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Libraries and scholars face more frequent problems with and decisions about plagiarism than in the past. This article aims to look at complex cases where plagiarism may have occurred.

The method is anthropological and looks at specific cases, in which the situations are real but the actors have been fictionalised to protect identities.

Plagiarism tools, while invaluable for discovering potential problems, can also expose cases where judgments depend on complex circumstances.

The goal is to show areas where ambiguity in plagiarism cases exists.

The purpose of this paper is to consider whether PDF formats are appropriate for long‐term digital archiving.

The approach takes the form of examining how well PDF's capabilities fit eReader devices that future scholars may use in addition to or instead of paper print‐outs.

Fixity is the advantage that PDF offers for archiving, while its alternatives generally offer greater flexibility for eReader devices. The question for long‐term digital archiving is whether fixity or flexibility best suits the interests of future readers?

PDF is widely accepted as a digital archiving format and PDF documents are found in virtually every repository. There has, however, been little discussion as to whether the fixed format is not in fact a long‐term disadvantage.

The purpose of this paper is to review how historical research data are managed and mined today.

The methodology builds on observations over the last decade.

Reading speed is a factor in managing the quantity of text in historical research. Twenty years ago historical research involved visits to physical libraries and archives, but today much of the information is online. The granularity of reading has changed over recent decades and recognizing this change is an important factor in improving acce.

Computer-based humanities text mining could be simpler if publishers and libraries would manage the data in ways that facilitate the process. Some aspects still need development, including better context awareness, either by writing context awareness into programs or by encoding it in the text.

Future researchers who want to make use of text mining and distant reading techniques will need more thorough technical training than they get today.

There is relatively little discussion of text mining and distant reading in the LIS literature.

This paper aims to discuss whether there is difference between pragmatic and scholarly approaches to data gathering in libraries.

This paper discusses the research design that used mystery shoppers to evaluate library reference services.

The paper argues that people do a disservice to the institutions they study if they overstate the validity of their data and draw unsupportable conclusions based on those data.

The paper argues that valid results must be part of practical as well as scholarly research.

The paper illustrates how practical data gathering and analysis can have validity if the weaknesses of the data gathering are recognized and openly discussed, and if the right analytical methods are used.

The purpose of this paper is to look back on the last 30 years of technology development for libraries.

The paper presents an interview that took place at the American Library Association Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California.

The paper reveals that many of the developments are slow. There are very few really sudden revolutions in social‐scale technologies. They do not switch on quickly and cannot be sudden because the installed base is too thin.

The paper reveals that there should be some renewed conversation about how libraries can help the public. In the early days of the internet libraries played an enormous uncredited role in teaching the adult population about the internet. There are some opportunities like that now, and one place where we are starting to see signs of it is digital preservation, not as libraries doing it for the cultural record, but helping individuals to do it for their own content.

Who knows what scholarly gems lie behind the iron doors of research library stacks in what used to be called “East” Germany? Today anyone with a network connection and a Web browser can know at least some of the answers, thanks to a major automation effort.

The conference co‐ordinator and an invited speaker of the International Conference on Digital Libraries (ICDL) which took place in New Delhi, India, February 2004 provide an overview of the conference – one of a growing series of digital library conferences that bring together computer scientists and librarians. The objectives of this conference were to bridge the knowledge gaps between developing and developed countries; initiate capacity building activities in digital libraries; evolve a road map for the digitization of archives, manuscripts and libraries; provide a forum for facilitating interaction among participants; and formulate recommendations on digitization technologies and policies. Outlines the themes and topics covered and provides the main points of the inaugural address to the conference by the President of India as well as the three keynote addresses.