Assessing the Impact of Library Discovery Technology on Content Usage

UKSG, with the support of Jisc, partnered with LISU to carry out the research project: Assessing the Impact of Library Discovery Technology on Content Usage.

The final report, Impact of Library Discovery Technologies, has now been published and is available to view.
The project was carried out by LISU at Loughborough University, in collaboration with the Department of Information Science, Loughborough University and Evidence Base, Birmingham City University.

Find out more here.

• To evaluate the impact that library discovery technologies (such as link resolvers and web-scale resource discovery services) have on the use of academic resources

• To provide evidence to determine if there is a case for (a) investment in discovery technologies by libraries and (b) engagement with library discovery technologies by publishers and others in the academic information supply chain (unless no positive impact is found, in which case to provide evidence to this effect)

• To provide recommendations for actions that libraries, publishers and others in the academic information supply chain should take to engage with such technologies to best support the discovery of resources for teaching, learning and research 

• To identify additional research, data, discussion, initiatives or other activities required that will support the implementation of the findings of this study.

The project was overseen by UKSG through the UKSG Research Subcommittee and Jisc through the PALS group. UKSG staff provided support as needed.

The goals of the study were:

To evaluate the impact that library discovery technologies (such as link resolvers and web-scale resource discovery services) have on the use of academic resources

To provide evidence to determine if there is a case for (a) investment in discovery technologies by libraries and (b) engagement with library discovery technologies by publishers and others in the academic information supply chain (unless no positive impact is found, in which case to provide evidence to this effect)

To provide recommendations for actions that libraries, publishers and others in the academic information supply chain should take to engage with such technologies to best support the discovery of resources for teaching, learning and research 

To identify additional research, data, discussion, initiatives or other activities required that will support the implementation of the findings of this study.

courtesy: http://www.uksg.org/researchstudy

Google Scholar library

Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research. 

Google Scholar library is your personal collection of articles. You can save articles right off the search page, organize them by topic, and use the power of Scholar search to quickly find just the one you want - at any time and from anywhere. You decide what goes into your library, and we’ll keep the links up to date.

You get all the goodies that come with Scholar search results - citing articles, related articles, formatted citations, links to your university’s subscriptions, and more. Best of all, it’s easy to quickly fill up your library with the articles you want - with a single click, you can import all the articles in your public Scholar profile as well as all the articles they cite.

http://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/about.html

Training on APA

Central University of Kerala is organizing a one day training programme on: IN-TEXT CITATION AND REFERENCING PATTERN [According to American Psychological Association (APA) Standards]

read more: http://liskeralaseminars.blogspot.in/

Mahatma Gandhi University Library, Kottayam moves to Koha

Mahatma Gandhi University Library, Kottayam, Kerala officially moved to Koha Open Source Library Management system on 13 August 2013. Dr. Sheena Shukkur, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi University inaugurated Koha system at MGU Library.

MGU Library team completed data migration from SOUL (ver. 1) software last month. Bibliographic, user and transaction data could successfully moved to Koha from SOUL. Acquisition, Circulation, Technical (Cataloguing), Periodical and Maintenance sections have started to use concerned modules. Now all modules of the software are functional after one month trial period.

Koha installed in a server, which housed in the library building. In near future, the same server can make use to install multiple Koha instances for other department and study centre libraries. Now the Koha service is available inside the campus only. Online catalogue can access from anywhere inside the campus.

Few months back, library staff had received one week hands on training. A team of Koha experts are now available in the library to provide continuing support and training to staff. We received only the support of Koha community for the successful implementation of the Open Source library management system. We are thankful to all Koha community members from India and abroad for the quick and enormous support during our migration process.

Type anywhere in local language

             Google Input Tools for Windows is an input method editor which allows users to enter text in any of the supported languages using a Latin (English / QWERTY) keyboard. Users can type a word the way it sounds using Latin characters and Google Input Tools for Windows will convert the word to its native script. Available input tools include transliteration, IME, and on-screen keyboards.

http://www.google.co.in/inputtools/windows/

Google Input Tools for Windows is currently available for 22 different languages: Amharic, Arabic, Bengali, Persian, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Russian, Sanskrit, Serbian, Sinhala, Tamil, Telugu, Tigrinya and Urdu.           

Interaction Programme for Ph.D. Research Scholars, Calicut University.

From 20.08.2013 to 09.09.2013 

Faculties: Language, Science and Social Science and Humanities.  

The course consists of three National Workshops  of 6 days duration each on Research Methodology

For more details: www.universityofcalicut.info

KERALA LIBRARY ASSOCIATION (KLA) NATIONAL SEMINAR 12-13 July 2013, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

MAIN THEME:
"New Information Technology Interfaces in Libraries and Information Centres (NITILIC)”

REGISTRATION
Individual participants: Rs 1250.00
Institutional participants: Rs 1750.00
Concessional rate for KLA Life Members and Research Scholars in LIS: Rs 1000.00
Students: Rs 750.00

Read more: http://liskeralaseminars.blogspot.in/ 

Workshop on Koha and Dspace. 20 June 2013 to 22 June 2013

College of Engineering, Cherthala organizes 3 days workshop

Read more : http://liskeralaseminars.blogspot.in/

2 days National Workshop on CLOUD COMPUTING APPLICATIONS IN ACADEMIC RESEARCH on 19th and 20th June 2013 at the University Library, Central University of Kerala, Kasaragod

Topic:  CLOUD COMPUTING APPLICATIONS IN ACADEMIC RESEARCH 

Date:  19^th and 20^th June 2013

Areas Covered

1.    Preparing cloud based online questionnaire.

2.    Online cloud based data collection.

3.    Sharing documents online.

4.    Online editing and correction in cloud environment.

5.    Other cloud based applications in research.

read more:  http://liskeralaseminars.blogspot.in/

National Workshop on KOHA at Central University of Kerala, Kasaragod from 4th to 6th March 2013

The University Library, Central University of Kerala located at Kasaragod, Kerala is organizing a 3 day National Workshop on KOHA LMS from 4th to 6th March 2013.  The Workshop will be a hands on training in which all the areas from installation to use will be taught by experts.

read more: http://liskeralaseminars.blogspot.in/

Training Program on DSPACE and KOHA at College of Engineering Vadakara on 22-25 February 2013

Short Term Training Program on LIBRARY DIGITILIZATION USING OPENSOURCE SOFTWARE with Special emphasis on DSPACE and KOHA ILS (latest version) From 22 to 25 February 2013 

Organized by : Central Library, College of Engineering Vadakara Sponsored By TEQIP Phase II (A Project of Govt. of India)

Read more http://liskeralaseminars.blogspot.in/

Google launches Dead Sea Scrolls online library

More than six decades since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls — and thousands of years after they were written — Israel on Tuesday put 5,000 images of the ancient biblical artifacts online in a partnership with Google.

The digital library contains the Book of Deuteronomy, which includes the second listing of the Ten Commandments, and a portion of the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, dated to the first century B.C.

Israeli officials said this is part of an attempt by the custodians of the celebrated manuscripts — often criticized for allowing them to be monopolized by small circles of scholars — to make them broadly available.

"Only five conservators worldwide are authorized to handle the Dead Sea Scrolls," said Shuka Dorfman, director of the Israel Antiquities Authority. "Now, everyone can touch the scroll on screen around the globe."

Last year, Google partnered with the Israel Museum to put five scrolls online.

The scrolls, considered one of the most significant archaeological finds of the 20th century, are thought to have been written or collected by an ascetic Jewish sect that fled Jerusalem to the desert 2,000 years ago and settled at Qumran, near the shore of the Dead Sea. The hundreds of manuscripts found in caves near the site have shed light on the development of the Hebrew Bible and the origins of Christianity.

Google says the new digital library took two years to assemble, using technology first developed by NASA. The multimedia website allows users to zoom in on various fragments, with translations and Google maps alongside.

Google hopes to further expand its project. Two months ago Google launched a "Cultural Institute," a digital visual archive of historical events in cooperation with 17 museums and institutes around the world.

"We're working to bring important cultural and historical materials online and help preserve them for future generations," said Yossi Matias, head of Google's Research and Development Center in Israel. "Our partnership with the Israel Antiquities Authority is another step toward enabling users to enjoy cultural material around the world."

Online: www.deadseascrolls.org.il

Harvard’s Alternative to Google Books.

Universities launch a digital public library.

In 2004, Google decided to seek out millions of books gathering dust in library stacks, digitize them, and make them available to you at the click of a mouse. All you had to do was notice the advertisements in the margins.

But after Google extended its archiving effort from books in the public domain to those under copyright, the U.S.-based Authors Guild filed a class action lawsuit in 2005. Then, while negotiating a settlement, Google decided to sell not merely ads but the books themselves, with or without the specific consent of copyright holders, on the ground that the guild could stand in as their legal representative.

Not so fast, said federal judge Denny Chin, as he rejected one Guild-Google settlement after another. And as the case went forward, it raised a question in the minds of librarians, writers, and archivists: Should we really put the entire repository of human knowledge in the hands of one company?

In 2010, university librarians met in a national conference and decided to create an alternative called the Digital Public Library of America. Operating under the auspices of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, it would archive every book in the public domain and offer them online to anyone. The library’s prototype is expected to launch this year.

“This is a civic-minded engagement,” says Kenny Whitebloom, who manages the library project. “There was a fear that Google Books was a commercial project, and this was an opportunity to create a digital library on its own terms.”

The Digital Public Library has a lot of things going for it. It won’t try to sell you ads when you read books online, and it won’t try to sell books it doesn’t have the right to. What it doesn’t have is money—or at any rate not enough of it to scan and organize every book in the United States. (The rest of the world is a matter the organization will have to leave for another day.)

Instead, the Digital Public Library will serve as the archive for other archives. All around the country, from the Library of Congress to the Internet Archive in Northern California, libraries have been scanning books and setting up individual databases for their collections. The Digital Public Library of America hopes to produce a search engine that will coordinate with these institutions, creating a single search portal that will direct users to every single book they need, in any collection.

Whitebloom expects to finalize the legal deals with the various partners in the coming year. But if he gets the project going, he just might be able to offer what Google won’t: words without ads. “It’s free and open to all,” he says, “a sustainable national resource that will not be beholden to commercial influences.”

This article originally appeared in print as "Read Free or Die." courtesy: http://spectrum.ieee.org