Information Technology and Libraries
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Information Technology and Libraries is a refereed journal published quarterly by the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA), a division of the American Library Association. It publishes material related to all aspects of information technology in all types of libraries. Topic areas include, but are not limited to, library automation, digital libraries, metadata, identity management, distributed systems and networks, computer security, intellectual property rights, technical standards, geographic information systems, desktop applications, information discovery tools, web-scale library services, cloud computing, digital preservation, data curation, virtualization, search-engine optimization, emerging technologies, social networking, open data, the semantic web, mobile services and applications, usability, universal access to technology, library consortia, vendor relations, and digital humanities.
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The Globethics library contains articles of Information Technology and Libraries as of vol. 3(1970) no. 2 to current.
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Technology Integration in Storytime Programs: Provider PerspectivesTechnology use is widespread in the lives of children and families, and parents and caregivers express concern about children’s safety and development in relation to technology use. Children’s librarians have a unique role to play in guiding the technology use of children and families, yet little is known about how public library programs facilitate children’s digital literacy. This study sought to uncover librarians’ purposes for using technology in programs with young children as well as the supporting factors and barriers they encountered in attempting to do so. Findings reveal 10 purposes for integrating technology into public library storytime programs and 15 factors across four dimensions that facilitate and/or inhibit its inclusion. If librarians are to embrace the media mentor role with confidence and the necessary knowledge and skills required of the task, much greater attention should be devoted to the responsibility and more support in the way of professional development and resources is necessary.
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A Tale of Two Tools: Comparing LibKey Discovery to Quicklinks in Primo VEConsistent delivery of full-text content has been a challenge for libraries since the development of online databases. Library systems have attempted to meet this challenge, but link resolvers and early direct linking tools often fell short of patron expectations. In the last several years, a new generation of direct linking tools has appeared, two of which will be discussed in this article: Third Iron’s LibKey Discovery and Quicklinks by Ex Libris, a Clarivate company. Figure 1 shows the “Download PDF” link added by LibKey. Figure 2 shows the “Get PDF” link provided by Quicklinks. The way we configured our discovery interface, a resource cannot receive both the LibKey and Quicklinks PDF links. These two direct linking tools were chosen because they were both relatively new to the market in April 2021 when this analysis took place and they can both be integrated into Primo VE, the library discovery system of choice at the authors’ home institutions of SUNY College of Optometry and Ferris State University. Through analysis of the frequency of direct links, link success rate, and number of clicks, this study may help determine which product is most likely to meet your patrons’ needs.
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Community-Driven Programming: Offering Coding and Robotics Classes in Your LibraryMary Carrier serves as the Technology & Growth Specialist for the four counties of the Mohawk Valley Library System in Schenectady, New York. Prior to this position, Mary dedicated over 15 years to teaching digital literacy and technology trends at the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library, a suburban public library that has over 40,000 registered patrons and 1,500 visitors per day. The community has a strong presence in youth and family programs and is a popular place for teens and children to learn, play, and create. In 2015, she began offering coding and STEM classes to children and teens at the library and in the community as outreach programs. Mary will share her expertise in technology programming for children and teens and the importance of planning, preparing, and testing curriculum for coding and robotics classes.
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Letter from the Editors: June 2023Introduction to the June 2023 issue of Information Technology and Libraries with a summary of this issue's contents and updates on the journal's hosting migration plans, changes to editorial board membership, and our call for submissions. IMPORTANT NOTE TO ALL READERS: Later this summer, ITAL is moving to a new provider. Other than the journal's URLs, nothing is changing. Now and in the future, https://italjournal.org/ will get you to the journal’s front page. If you would like to receive an email when the September 2023 issue is published at our new location, create a user account by going to our current user registration page. Make sure your check the “Yes, I would like to be notified of new publications and announcements” box near the bottom of the sign-up page. When the September issue is available, you will be among the first to know.
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Supporting Faculty’s Instructional Video Creation Needs for Remote Teaching: A Case Study on Implementing eGlass Technology in a Library Multimedia Studio SpaceIn 2021, alongside seven colleges at the University of Idaho campus, the University of Idaho Library received an eGlass system (https://eglass.io) with funding from the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Grant to expand faculty’s capacity to create instructional videos. The eGlass is a transparent glass whiteboard that allows instructors to write, draw, and annotate. It comes with a built-in camera that can capture instructors’ facial expressions and gestures while facing their remote students and allow better engagement. The eGlass is suitable for creating asynchronous instructional videos for flipped classrooms and integrating Zoom for synchronous online classes. This article details the eGlass equipment setup, studio space optimization, outreach efforts and initiatives, usage examples of early adopters, lessons learned during the first year of the eGlass deployment, and future considerations.
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Decision-Making in the Selection, Procurement, and Implementation of Alma/PrimoThis case study examines the decision-making process of library leaders and administrators in the selection, procurement, and implementation of Ex Libris Alma/Primo as their library services platform (LSP). The authors conducted a survey of libraries and library consortia in Canada and the United States who have implemented or plan to implement Alma. The results show that most libraries use both request for information (RFI) and request for proposal (RFP) in their system selection process, but the vendor-offered training is insufficient for effective operation. One-third of the libraries surveyed are considering switching to open-source options for their next automation system. These insights can benefit libraries and library consortia in improving their technological readiness and decision-making processes.
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Exploring Final Project Trends Utilizing Nuclear Knowledge TaxonomyThe National Nuclear Energy Agency of Indonesia (BATAN) taxonomy is a nuclear competence field organized into six categories. The Polytechnic Institute of Nuclear Technology, as an institution of nuclear education, faces a challenge in organizing student publications according to the fields in the BATAN taxonomy, especially in the library. The goal of this research is to determine the most efficient automatic document classification model using text mining to categorize student final project documents in Indonesian and monitor the development of the nuclear field in each category. The kNN algorithm is used to classify documents and identify the best model by comparing Cosine Similarity, Correlation Similarity, and Dice Similarity, along with vector creation binary term occurrence and TF-IDF. A total of 99 documents labeled as reference data were obtained from the BATAN repository, and 536 unlabeled final project documents were prepared for prediction. In this study, several text mining approaches such as stem, stop words filter, n-grams, and filter by length were utilized. The number of k is 4, with Cosine-binary being the best model with an accuracy value of 97 percent, and kNN works optimally when working with binary term occurrence in Indonesian language documents when compared to TF-IDF. Engineering of Nuclear Devices and Facilities is the most popular field among students, while Management is the least preferred. However, Isotopes and Radiation are the most prominent fields in Nuclear Technochemistry. Text mining can assist librarians in grouping documents based on specific criteria. There is also the possibility of observing the evolution of each existing category based on the increase of documents and the application of similar methods in various circumstances. Because of the curriculum and courses given, the growth of each discipline of nuclear science in the study program is different and varied.
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Virtual Production at Cloud901 in the Memphis Central LibraryIn order to explore the connection between cinematography and graphics programming at Cloud901, I am using my experience in film and programming to develop a “virtual production” initiative in our space. This project serves the purpose of teaching youth how to write programs within Unreal Engine while creating a platform where those interested in the film, programming, music, and visual art aspects of our space can collaborate.
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The Current State and Challenges in Democratizing Small Museums’ Collections OnlineThis article focuses on the problematic democratization of small museum collections online in Cyprus. While the web has enabled cultural heritage organizations to democratize information to diverse audiences, numerous small museums do not enjoy the fruits of this digital revolution; many of them cannot democratize their collections online. The current literature provides insight into small and large museums’ challenges worldwide. However, we do not have any knowledge concerning small Cypriot museums. This article aims to fulfill this gap by raising the following research question: What is the current state of small museum collections online in Cyprus, and what challenges do they face in democratizing their collections online? We present our empirical results from the interview summaries gathered from six small museums.
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Letter from the EditorsLetter from the editors, including a summary of articles in this issue, our move to a new publishing platform this summer, and a preview of our April call for Editorial Board members.
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Services to Mobile UsersLibraries are adapting to the changing times by providing mobile services. One hundred fifty-one libraries were chosen based on circulation, with at least one library or library system from each state, to explore the diverse services provided to mobile users across the United States. According to the data, mobile apps, mobile reference services, mobile library catalogs, and mobile printing are among public libraries’ most-frequently offered services, as determined by mobile visits, content analysis, and librarian survey responses. Every library examined had at least one mobile website, mobile catalog, mobile app, or webpage adapted for a mobile device. Following the COVID-19 outbreak, services such as mobile renewal, subscriber database access, mobile reservations, and the ability to interact with a librarian were expanded to allow better communication with customers—all from the comfort and safety of their own homes. Libraries are continually looking for innovative methods to assist their mobile customers as the world changes.
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Japanese Military “Comfort Women” Knowledge GraphMaterials related to Japanese military “comfort women” in Korea are managed by several institutions. Each digital archive has their own metadata schema and management policies. So far, a standard or a common guideline for describing digital records is not formalized. We propose a Japanese military “comfort women” knowledge graph to semantically interlink the digital records from distributed digital archives. To build a Japanese military “comfort women” knowledge graph, digital records and descriptive metadata were collected from existing digital archives. A list of metadata was defined by analyzing commonly used properties and a knowledge model designed by reusing standard vocabularies. Knowledge was constructed by interlinking the collected records, external data sources, and enriching data. The knowledge graph was evaluated using the FAIR data maturity model.
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Letter from the EditorsOverview of the December 2022 issue.
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A Library Website MigrationThis article provides a background on the migration of the California State University (CSU), Stanislaus library website from an open-source platform to a content management system specifically designed for library websites. Before the migration, there was a trial of different content management systems (CMS), a student usability study, and consultations with outside web and systems librarians to acquire better insight on their experiences migrating a library website and their familiarity with the different CMS trialed. The evaluation process, website design, and usability study began before the pandemic and the global shift to remote services. However, despite this shift, the timeline for the migration was not altered and the migration was completed as planned. Within a year, the library website migration planning, designing, trialing, and structural organization was completed using a modified waterfall model approach.
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Tech Tools in Pandemic-Transformed Information Literacy InstructionInspired by pandemic-transformed instruction, this paper examines the digital accessibility of five tech tools used in information literacy sessions, specifically for students who use assistive technologies such as screen readers. The tools are Kahoot!, Mentimeter, Padlet, Jamboard, and Poll Everywhere. First, we provide an overview of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and digital accessibility definitions, descriptions of screen reading assistive technology, and the current use of tech tools in information literacy instruction for student engagement. Second, we examine accessibility testing assessments of the five tech tools selected for this paper. Our data show that the tools had severe, significant, and minor levels of digital accessibility problems, and while there were some shared issues, most problems were unique to the individual tools. We explore the implications of tech tools’ unique environments as well as the importance of best practices and shared vocabularies. We also argue that digital accessibility benefits all users. Finally, we provide recommendations for teaching librarians to collaborate with campus offices to assess and advance the use of accessible tech tools in information literacy instruction, thereby enhancing an equitable learning environment for all students.
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A Library Website Redesign in the Time of COVIDIn November 2019, Binghamton University Libraries initiated a website redesign project. Our goal was to create a user-centered, data-informed website with refreshed content and upgraded functionality. Originally, our redesign plan included in-person card-sorting activities, focus groups, and usability studies, but when the Libraries went remote in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to quickly reassess and adapt our processes and workflows. In this article, we will discuss how we completed this significant project remotely by relying on effective project management, communication, teamwork, and flexibility.
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Digitization of Libraries, Archives, and Museums in RussiaThis paper discusses the digitization of cultural heritage in Russian libraries, archives, and museums. In order to achieve the research goals, both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies were adopted to analyze the current status of legislative principles related to digitization through the literature review and the circumstance of the latest projects related to digitization through the literature and website review. The results showed that these institutions seem quite successful where they provide a wide range of services for the users to access the digital collections. However, the main constraints on digitization within libraries, archives, and museums in Russia are connected with the scale of the work, dispersal of rare books throughout the country, and low level of document usage.
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Spatiotemporal Distribution Change of Online Reference During the Time of COVID-19The goal of this project was to identify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the spatiotemporal distribution of the library’s online patrons, so that we could assess if the scheduled library reference hours are meeting the needs of the academic community. We collected each online reference patron’s location information via their IP address, as well as the timestamp of each online reference instance. The spatiotemporal distribution patterns were analyzed and compared before and after in-person instruction was suspended due to COVID-19 distance protocols and a closing of the campus in the 2020 spring semester. The results show that the geographic origins of reference questions redistributed after COVID-19 protocols were initially implemented and the university community underwent a temporary geographical redistribution. Reference question origins tended to move away from campus to other areas of the state, other states, and internationally. This population redistribution suggested that the library could adjust the online reference schedule to provide better access and service to patrons.
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Perceived Quality of Reference Service with WhatsAppAcademic libraries are experiencing significant changes and making efforts to deliver their service in the digital environment. Libraries are transforming from being places for reading to extensions of the classroom and learning spaces. Due to the globalized digital environment and intense competition, libraries are trying to improve their service quality through various evaluations. As reference service is crucial to users, this study explores user satisfaction towards the reference service through WhatsApp, a social media instant messenger, at a major university in Hong Kong and discusses the correlation between the satisfaction rating and three variables. Suggestions and recommendations are raised for future improvements. The study also sheds light on the usage of reference services through instant messaging in other academic libraries.
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Measuring Library Broadband Networks to Address Knowledge Gaps and Data CapsIn this paper, we present findings from a three-year research project funded by the US Institute of Museum and Library Services that examined how advanced broadband measurement capabilities can support the infrastructure and services needed to respond to the digital demands of public library users across the US. Previous studies have identified the ongoing broadband challenges of public libraries while also highlighting the increasing digital expectations of their patrons. However, few large-scale research efforts have collected automated, longitudinal measurement data on library broadband speeds and quality of service at a local, granular level inside public libraries over time, including when buildings are closed. This research seeks to address this gap in the literature through the following research question: How can public libraries utilize broadband measurement tools to develop a better understanding of the broadband speeds and quality of service that public libraries receive? In response, quantitative measurement data were gathered from an open-source broadband measurement system that was both developed for the research and deployed at 30 public libraries across the US. Findings from our analysis of the data revealed that Ookla measurements over time can confirm when the library’s internet connection matches expected service levels and when they do not. When measurements are not consistent with expected service levels, libraries can observe the differences and correlate this with additional local information about the causes. Ongoing measurements conducted by the library enable local control and monitoring of this vital service and support critique and interrogation of the differences between internet measurement platforms. In addition, we learned that speed tests are useful for examining these trends but are only a small part of assessing an internet connection and how well it can be used for specific purposes. These findings have implications for state library agencies and federal policymakers interested in having access to data on observed versus advertised speeds and quality of service of public library broadband connections nationwide.