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The purpose of this paper is to explore the roles of public libraries in the context of Big Data.

A mixed method approach was used and had two main data collection phases. A survey of public libraries was used to generate an overview of which professional roles connect public libraries with Big Data. Eight roles were identified, namely, educator, marketer, data organiser, data container, advocator, advisor, developer and organisation server. Semi-structured interviews with library directors and managers were then conducted to gain a deeper understanding of these roles and how they connect to the library’s overall functions.

Results of the survey indicated that librarians lack a proper comprehension of and a pragmatic application of Big Data. Their opinions on the eight roles are slightly stronger than neutral. However, they do not demonstrate any strong agreement on these eight roles. In the interviews, the eight roles attained more clear support and are classified into two groups: service-oriented and system-oriented roles.

As an emerging research field, Big Data is not widely discussed in the library context, especially in public libraries. Therefore, this study fills a research gap between public libraries and Big Data. In addition, Big Data in public libraries could be well managed and readily approached by citizens in undertaking such roles, which entails that public libraries will eventually benefit from the Big Data era.

VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems (VJIKMS) is one of the oldest and leading journals in the knowledge management (KM) field. The purpose of this study is to conduct bibliometrics analysis of publications published in VJIKMS for the past two decades. For doing this, this paper covered the past two decades of publications and carried out a science mapping analysis of publications.

The methodology included bibliometrics and the science mapping analysis process. This paper imported the bibliographic information of VJIKMS from the abstract and citation database Scopus. Through bibliometrics method, this paper examined the citation results, author productivity, authorship pattern, research collaboration and other parameters of the selected publications. Afterward, this paper used VOSviewer software to carry out the science mapping of bibliometric networks.

The findings showed that VJIKMS published 718 publications during 2000–2020, which got cited 4,311 times (6 times per article) till date. Joint authorship and international collaboration have been increasing where 1,417 authors from 66 countries have published. The USA, the UK and Iran lead the KM publications in this journal. Nonaka’s publications and Journal of Knowledge Management (JKM) are highly cited references and journals in the VJIKMS.

The findings of this study would help the KM students, researchers and practitioners to see the diffusion of KM globally, what are the promising areas to work and helps to know the various patterns of publications if they aim to publish in VJIKMS.

This is the first time a bibliometric analysis has been conducted to analysis of research publications published in VJIKMS. This presents a comprehensive analysis of publications between 2000 and 2020.

This study aims to investigate the sustainable development goals (SDGs) awareness of public librarians, their perceived understanding of public libraries to achieve United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) and identify the challenges affect the library adoption to SDGs.

In this study, a quantitative survey method was used to collect responses. The study population was all head of public libraries in Bangladesh. Seventy-one personalized individual e-mails with a link to a Web-based questionnaire were sent out to the public librarians (head of public libraries) inviting them to participate in this study. Fifty-nine responded to the survey, which was 83.09% of all population.

The findings revealed that public librarians working in different public libraries were generally aware of UNSDGs. The perceived understanding on the role of public libraries to achieve SDGs varies from SDG#1 to SDG1#7. However, most of the librarians’ responses ranked well in line with SDGs#1, #2, #3, #4 and #17, and they believed that their public libraries are doing well on some of these goals. Out of 17 SDGs, public libraries are working well on 7 goals. Lack of SDG-related activities, awareness, funds, implementation plan and unwillingness of the policymakers are challenges identified in this study.

There are not many studies on public libraries in Bangladesh, and the research areas are not diverse. There are only few studies in this area, and there is a need for different kinds of studies to reach a better overview and understanding when developing public library services to support SDGs. This could serve as the basis for a deeper study.

This study focuses on specifically women refugees' experiences of accessing information and how sociocultural barriers impact these experiences aiming to broaden the LIS literature of women refugees' information problems from sociocultural aspects. The socioculturally formed roles of a woman can impact the information practices of women refugees or cause certain information problems during the integration process. Hence, the research questions that drive this study are: What kind of information problems might women refugees face in a new host country? What kind of sociocultural barriers influence their information problems? How do they react toward these information problems?

The study is designed based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with eighteen refugee women living in Sweden. The study is a part of a larger study in which authors intend to explore the information practices and integration challenges of almost 20 or more refugee women living in Sweden.

Women refugees face information overload, difficulties in understanding new communication culture and lack of appropriate sources and networks in a new country. These information problems are influenced by sociocultural barriers such as the role of women, national culture of “collectivism”, small-world and lack of information literacy. Women react in certain ways such as, stressing, panicking, quitting the tasks, wasting time and making wrong decisions which negatively impact the integration process.

The research has its limitations as it is conducted with a small group of women refugees, belong to specific Middle Eastern culture and cannot be generalized. Another limitation is that the interviews are conducted in English language (with sufficient language skill). However, conducting interviews in their mother language would have been an advantage.

Practically, the study provides awareness for official and private organizations, volunteers and policymakers dealing with refugees. The stakeholders involved in the societal integration process of refugees, must consider that women refugees are more prone to information problems due to certain sociocultural influences (i.e. “being a woman” and national culture) and need a separate plan than the male refugees. For instance, by increasing and offering intercultural opportunities at workplaces or schools can encourage the wider social networking for women refugees. The programs aiming to reduce the sociocultural differences among women refugees and the Swedes are needed to be included in the integration policy.

The study intends to help the refugees society and the Swedish society overall by improving the integration plan.

The findings related to the information experiences of women refugees have potential implications for research where the value of information in the integration process is explored. The study meets the gap in previous literature by presenting the gender specific views on information problems from sociocultural aspects. The study also provides future directions to understand how women refugees deal with potential sociocultural barriers to information in a new country.

Information we receive from and create together with our social networks is becoming increasingly important. Social information has in many ways a great impact on our information behaviour and there are many possible angles and layers in studying social aspects in information science. This book presents some of these angles. This book is relevant for various actors in the library and information science field and will be useful for researchers, educators and practitioners while coordinating empirical research on social information and by providing an overview of some of the present research about social information.

The purpose of this book is to collect current research representing different aspects of social information with emphasis on the new innovations supporting contemporary information behavior. To begin with, we need to define what we mean by social information in general and in the area of information science in particular. It is interesting to notice that social information is a concept used and researched in many different disciplines. Besides information science, the concept of social information has been studied in biology, psychology, and sociology among other disciplines.