Étiquette : academic libraries

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Academic Libraries and Copyright: Do Librarians Really Have the Required Knowledge?

Authors: Juan-Carlos Fernández-Molina, João Batista E. Moraes, José Augusto C. Guimarães

A solid professional performance on the part of academic librarians at present calls for adequate knowledge about copyright law, not only for the development of their own tasks without infringing the law, but also to guide and provide pertinent advice for library users (faculty and students).

This paper presents the results of an online survey of Brazilian academic librarians, the objective being to determine the level of knowledge about basic questions on copyright related to their professional activities.

The case of Brazil is especially relevant, as it is one of the few countries still not including library exceptions and limitations in its copyright law. Our results make manifest important gaps in knowledge about copyright, underlining the need for a training program to remedy the situation.

Moreover, because training is needed for current as well as future professionals, it should be implemented in both the professional and the educational sector.

URL : http://crl.acrl.org/content/78/2/241.abstract

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Research Data Services in European Academic Research Libraries

Authors : Carol Tenopir, Sanna Talja, Wolfram Horstmann, Elina Late, Dane Hughes, Danielle Pollock, Birgit Schmidt, Lynn Baird, Robert J. Sandusky, Suzie Allard

Research data is an essential part of the scholarly record, and management of research data is increasingly seen as an important role for academic libraries.

This article presents the results of a survey of directors of the Association of European Research Libraries (LIBER) academic member libraries to discover what types of research data services (RDS) are being offered by European academic research libraries and what services are planned for the future.

Overall, the survey found that library directors strongly agree on the importance of RDS. As was found in earlier studies of academic libraries in North America, more European libraries are currently offering or are planning to offer consultative or reference RDS than technical or hands-on RDS.

The majority of libraries provide support for training in skills related to RDS for their staff members. Almost all libraries collaborate with other organizations inside their institutions or with outside institutions in order to offer or develop policy related to RDS.

We discuss the implications of the current state of RDS in European academic research libraries, and offer directions for future research.

URL : Research Data Services in European Academic Research Libraries

DOI : http://doi.org/10.18352/lq.10180

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Managing research data at an academic library in a developing country

Authors : Shamin Renwick, Marsha Winter, Michelle Gill

Managing research data has become an issue for many universities. In the Caribbean, the St Augustine Campus Libraries at the University of the West Indies are keenly aware of the need to support researchers in this regard.

The objectives of this study were to identify current practices in managing research data on the campus and to determine a possible role for the Campus Libraries. A pilot study of 100 researchers on the campus was conducted. A

nalysis of the 65 valid responses revealed that while researchers owned data sets they had little knowledge or experience in managing such. This low level of awareness is instructive and validates a role for the Campus Libraries to play in supporting researchers on campus.

The Campus Libraries need to sensitize researchers about what data planning and managing research data entail as well as provide technical assistance with actual data storage.

URL : http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0340035216688703

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Bibliometrics and academic staff assessment in Polish university libraries – current trends

Authors : Danuta Ryś, Anna Chadaj

Academic staff assessment in Poland is, to a large extent, based on bibliographic indicators, such as the number of scientific publications produced, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education score pertaining to the journal rank and the publication type, as well as the number of citations and derivatives.

Relevant data is retrieved from bibliographic databases developed by libraries, international citation indexes available for Polish scientific institutions under a national licence, and from open-access international and Polish sources, which are briefly presented in the article.

The workload entailed, and in consequence, the results of this citation search vary depending on the search method applied. For this reason university staff members and university authorities often seek assistance for this from the university library staff. This in return provides an opportunity for libraries to increase their role within the academic community.

In order to investigate the matter further, the authors conducted a survey among the largest academic libraries in Poland.

The findings confirm that bibliometric processes (namely, the registration and the formal acceptance of university staff scientific publications, and compilation of citation reports) have become a vital part of modern library work. Bibliographies of university staff publications developed by libraries include various bibliometric indicators (those most frequently used being identified in the article), and have become an important source of statistical and bibliometric information.

The survey results highlight the most frequently used bibliometric sources and methods. Examples of bibliographic databases created by the libraries and bibliometric indicators used within these databases are also presented.

DOI : https://www.liberquarterly.eu/article/10.18352/lq.10175/

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Open supply? On the future of document supply in the world of open science

Author : Joachim Schöpfel

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose a personal viewpoint on the development of document supply in the context of the recent European Union (EU) decisions on open science.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper provides some elements to the usual questions of service development, about business, customers, added value, environment and objectives.

Findings

The EU goal for open science is 100 per cent available research results in 2020. To meet the challenge, document supply must change, include more and other content, serve different targets groups, apply innovative technology and provide knowledge. If not, document supply will become a marginalized library service.

Originality/value

Basically, open science is not library-friendly, and it does not offer a solution for the actual problems of document supply. But it may provide an opportunity for document supply to become a modern service able to deal with new forms of unequal access and digital divide.

URL : http://hal.univ-lille3.fr/hal-01408443

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Relationships between Consumption, Publication and Impact in French Universities in a value perspective: A Bibliometric Analysis

Authors : Chérifa Boukacem-Zeghmouri, Pascal Bador, Thierry Lafouge, Hélène Prost

The study aims to investigate the relationships between consumption of e-journals distributed by Elsevier ScienceDirect platform, publication (articles) and impact (citations) in a sample of 13 French universities, from 2003 to 2009.

It adopts a value perspective as it questions whether or not publication activity and impact are some kind of return led by consumption. A bibliometric approach was used to explore the relations between these three variables.

The analysis developed indicators inspired by the mathematical h-Index technique. Results show that the relation between consumption, publication and citations depends on the discipline’s profile, the intensity of research and the size of each institution.

Moreover, although relations have been observed between the three variables, it is not possible to determine which variable comes first to explain the phenomena. The study concludes by showing strong correlations, which nevertheless do not lead to clear causal relations.

The article provide practical implication for academic library managers who want to show the added value of their electronic e-journals collections can replicate the study approach. Also for policy makers who want to take into account e-journals usage as an informative tool to predict the importance of publication activity.

Originality: The study is the first French contribution to e-journal value studies. Its originality consists in developing a value viewpoint that relies on a bibliometric approach.

URL : https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01272124

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Developing a theory of open access: a grounded theory based literature review

Author : Kent-Inge Andersson

The thesis presents a conceptual literature review of the subject of open access as it is reflected in literature relevant to digital library research. An approach to the grounded theory method specifically created for the purpose of performing a literature review is applied to 70 articles and conference proceedings found in the databases LISA and LISTA.

Through the coding of the literature five categories that conceptually order the subject of open access emerged; Open Access, Authors, Scholarly Communication, Libraries and Librarians, and Developing and Transitional Countries.

The conceptual relations of the categories are discussed in the presentation of the categories. The emerged theory is then validated through a review of earlier literature, which focused on literature reviews on open access.

A model of the emerged theory with explanatory narratives are then presented in the concluding chapter.

URL : http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1033071/FULLTEXT01.pdf