Developing and implementing digital publications and collections in academic environments: the perspective from a developing country

Citation

Galina, I. (2012), "Developing and implementing digital publications and collections in academic environments: the perspective from a developing country", Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 64 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ap.2012.27664aaa.001

Developing and implementing digital publications and collections in academic environments: the perspective from a developing country

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives, Volume 64, Issue 1

Introduction

Now that the Internet is firmly established within the academic environment in most developing countries, we have asked several researchers to describe the different projects that they have been involved in and to reflect on what impact information and communication technologies (ICTs) have had on their work, particularly with the development of digital collections and publications. The aim of this issue is to describe experiences, research and project implementations of real life situations in an academic environment in a developing country.

Since their introduction, ICTs have been viewed as having the potential to radically transform the world we live in. For developing countries especially, it was believed that technology would alleviate and even transform our social, cultural, educational, and political realities (Heeks, 2002; McNamara, 2003; Walsham and Sahay, 2006). In particular, ICTs would democratize information, creating a level playing field where previously unheard voices would finally have the opportunity to contribute to the global discourse. Research in the information studies field, especially that concerned with the implementation and deployment of information systems, may tend to focus more on the performance or impact of the system itself rather than on the sociological aspects surrounding their implementation (Kling, 2000).

Many however, have questioned this deterministic view of the impact of ICTs on development and have argued that simply introducing or adopting a particular technology does not necessarily imply that the desired changes will occur (Heeks, 2010). In many cases ICTs have been introduced with little or no impact or, more interestingly, with a completely unexpected outcome. Socio informatics argues that often, tacit assumptions are made about the potential benefits of ICTs that do not take into consideration the more complex and subtle social phenomena. They also tend to overlook that there can be both positive and negative effects when implemented. Understanding the implementation of ICTs through social aspects has been used in different fields such as information systems, information science, computer science, sociology, political science, education, and communications (Kling et al., 2005). The main problem is that these studies stem from different fields of enquiry and have generally been published in different disciplinary journals (Robbin and Day, 2006).

The academic environment, a highly structured and hierarchical global organization, is a particularly interesting example for a more socio informatic approach to understanding the impact of ICTs. Although there has been much written about the potential benefits, there has been little research into exactly how these technologies have impacted the academic community, in a developing country. Additionally it is important to continue to add to the existing literature on this subject in order to keep it updated. The developing world has a lot to offer in terms of research into complex and diverse situations, which may differ from the developed world. How do information scientists, librarians and other academics develop, manage, study and implement information systems within this very particular context?

The articles in this issue focus on Latin America and Mexico in particular. Moreover, it does not assume that the results found will necessarily be true of other developing countries. Social and cultural issues from different countries will necessarily imply different contexts and implementation. However, we hope that by highlighting and especially documenting this research, then these experiences can be shared and contrasted with other research in order to work towards building a framework to analyse common opportunities and difficulties in digital academic information environments.

Overview

This issue is comprised of six articles that address a variety of issues related to the development and impact of digital collections and publications in a developing country. Alonso et al. provide a historical overview of databases such as indexing and abstracting services, directories, catalogues and electronic journals that have been produced in the region in order to increase the impact and visibility of Latin American journals both at local and global level. One notable challenge for the region has been not so much the lack of scientific production but a shortage of efficient and appropriate communication and distribution channels in order to make this information available. This article provides an important overview of the initiatives to date and includes the current role of Open Access and repositories towards strengthening the dissemination and the quality of scientific resources both on a regional and global level.

On a similar line, Aguado et al. discuss the need to consolidate local scientific policies that promote research and development in the region. However, they argue that the basis and criteria to evaluate scientific production is mainly from developed countries and that research from developing countries is usually underrepresented in international databases. Online information platforms are an ideal way to disseminate local research and make it more available, but also to provide more representative and richer bibliometric data to aid government and other funding bodies in evaluating and designing scientific policies. Their article is an analysis of Redalyc, an online library of open access research from the region. Redalyc is described as a mediator platform, an online instrument that contributes to the global research environment but is also a supplier of valuable information related to scientific production in the region, providing important feedback to develop useful indicators for government, funding bodies and scientific councils to promote development in the region.

Sanchez et al. address the issue of how to integrate information from these distributed and open scholarly digital collections in order further exploit the opportunities that they represent for research communities in developing countries. The paper describes OntOAIr a semi-automatic method for building lightweight ontologies from documents provided by Open Archives Initiative, used by Open Access repositories. The proposal seeks to offer a tool that will increase the potential of these collections for knowledge acquisition and knowledge management on a global level.

The online-networked environment also provides universities with an unprecedented channel to reflect the research that is being carried out within the institution, its area of expertise, and its scientific production. University web pages are now considered a valuable showcase window of communication to the rest of the world as well as an important web-based indicator of academic productivity. Russell et al. present an interesting case study of a one of the most important universities in Mexico in which they seek to determine to what extent the scientific production and the research activities are visible through the university’s web domain. Their study confirms that available technology does not necessarily translate into expected outcomes and it is hoped that this article will promote a greater awareness of the importance of utilizing this available space. The article demonstrates the importance of the accompanying changes in attitudes as well as the development of specific policies and not just the implementation of technology.

The lack of organization and structured policies does not necessarily mean, however, a shortage in the production of online academic resources. Voutssas’ article addresses the issue of digital preservation in the region. The article is a reminder of the imperative need to attend to the problem of how to ensure the long-term authentic preservation of digital document collections. The article provides an overview of current international initiatives but also argues for the need to develop local and regional initiatives that take into consideration cultural and social factors, and not just technological, that will determine the success of such initiatives. Voutssas proposes a framework to analyse the current situation as a first step towards addressing preservation issues in the region, highlighting in particular how the subject is currently overlooked.

In his article about developing a digital humanities project, Priani accurately outlines some of the key differences with projects of this kind in developing countries. The author analyses the innovative nature of this type of research in Mexico and the additional factors that must be taken into consideration when developing this kind of work. In particular, Priani argues that these projects will necessarily prove disruptive and challenge existing technical knowledge and abilities. They must focus, not only on research, but also on training human resources as well as on problems related to long term infrastructure and hosting which are currently not being addressed.

Conclusions

It is quite clear, and this has been known for some time, that the availability of technology is not the “magic bullet” to resolve underlying issues related to the management and dissemination of scientific production. Familiar issues related to the need to develop systems that effectively increase the visibility of developing countries research production as well as tools to aid the evaluation and production of local indicators are present in the articles in this issue. Additionally, new factors such as digital preservation and digital humanities projects pose fresh challenges for information professionals in the region. The articles all refer in some way to the cultural, social and in particular organizational and administrative solutions that must be implemented in parallel to technological developments in order to take full advantage of the possibilities. Even within academic environments, which tend to be organizational structures which are fairly homogeneous around the world (in terms of their structure, their aims, their values, their objectives and ways of communicating) the implementation of technology due to these factors has been different.

It is hoped that this issue will allow alternate voices to be heard within the information science and library world. The particular situation of our region, and others in the developing world, offers an appealing test bed to examine theories about information systems that work within the developed world in a different, diverse and complex scenario. It also provides an interesting scope for new research. We hope that this will help us to identify key factors and particular challenges for developing and implementing information systems.

Isabel GalinaGuest Editor