Search results

In 1998 The University of Iowa Libraries was the recipient of a grant from the Library of Congress/Ameritech National Digital Library Competition in support of a project to digitise a portion of its unique and extensive Redpath Chautauqua Collection. Although the staff of the Information Arcade at The University of Iowa Libraries has extensive experience in instructional technology, this was the first opportunity for them to engage in the digitisation of a large text collection of rare materials. This article will describe the processes undertaken in the project as well as the challenges when the theory of how to approach a digitisation project of significant scope clashed with the realities faced by the project team.

This article provides preliminary information about patterns of access and use of a collection of 35,000 electronic scholarly monographs in the humanities and social sciences provided by a commercial online library collection, Questia^SM. Search logs and page view logs were analyzed as to the characteristics of the search queries and browsing within titles. Major findings include patterns of simple search queries and significant access to a surprising breadth of titles.

Library professionals spend much of their budgeting time focused inward, allocating scarce resources among worthy competing priorities. Considerable time and skill is focused on the acquisition of the best print and electronic resources and in planning for computing infrastructure. And librarians are generous in sharing with others best practices for making budgetary decisions through articles in the library literature. However, less attention has been given in the literature on advice for those who wish to increase budgets for the services and programmatic offerings that are equally important for library clientele. This article attempts to address that gap. Summarizes the sage advice given in a presentation to a gathering of academic librarians during the June 1999 ALA to those who would better understand the budget process at research universities. Although the advice pertains primarily to budgeting practice in the USA, there are several nuggets of wisdom applicable in any situation.

Library technology centers have commonly received attention as locations with high‐end equipment and sophisticated software. However, the mere availability of resources is not sufficient to attract and build community with faculty who are not already committed to experimentation with technology. This article discusses the need for individualized interaction to build trust and social cohesion between faculty and library staff as a necessary part of promoting the dissemination of technology in a university setting.

This paper describes the history of the University of California eScholarship program, a joint effort of the University of California Libraries in collaboration with the California Digital Library. It discusses the context that gave rise to the creation of the eScholarship Repository, the logistical issues involved in setting up a multi‐campus persistent repository for scholarly output, and future issues to be addressed in developing experimental reconfigurations of the components of scholarly communication in collaboration with communities of scholars.

This article begins with an analysis of Questia’s online collection of digitized books and articles. Although the collection is not found to be a strong one, Questia’s strength lies in its ability to utilize the digital format to overcome many of the barriers and inconsistencies that undergraduate students encounter in a traditional brick‐and‐mortar academic library. Librarians can learn a lot from Questia and perhaps use that knowledge to improve their own services.

To identify levels of awareness and patterns of usage of electronic books by scholars in the humanities.

A survey of the University of Denver community assessed knowledge about and usage of electronic books. The results for humanists are presented here.

Scholars in the humanities have a higher level of awareness of e‐books than their colleagues across campus but use e‐books at the same rate. Their patterns of use are different, with humanists using less of the e‐book than do other groups. Humanists still prefer printed books to electronic texts at a higher rate than do other groups and care less about added features, such as searchability, than they do about content.

Humanists conduct research differently than do most other scholars, using the library catalog and browsing as primary means of finding information, and valuing the book more than other resources. No previous research has assessed whether humanists have similarly unique patterns of usage for electronic books.

Digitisation, as it will be explored in this issue of VINE, can be defined as the creation of an electronic version of an item such as a text, photograph, slide, illustration, microfilm or map. Combined with the forces of the Internet and CD‐ROM/DVD technology it offers the potential to allow previously inaccessible material to be viewed by fresh eyes and saved for posterity without risk of deterioration by handling or age.