Volume 67, Issue 3 -

The application and innovation of mobile library services are changing the way users communicate and access information. As academic libraries provide users with ubiquitous services, the need to holistically explore the transformation mechanism of different levels of users driven by their dynamic behavior of mobile services assumes greater importance. The systems thinking perspective is used as a tool to relate to key factors, interactional processes and feedback outcomes. The system dynamics model is used to present two scenario-based tests so as to evaluate influences of managing the value of relationship of different levels of users, with an emphasis on participation and collaboration with users, while three different purposive types of users are also identified, need, exploration and interest orientation, to reflect the effectiveness of adopting. Mobile service providers can meet individuation and diversification of users’ demands in the process of providing dynamic services by discerning and clustering user types timely. The developed model can serve as a systematic explanation or effective reference tool for the development of mobile libraries under a variety of circumstances.

This study investigated the factors associated with Korean professors’ intentions to openly share data. As Korea does not have an institutional or regulatory framework governing data sharing, understanding the motivations and/or concerns of a Korean faculty might not only provide policy guidance for data-sharing practices in Korea but also help academic libraries of this country develop data management services valuable for researchers. In particular, survey responses from 190 professors and follow-up interviews with eleven faculty members were analyzed and revealed that professors who were more willing to openly share data tended to agree with data reuse conditioned on easy access to others’ data, to have altruistic reasons for data sharing and to be uncertain about repositories and the demand for their data. Professors who were less willing to make data publicly available tended to fear exploitation and to be interested in exchanging data for control of access to such data, for approval of the dissemination of results based on such data, and for co-authorship and collaboration opportunities. The study suggested that policies might be designed to incentivize data sharing by including supporting data citation, allowing data providers to control access to data, and considering ethical issues and various co-authorship practices. It also discussed implications of the findings for academic librarians.

This article examines changing views on “systematic” or classified shelf-arrangement in German library science from Kayser’s 1790 work Ueber die Manipulation bey der Einrichtung einer Bibliothek to the 1914 Versammlung deutscher Bibliothekare in Leipzig, at which Georg Leyh delivered the seminal paper, “Systematische oder mechanische Aufstellung?” Systematic arrangement was, with few exceptions, held up as an ideal throughout the nineteenth century; but by 1914 it could be agreed to belong to a past era in which, in the words of Leyh, libraries ran as a “Kleinbetrieb” [small business] (Leyh 1913, 100, “Das Dogma von der systematischen Aufstellung II-IV.” Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen 30:97–135). In particular, this article seeks to explore how changing views on the ideal of systematic shelf-arrangement in German library science during this period reflected evolving conceptions of librarianship. For nineteenth-century writers such as Ebert, Molbech, and Petzholdt, systematic classification and arrangement had meaning against the backdrop of an encyclopedic tradition within which libraries and librarians played an important role in organizing and presenting a rational overview of the universe of knowledge – an overview that was to be both physical and intellectual. The waning of the ideal of systematic arrangement at the turn of the twentieth century was associated with a sense of loss, as an intellectual or “scholarly” tradition of librarianship was seen to give way to more utilitarian and “bureaucratic” expectations. The changing fortunes of the ideal of systematic arrangement in German library science between 1790 and 1914 may be seen to illustrate how progress and loss are often inextricably linked in the history of libraries and librarianship.

This study examined the prevalence and correlatives of information seeking anxiety in postgraduate students of the University of the Punjab, Lahore using Information Seeking Anxiety Scale (ISAS). The participants’ selection was made using a stratified convenient sampling due to non-availability through random process. Postgraduate students were approached through a questionnaire, containing ISAS and demographic variables, with descriptive and inferential statistics used for data analysis. Results indicated the prevalence of information seeking anxiety among postgraduates as a large majority of the sample did face more than low anxiety for overall ISAS and all its sub-scales. Participants’ age, gender, faculty, program of study, study stage, computer proficiency, and research experience also appeared to be correlatives to the information seeking anxiety. These useful insights had serious implications to viable information literacy (IL) programs and could be used as a guide by academic information professionals managing information services, especially those engaged in IL instructions.

Daunting backlogs in terms of the library and information resource-provision in communities remain a stumbling block for all people, particularly youths, to have equitable access to information as a commodity to satisfy their dynamic and diverse ever-evolving information needs. In South Africa, the system of ruling called apartheid, also known as separate development, was officially nullified by the first democratic elections in 1994. All people including those in under-served rural communities need equitable access to information in varied formats for personal growth and development however, in the library and information services (LIS) sector, existing divisions, barriers or boundaries impede diverse users with wide-ranging information needs to fulfil them. User groups of libraries are currently divided along the still-prevailing historical divisions, an example being how university libraries are traditionally intended to cater for the information needs of their students, academics and administrative staff. Despite fulfilling their teaching needs, university libraries are also expected to cater for the research needs of students and academics to fulfil research projects, presenting university libraries as existing solely for teaching and research purposes. The key findings of the study are that most LIS are still distinctly divided with regard to their user-groups and ecosystems, with collaborations and partnerships very minimal in the LIS sector in South Africa. The study concludes that these distinct divisions deny multiple users the opportunity to equitably access information resources to meet their information needs daily. The study recommends that, based on the literature review, a holistic interconnected complex network of libraries working and existing as an ecosystem can be a viable solution to provision of LIS in resource-poor rural South African communities where there is inadequate resource-provision. The study also recommends borderless and seamless access to all libraries to enable multiple and diverse users to satisfy their dynamic and ever-changing information needs.

The article analyzes both the relationship between university libraries and science and technology parks (STPs) as well as the role of these libraries in the information management of incubated firms. This relationship with Spanish STPs is also compared to the relationship with parks around the world. Several stakeholders involved in two Spanish parks were interviewed, so a sample made up of both parks’ management, the three university libraries with which they are related to and 121 firms incubated in these parks. The results were compared to results taken from a survey on 107 parks members of the International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation and 77 libraries related to those parks. The study revealed that the library-STP relationship underpin links between parks and universities. The IASP members who receive services from related university libraries show the value of library-STP collaboration. It is a first analytical approach to the library-STP relationship in the entrepreneurial university context. A series of actions to strengthen this relationship and better benefit incubated firms is also included.