haematology, pharmacology, physics, environmental hygiene, veterinary medicine, toxicology and virology.

The library holds more than 200,000 volumes and almost 9000 periodicals. Total annual expenditure is €2.2 million, with €1.6 million invested in serials and journal subscriptions. The continual advance of information technology has greatly modified the way scientists and researchers use the libraries. All this has brought about the need to redefine the duties of libraries completely, modifying policies and strategies in order to manage the flow of information better so that we satisfy the new requirements of users.

In 2000 the ISS library began to develop a project to implement an intranet site that could provide access to any area of the Institute, to online services and to electronic resources related to information needs. Our efforts are especially concentrated on databases and electronic journals. For this purpose our library signed an agreement with CIBER/CASPUR, one of the three large Italian consortia for information sharing in electronic format. The initial terms of this agreement provided access to the Science Direct database with a link to more than 600 periodicals published by Elsevier, the most important scientific publisher.

The new intranet site was launched at the beginning of 2001 and, at first, internal users had free access to about 1100 online full-text journals and to a restricted selection of online databases. This scenario rapidly evolved under the pressure of numerous requests from our researchers and after two years we have activated connections with Kluwer, Wiley and Nature Publishing Group databases, as well as the principal scientific journals such as Science, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and others.

Summary

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing

(Socrates)

Background

For a long time Africa was the centre stage for communication activities. Hieroglyphics, clay tablets, paintings on cave walls and drum messages were a few methods known to, and used by, the African inhabitants to convey messages over great distances. Then came Gutenberg, the invention of the printing press and printing, and eventually the birth of e-books – the rise of the First World and the fall of the Third World?

Libraries in Africa

African culture was, and still is, communicated orally and a large number of Africans are still influenced by oral tradition. Africa also has little to no reading culture. It was even reported that African academics did not show much interest in material published in Africa, and in some instances did not even bother to visit the library. For example, Kenyan University Library reported that 50% of its academics never enter the library (Rosenberg, 1997).

Most libraries in Africa were established as post World War 2 institutions. At the time of their establishment, university libraries in Africa were the bestequipped libraries on the African continent. The economic situation of libraries led to a considerable deterioration of services offered, and forced libraries to rely on donor funding from Book Aid International and the World Bank Book Project to build and sustain their individual library collections. It is still a concern that the collections of Africa's academic institutions did not really grow as they should have, owing to the small budgets that the libraries received from their parent institutions, ranging from 3 to 8% of the total university budgets (Alemna, 1994, 15–17). From 1995 onwards library growth showed a sharp decline or became nonexistent in a number of African countries. It became evident that library budgets were mainly spent on salaries and not on stock (Rosenberg, 1997).

African libraries face a variety of other difficulties. For example, the University of Sierra Leone reported that its library's roof was leaking and that there were no electrical lights available for studying. Sierra Leone and University of Kenyatta reported that they managed to acquire generators to generate electricity to bind and to run the computers. Also in Sierra Leone, the library needs to close at 1700 hours daily, because of the political instability.

Summary

Introduction

The ideas behind the Libraries Without Walls series of conferences, of which this is the fifth, can be traced back to a number of different roots. Some of these were concerned with the ways in which information technology might be used to deliver library services – and as such they go back at least to the early 1970s. Other ideas concerned the delivery of education, and especially experiments and services that sought to deliver to the learner rather than expecting the learner to come to an institution – distance learning concepts that can be traced back even further, and were well developed in many countries by the middle of the 20th century. Yet other concepts arose from beliefs in the importance of widespread participation in society and thus in learning, and the imperative to find ways to involve the disenfranchised. Draw these together – technology, delivery and universal participation – and the stage is set for new ways of thinking about library services.

One result of this kind of thinking was that by the early 1990s most libraries had come to accept that their role was better described as the provision of access to information sources than as the custody of physical artefacts – although of course there were exceptions, for example among national and highly specialist libraries. But as the access paradigm started to dominate, new methods of service delivery began to appear. The question became whether remote delivery, digitizing content, deploying electronic networks and exploiting the ever more widespread ownership of personal computers could offer a new way to think about, conceptualize and run the library.

It was at this point that the BIBDEL project was conceived. Funded by the European Commission's Libraries Programme it brought together three academic libraries – those of the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) in the UK, Dublin City University (DCU) in Ireland and the University of the Aegean (UAe) in Greece – to explore the potential of electronic delivery of library services to distant users. The co-ordinating partner, UCLAN, worked with students taking university courses at small, remote colleges across the north-west of England.

Summary

Introduction

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are enabling a global audience to share knowledge and ideas with one another by the click of a button. One of the key tools of this revolution is the internet, which is replacing CD-ROMs with online databases, traditional hard copy books and journals with digital libraries and atlases with interactive geo-spatial data. The success of these services is maximized if end-users are well supported to easily accomplish their desired tasks.

The nature of digital libraries

In recent years the information superhighway, the internet, has become a global gateway for information dissemination. With the ability to share worldwide collections of information, digital libraries (DLs) have become one of the common mediums to store and disseminate information by individuals or groups that select, organize and catalogue large numbers of documents.

DLs, generally referred to as ‘collections of information that are both digitized and organized’ (Lesk, 1997), give us opportunities we never had with traditional libraries or even with the web. Current design of DLs contains complex facilities including text search, functionality relating to hypertext, multimedia, the internet and highly interactive interfaces.

According to Theng (1997), if we have problems producing good websites (as evidenced by much research done in addressing problems on the web), then because DLs are more than just websites, we can expect to have problems creating good DLs too. Also, Dix et al. (1995) suggested that even if the best methodologies and models are adopted in the design of a usable interactive system, it is still necessary to assess the design and test the system to ensure that it behaves as expected and meets the user's requirements. Therefore, there is a need for a usability and accessibility framework that supports the development of effective solutions for DLs in order to produce truly usable and accessible DLs.

A crucial factor for libraries is that the information they preserve and deliver must be effectively organized. With regards to DLs, Arms (2002) notes that a ‘(d)igital stream of data sent to earth from a satellite is not a library. [However, the] same data, when organized systematically, becomes a digital library collection.’ This is one of the key dimensions of a DL.

Summary

Introduction

Library and Information professionals are agreed that the catalysts that will empower Africa in her quest for development are information and knowledge. The increasing openness and globalization of the world economy has further made it clear that organizations must lever information effectively to achieve their objectives and stay competitive. The response has been a further pressure on professionals to perform and demonstrate their relevance to their organization's bottom line.

Realizing that access to information and flexible learning are what would differentiate them for success, professionals are turning to libraries for support for their personal and professional development, especially with the dearth of support from other quarters. However, as information becomes more rapidly available in non-book sources, which could be accessed electronically using new and emerging technologies, the relevance of a largely traditional Nigerian library to a highly mobile and constrained segment of its clientele is in question.

As in other parts of Africa, low levels of literacy in information and communication technologies (ICTs) in Nigeria are perpetuated by limited access to computers. Yet, over 75% of organizations in Nigeria put emphasis on possession of demonstrable ICT skills as a requirement for employment. Therefore the need for relevance and employability has recently driven professionals to seek ICT skills training where available, especially in libraries that provide it free of charge.

The use and availability of ICTs in Nigeria

Organizations that are major employers of professionals in Nigeria spend about 478 billion naira annually on ICT and will be inclined to spend 1.6 trillion naira in the near future. Although of the over 120 million people in Nigeria, only about 0.6% have access to a PC at home, the pace of ICT uptake is increasingly encouraging. Nigeria is quickly becoming one of the destinations of ICT product providers in Africa, second only to South Africa. In the last seven years, the number of licensed full internet providers has grown from 3 to 160, 40 of which provide access in real time. With more than a quarter of organizations having a web presence, more professionals have access to the internet (NICT, 2003).

Summary

Introduction

With the development of information and communications technologies (ICTs) classic library practice has become digitized and at the same time has evolved into the practice of information skills. Digitizing practice has greatly increased the quality of instruction. Apart from the standard advantages that employing ICT brings, such as improved facilities at the work place, speed and time independence, the biggest advantage could be the potential to demonstrate exactly how different library systems work, from information seeking to lending. It is possible to serve users by offering them the necessary skills to approach library systems properly and to make their visits to libraries more successful. Many good examples of such programmes, the so called self-explanatory libraries, are available nowadays – for example, the Wageningen Desktop Library (http://library.wur.nl/ desktop/direct/), The Personal Composer (http://search.library.tudelft.nl/pcom/) (both from The Netherlands), LUMINA (www.lib.umn.edu/), The Data Genie (www.lib.calpoly.edu/research/data_genie.html) and, of course, MetaLib (www. exlibris.co.il/metalib/overview.html). With the rise of electronic learning environments, however, one is forced to proceed a stage further. This is a move from information skills to ‘dealing with’ digital scientific material. ‘Dealing with’ implies more than ‘possessing skills’. It involves working according to the rules and methods that determine the exchange of scientific knowledge. The question is no longer how to understand the library system or even how to use it, but knowing how to deal with scientific material as it presents itself through the e-platform both socially and with respect to content. By ‘socially’ we mean that through use of the e-platform it is possible to engage with the scientific network that provides information, which enables us to evaluate it. Dealing with the content of scientific material means that it is now possible to have direct access to the information itself so the information has great influence. Thus, in order to make the package of library functions compatible with and work with an e-platform, the library will need to develop new forms of service and interactive systems that contribute to the possibility of being at the right knowledge centre at the right moment.

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6023 results in Facet Publishing

19 - Denmark's electronic research library: from national project to permanent activity

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23 - Librarians in digital communities of practice

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1 - Preliminary issues

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Preface

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2 - What is on offer? The electronic resources landscape

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3 - E-books and e-journals

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5 - Library services and virtual learning: the DEViL project

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17 - Supporting learning, teaching and research at Manchester Metropolitan University

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24 - X4L: Exchange for Learning

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14 - Digital library services at the Italian National Health Institute library

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15 - The information-deprived continent: can we do something?

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Miscellaneous Endmatter

THEME 1 - THE INTEGRATION OF LIBRARY SERVICES AND VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

2 - Keynote paper: beyond the mainstream of library services

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Select bibliography

Index

12 - An incremental usability and accessibility evaluation framework for digital libraries

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Frontmatter

13 - Overcoming barriers to library use by Nigerian professionals

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4 - Supporting information-based networks in higher education

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