Search results

The purpose of this study is to offer a checklist that can be used for both creating and evaluating digital collections, which are also sometimes referred to as data sets as part of the collections as data movement, suitable for computational use.

The checklist was built by synthesising and analysing the results of relevant research literature, articles and studies and the issues and needs obtained in an observational study. The checklist was tested and applied both as a tool for assessing a selection of digital collections made available by galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM) institutions as proof of concept and as a supporting tool for creating collections as data.

Over the past few years, there has been a growing interest in making available digital collections published by GLAM organisations for computational use. Based on previous work, the authors defined a methodology to build a checklist for the publication of Collections as data. The authors’ evaluation showed several examples of applications that can be useful to encourage other institutions to publish their digital collections for computational use.

While some work on making available digital collections suitable for computational use exists, giving particular attention to data quality, planning and experimentation, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, none of the work to date provides an easy-to-follow and robust checklist to publish collection data sets in GLAM institutions. This checklist intends to encourage small- and medium-sized institutions to adopt the collection as data principles in daily workflows following best practices and guidelines.

Historical newspaper collections provide a wealth of information about the past. Although the digitization of these collections significantly improves their accessibility, a large portion of digitized historical newspaper collections, such as those of KBR, the Royal Library of Belgium, are not yet searchable at article-level. However, recent developments in AI-based research methods, such as document layout analysis, have the potential for further enriching the metadata to improve the searchability of these historical newspaper collections. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned issue.

In this paper, the authors explore how existing computer vision and machine learning approaches can be used to improve access to digitized historical newspapers. To do this, the authors propose a workflow, using computer vision and machine learning approaches to (1) provide article-level access to digitized historical newspaper collections using document layout analysis, (2) extract specific types of articles (e.g. feuilletons – literary supplements from Le Peuple from 1938), (3) conduct image similarity analysis using (un)supervised classification methods and (4) perform named entity recognition (NER) to link the extracted information to open data.

The results show that the proposed workflow improves the accessibility and searchability of digitized historical newspapers, and also contributes to the building of corpora for digital humanities research. The AI-based methods enable automatic extraction of feuilletons, clustering of similar images and dynamic linking of related articles.

The proposed workflow enables automatic extraction of articles, including detection of a specific type of article, such as a feuilleton or literary supplement. This is particularly valuable for humanities researchers as it improves the searchability of these collections and enables corpora to be built around specific themes. Article-level access to, and improved searchability of, KBR's digitized newspapers are demonstrated through the online tool (https://tw06v072.ugent.be/kbr/).

This study presents a review based research framework that aims to influence memory institutions in their projects on digital storytelling from digitized ancient travel records. This study aims to influence research and policymaking related to design and delivery of services based on memory institutions’ collections of historical records.

The demonstrated research framework has been synthesized using inputs from a review of existing studies on the domain accompanied by a short survey created for collecting the opinion of selected experts. Studies demonstrating utilization of semantic web technologies and those that can influence policymaking related to digital storytelling were primarily reviewed.

The core tasks behind digital storytelling vary depending on the project goals. So, a two-part framework had to be proposed that covers the generic fundamental tasks with diverse applicability and digital storytelling related specific tasks separately. Also during the review, it was found that studies demonstrating the use of travel records for digital storytelling were less in number compared to studies using digital storytelling for tourism in general.

The demonstrated research framework can guide memory institutions in exposing their travel-related holdings to a wider audience using innovative semantic web technologies and open up avenues for future empirical research thereby adding to the novelty of the presented research. Also, reviews of articles on digital storytelling or digital humanities in general exist, but, review of digital storytelling initiatives focusing specifically on tourism and travel literature is scarce.

The article investigates the institutional setup of e-lending in public libraries in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Our point of departure is that e-lending has necessitated new library collaborations between local, regional and national levels, and therefore, institutional e-lending setups have emerged. The study seeks to provide better understanding of how the institutional setups are structured, how governance logics have shaped them and what tensions and dynamics become visible in the key actors’ problematisations of these setups.

The study is situated in the neo-institutional tradition and applies the institutional logics perspective. The research questions are answered by taking a qualitative approach, grounded in an extensive interview study with representatives of libraries, publishers and policy actors in three Scandinavian countries. To provide in-depth insight into e-lending setups, the scope of empirical material is then limited to accounts the central library and policy actors involved in establishing e-lending.

The analysis shows that the e-lending setups are both similar (especially when it comes to financing), and different across Scandinavia, especially when it comes to centralisation and involvement of librarians in this task. The differences are attributed to the influence of different governance logics (question of administrative autonomy, collaboration in the field and existing legal and political frames), and to what extent the digital and market logics are incorporated or rejected in the field.

The study provides new insights into the question of how Scandinavian public libraries face the consequences of the digitalisation of book distribution and consumption by investigating how they organise their e-lending services. This has not been explored before, notably in a comparative perspective.

The digital contents (d-contents) are vulnerable to various threats either natural or manmade. Digital preservation is the plethora of a wide array of strategies necessary for the long-term preservation of digital objects. This study was carried out to assess the digital preservation practices for information resources in university libraries of Pakistan.

A quantitative survey based on a structured questionnaire was carried out to conduct the study. The questionnaire containing two sets of strategies (general and technical) was distributed amongst the whole population and received 90% response rate.

Overall, progressive implementation of general digital preservation practices was noted in these libraries like checking the digital collections for viruses, keeping the digital media in fire/water/theft proof locations, restricting unauthorized access, maintaining ideal humidity and temperature, and checking the digital media for functionality. Amongst the technical practices, only replication was in practice at a progressive rate, followed by metadata recording and media refreshing that was sometimes practiced in these libraries. The other technical practices were rarely or never practiced in these libraries. Significant variances in general and technical digital preservation practices were noted based on their physical locations (regional distribution).

The study contributes a comprehensive set of digital preservation practices divided into general and technical types to conduct similar studies in other parts of the world.

The findings stress the need for national and institutional policies, funding streams and skill enhancement of library staff.

The study fills the literature gap and contributes a comprehensive set of digital preservation practices divided into general and technical types to conduct similar studies in other parts of the world.

The peer-review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-02-2023-0074

While Digitalisation is gaining momentum among practitioners and the scientific world, there is still a struggle to embark on the digitalisation journey successfully. The struggles are more significant for SMEs compared to large companies. Such transformation could face internal resistance, which evokes the need to put it into a socio-technical perspective such as lean. This paper investigates how SMEs could implement digital tools and technologies in their operations.

We relied on a multiple case study design in three SME manufacturing companies in Italy. Based on the experience of those companies, the struggles in the implementation and the lessons learned, we formulate an implementation model of digital tools driven by lean thinking.

Companies tend to implement first digital tools that help with real-time data collection and stress that introducing digital tools becomes challenging without reducing waste in production. The model stresses top management commitment, middle-line involvement and operator training to resist change. All these factors coincide with socio-technical lean bundles developed by seminal works. In addition, the study highlights that financial incentives are not necessarily the common barrier to digital tools implementation in SMEs but rather the cultural aspect.

Our paper enriches the extant body of knowledge by deriving knowledge around digitalisation implementation through lessons learned and corrective actions. It allows managers to benchmark and compare the current state of the implementation process with that of other companies and the one proposed to make corrective actions when necessary.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the archives management practices and needs of corporations that do not employ professional archivists and propose strategies for helping corporations manage and preserve their archives.

An online survey was distributed to non-profit and for-profit corporations located in the XX area, USA.

The majority of surveyed corporations did not have archivists on staff and were not satisfied with their archives management practices. Many of them have unaddressed archives management needs and preferred no-cost or low-cost approaches to address those needs. Most surveyed corporations had digital archives but lacked knowledge about digital archiving. Free archiving resources and services provided by libraries/archives were dramatically less well known than commercial archiving resources and services.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is one of the very few empirical studies on corporate archives not under professional control. Findings from this study inspired thoughts on how archival education programs, professional associations, cultural heritage organizations and other relevant parties could help corporations better manage and preserve their archives.

Based on this holistic model, the authors propose and analyze seven key issues related to the admissibility of digital media in cross-border trials considering four Latin American countries.

The authors apply the modeling process of the soft systems methodology by Checkland in order to develop a holistic model focused on human situation problems involving digital media and information technology devices or systems.

The authors discuss the status of the identified key issues in each country and offer a perspective on the integration of cross-border work analyzing the contribution of these key issues to the collaboration between countries criminal cases or the use of foreign digital artifacts in domestic trials.

In this study, the authors assumed that the problems of official interaction between agencies of different countries are considered solved. However, for future studies or research, the authors recommend that these issues can be considered as relevant, since they are related to cross-border cooperation topics that will necessarily require unavoidable official arrangements, agreements and formalities.

This work is aimed at defining and analyzing the key issues that can contribute to the application of current techniques and methodologies in digital forensics as a tool to support the legal framework of each country, considering cross-border trials. Finally, the authors highlight the implications of this study lie in the identification and analysis of the key issues that must be considered for digital forensics as a support tool for the admissibility of digital evidence in cross-border trials.

The authors consider that digital forensic will have high demand in cross-border trials, and it will depend on the people mobility between the countries considered in this study.

This paper shows that the soft systems methodology allows elaborating a holistic model focused on social problems involving digital media and informatics devices.

The objectives of the study were to identify the effects of blockchain technology (BT) on the university librarians, the impact of BT on the university library services and to reveal the challenges to adopt BT in the university libraries.

A systematic literature review was applied to address the objectives of the study. Around 25 studies published in peer-reviewed journals were selected to conduct the study.

The findings of the study revealed that blockchain technology (BT) has positive effects on the university librarians as it assists them in digital resources management, provision of integrated library services, effective records management and continued professional development. The study also displayed that BT has a positive impact on the university libraries through effective information management, user privacy, collaboration, technological innovation and access control. Results also revealed that technical issues, financial constraints, security problems, skill issues and sociocultural issues created challenges to adopt BT in the university libraries.

The study has offered theoretical implications for future investigators through the provision of innovative literature on the prospectus and challenges associated with blockchain in the context of librarianship. The study has also provided practical implications for management bodies by offering recommendations for the successful adoption of blockchain in the university libraries. Additionally, a framework has been developed to adopt BT successfully in the university libraries for the delivery of smart library services to library patrons.

This study aims to assess the digital literacy of African library and information science (LIS) professionals. Digital literacy skills are required in the digital library environment.

Relevant literature was reviewed on this topic; previous study questionnaires, various university LIS curriculum, content analysis and job advertising were used for preparing the survey questionnaire. This study used an ex post facto research design. Purposive sampling was adopted in this study, and data were collected from Google form by sharing the research questionnaire by hyperlink which was undertaken from March 15, 2022 to May 24, 2022. The data were collected by a structured questionnaire. A four-point Likert scale was used to measure how library professionals acquired digital literacy skills. Content analysis of more than 500 job vacancies over the past three years (2018–2022) of library job advertisements was taken randomly.

This study’s findings show that the majority of the good at basic level of digital literacy skills at the same time have less in advanced digital literacy skills. The finding of this study shows the majority of them have to upgrade and learn about advanced digital literacy skills.

This study recommends adopting a new syllabus and updating a LIS curriculum based on the library’s technological development. Furthermore, this study’s potential result suggests more practical classes instead of theoretical study and it is useful to the library schools, associations, MOOC providers and lifelong learners.

This study is conducted with 102 African library professionals from 13 countries. This study discusses futuristic digital literacy skills and basic literacy skills. This study is beneficial to those who are preparing a new curriculum in LIS fields.