Volume 52, Issue 3

For data information scientists, librarians and academics alike, it is a worrisome sign when information or a file opaquely disappears from the body of scientific literature, even more so when it carries a digital object identifier (DOI). This is because the DOI typically offers a published paper a form of digital permanence. Preprints are being increasingly fused into the publication stream, serving as a prelude to submission to a peer-reviewed journal. One of the main preprint servers is Elsevier’s SSRN. This paper, a rare case study, describes three preprints by the same authors related to peer review that were withdrawn (i.e., retracted). Apart from a short notice with identical text (“This paper has been removed from SSRN at the request of the author, SSRN, or the rights holder”), no date of the withdrawals and no explanation were publicly provided. Following queries to the authors and SSRN, the three preprints were reinstated around February 2023. Finally, the original title of two of the preprints was manipulated in the reinstated preprints. This historical case study not only highlights the risks of opaque preprint withdrawals, but also the ease with which information on preprint servers (in this case SSRN) can be modified and/or manipulated.

For implementation of effective and efficient digital preservation programs, librarians and other professionals in the memory institutions need to have sufficient levels of awareness of digital preservation key concepts, strategies, tools, and standards/best practices. This survey aimed to investigate the awareness of librarians in Pakistani universities about these components. The population of the study included the librarians working in the central libraries of public sector universities and degree awarding institutions (DAIs) of Pakistan established before 2010. A questionnaire was developed after reviewing the relevant literature and was thereafter pilot tested in selected libraries. After successful completion of this phase, data was collected from the target population. A total of 178 responses were received from 63 out of 70 universities and DAIs. Overall, respondents showed a good level of awareness of different components of digital preservation.

Libraries’ roles and contributions in promoting and raising awareness of culture and cultural heritage to support the sustainability of cultural life can be strengthened by utilizing social media platforms, including Instagram. However, there is a gap in studies and research relating to how academic libraries reflect their cultural functions through social media, i.e., Instagram. This paper provides a content analysis of academic libraries’ Instagram accounts at three academic libraries located in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. These libraries represent their universities’ concerns with promoting sustainable development goals, specifically Sustainable Development Goal 11 (make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable). This study analyzed and categorized the Instagram posts of academic libraries related to culture and cultural heritage to answer the following research question: how do academic libraries reflect their cultural functions through social media, i.e., Instagram? The results show that the academic libraries studied here considered reflecting their cultural functions through social media by informing users about various cultural events, collections, facts, and news on Instagram.