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Mobile technologies (MT) have been attracting the attention of academic library stakeholders for some time, as it is considered a strong communication channel that can offer advanced library services. Furthermore, MT can offer a number of flexible options for library users. Accordingly, the overarching aim of this research is to investigate the potentials of implementing MT within academic libraries in public universities in Jordan from library staff viewpoint. Exploring library staff expectation of MT to enhance library services is another aim. It is also important to investigate the effects of external factors such age, job title, educational level and experience on library staff perception of MT use and role in academic libraries in Jordan.

Using a case study design, a questionnaire was developed and disseminated to all library staff (n = 174) within ten public universities. Some 121 responses were received.

The study indicates that there is a high level of awareness of the advantages of using MT in academic libraries in Jordan. However, the research also reveals that, although library staff are aware of the role and value of MT within the academic library environment, MT has not yet been fully exploited in these environments in Jordan for various reasons. These include incompatible information technology infrastructure and a lack of training. As a result, these libraries need to invest more in MT and enhance the use of technologies among their users to raise their performance and the quality of services that they offer. Such enhancements could lead to more meaningful interactions with users and a better overall user experience.

This study investigated awareness levels among library staff of MT to provide library services. Users perspectives regarding receiving library services on mobile devices have not been explored. MT should be assessed from user perspective to understand how MT might enhance academic library services. Library staff could also be interviewed to explore these issues in closer detail. Library and Information Science departments might also upgrade their curricula and include MT application development in library courses.

This study fills a gap in MT research in the context of library services, as it is the first such attempt to conduct research into this topic in the Middle East in general, and in Jordan specifically.

Technological advancement has forced academic libraries to change their traditional services and routines by adopting emerging technologies to respond to the changing information needs of their users who are now more technologically inclined and prefer to access information remotely and in a timely manner. Smart technologies are the recent trends in academic libraries. This research aims to investigate the level of smart information service implementation at academic libraries in Jordan. It also aimed to investigate the correlation between the level of smart information services offered by the libraries and the level of digital competencies among the library staff.

This research is designed using survey design to collect comprehensive information from the study participants. A questionnaire was disseminated to 340 respondents, and 246 questionnaires were returned and were suitable for analysis with a response rate of 72.4%.

The results indicated a moderate level of smart information service offered by academic libraries, as well as a moderate level of digital skills associated with the advocacy of smart information services. The results also indicated a strong and positive relationship between the level of smart information services at the investigated libraries and the level of digital competencies among the librarians.

The findings will help other academic libraries understand how to respond to the emergent change in users’ information-seeking behavior by understanding their available human resources competencies and the requirement to undergo this emergent change.

This paper provides insights and practical solutions for academic libraries in response to global information trends based on users’ behaviors. This research was conducted in Jordan as one of the developing countries and hence it provides insights of the situation there. It will help academic libraries in Jordan and the region to handle and cope with the challenges associated with technology acceptance based on its staff level of digital competencies. The contribution of this research that it was done in a developing country where progress in the filed can be considered slow because of many factors, mainly economics, where institutions focus on essential library objectives, which are information resources development and databases subscriptions.

COVID-19 forced libraries and other institutions to either close their doors to users or change their services routines. At this time, the libraries should extend their efforts to meet the increasing demands of information services in terms of quantity and quality of information services. This study aims to explore the role and responsibilities of academic libraries during times of crisis from the staff perception in academic libraries in Jordan.

A questionnaire was disseminated to 359 library staff who were working at the 10 public universities in Jordan; 295 questionnaires were suitable to analyze, with a response rate of 82.2%.

The results indicated the importance of increasing academic libraries – specifically academic libraries in Jordan – awareness about the vast and important role of libraries to support research and the public community by providing authentic information sources about the pandemic to increase public awareness about the pandemic, besides contributing to disseminating research related to the pandemic as well as producing related research. Libraries needed to adjust their collection and information services during the crisis as they looked for ways to support the users they serve. The results affirmed that access to information remains the social responsibility of librarians.

The findings will provide insights for other academic libraries on how to react in a crisis and maintain its role as a reliable information source.

During the health pandemic, people needed support in terms of getting easy access to authentic and reliable information. Libraries hold a social responsibility to the local community, such as awareness campaigns, posting videos on health practices and hygiene on it websites and social media.

This paper provides insights and practical solutions for academic libraries in response to global health pandemics. It will help academic libraries handle and cope with the challenges of providing distance library services over digital channels.

Digital preservation requires new skills and collaboration among library staff to maintain long-term access to information resources. Digital content and digital technologies pose a serious challenge to information institutions to continue to select, preserve and access information resources. However, there is an urgent need to increase awareness of the new trends in the partnership between research communities and academic libraries; there is also a need for new digital preservation-related skills among librarians. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the benefits, importance, requirements and challenges of digital preservation in academic libraries in Jordan.

A questionnaire was disseminated to 150 library staff working at the 10 public universities in Jordan, with 133 questionnaires suitable to analyze with a response rate of (88.6%).

The results indicate a moderate perception of the benefits and importance of digital preservation, as well as the requirements and challenges in academic libraries in Jordan to carry out the digital preservation process. This indicated the importance of increasing the academic libraries' – specifically academic libraries in Jordan – awareness of the vast and important benefits of digital preservation to maintain long-term access to information. It was noted that factors such as sex, experience, educational level and specialization did not affect the results.

The findings will provide insights for other academic libraries on how to plan and develop preservation policies to maintain access to information.

Access to information is a human right that contributes to the advocacy of sustainable development, and hence, digital preservation can facilitate long-term availability and accessibility to information.

This paper provides insights and practical solutions for academic libraries in response to technological development and the change requirements. It will help academic libraries handle and cope with the challenges of providing distance library services over digital channels.

This study aims to explore undergraduate students’ perceptions of teaching information and communication technology (ICT) courses in the library and information science (LIS) program in Jordanian universities. It also aims at investigating the correlation between the impact of some variables, namely, gender, the type of university, academic year and student GPA on and their students’ views.

Quantitative methods were adopted. A questionnaire with 40 items was distributed on a stratified random sample of 220 students from four LIS departments in Jordan and, of whom, 203 responded with a response rate of 92.3 per cent.

Research findings indicated that teaching ICT courses was considered highly important. Students stressed on the importance of incorporating ICT courses in LIS programs. They also pointed out the competence of the teaching staff and the efficacy of their teaching methods. On the other hand, student assessments of the curriculum content, the teaching pedagogy and methods of assessment were on an average level. In addition, the findings indicated that resources and facilities necessary to teach ICT courses were available and adequate. It was noted that the “university” was the only factor that affected results; the University of Jordan students showed a higher satisfaction. The other factors (gender, academic year and GPA) did not appear to affect student perceptions.

Previous studies investigated the importance of teaching ICT courses in general but did not consider students’ perceptions. Only a few studies discussed students’ perceptions of studying ICT courses but in a different context, i.e. Kuwait. This research focused on students’ perceptions of studying ICT in Jordan as a new geographic region. This would be beneficial for other developing countries to learn from this experience and refine their ICT curricula and LIS programs accordingly.

The objective of this research is to examine empirically the effects of digital maturity (DM) on the firm's financial performance as measured by return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and Tobin's Q.

The authors use a panel data sample of 92 observations collected from 23 listed firms on Sweden's stock exchange over four years, 2015–2018. The authors hand collect DM from the digital leader's reports and collect financial data from DataStream. Using both static and dynamic panel (generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation) regression models to perform endogeneity problem, the authors explore the impact of the DM index on ROA, ROE and Q of Tobin.

The results show that DM has a negative effect on ROA and ROE but a positive effect on Q of Tobin. This negative relationship can be explained, by the fact that information technology (IT) investment and the DM could take years to be materialized and to be captured by performance indicators. Company investment in IT will increase and basically the ROA will be negatively affected because the higher value of IT assets is not amortized. Nevertheless, in the long term, company can maximize its performance. The positive effect on Q of Tobin captures the long-run effect of digital transformation.

This research can be helpful for firms in their process of digital transformation to succeed with the change, create value and to understand the challenges they have to face. In the short term, firms undertaking digital transformation will face some financial difficulties which affect negatively their ROA and ROE, but in the long term they can maximize their performance (captured by Tobin’s Q) and improve their market value.

In previous research, the impact of digital transformation on performance has been measured in terms of revenue growth, profit margins and in terms of earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT). Even if the authors have sufficient evidence of the positive effect of digital transformation on organizational performance, there is no support of the positive effect on financial performance. So, the authors try to fill this gap. This research has also the merit of examining this relationship empirically through a dynamic panel data estimation two-step system GMM, while the majority of previous studies are qualitative in nature based on interviews and questionnaires or simple correlations.