This article analyzes the importance of children's bibliographic collections in school libraries and their contribution to the academic training of primary school students. Based on IFLA/UNESCO frameworks and authors such as Ameijeiras (2009) and Gómez (2002), the school library is conceived as a resource center for reading, information, and learning, integrated into the curriculum and oriented toward equity. A qualitative approach is adopted with interviews and a questionnaire with library science professionals in Heredia, and a documentary review. The findings indicate: (1) a predominance of female staff with university education (mostly bachelor's degrees) and ≥2 years of experience; (2) infrastructure gaps (50% report inadequate spaces); (3) acquisition by purchase/donation and incomplete coverage of collection development policies (63%); (4) collections with reference material and literature, but limited presence of recreational material, key for emergent reading; (5) The adequacy of the resources for the first cycle was rated as "fairly so" by 63%, highlighting the need for updating and greater curricular and age alignment. The selection is guided by MEP lists, curricular relevance, institutional values, and feedback from teachers and students. Reading preferences focus on narrative (short stories, young adult novels, fables), high-appeal subgenres (fantasy, science fiction, horror, romance, suspense, graphic novels), and informative science texts; popular franchises boost motivation. Methodologically, reading clubs and recreational mediations (storytelling, puppets) stand out, although gaps in coordination with Spanish and risks of extrinsic motivation persist. It is concluded that strengthening infrastructure, PDC, recreational materials, and early mediation are crucial to improving comprehension, reading habits, and learning outcomes.
The full-text problem-oriented database “Outstanding Soil Scientists of Russia” (DB), created by the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution “Central Scientific Agricultural Library” (CSAL), for the purpose of providing information for scientific research in the field of soil science and improving information and library services for agricultural scientists and specialists. Full-text DBs significantly expand users’ access to information resources, save time, allowing them to get the necessary information to their desktop without physically visiting the library. The inclusion in scientific circulation of complete electronic texts of the most significant works of outstanding Russian soil scientists, which are part of the scientific heritage, organized into a single structured array that allows for a quick and effective search for individual document attributes and full text, improves the quality of information support for scientific research on agriculture and soil science. The methodology of DB formation is described. The DB is part of the complex of information resources of the CSAL, the linguistic and software tools of which provide the formation of a complete bibliographic record, relevant and fast search. The database content was generated from the CSAL stock. As a result of studying the stock, literature and bibliographic sources, and consultations with specialists from the V.V. Dokuchaev Soil Science Institute, a list of 147 people was formed. The list includes the most famous soil scientists who have made a great contribution to the development of soil science and have left a significant mark on science: scientists of tsarist Russia, scientists who worked in the USSR, and scientists working now. The science of soil was born in Russia; it is called Russian science because it was Russian scientists who laid the foundation of classical soil science. The DB includes the works of the founders of soil science. The created problem-oriented database “Outstanding Soil Scientists of Russia” contains more than 450 documents. The creation of problem-oriented DBs improves the quality of information and library services for users, providing quick and comfortable search and the ability to get information to the researcher’s desktop. The inclusion of retrospective or little-known works by soil scientists in general scientific circulation expands the boundaries of user knowledge, which will be useful for scientists and practitioners studying the historical roots of the development of soil science.
This Regular Feature explores the role of health science librarians in the coronavirus pandemic. COVID-19 has spread rapidly all over the world. All major cities around the globe are in lockdown. In Pakistan the first case was diagnosed on 26 Feb 2020 and currently there are more than 1500 diagnosed cases and 12 deaths. Across the country there are a further 12,000 suspected cases. This will undoubtedly increase if precautionary measures are not taken. Pakistani universities, colleges and schools were in lockdown. The role of university librarians in this emergency included raising awareness through public health education, providing support to medical staff, researchers and providing ongoing, traditional services to regular library patrons in Pakistan. The Regular Feature also provides links to useful resources.
Immersive technologies cover a multitude of emerging technologies focused on immersion, virtualization and interactivity. They cover several categories including three main ones, namely virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR), in addition to other immersive technologies including haptic technology, holography and digital twins. This paper explores the growing role of these technologies in cultural diplomacy, highlighting their creative contributions and potential, their challenges and their perspectives for strengthening Moroccan cultural soft power. From this perspective, we tried to answer our following central question which served as a common thread: How to optimize the integration of immersive technologies in Moroccan cultural diplomacy to strengthen its cultural soft power and promote an immersive, authentic and engaging representation of the culture of Morocco? For this, we highlighted, initially, the specificities of immersive technologies in terms of immersion, virtualization and interactivity and their transformative and structuring potential of the cultural field as well as the contributions of these emerging technologies to the cultural diplomacy. Secondly, we addressed the various issues linked to the integration of immersive technologies in Moroccan cultural diplomacy, while shedding light on the perspectives and opportunities linked to their optimal integration. Thirdly, we have outlined development avenues in the form of recommendations and proposals capable of increasing the effectiveness and attractiveness of Moroccan cultural diplomacy and influence.
Keywords: Immersive technologies; cultural diplomacy; soft power; Virtual Reality; Augmented Reality; Mixed Reality.
Bibliography. Library science. Information resources
Objective. Since 2020, Ukraine has been developing the National Electronic Scientific Information System (URIS). The creation and development of URIS were initially guided by a specific Concept, whose implementation timeline has now concluded. However, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine mandated that work on URIS should continue. Consequently, there is a need to develop a new concept and identify the future directions for this scientific information system. Current research has emphasized the necessity of implementing the open science paradigm and highlighted the role of Current Research Information Systems (CRIS) in this process. There is a specific need to establish the development directions for URIS as a unique type of such system. The aim is to explore the prospective directions for the development of the National Electronic Scientific Information System "URIS," detailing the pathways for its growth and integrating new functions to fully implement the principles of open science in Ukraine. Methods. The study employed methods of theoretical generalization of normative and analytical data, as well as statistical and comparative analysis of the obtained scientific information. Results. The study identified seven directions with specific implementation paths: developing new functional modules for URIS, ensuring the comprehensive inclusion of priority information resources within URIS, providing Ukrainian scientists, research institutions, and higher education institutions with a digital tool, enabling ongoing communication with the scientific community and business representatives, identifying shortcomings in existing legal acts, creating conditions to overcome the dispersion of financial resources, accounting for losses in Ukrainian research infrastructure due to Russian military aggression. The URIS serves as a multifunctional platform for collecting, processing, and disseminating data related to scientific activities in Ukraine. Developed by the State Scientific and Technical Library of Ukraine, URIS aims to integrate and present aggregated data from various research institutions and universities, thereby enhancing the visibility of Ukrainian research on a global scale. This paper discusses the importance of URIS in supporting academic and research libraries, emphasizing the role of the library's experts in implementing the project. Conclusions. The development and improvement of URIS should lead to a significant reduction in the use of paper for various documents, offering interested individuals and organizations a wide range of digital tools for quick and continuous access to research data, information, and services related to the field of science. The full implementation of this project will enhance the visibility of Ukrainian scientists and research infrastructures both within Ukraine and for interested researchers and institutions in Europe and globally. Scope of Application of Research Results. The development of URIS will support the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine in fulfilling the national plan for open science and accelerating Ukraine's integration into the European Research Area. The successful implementation of URIS demonstrates the vital role of academic and research libraries in the digital age. The expertise of the State Scientific and Technical Library of Ukraine has been instrumental in advancing the goals of URIS, which aims to enhance the quality and visibility of Ukrainian research both nationally and internationally.
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The purpose of the article is to analyze the main directions of dissertation research by Ukrainian scientists regarding the use of innovative technologies in libraries, with an emphasis on libraries for children. The research methodology is based on the use of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, generalization, etc.) and special research methods based on the specifics of the scientific task (bibliographic, information analysis, descriptive content analysis, etc.). The scientific novelty of the study consists in highlighting the main directions of dissertation work on the use of information technologies in libraries for children, with an outline of the prospects for further research. Conclusions. The main task of the modern library is the constant expansion of its activities. In the conditions of digitization of society, access to them should be obtained by anyone who has a computer or other technological device connected to the Internet, and accordingly - to the library network. Therefore, in a modern library, in particular, a children's library, a wide variety of digital elements and resources are increasingly offered for use, all that is necessary for adaptation to new technologies and to meet the dynamic needs of users. The library should not oppose digitalization, but on the contrary - unite with it, the use of digital technologies should become a normal and necessary condition of its services. All these aspects of transformational changes should not only be taken into account in the activities of the library for children, but also actively studied within the framework of librarian science. At the moment, it is possible to note sufficient articulation in the dissertation works of Ukrainian scientists of the main aspects of informatization, which is considered the foundation of the development of digital technologies. However, the latter has not yet received significant attention in the work of librarians. In addition, it is worthy of attention to study the main directions, functions and components of digitalization of libraries for children, which, in our opinion, as high-tech multimedia environments involving the tools of the information and communication approach are able to implement the main tasks of the socio-cultural mission - socialization, inculturation, formation of interest in reading and teaching. Keywords: information technologies, library, children's library, digitization, dissertation research, Ukrainian scientists.
Local and national media have always played an instrumental role in the communication of academic research to the public. In recent years, this has proved even more important due to the extensive online national and international coverage of topics such as climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic. Given that the media represent the public’s first point of contact with, and key source of information about, science and research, then, as academics, we need to know, firstly, whether the media make this research easily identifiable for the public and, secondly, whether the research itself is accessible. Our study examined coverage of University of Sheffield published research in UK local and national media to explore how far it is identifiable and accessible; using data from Altmetric.com we investigated what proportion of research covered provided sufficient details to identify research, including links to the published articles and explored how much of the research was accessible via open access. A large proportion of research that featured in local media cited the journal, academic institution and author, but did not link to the article. By contrast, national media cited the author, institution or funder much less than local news websites, but often linked to the actual research article. Most articles featured were open access. The implications of this and potential reasons for the national and local differences are discussed.
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Jens Bjerring-Hansen, Ross Deans Kristensen-McLachlan, Philip Diderichsen
et al.
In this paper we present an OCR correction pipeline for 19th century printed Danish fraktur (gothic/blackletter). The work has been carried out at the University of Copenhagen in relation to a research project involving digital explorations of a corpus of some 900 Danish and Norwegian novels from 1870 to 1899, totalling app. 65 million words. Roughly 25% of these novels are printed in the traditional fraktur font, which was almost totally dominating in the beginning of the 19th century. These texts are important culturally, since they represent mostly forgotten, popular novels, however they pose technical and methodological challenges in terms of processing the text from printed page to digital corpus. In order to provide the best possible material for digital literary analysis as well as more linguistic studies, we designed an OCR correction pipeline for the fraktur part of the corpus consisting of several different heuristic correction steps, with reference to a gold standard. The first step is a preprocessing step which takes care of obvious and unambiguous OCR errors. In the second step we align our primary OCR output candidate (the output from Tesseract using the Fraktur.traineddata pretrained OCR model) with several other OCR output candidates and perform selective correction with reference to these. Especially the Danish “æ” and “ø” characters can be successfully recovered with reference to the Danish, non-fraktur dan.traineddata Tesseract model. Finally, in the third step, we employ the SymSpell spell checker to perform spelling correction backed by a word form dictionary hand-crafted from various relevant sources. The pipeline reduces the word error rate by 7.6 percentage points from 10.5% (89.5% correctly recognized word forms) to 2.8% (97.2% correctly recognized word forms) - an improvement of almost 73%. The character error rate (CER) similarly decreased from 1.94% to 0.54%.
Bibliography. Library science. Information resources
Objective – Libraries have had to temporarily shut their doors because of the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in the provision of online and remote services. This review analyzed services offered by libraries, the technological tools used, and the challenges facing libraries during the pandemic. Methods – This study employed a systematic literature review, following the PRISMA checklist (Moher at al., 2009). The Building Blocks search strategy was employed to search for keywords of concepts in Library and Information Science Abstract (LISA), Library and Information Science Technology Abstract (LISTA), Library Science Database, Web of Science (WoS) core collections, and Google Scholar. A set of inclusion and exclusion criteria was pre-determined by the authors prior to database searching. Quality assessment of included studies was performed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (Hong et al., 2018). A tabular approach was used to provide a summary of each article allowing the synthesis of results, which led to the identification of eight broad categories of services provided by libraries in included studies. Results – The first set of searches from the 5 databases produced 3,499 results. After we removed duplicates and applied the inclusion and exclusion criteria based on titles and abstracts, 37 potentially relevant articles were identified. Further screening of the full-text led to the final inclusion of 23 articles used for the qualitative synthesis. The majority of the studies were conducted in the United States of America (n= 6, 26.1%), followed by India (n=4, 17%), and China (n=2, 8.7%). The remaining studies were carried out in United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Mexico, Romania, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe. The most common method used in selected studies was the case study (n= 11, 48%), followed by survey (n=7, 30.4%), content analysis (n=4, 17.4%), and mixed methods (n=1, 4.3%). The majority of the studies were carried out in academic libraries (74%), while the rest were based on medical, public, and special libraries. Findings show that the majority of academic libraries in the included studies are providing and expanding access to electronic resources (n=16, 69.6%) and increasing open access resources and services (n=11, 47.8%). More so, most academic libraries are assisting in virtual education and teaching endeavors of faculty and students (n=13, 56.5%). In addition, some medical and public libraries are bolstering public health safety through health literacy (n=12, 52.2%), supporting research efforts, and engaging in virtual reference services, among others. In order to carry out these services, libraries are harnessing several educational, social networking, communication, and makerspaces technologies. Most of the libraries in the included studies reported budgetary challenges, and the need for new ICT infrastructure and Internet service as they move their services online. Conclusion – This review found that libraries are adapting in a number of ways to continue their roles in meeting patrons’ needs in spite of the growing challenges posed by COVID-19 restrictions and lockdown. For libraries to thrive in these trying times, there must be a well-structured approach to ensuring continuity of services. Libraries should prioritize the acquisition of electronic resources as well as increase their efforts to digitize resources that are only available in printed copies. As library services have predominantly shifted online, there should be concerted effort and support from government and funding agencies to equip libraries with the technological facilities needed to provide cutting-edge services. The quality assessment of the included studies shows that there is need for rigor and transparency in the methodological description of studies investigating library services provision in a pandemic. This review provides an overview of the ways libraries have responded to the challenges posed by a global pandemic, and hence will be of use and interest to all librarians especially those in health and academic sectors.
Background When health service providers (HSP) plan to develop electronic health (eHealth) resources for health service users (HSU), the latter’s involvement is essential. Typically, however, HSP, HSU, and technology developers engaged to produce the resources lack expertise in participatory design methodologies suited to the eHealth context. Furthermore, it can be difficult to identify an established method to use, or determine how to work stepwise through any particular process. Objective We sought to summarize the evidence about participatory methods and frameworks used to engage HSU in the development of eHealth resources from the beginning of the design process. Methods We searched for studies reporting participatory processes in initial development of eHealth resources from 2006 to 2016 in 9 bibliographic databases: MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Emcare, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, ACM Guide to Computing Literature, and IEEE Xplore. From 15,117 records initially screened on title and abstract for relevance to eHealth and early participatory design, 603 studies were assessed for eligibility on full text. The remaining 90 studies were rated by 2 reviewers using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool Version 2011 (Pluye et al; MMAT) and analyzed with respect to health area, purpose, technology type, and country of study. The 30 studies scoring 90% or higher on MMAT were included in a detailed qualitative synthesis. Results Of the 90 MMAT-rated studies, the highest reported (1) health areas were cancer and mental disorders, (2) eHealth technologies were websites and mobile apps, (3) targeted populations were youth and women, and (4) countries of study were the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Of the top 30 studies the highest reported participatory frameworks were User-Centered Design, Participatory Action Research Framework, and the Center for eHealth Research and Disease Management (CeHRes) Roadmap, and the highest reported model underpinning development and engagement was Social Cognitive Theory. Of the 30 studies, 4 reported on all the 5 stages of the CeHRes Roadmap. Conclusions The top 30 studies yielded 24 participatory frameworks. Many studies referred to using participatory design methods without reference to a framework. The application of a structured framework such as the CeHRes Roadmap and a model such as Social Cognitive Theory creates a foundation for a well-designed eHealth initiative that ensures clarity and enables replication across participatory design projects. The framework and model need to be clearly articulated and address issues that include resource availability, responsiveness to change, and the criteria for good practice. This review creates an information resource for future eHealth developers, to guide the design of their eHealth resource with a framework that can support further evaluation and development. Trial Registration PROSPERO CRD42017053838; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=53838
هدف: هدف پژوهش حاضر ارزیابی تأثیر تولیدات علمی پژوهشگران «مؤسسه تحقیقات جنگلها و مراتع کشور» در پایگاه اطلاعاتی اسکوپوس با استفاده از شاخصهای آلتمتریکس ابزار پلامایکس است.
روششناسی: مطالعه حاضر از لحاظ هدف، کاربردی و از لحاظ نوع، توصیفی علمسنجی که با استفاده از روش کتابخانهای و رویکرد آلتمتریکس انجام شده است. جامعه پژوهش، تولیدات علمی پژوهشگران «مؤسسه تحقیقات جنگلها و مراتع کشور» نمایهشده در اسکوپوس تا اسفند 1398 است. اطلاعات کتابشناختی، شاخص استناد و شاخصهای آلتمتریکس مقالات استخراج و در فایل اکسل ذخیره شد. نتایج با استفاده از روشهای آمار توصیفی و تحلیلی در قالب جداول و نمودار ارائه شد.
یافتهها: 6.81 درصد تولیدات مورد بررسی استناد دریافت کردهاند. بیش از 90 درصد این تولیدات در یکی از 13 عملکرد مربوط به پنج شاخص آلتمتریکس مورد توجه قرار گرفتهاند. شاخص استفاده با 61481 مرتبه بیشترین آمار و شاخصهای رسانه اجتماعی و اشاره، از کمترین میزان برخوردار بودند. از بین عملکردهای مختلف این شاخصها، بیشترین تعداد به عملکردهای مشاهده چکیده، خواندهشدن و مشاهده متن کامل اختصاص داشت. نتایج حاکی از همبستگی مثبت معنادار بین شاخصهای آلتمتریکس و شاخص سنتی استناد دارد.
نتیجهگیری: فعالیت پژوهشگران در رسانههای اجتماعی میتواند افزایش مشاهدهپذیری آثار علمی را به همراه داشته باشد. پژوهشگران میتوانند از این بستر بهعنوان ابزار خود-آرشیوی استفاده نمایند.
Science (General), Information resources (General)
Tatiana Rossi, Márcia Aparecida Prim, Roberta Moraes de Bem
et al.
O conhecimento humano necessita ser capturado, organizado e disponibilizado para tornar-se recuperável e acessível por todos. Neste sentido, a adoção da Gestão do Conhecimento (GC) direciona ao uso de práticas que contribuem para o registro deste conhecimento, como o mapeamento de processos. A Biblioteca Universitária da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (BU/UFSC) desenvolve seus trabalhos com base das diretrizes da GC desde maio de 2015, quando iniciou a aplicação do Framework GC@BU, por meio de uma comissão de GC, a qual deu origem a comissão de Mapeamento de Processos. Objetiva-se apresentar a metodologia utilizada pela BU/UFSC para mapear os processos das principais atividades realizadas. São 11 processos com 79 subprocessos, desmembrados em 131 atividades, mapeados a partir da realização de um esboço, o qual é apresentado e validado pela Comissão. Após a validação e realização de ajustes necessários é desenhado o fluxograma em software específico e submetido ao mesmo processo. Para exemplificar, apresenta-se o mapeamento do processo “Empréstimo de item” e o fluxograma. Conclui-se que a receptividade e disponibilização dos servidores, trás um resultado positivo para a realização e sucesso do mapeamento de processos. Formalizando o registro das atividades obtendo a padronização, retenção do conhecimento gerado e compartilhamento do mesmo.
Bibliography. Library science. Information resources
This study attempts to identify the role of the social media YouTube in allowing librarians and professional users to define and give information about national libraries in the Arab world through taking free video recordings available on digital spaces, or through live streaming in real time. In this scope, the latter will find this space as a suitable style for efficient library communication, and interaction via participation and comments around, above all, defining and marketing the various services offered by the different national libraries’ services and departments in the Arab world. That provides a participative space for exchanging ideas and information, in addition to demonstrable interaction on the professional side and daily news. This study has adopted the content analytical approach in relation with a selected list available via video clips’ network “YouTube”, using the search term ‘national library” for every particular Arab country adopting free discharging axis tab that cover the most important sides of the video clips’ topics such as: the comprehensive library services, scientific and cultural animation service, book exhibition services, meetings with personalities, library field visits, holding scientific manifestations, roles of citizenship and civil society, general news coverage. This study intends also to give an evaluative view on the level of cultural social communication and on the library side between the various segments of society within this space of social media spaces. Some practical suggestions are presented in the perspective of activating more this communication network in society.
Bibliography. Library science. Information resources
The Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University (MCZ), founded in 1859, has approximately 20 million extant and fossil invertebrate and vertebrate specimens. These historical collections continue to be a focus of research and teaching for the MCZ, Harvard and outside researchers. The Ernst Mayr Library/Archives (EMLA) of the MCZ is a founding member of the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), an international consortium with a mission to make biodiversity literature openly available for use. Meeting the needs of the MCZ is a priority for EML Museum/library and achives collaboration One collaborative Museum/Library project was the digitization of approximately 81,000 MCZ specimen ledger pages/cards associated with various collections. These historical items, once digitized and deposited in the Harvard Digital Repository Service (DRS), were linked to the relevant specimen records in MCZbase, the museum-wide database. Over 1.2 million specimen records are now linked with digitized sources which benefit all users by adding to the provenance of the specimen data and allowing direct referral to the primary collection source. The EMLA holds an extensive collection of field notes, letters and manuscripts of researchers associated with the MCZ. Collector records are a gold mine of unpublished observations, notes, sketches, specimen lists and narratives. They are primary source data at its most personal, and may be the only documentation of a scientist’s thought processes and observations, particularly for unpublished materials. William Brewster was a prominent late 19th, early 20th century naturalist associated with the MCZ Ornithology Department until his death in 1919. Brewster provided authoritative and novel additions to the knowledge of birds, and his detailed, long-term observations are the key to his published contributions. Brewster’s unpublished scientific legacy is being digitized and deposited in the Harvard DRS and BHL by the EMLA. Transcribed notebook pages will be attached to images in BHL thus improving data discovery. Brewster deposited over 45,000 specimens in the MCZ Ornithology Collection. Combining specimens and unpublished notes is an opportunity to link hidden data and enhance research capabilities. Next steps for this collaborative project include finely grained cross-linking of specific pages, correspondence and photographs to and from the MCZ’s specimen database and BHL. We show how MCZ has leveraged data in digital repositories to enhance and directly relate to MCZbase, with citations to notes, transcriptions and published literature. These collaborations enhance discoverability of hidden data while promoting cross-discipline research to interrelated historical sources.
Elaine da Silva, Clemilton Luis Bassetto, Selma Letícia Capinzaiki Ottonicar
et al.
Apresenta uma análise das relações possíveis entre competência em informação, indicadores de inovação e inteligência competitiva e respectivas contribuições mútuas. Destaca o papel central da informação nas temáticas que perpassam toda a discussão, considerando a competência em informação elemento essencial tanto para o desenvolvimento de processos de inteligência competitiva, quanto para o alcance de bons resultados em indicadores de inovação, visando o desenvolvimento organizacional e social.
Bibliography. Library science. Information resources
В статті здійснено контент-аналіз публікацій польського видання «Річ Посполита» як джерела формування інформаційно-бібліографічного бюлетеня «Україна у відгуках зарубіжної преси» Фонду Президентів України Національної бібліотеки України імені В. І. Вернадського. Досліджено проблематику та динаміку висвітлення на сторінках тижневика позитивних і негативних сторін іміджу України за кордоном.
Bibliography. Library science. Information resources