Volume 66, Issue 4 -

This paper presents a new theory of metadata enriching and filtering. The theory emerged from a rigorous grounded theory data analysis of 57 in-depth interviews with metadata experts, library and information science researchers, librarians as well as academic library users (G. Alemu, A Theory of Digital Library Metadata: The Emergence of Enriching and Filtering , University of Portsmouth PhD thesis, Portsmouth, 2014). Partly due to the novelty of Web 2.0 approaches and mainly due to the absence of foundational theories to underpin socially constructed metadata approaches, this research adapted a social constructivist philosophical approach and a constructivist grounded theory method (K. Charmaz, Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide through Qualitative Analysis , SAGE Publications, London, 2006). The theory espouses the importance of enriching information objects with descriptions pertaining to the about-ness of information objects. Such richness and diversity of descriptions, it is argued, could chiefly be achieved by involving users in the metadata creation process. The theory includes four overarching metadata principles – metadata enriching, linking, openness and filtering. The theory proposes a mixed metadata approach where metadata experts provide the requisite basic descriptive metadata, structure and interoperability (a priori metadata) while users continually enrich it with their own interpretations (post-hoc metadata). Enriched metadata is inter- and cross-linked ( the principle of linking ), made openly accessible ( the principle of openness ) and presented ( the principle of filtering ) according to user needs. It is argued that enriched, interlinked and open metadata effectively rises and scales to the challenges presented by the growing digital collections and changing user expectations. This metadata approach allows users to pro-actively engage in co-creating metadata, hence enhancing the findability, discoverability and subsequent usage of information resources. This paper concludes by indicating the current challenges and opportunities to implement the theory of metadata enriching and filtering.

The purpose of this study is to draw a network among the keywords used in public library studies in the LIS field in Korea using a social network analysis method. To achieve the purpose, this study (i) analyses the keywords used in LIS peer-reviewed journal articles on the subject of public libraries, (ii) finds the important keywords of public library studies based on network perspectives, and (iii) compares the keyword network of public library studies for the most recent five years with the keyword network of public library studies of different time periods. Through a keywords analysis of public library studies, the following research trends have been found: (a) Korean public library studies have mainly focused on management issues; (b) there has been much discussion about library cooperation between public libraries and other kinds of libraries; (c) the subjects of research related to evaluation have been diversified as a result of influence from the fields of management and business; (d) scholars became interested in special users; (e) many studies paid attention to human resources issues in public libraries; (f) there have been many studies that are focused on small libraries; and (g) considerable research has been related to lifelong education, in particular, during 2001–2009. In addition, through comparison of the keyword network of public library studies for the most recent five years and the keyword network of public library studies for different time periods, the researcher finds that (i) keywords have both similarities and differences, and (ii) socio-environmental factors influence the research trends.

This paper, which is largely based on the findings of my doctoral study, investigated the contribution of effective library and information services to academic achievements at universities in Ghana. The main objective of this study was to assess and explore the effectiveness of library and information services and establish its contribution to efficient academic work. The researchers adopted a mixed methods approach in which both qualitative and quantitative research approaches are used in a single study. This study used a survey research design because of the large and wide-spread population involved. The results of the study established that there is a correlation between effective library and information services and academic achievements at the universities in Ghana. The study also establish that library users were generally satisfied with the services provided by the university libraries and the provision of study space, book lending and Internet services turn out to be the most effective and highly patronized services. The findings on the challenges facing the delivery of effective library and information services clearly indicate that inadequate staff training programmes were affecting the ability of library staff to deliver effective library services. Finally, this paper has made recommendations on how to improve upon the effectiveness of library and information services to enhance academic work at universities in Ghana.

According to the most recent statistics by the US Department of Justice (“Correctional Populations in the United States, 2014,” accessed September 25, 2016 at http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cpus14.pdf), more than 2.2 million people are incarcerated in the United States. Without access to fully stocked and staffed libraries or a connection to the Internet, a broad swath of this population faces significant barriers to accessing a broad range of information sources. This study analyzes the problem of information access for incarcerated people. The dataset was drawn from five semesters of classroom engagement with the New York Public Library (NYPL) letter service, with 290 reference letters having been answered between September 2013 and May 2015. The method of discourse analysis was used to analyze the information needs of people in prisons and jails in the context of information worlds. Geographic distribution and user satisfaction are also analyzed. The research discussion produced the following insights into “life in the round” (Elfreda A. Chatman, “A Theory of Life in the Round,” Journal of the American Society for Information Science 50 (3):207–17) of people in prisons and jails that emerged from the analysis of the data: the continuing relevance of reference sources; the fact that prison produces anxiety about employment/re-entry; and the development of a mode of discourse through the letter service. The study concludes that information needs of the users often are created by the prison itself. The analysis tells us more about how information works in prisons and jails. Understanding the information needs of incarcerated people offers insight for librarians and libraries seeking to better serve incarcerated populations. Future research should address the information that incarcerated users have, not what those of us on the outside imagine they do not.

In recent years, the value of public library services has tended to be evaluated using the contingent valuation method. This is able to reveal readers’ hidden preferences. However, it appears that the total value of a public library as expressed by one number leads to a methodological bias related to the difficulty of assessing the value of one standard book loan. Moreover, this approach does not reflect the needs of public libraries’ management. Therefore, this study focuses on a detailed investigation of the most important public library service, book loans. For this purpose, we have employed statistical models to identify the significant determinants of willingness to pay (WTP) for book loans and WTP for purchasing books, respectively. The results suggest that loan services have the greatest perceived value for students, people who are economically active. Management who are interested in increasing the success of their institution across society must also know the perceived value of individual books so that they can adjust their library's acquisition policy. It was found that novels had the highest perceived value, followed by educational literature in the fields of economics and education as well as information science. This entirely new analytical method of measuring WTP for public services raises many new implications that could change the strategies of individual libraries – as well as the public policy strategies of donors and library ownership.

The number of information resources that are being developed on platforms of university libraries is growing like an avalanche. However, few of them are in great demand and an informative support for scientific research. This problem is especially urgent for the book collections of the Russian Old Believers stored in the libraries of Europe, Asia and America. The Old Believers book collections include manuscripts and printed books from the Middle Ages and author’s works and compilations by contemporary leaders of this religious movement written in the Church Slavonic language in the second half of the seventeenth to twentieth centuries. Placing digital copies of these rare books on the Internet without providing the information about the social and cultural condition of establishment of the Old Believers book collections (i) reduces the role of the libraries to the technical implementers of digitizing projects and (ii) contradicts the current approaches to the study of the textual heritage of the Old Believers – a denomination for which the reception of the Christian practices of reading and writing has become a means of adaptation to the macrosocial changes. The article reports on a study of the views of librarians, researchers and the Old Believers and demonstrates the concept of the “Taiga Skit Old Believers Library” digital resource, showing the unique book collection in the context of peasant colonization of Taiga Siberia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the features of this living religious community. Research is based on experience of a 30-year collaboration between the Research Library of Tomsk State University –Siberia’s oldest university library – and the humanists of Tomsk State University in the field of studying Old Believers family and community libraries, and carried out within the framework of the development program of its Special Collections Department.