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Digital libraries (DLs) are currently in place or being developed for a variety of educational applications. These resources offer support for instructional innovation, traditional curricula, and equitable access to learning resources. Yet, the carrot of instructional innovation is often overwhelmed by the stick of conflicting educational policy priorities. This chapter will define and situate the term “educational digital libraries,” and discuss the ways in which sustained use through school libraries and lessons learned from exemplary projects can transform the contemporary educational policy, reform, and learning landscape.

This paper aims to explore the role of institutional and national policies in the design process of educational digital libraries developed collaboratively with key stakeholders within the African higher education context.

A qualitative research project based on three case studies of universities in Africa (Uganda, Kenya, Uganda) was carried out; comprising a retrospective review of the design process of ten innovative digital libraries through 38 in‐depth interviews with key design stakeholders. The interviews were conducted between September and December, 2009, while the data were triangulated with observations and documentary evidence from key policies.

Institutional and national policies were found to have tremendous impact on the design process of digital libraries as well as on their sustainability. Their absence in the design process was found to stifle innovation.

This research was limited to the design process of digital libraries in African higher education. The research findings suggest that policy makers are important design gatekeepers and as such digital library designers should actively review relevant national and institutional policies, incorporate the implications of policies into design processes, and help to develop relevant policies.

The paper provides an understanding of the critical impact policies have with respect to supporting the design of educational digital libraries that are developed collaboratively with stakeholders. The retrospective review of completed digital library design processes carried out offers a different methodological approach for obtaining a high level understanding of the phenomenon under investigation.

This paper presents recently published resources on library instruction and information literacy, providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering various library types, study populations and research contexts.

This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations, reports and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2020.

The paper provides a brief description of all 440 sources and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions.

The information may be used by librarians, researchers and anyone interested in a quick and comprehensive reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

This paper presents recently published resources on library instruction and information literacy. It provides an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering various library types, study populations and research contexts. The selected bibliography is useful to efficiently keep up with trends in library instruction for busy practitioners, library science students and those wishing to learn about information literacy in other contexts.

This article annotates 424 English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations, theses and reports on library instruction and information literacy published in 2021. The sources were selected from the EBSCO platform for Library, Information Science, and Technology Abstracts (LISTA), Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), Scopus, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, and WorldCat, published in 2021 that included the terms “information literacy,” “library instruction,” or “information fluency” in the title, abstract or keywords. The sources were organized in Zotero. Annotations summarize the source, focusing on the findings or implications. Each source was categorized into one of seven pre-determined categories: K-12 Education, Children and Adolescents; Academic and Professional Programs; Everyday Life, Community, and the Workplace; Libraries and Health Information Literacy; Multiple Library Types; and Other Information Literacy Research and Theory.

The paper provides a brief description of 424 sources and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions.

The information may be used by librarians, researchers and anyone interested as a quick and comprehensive reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy within 2021.

The purpose of this paper is to discover the contextual factors affecting the development of digital library education (DLE) in Vietnam and to determine how those factors are enabling or hindering its development.

Based upon the literature and the theories of Fullan (2007), Nowlen (1988) and Rogers (2003), an initial model of contextual factors that were potentially affecting DLE development in Vietnam was developed. The model was then tested using a qualitative methodology involving interviews and focus groups with key stakeholders, along with the gathering of documentary evidence. The data were then analysed using the interactive model of Miles et al. (2014), and the initial model was then revised.

The initial model allowed for the depiction of potential factors, both internal and external, along with some relationships between the factors. Based on the data analysis, a revised model was developed composed of seven major contextual factors that were enabling and/or hindering DLE development in the Vietnamese context. These are grouped into three categories: external factors – government, IT infrastructure and social and cultural values; internal factors – stakeholders’ attitudes, DLE characteristics and the personal and organisational nexus; and change agents, which is both an internal and external factor. These factors had different levels of influence on DLE development and are inter-related.

No prior study has looked at contextual factors affecting DLE development in a developing country such as Vietnam.

Aims to present the authors' efforts towards the development of a digital library environment supporting research at the Medical School of Athens University, Greece.

The digital library facilitates access to medical material produced by laboratories for both research and educational purposes. As the material produced varies (regarding its type and structure) and the search requirements imposed by potential users differ, each laboratory develops its own collection. All collections must be bilingual, supporting both Greek and English. Extended requirements were imposed regarding the services offered by the digital library environment, due to the following reasons: end‐users actively participate in the cataloguing workflow; cataloguers should be able to create and manage multiple collections in a simplified manner; and different search requirements must be supported for different user groups. To formulate and then deal with these requirements, the authors introduced the term “dynamic collection management” denoting automated collection definition and unified collection management within an integrated digital library environment. Digital library components providing the desired functionality and the interaction between them are described. System performance, especially during collection search, and bilingual support are also explored.

Finds that Athens Medical School Digital Library facilitates access to medical material to researchers and students for both research and educational purposes.

The paper provides useful information on a digital library environment which supports research.

This paper presents the current status in the development of the ongoing project now known as Project i‐DLR. The content of this “pointer site” includes resources pertaining to digital libraries organised using an educational framework for access. The paper describes the five‐stage evaluation of that educational digital library resource (www.coe.missouri.edu/ rafee/idigital libraryR/index.php). The focus of this particular effort is on the continued development and refinement based on the recent evaluations of this resource by end users seeking to access digital library resources. The five evaluation methods are presented and described, beginning with focus group reviews, Web log analysis, database transaction logs, a Web survey, and most recently, a remote usability evaluation. As the resource continues to grow in both breadth and depth, such analyses are critical to continued refinement of the interface, the sources themselves, and the manner in which they are organised and presented.

This chapter traces the history of digital libraries (DLs) in the United States through the funding sources that have supported DL research and development over the past decade and a half. A set of related questions are addressed: How have the mission and goals of funding agencies affected the types of projects that have been funded? What have been the deliverables from funded projects and how have the goals of the funding agencies shaped those deliverables? Funding agencies have exerted strong influence over research and development in DLs, and different funding agencies have funded different types of projects, with varying sets of concerns for driving the various fields that feed into DLs. This chapter will address the impact that DL funding has had on the development of research in the field of Library and Information Science, as well as on the practice of librarianship.

Academic libraries’ response to the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic might be an opportunity to reassert and reemphasise their roles in the national disaster management matrix. The purpose of this study is to review the responses of academic libraries in South Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic. The global outbreak of COVID-19 has precipitated a challenge amongst all institutions, communities and libraries as evidenced by the growing lockdowns, deaths and shocking statistics of infections. This has triggered a fundamental need to rethink how libraries can establish innovative ways to continue providing services to users.

This study adopted the interpretive research paradigm to review the situation in South Africa in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The study used an analysis of secondary sources, the activities that took place and personal experience to answer the research questions.

The analysis showed that academic libraries and publishers have risen to the occasion, offering more free content and curating personalised collections so that citizens can have uninterrupted access to content and learning. The digital libraries in South Africa are considered vital alleyways to high-quality e-books, journals and educational content, including open educational resources. Digital library services have enabled academic libraries in South Africa to excel in providing online services, therefore ensuring that learning, research and teaching continued.

This study, using Habermas’s idea of the public sphere as a fundamental theoretical framework, notes that when the physical space is closed, it is necessary for academic libraries in South Africa to make use of the digital space. This study will contribute to the corpus of knowledge relating to South African digital libraries’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper aims to explain the implementation procedure of DSpace at the Library of Independent University, Bangladesh. This paper shows how DSpace is promoting open educational resources (OER) movement and demonstrates the ease of implementing DSpace in an institution. Moreover, the purpose of this paper is to encourage library professionals to participate in the OER movement by implementing DSpace in their libraries.

The requirements for implementing DSpace have been shown in this paper. It also describes the system model of an academic repository (DSpace)/digital library (DL). In addition, the paper describes the legal issues for submitting an item in DSpace and self-submission process of an item as well as shows impact of DSpace on OER.

Open source software and Open Access Institutional Repository software has a fundamental role in promoting OER. DSpace is perfect for building a DL or an institutional repository in libraries, especially for developing country libraries because this demands low cost and it is easy to implement in libraries as well as is user-friendly.

This paper will help to understand the role of the library community and librarians about OER. It will also show the impact of DL on OER. In addition, this paper encourages librarians to participate in OER movement.