Volume 61, Issue 2

Web 2.0 is the general term for new technologies, applications and services that enable users to interact and personalize websites. The derivative term Library 2.0 was proposed in the mid-2000s. This article reviews how public libraries have made attempts to renew their services by adopting Web 2.0 technologies. The research material mainly consists of articles and reports discussing the developments of Library 2.0. In addition, the study makes use of data obtained from the websites of public libraries that have pioneered in the field of Library 2.0. The study identified four main purposes for which public libraries have adopted Web 2.0 technologies: communication, content sharing, social networking, and crowdsourcing. To serve the ends of communication, public libraries have adopted technologies such as RSS feeds and short messaging. The needs of content sharing are primarily served by using blogs and content sharing sites such as YouTube. Public libraries have also used Web 2.0 technologies to support social networking. Finally, to advance crowdsourcing, public libraries have mainly used tagging functionalities and systems of book rating. Overall, the findings indicate that experiences gained from the utilization of Web 2.0 applications are fairly positive and are thus encouraging for the development of Public Library 2.0.

Statistics have proven that LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Queer) people constitute a relevant part of every community in the United States. This situation is also reflected at American universities. Although most administrators try to be inclusive in the services designed and offered by the university and respective organizations and associations on campus, it has been revealed in former studies that information providers off and on campus are often not able to meet the special information needs of the LGBTQ community. The research proved the general assumption that LGBTQ students can still be considered a consumer group chronically underserved by university libraries. Using a focus group and individual interviews with lesbian, gay, and bisexual undergraduate college students at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro (UNCG), this research revealed several information gaps and barriers to information for LGBTQ students. Moreover, it became obvious that the information needs and the information seeking behavior of the interviewed LGBTQ college students are often ambivalent. On the one hand, there is a need for more accessibility and promotion of services, but, on the other hand, a strong desire for privacy and confidentiality exists, especially for younger students. The anxiety of possible disclosure and general library anxiety can turn into barriers to information for LGBTQ individuals. Although, phenomena like homophobia and heterosexism were not obvious at the UNCG campus, the enhancement of heterosexual privileges is still an issue for LGBTQ individuals, as they consider a lot of information as still being centered on the needs of the heterosexual majority. Basing on the research, the paper gives recommendations how information services for the LGBTQ community at UNCG could be improved using specialized displays, pathfinders, subject guides, specialized workshops, or interactive online tutorials. The paper also includes the description of a specific information product that was designed and developed for the LGBTQ community at UNCG based on the findings of the research.

This article focuses on the benefits of combining collaborative teaching and information literacy as a partnership between librarians and faculty members. It discusses how student learning is enhanced as a result of librarian and faculty member collaboration through the use of a three-stage pedagogical technique we call Dynamic Purposeful Learning (DPL). Through DPL, students learn information literacy, research skills, and other post-secondary critical skills. In order for students to benefit from a librarian and faculty collaborative approach, DPL is applied to a multi-stage sociological research methods assignment that includes students engaging in participant observation field research. The outcome of DLP is that students are assisted throughout all stages of the research process based on a partnership between the librarian and faculty member.

Dance is an ephemeral art in that it is primarily a visual and auditory medium that occurs in real-time within a performance. However, there is a wealth of extant primary sources in both print and non-print formats that are steadily being collected, stored and preserved in archives dedicated to the discipline of dance around the world in an attempt to provide some permanence to that ephemerality. There has been a growing movement over the past few decades to document materials belonging to this discipline, chiefly in the modern dance and ballet arenas; these movements sprang up not only to preserve the historical and organizational aspects for both posterity and the educational benefit of others inside and outside of the discipline, but also to capture the art form's essence and spirit. An examination of several dance archives and special collections in Great Britain, Australia, and America, as well as dance repository-related articles demonstrates how these small but thriving collections are capturing the essence of dance through typical archival activities such as acquisitions, processing, preservation, and providing access while dealing with the same logistical and budgetary limitations that archives of more general size and scope face. Information gleaned from this paper may be of use to researchers interested in the organizational, acquisition, collection development and preservation activities of such archives, as well as a general modern history of ballet and modern dance archives.

In the recent years, audiovisual heritage has been increasingly recognized as a vital resource for political, historical and social research. In several countries audiovisual material, i.e. film, video and audio, have gained full recognition as part of their cultural heritage. The article is based on a MLIS thesis at the University of Iceland that researched the historical development and present situation of ten Icelandic audiovisual archives and collections preserving unique audiovisual material. Case study and qualitative research methods were used. A literature review was supplemented by original data collected by conducting interviews with the staff of ten audiovisual collections. The article gives an overview of these collections and their present situation in terms of preservation, digitization, collection size, storage conditions, cataloguing and staff. An attempt is made to seek an understanding of the extent to which the authorities have recognized audiovisual documents as part of Icelandic cultural heritage. Icelandic cultural policies have evolved in a text-orientated environment, the roots of which lie in a literary tradition of more than 700 years, most prominently represented by the Icelandic Sagas. As a result, the Icelandic audiovisual heritage has received limited attention from the authorities. Iceland has no national audiovisual archive. The Archive of the National Broadcasting Service RÚV could well be considered one because of the range and size of its collection, but it lacks the necessary official acknowledgement and legal status. The collections studied appeared to be in a relatively good condition, but insufficient awareness of the needs of audiovisual preservation threatens to leave the collections outside the mainstream of digitization of cultural heritage. Please note that the DOI for this article is 10.1515/libr.2011.011a, not 10.1515/libr.2011.011 as stated in the PDF file.

This research investigates the historical developments and trends in school library use in Japan's elementary schools. Japan has a centralized curriculum administration. Thus, the curriculum for a given subject activity takes its reference hierarchically – first national, then local before finally, school-based curriculum standards. These curriculum standards are designed to ensure the equity of education. This study reviews Japan's national curriculum standards ( The Course of Study ) as an important tool for gaining a general understanding of how school libraries have been defined and utilized in the Japanese situation. The National Curriculum Standards has been reformed eight times since 1947, and eight reforms are analyzed in this study. The specifications for school libraries have evolved progressively in the National Curriculum Standards. The content and frequency of the specifications has changed corresponding to the 20-year-cycle changes to curriculum. Recent reforms especially highlight school library usage. The role of the school library has expanded historically since it was initially taken as a basic facility of school in the first national curriculum. Since then, it has been additionally identified as an instructional resource centre, reading centre, and learning centre for information literacy. Japan has, at some level, managed to achieve the physical elements of the library as a reading centre: facility, equipment, collection, etc. However, other elements, especially staffing and the administration system, remain to be realized and integrated into the curriculum. The school library is deeply imbedded in contemporary education, but further progress is required to support changing education.

There are a number of different ways to verify that a user at a computer attached to the Internet may be certified as being entitled to use an electronic resource (usually one that has to be paid for) held on a server elsewhere on the Internet. Authentication by Internet Protocol is appropriate when the user is in a fixed environment, but, to enable a user to have wider access, other mechanisms are needed, the most universally applicable being authentication relying on the information provided by an access management federation using Shibboleth. Shibboleth is a standard-based, open source software package for Web single sign-on across or within organisational boundaries. It allows sites to make informed authorization decisions for individual access of protected online resources in a privacy-preserving manner. The requirements for the security of the solution particularly regarding the intellectual property rights of the owners of the data are discussed. Various possible solutions are outlined, based on those in use in the UK Federation, the US InCommon system, the Swiss SWITCHaai, and the Australian Access Federation. The framework and development leading to the implementation of the Taiwan Access Management Federation (TAMF) principally follow SWITCHaai and to a lesser extent the other three Federations. The history, management structure, software used, and the organisations participating in the four federations that TAMF follows are discussed. It is hoped that this could serve as a model for federations around the world.

This paper analyses the level of development of the information portals of the ten Indian educational Institutes with the largest traffic. The sample of ten institutional portals with the largest traffic was selected according to the figures provided by Alexa Web Information Company and the Webometrics organisation. The information portals of the Institutes were analysed to determine their level of development according to a set of quality indicators. The twenty-one indicators were divided into five main sections: general features, information features, navigation, search system and other features. The analysis was carried out from February to April 2010. The level of development of the information portals was not homogeneous. Of the portals studied, four showed a medium-high level of development; four showed a medium-low level of development; and two showed a low level of development. The indicators may also be useful for analysing the situation in other countries.