Publications on topics: digital libraries, repositories, digital content policies, access policies of digital repositories, information policy, information management, open access, e-learning, e-publishing
Plagiarism is one of Academia’s most widely discussed topics, as it is considered severe academic misconduct. Academic librarians can become pioneers on the path to academic integrity and play a tremendously important role in combating student plagiarism. Using a quantitative approach, the present study attempts to investigate academic libraries’ plagiarism preventive and detection role from the perspective of public university librarians in Greece. For the study, a five-faceted conceptual framework for the role of librarians was developed and evaluated. Results indicate that librarians have actively taken the lead in raising awareness of plagiarism and providing plagiarism education, support, and counselling. Yet, their participation and contribution to developing institutional plagiarism strategies could have been higher than the other roles. Similarly, the results showed low participation of library professionals in plagiarism detection services, underscoring the need for effective collaboration with other academic stakeholders. Analysis of differences based on demographic factors suggests that individuals with higher levels of education are more closely involved in various roles and activities related to plagiarism management. Implications of the findings are discussed.
Public and municipal libraries, besides being keepers of local community documents and books, are - or should be - modern hubs of knowledge and diffusers of information to the community that surrounds them. This article reveals the areas of extroversion that municipal and public libraries can undertake, focusing on the efforts they need to make in order to best interact with local communities, going beyond their traditional usage of addressing only their patrons. Furthermore, the results of a survey conducted in the frame of the 4th Panhellenic Public Libraries Conference are presented, showing how much extroverted librarians working in public and municipal libraries are considered, as well as what kind of extroversion programs they implement in their library.
The purpose of the current research was to investigate Facebook discontinuance intentions in the Library and Information Science environment. The research model, building on the Theory of Planned Behavior, incorporated overload, fatigue, and self-efficacy, to understand the drivers behind users’ intention to stop using Facebook (either permanently or intermittently) or replace it with another social medium. Overall, the results suggest that participants are unlikely to abandon Facebook either on a permanent or a temporary basis, at least in the near future. Furthermore, users’ discontinuance intentions are primarily associated with evaluations about the consequences of their choice to abandon the medium.
This survey investigated the health information behaviour of undergraduate students at the University of West Attica. In particular, the survey took place among students of the Department of Archival, Library and Information Studies, where information literacy is taught, and in the Department of Physiotherapy, where health subjects are taught. The overall aim was to discover if any or if both of the above target groups have adopted an efficient health information behaviour. The survey investigated the following: the preferred formats of health information sources and the preferred search techniques of the two target groups; their preferred health information sources and the criteria they use to evaluate and trust a health-related source; the main criterion the participants use to evaluate the content of health information sources; and their perception of the term “information literacy”. The methodological approach used was a mainly quantitative online survey, administered to a small sample from the two aforementioned target groups, within a limited time frame, in the winter of 2022. Physiotherapy students seem to be less adequately information literate than Archival, Library and Information Studies students, which leads to the suggestion that information literacy skills should be taught to every department of the University.
Academic scholarly communication is the predominant business of researchers, scientists, and scholars. It is the core element of promoting scientific thought, investigation, and building up solid knowledge. The development of preprint platform web interfaces, server repositories of electronic scholarly papers submitted by their authors and openly available to the scientific community proposed a new form of academic communication. The distribution of a preprint of a scientific manuscript allows the authors to claim the priority of discovery, in a manner similar to the conference proceedings output, but also creates an anteriority that prevents protection by a patent application. Herein, we review the scope and the role of preprint papers platforms in academia, we explore individual cases, arXiv, SSRN, OSF Preprints, HAL, bioRxiv, EconStor, RePEc, PhilArchive, Research Square, viXra, Cryptology ePrint Archive, Preprints.org, ChinaXiv, medRxiv, JMIR Preprints, Authorea, ChemRxiv, engrXiv, e-LiS, SciELO, PsyArXiv, F1000 Research, and Zenodo, and discuss their significance in promoting scientific discovery, the potential risks of scientific integrity, as well as the policies of data distribution and intellectual property rights, the plus and minus, for the stakeholders, authors, institutions, states, scientific journals, scientific community, and the public. In this review we explore the scope and policies of the existing preprint papers platforms in different academic research fields.
Today, more than half of the world’s population uses social media, and the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic is a major contributing factor to their expedited growth. However, negative experiences associated with social networking, such as fatigue and overload, can lead to SNS abandonment. Given the widespread utilization of social media by libraries of all types, user discontinuance decisions are crucial to the formulation of libraries’ digital marketing strategy. In this context, this study investigates public library patrons’ intention to discontinue using Facebook, permanently or intermittently, and/or replace it with another network. Preferences regarding the content posted by libraries are also examined, as it has been found to affect social media fatigue and abandonment.
Purpose - The aim of the research is to discover, mainly, the opinions and perceptions of undergraduate students in the Greek Universities regarding plagiarism. Design / methodology / approach - This research attempts to discover not only the opinions and perceptions, but also the proposals of undergraduate students in the Greek Universities as far as plagiarism is concerned. The research method that was used for the survey is the quantitative, with the use of questionnaires. A total of 467 questionnaires were collected by students from all Greek Universities and the majority of the scientific fields. This research is an attempt to collect data regarding the students’ perceptions of the essence and concept of plagiarism, their opinions about the factors that lead students to plagiarize or to plagiarism and the consequences that the Universities where they study, impose. In addition, through the questionnaire, students had the opportunity to express their proposals about the methods they think are appropriate for plagiarism to be prevented in an effective way. The main objective of this research is to portray the extent of the problem of plagiarism in the Greek Universities. Additionally, it aims to contribute to the solution of the problem and to the creation of the necessary policies and mixture of methods, that will lead to the required education, for the students to avoid plagiarism. Findings – The research revealed various and useful findings. It is worth to point out that the vast majority of the undergraduate students replied that they knew the term plagiarism (98,3%). On the other hand, below of the half student population said they had not been trained on the academic writing and consequently how to avoid plagiarism. Originality / value - The paper presents the perceptions of the undergraduate students in the Greek Universities. It is remarkable that the collected data outcome is from all Greek Universities.
Purpose – The purpose of this article is to investigate certain aspects, problems and benefits from the migration to a shared Library Management System (LMS). Design/methodology/approach – A review of the literature and a quantitative survey was conducted, based on a structured questionnaire, with a response rate of 44.7%. Findings – Among the crucial issues that should be taken seriously into consideration when transiting into a new and shared LMS, are the audit of the data quality before migration, the employees’ training design and the composition of the LMS central support team. The benefits of a shared LMS are mainly effectiveness in terms of libraries’ budgets and time for the employees’ day-to-day work. Originality/value – The survey presented in this article evaluates the merits of a shared LMS and contributes innovative aspects to the existing bibliography by investigating issues and problems that arose during the transition. This way, the professionals involved in similar initiatives will benefit by avoiding possible mistakes and drawbacks when implementing such a project.
Purpose – The study aims to explore Greek libraries’ social media presence and library operation and social media use during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown. Design/methodology/approach – Primary data were collected via an online questionnaire that was distributed to the Greek libraries. The final sample comprised 189 libraries of all types with the exception of school libraries. Findings – Results indicated that Facebook is the most widely used platform, while social media are mainly used for sharing announcements about library operations and for the promotion of events. During the COVID- 19 lockdown, libraries responded quickly to the new circumstances by taking many of their services online. However, they did not fully use social media for service provision but rather used social media as a static communication channel. Only a few of the libraries grasped the opportunity to highlight their role in the promotion of public health by providing timely and reliable information. Practical implications – Library leaders who are looking to harness the power of social media for service promotion and outreach should build a strategy that takes platform popularity, current social media trends, patron preferences and the specific promotional objectives of their library into consideration. Originality/value – To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the current research is the first which attempts to explore the social media presence of Greek libraries of all types and changes made to library operations and social media use in response to the COVID-19 lockdown.
Purpose – This article aims to detail a plan for the application of the PLUS information literacy model in the context of a prison library. A brief overview of the literature will highlight the importance of (co-)developing activities based on multiple models and learning theories. At the same time, the article argues in favour of the idea that the implementation of information literacy programmes in the context of excluded and socially vulnerable groups can substantially help to improve their self-image and their smooth integration within the restrictive walls of the prison, as well enhancing their capability of returning to society and functioning as law-abiding members.. This will be followed by a presentation of the steps for implementing such a work plan in a prison library, with the aim of helping second chance school learners prepare a presentation on racism. The article is based on an assignment prepared for the “Information Literacy” course at the Department of Archival, Library & Information Studies, during the spring semester of the 2019-2020 academic year. Design/methodology/approach - The research hypothesis for the project is situated within the context of a prison library. There, the educator teaching the subject of Sociology (Social Literacy) at the Second Chance School (SCS), will express their wish that each learner prepares a presentation - on the subject of discrimination (e.g. gender, political beliefs, religion, social exclusion, minorities, etc.). To this end, the educator will propose that learners seek guidance from the librarian on a topic pertinent to the concept of discrimination (racism). The approach followed by learners when preparing their presentation will be based on the PLUS model of information literacy. Subsequently, the steps taken by the librarian will be presented to them, and their choices will be justified on the basis of the literature concerning the design of learning processes. Methodologically, the study is based on the synthesis of fundamental theories of adult education with the PLUS information literacy model. Findings - The development of work plans in an informational organisation environment, inspired by microteaching, can serve as a good example for promoting the application of informational models to their operation and services. This article, presenting every step of this process, can serve as a pilot for the application of a work plan by educators and information scientists. Originality/value - There are few examples of applications of informational models in educational processes for socially vulnerable or excluded groups. This article also enhances awareness on issues pertaining to libraries and education within prisons not just in Greece, but also abroad. Let us not forget that, in the 21st century, there still exist countries in which the human rights to education and information for detained people are still being violated.
During the past few decades, it seems that personalizing and adjusting the e-courses’ content based on individual learning styles is rather important. Indeed, several studies have been carried out throughout the years regarding the a priori personalization and adjustment of e-courses systems. This way modern LMSs (Learning Management Systems) could identify beforehand the learning styles of the e-course attendants and adjust the lesson content flow and type based on personal learning styles. Nevertheless, little bibliography exists on how to assess the compatibility level between educational content and learning styles dimensions of an LMS, in a real-life environment. With the above thoughts in mind, the current work attempts to introduce and verify an innovative framework for the students' learning styles and ecourses compatibility assessment, based on the content type and volume. The proposed framework is validated through its application at an LMS in a real-life academic environment. Such an approach could be very beneficial for already deployed e-courses on LMSs that aim to differentiate educational content provision based on users’ profiles.
Purpose - This paper presents and discusses the main results of a survey concerning students and faculty (academic staff) evaluation of the eClass of the Department of Archival, Library & Information Studies, University of West Attica, with the use of online questionnaire. The survey was conducted in October 2019 and it is a comparative study of a previous research-survey (about the eClass) of 2012. Design/methodology/approach - The questionnaire, consisted of open and closed-ended questions, and were sent respectively to the undergraduate and postgraduate students and the faculty’s staff (or professors) of the Department. As a result, 275 valid answers (233 undergraduates and 42 postgraduates’ valid responses) translated to a net response rate of 39%, while the faculty survey returned 29 valid answers with a 100% participation rate. Findings - The findings demonstrate that the students and the faculty agree that the eClass is essential for the Department’s courses and program (undergraduate and postgraduate). The communication and the interactions between the eClass platform and the users (faculty and students) has been very well established. Finally, the more interesting result that revealed from the regression analysis that was conducted, is that the more recent registration by the users (student and faculty), the more they visit the platform (eClass) and the higher they appreciated the system’s functionalities aspect. Originality/value – Useful findings were extracted regarding the evaluation of ALIS Dept eClass, after (almost) ten years of implementation. Useful comparison was made with the previous evaluation in 2012 and joined results extracted. The opinions gathered from the undergraduate and postgraduates’ students, and the faculty, reveal that the strategic goal of the ALIS Dept to use the eClass as a centralized component for the studies in the Dept, is a sophisticated choice.
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to further investigate prior work of the authors in text classification in Hypatia, the digital library of University of Western Attica. The main objective is to provide an accurate automated classification tool as an alternative to manual assignments. Design/methodology/approach - The crucial point in text classification is the selection of the most important term-words for document representation. The specific document collection consists of 718 abstracts in Medicine, Tourism and Food Technology. Two weighting methods were investigated: classic TF.IDF and DEVMAX.DF. The last one was proposed by the authors as a more accurate term-word selection tool for smaller text fragments. Classification was conducted by applying 14 classifiers available on WEKA. Findings - Classification process yielded an excellent ~97% precision score and DEVMAX.DF proved to perform better than classic TF.IDF.
Library and information science undergraduate programs’ adequacy to prepare new information professionals has become the topic of an ongoing debate, with opposing arguments about curricular structure and focus. Within this context, this study, forming part of ongoing doctoral research, analyzes students’ opinions on how to enhance library school curricula to effectively respond to academic librarians’ new roles and functions. By repositioning the lens on the practical and experience-driven student perspective, away from standard educational practices, the researchers pilot-tested a library science student survey. The mix-methods, student codeveloped, survey instrument was tested with a small self-selection sample of future information professionals in Spain and Greece. The study’s goal was to contribute to the limited body of research concerning students´ perceptions and awareness about library science education. Survey participants were provided the opportunity to critically evaluate their library school undergraduate programs’ responsiveness to the changing academic librarianship landscape. Responses, analyzed by using descriptive statistical and inductive thematic techniques, revealed a limited academic librarianship related content in library and information science curricula. Furthermore, results highlighted a reserved optimism with respect to the library’s prospects of upgrading its role in the university, an ambivalence towards librarian’s future roles, and a diffuse skepticism around the system’s potential to grasp the opportunities that the new information and communication technologies offer. The merit of the study resides in both the diversity of participants’ insightful comments and the use of a student validated survey instrument making them active contributors to the library school program’s assessment process. Dissimilar to stereotypical research projects, this initiative opens a different perspective to program evaluation and its subsequent alignment with academic library stakeholders’ needs.
Libraries in Greece have lost much of their already limited funding due to the recent global economic crisis. It has therefore become necessary for them to seek alternative sources of income. One such strategy could be commercial advertising, which constitutes the renting of space within or outside the library or using the library’s website to place ads. However, an application of commercial advertising in libraries can trigger negative reactions from library patrons. In this context, the aim of this paper is to investigate stakeholders' views regarding the use of commercial advertising by Greek libraries, using a quantitative methodology. The results reveal that commercial advertising is considered as a profitable strategy for Greek libraries by both respondent groups, information professionals and users, alike.
As governments around the world are beginning to recognize the role of creativity in the promotion of innovation and competitive advantage in a Global Knowledge Economy (GKE), Creative Knowledge-based Industries are becoming the focus of attention. Nevertheless, and in spite of the rise of Big Data, the prevailing absence of systematic library collection of activity data perpetuates the persistence of traditionalist and myopic approaches that tend to overlook the nexus between libraries and creativity while perceiving libraries as exclusively or basically collection gatekeepers, information brokers, and content providers. Given the universally acknowledged fact that the central value of the library is clearly creative, we embarked on the exploration of the academic library position within the Creative Industries system, as seen through the Ibero-American library community lens. In this vein, and following a literature review that focused on the interpretation of the intensity of creative in libraries, value, and content across different Creative Industries classification models, our survey within the library expert community attempts to investigate the relationship between academic libraries and the creative industries (CI) realm. Our overarching goal is to facilitate the articulation of targeted recommendations and to contribute to the conceptual foundations guiding the formation of a special interest group that will streamline the academic librarianship community response to this challenging area.
The more academic libraries become alternative learning centers and co-working spaces, the more librarians appreciate the significance of capturing intellectual capital fueled by student-generated data during interaction with library services. Many ILS vendors have already developed mobile solutions enabling information capture on patron workflows. Taking into consideration that these applications fail to fully capture patron engagement data, we embarked on community-driven design and pilot-testing of the CLIC Library App that aims to enhance academic library organizational capital, support librarian knowledge leadership role, strengthen user loyalty and add value to both data and personalized service provision. Through the poster’s static and interactive visualizations, visitors can learn more about CLIC Library App’s scope, aims and major functionalities, including real-time data collection, service evaluation and feedback, networking, self-scaffolding and reflection on a wide variety of library-based activities. They can also get baseline information on the community’s reaction to the proposed application serving as a reference for the improvement of library use data collection practices. Feedback from the lab-based pilot trials conducted in December 2018 with the participation of students at the Department of Archival, Library and Information Studies of the University of West Attica, Greece, marking a positive impact of our value proposition on their appreciation of technology-driven interventions supporting library’s dynamic role in the educational context, holds great promise for library shared analytics future outcomes.
Workplace incivility and its consequences have been studied by many scholars; however, little attention has been given to the phenomenon in the library environment. More specifically, empirical research in the Library and Information Science (LIS) literature has focused on deviant behaviors, such as bullying, mobbing, and aggression, mainly from colleagues and supervisors rather than from users. However, incivility in the workplace is more common than other forms of negative behaviors, such as aggression. Moreover, in service organizations uncivil behavior from patrons is more frequently encountered than from co-workers and supervisors. In this vein, the current exploratory study aimed to investigate the manifestations and frequency of user incivility, as well as employee reactions to these behaviors in Greek academic libraries. Employee perceptions regarding the causes of user incivility were also explored. Results indicated that users are mainly impatient, angry and make unreasonable demands. These behaviors are attributed to user personality. Finally, respondents reported milder reactions to user incivility compared to those of their colleagues. Implications of the findings for library leaders are also discussed.
Library and information science experts around the globe are currently exploring ways of capitalizing student workflow data within library walls. Within this realm, the researchers designed and pilot-tested a user-driven lightweight application that envisions library as a crucial contributor of co-curricular data to learner profiles’ contextual integrity. The prototype usability test conducted in December 2018 with the participation of 30 students at the University of West Attica, Greece, aimed not only to record participants’ perspectives about the application but also to trace their attitudes towards this new kind of intervention. Post-test questionnaires yield a variety of positive rich textured comments indicating students’ interest in the emerging conversation around library use data capitalization. The participants felt positive about the need to develop a culture that fosters the reconsideration of library value constituents and their new dynamic role in the educational context. The pilot-tested application could serve as a reference for the improvement of academic library use data collection practices.
Purpose - This paper presents and discusses the main results of a small-scale research concerning students’ and academic staff’s perceptions about plagiarism and its implications. The research was conducted in 2018, at the Department of Archival, Library & Information Studies, University of West Attica, with the use of two separate on-line questionnaires. Design/methodology/approach – The questionnaires, consisted of open and closed-ended questions, were sent respectively to the undergraduate students and to the academic staff of the Department. As a result, 62 questionnaires were completed by the students (~10% of the whole population) and 9 by the academic staff, which was the total number of the faculty members at the time of the study. Findings - The findings demonstrate that the students’ and the academic staff’s comprehension and perception of the term plagiarism, as well as their attitude towards the disciplinary implications, that this phenomenon entails, make it an imperative for academic realm and especially for libraries to deal with it actively and proactively. Originality/value – Useful findings were made regarding the perception and the comprehension of plagiarism phenomenon for undergraduate students.
As governments around the world are beginning to recognize the role of creativity in the promotion of innovation and competitive advantage in a Global Knowledge Economy (GKE), Creative Knowledge-based Industries are becoming the focus of attention. Nevertheless, and in spite of the rise of Big Data, the prevailing absence of systematic library collection of activity data perpetuates the persistence of traditionalist and myopic approaches that tend to overlook the nexus between libraries and creativity while perceiving libraries as exclusively or basically collection gatekeepers, information brokers, and content providers. Given the universally acknowledged fact that the central value of the library is clearly creative, we embarked on the exploration of the academic library position within the Creative Industries system, as seen through the Ibero-American library community lens. In this vein, and following a literature review that focused on the interpretation of the intensity of creative in libraries, value, and content across different Creative Industries classification models, our survey within the library expert community attempts to investigate the relationship between academic libraries and the creative industries (CI) realm. Our overarching goal is to facilitate the articulation of targeted recommendations and to contribute to the conceptual foundations guiding the formation of a special interest group that will streamline the academic librarianship community response to this challenging area.
Purpose - This paper seeks to encourage reflections on the extent to which a one-shot workshop can help about-to-be information Professionals understand and appreciate the gamut of complexities and challenges associated with library position in the emerging Learning Analytics (LA) ecosystem. Design/methodology/approach – It focuses on the description of the experience in organizing a workshop at the Department of Archival, Library & Information Studies (ALIS) of the University of West Attica. Building upon desk and primary research findings, organizers envisioned providing a valuable opportunity for senior students to collaboratively help identify the hidden value of student generated data for the support of their success and retention. Analyses of lessons learned, student viewpoints and recommendations for the future, all aim to contribute knowledge to the meta-community of Higher Education library professionals that are exploring ways to streamline their smooth integration into the educational process taking full advantage of new ICT capabilities. Findings- Students seemed to have quickly developed a substantial understanding of the risks and opportunities involved in this type of innovation as reflected on detected differences between a set of pre and post-workshop survey indicators. Furthermore, student evaluations on workshop design, delivery and content quality have provided valuable input on its usefulness and a set of recommendations for change. Originality/value - It presents and analyses observations of the first Greek LIS community initiation experience to current Learning Analytics landscape, a topic germane to university libraries that could eventually influence New Information Professionals’ mindset and aspirations.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the application of text classification in Hypatia, the digital library of Technological Educational Institute of Athens, in order to provide an automated classification tool as an alternative to manual assignments. The cru-cial point in text classification is the selection of the most important term-words for docu-ment representation. Classic weighting method TF.IDF was investigated. Our document collection consists of 718 abstracts in Medicine, Tourism and Food Technology. Classifica-tion was conducted utilizing 14 classifiers available on WEKA. Classification process yielded an excellent ~97% precision score.
Applications of clustering and classification techniques can be proved very significant in both digital and physical (paper-based) libraries. The most essential application, document classification and clustering, is crucial for the content that is produced and maintained in digital libraries, repositories, databases, social media, blogs etc., based on various tags and ontology elements, transcending the traditional library-oriented classification schemes. Other applications with very useful and beneficial role in the new digital library environment involve document routing, summarization and query expansion. Paper-based libraries can benefit as well since classification combined with advanced material characterization techniques such as FTIR (Fourier Transform InfraRed spectroscopy) can be vital for the study and prevention of material deterioration. An improved two-level self-organizing clustering architecture is proposed in order to enhance the discrimination capacity of the learning space, prior to classification, yielding promising results when applied to the above mentioned library tasks.
E-book for digital content management for the courses "Metadata" and "Digital libraries" of the Department of Archival, Library & Information Studies of the University of West Attica.
The role of communication is a catalyst for the proper function of an organization. This paper focuses on libraries, where the communication is crucial for their success. In our opinion, libraries in Greece are suffering from the lack of communication and marketing strategy. Communication has many forms and manifestations. A key aspect of communication is body language, which has a dominant communication tool the neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). The body language is a system that expresses and transfers messages, thoughts and emotions. More and more organizations in the public sector and companies in the private sector base their success on the communication skills of their personnel. The NLP suggests several methods to obtain excellent relations in the workplace and to develop ideal communication. The NLP theory is mainly based on the development of standards (communication model) that guarantees the expected results. This research was conducted and analyzed in two parts, the qualitative and the quantitative. The findings mainly confirm the need for proper communication within libraries. In the qualitative research, the interviewees were aware of communication issues, although some gaps in that knowledge were observed. Even this slightly lack of knowledge, highlights the need for constant information through educational programs. This is particularly necessary for senior executives of libraries, who should attend relevant seminars and refresh their knowledge on communication related issues.
Purpose – This paper aims to propose a toolset that enables individual digital collections owners to satisfy the requirements of aggregators even in cases where their IT and software infrastructure is limited and does not support them inherently. Managers of repositories/digital collections face the challenge of exposing their data via Open Archives Initiative – Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) to multiple aggregators and conforming to their possibly differing requirements, for example on output metadata schemas and selective harvesting. Design/methodology/approach – The authors developed a software server that is able to wrap existing systems or even metadata records in plain files as OAI-PMH sources. They analysed the functionality of OAI-PMH data providers in a flow of discrete steps and used a software library to modularise the software for these steps so that the whole process can be easily customised to the needs of each pair of OAI-PMH data provider and service provider. The developed server includes a mechanism for the implementation of schema mappings using an XML specification that can be defined by non-IT personnel, for example metadata experts. The server has been applied in various real-life use cases, in particular for providing content to Europeana.Findings – It has been concluded through real-life use cases that it is indeed possible and feasible in practice to expose metadata records of digital collections via OAI-PMH even when the data sources do not support the required protocols and standards. Even advanced OAI-PMH features like selective harvesting can be supported. Mappings between input and output schemas in many practical cases can be implemented entirely or to a large extent as XML specifications by metadata experts instead of software developers. Practical implications – Exposing data via OAI-PMH to aggregators like Europeana is made feasible/easier for digital collections owners, even when their software infrastructure does not inherently support the required protocols and standards. Originality/value – The approach is original and applicable in practice to diverse technology environments, effectively addressing the indisputable fact of the heterogeneity of software and systems used to implement digital repositories and collections worldwide.
The present study examines the impact of austerity measures on the academic community. The Technological Educational Institute of Athens served as our case study. It was selected because it is the second largest higher education institution in Greece, and has students of a diverse socio- economic background. Data were obtained through an analysis of institution financial statements and other documents depicting budgets, human resources, infrastructure, in an attempt to study their impact on the resulting quality of education. In addition, through the use of questionnaires we evaluated the impact of austerity measures and the economic crisis on both academic staff and students in relation to their performance, the quality of education, and their plans for educational and professional trajectories. Finally, and given the pending merging or even closure of some departments, faculties and/or institutions throughout the country, we examined the effects on people's attitudes towards educational and research activities.
The current global financial crisis is the biggest economic upheaval for all libraries around the world and especially for those in Southern Europe. Due to this crisis, Greek and Cypriot libraries face many problems deriving mostly from their state funding and personnel reduction. The paper focuses on the effects on operation and services of Greek and Cypriot libraries, and the impact caused by salary reductions and personnel layoffs on their actual survival. A survey was conducted through an online questionnaire available in Lime Survey to all Greek and Cypriot academic, public and special libraries. Responses were gathered and analysed. In conclusion, the paper proposes some ideas for the development of new services and activities that may help libraries to deal with the effects of financial crisis and help them stay alive and to reactivate their users support.
The paper describes a set of software tools and methodologies followed by the Hellenic Aggregator and Greek cultural, educational and scientific institutions in order to contribute their content to Europeana. The software tools are presented and their impact on the publishing, aggregation and dissemination process of Greek content to Europeana is described. The work of the Hellenic Aggregator, the methodologies developed and the new software tools, which were created, improved the publishing process of Greek institutions and promoted their content to Europeana. During this process, difficult technical challenges were overcome and a clear path has been created for Greek content providers who would like to publish their content to Europeana. Without these software and methodologies, harvesting Greek digital content from Europeana would not be possible. The present study outlines also the work on supporting Europeana Semantic Elements (ESE) metadata schema.
The Department of Library Science and Information Systems of the TEI of Athens is using a Moodle installation as its eclass platform for the past four semesters. Moodle is a freely distributed open source software, and has been one of the most popular Course Management Systems. The faculty has invested a significant amount of time and effort and has created 50 online courses, which provide students with all the necessary course material (multiple bibliographies, presentations, e-books and other text and multimedia resources). The online resources also include activity modules, assignments and quizzes that utilize the interactive and collaborative environment of Moodle. This study presents the evaluation of the department’s e-class, which has been based on two online questionnaires, one addressed to the faculty and the other to the students. The questionnaires attempted to collect data concerning the users’ attitudes and profiles (visiting frequency, favorite activities) and their opinions about the functionality and usefulness of the eclass in enhancing the teaching and learning experience. The results fully confirm the faculty’s view that the e-class is an indispensable addition to the departments teaching tools and demonstrate that it is extensively used and highly appreciated by both faculty and students.
Over the past year, many Institutional Repositories have been launched by Greek Universities. In this framework, the Library of the Technological Educational Institute of Athens has designed and is launching an Institutional Repository containing Faculty's published and unpublished work, students’ theses and a major “Institutional Archival Collection”. However, the library had a long history of mistrust, mainly deriving from its long periods of understaffing and poor services. Thus, it was evident that the Institute had to rebuild trust and promote the IR. The first step in launching IRs was to set up policies regarding the content, the self-archiving procedure, the use of personalized services for users and the introduction of relevant routines. In the process, it became apparent that the organizational culture had to be redesigned. These lead to the formulation of ‘best practices’ which would secure the effective and widespread use of the repository by all members of the academic community. A bibliographic review was carried out regarding repository policies. In addition, observation techniques were used in assessing the use of the repository. Furthermore, a questionnaire was distributed to users in order to assess the effectiveness, ease of use and level of understanding of the repository's functions.
Over the past year the Library of the TEI of Athens has launched an Institutional Repository containing Faculty’s published and unpublished work, students’ theses and a major collection called “Institutional Archives”. The latter was also used as a vehicle for promoting the Repository and had attracted a lot of interest from all faculty members and the Institute’s administration. While in the making, special effort was made to secure faculty’s understanding of the undertaking and faculty’s participation. Information was communicated through e- letters from the Library, the Deans and the Institute’s President as well. A web site was developed and a feedback mechanism was set in place. A system of approaching individually each faculty member and create customized lists of publications to be incorporated in the IR had given surprisingly good results. The assessment of these measures in relation to faculty’s willingness to participate in the IR is examined. Furthermore, faculty’s attitude towards self-archiving is also examined. A bibliographic review was carried out regarding faculty attitudes and factors that shape it. A questionnaire was distributed to all faculty members in order to assess the effectiveness of the communication system and the degree of their willingness to practice self archiving. This explored faculty reactions and determined the effectiveness of the IR. Major findings include the faculty’s positive reception of the IR due to the fact that the information was communicated properly through the aforementioned mechanism and their enthusiasm and overcoming of hesitations after understanding the capabilities of the IR.
This paper presents a policy decision tree for digital information management in academic libraries. The decision tree is a policy guide, which offers alternative access and reproduction policy solutions according to the prevailing circumstances (for example acquisition method, copyright ownership). It refers to the digital information life cycle, focusing mostly on its creation (digitized or born-digital), acquisition, copyright and availability. The resulting decision tree is based on a policy model, which was initially divided into two branches – one for digitized and one for born-digital information. The decision tree simplifies and unifies commonly adopted rules which were identified through a questionnaire survey on the access and reproduction policies of 67 digital collections in 34 multidisciplinary libraries (national, academic, public, special, etc.) from 13 countries. The results of the decision tree are used to propose alternative policies.
The effects of book and paper conservation treatments on the intrinsic data of the artifacts are examined. The tangible data present in an object are grouped in three layers, with the third layer being associated with the object’s material properties. The wealth of information that can be drawn from the data of the third layer and their significance is discussed. The obfuscation of critical data or their complete loss after specific treatments is a possible outcome, and conservators, stakeholders and the public should be aware of what may be lost after a conservation intervention.
Europeana is an evolving service that tries to be a single access point for Europe’s cultural heritage. The metadata aggregation for Europeana is a procedure that needs interoperability and software tools for transforming metadata to Europeana Semantic Elements (ESE). This aggregation imposes requirements difficult to be implemented in many small institutions. To accommodate these needs and help the Greek institutions contribute their content to Europeana, we developed a series of tools. The Hellenic Aggregator that has established a single communication point with Europeana. The Open Archives Engine (OAE) software for creating digital library aggregators. The oaipmh. com tool for validating OAI-PMH enabled repositories. Other wrappers that enable repeatable generation and harvesting of ESE-compatible metadata via OAI-PMH. We present these tools and the way that helped the Greek cultural institutions in contributing content to Europeana.
Europeana is not generally associated with ethics. Its core business is about access to cultural heritage, internet technology and support for digitisation. It is a strictly European initiative, a collaborative effort among many kinds of memory institutions from all over Europe. The data and information contained in the Europeana database and presented to users worldwide is not compiled by or for Europeana. It is collected from a large number of contributing cultural memory institutions and was produced for many different purposes. It originated in a huge variety of contexts.
Europeana has put in a stretch many known procedures in digital libraries, imposing requirements difficult to be implemented in many small institutions, often without dedicated systems support personnel. Although there are freely available open source software platforms that provide most of the commonly needed functionality such as OAI-PMH support, the migration from legacy software may not be easy, possible or desired. Furthermore, advanced requirements like selective harvesting according to complex criteria are not widely supported. To accommodate these needs and help institutions contribute their content to Europeana, we developed a series of tools. For the majority of small content providers that are running DSpace, we developed a DSpace plug-in, to convert and augment the Dublin Core metadata according to Europeana ESE requirements. For sites with different software, incompatible with OAI-PMH, we developed wrappers enabling repeatable generation and harvesting of ESE-compatible metadata via OAI-PMH. In both cases, the system is able to select and harvest only the desired metadata records, according to a variety of configuration criteria of arbitrary complexity. We applied our tools to providers with sophisticated needs, and present the benefits they achieved.
Purpose – This paper's aim it to analyze added value that the theses e-submission system (tool) gave to the NTUA IR service. Design/methodology/approach – The paper describes the e‐submission tool, its procedures and evaluates its use. Findings – The tool improved the IR service, which can be certified by the continuing evaluation process. This process produced the following main results: the automated batch importing feature should be integrated into the e‐submission system; IR service tutorials should be given to the secretariats, faculty and students; and in‐house service marketing should be conducted. Research limitations/implications – The present study provides a starting‐point for further research in DL open source software. Originality/value – The paper shows that the tool helped NTUA users in submitting their e-theses, and the IR staff in organizing efficiently the service workflow and the data integration into the DSpace system. The process weaknesses rectifications will enhanse the service and allow its broadness to all NTUA departments. This tool implementation may start a debate to the DSpace community in using proxies between DSpace platform and the end user, as an alternative.
Today's libraries provide a broad and diverse range of resources, from books to videos and databases, and sharing conditions for each depend on modality, source, and mode of usage. In this paper, we introduce and discuss a flexible, semi-automated mechanism to assist in setting policies and tracking their implementation based on the Secure Content Exchange Negotiation System (SCENS). We consider how SCENS can be extended and applied to libraries, including as a tool for reconciling multi-institutional or multi-national policies. We also show how monitoring of SCENS negotiations can help set library sharing policies and resolve future conflicts by tracking the evolution of sharing agreements.
This presentation concerns pragmatic approaches on achieving interoperability in digital libraries and repositories based on relevant experiences of the authors in real-life, large scale, successful use cases such as: (a) the establishment – within the EuropeanaLocal project – of a national aggregator, harvesting digital content (more than 170000 records) from various repositories across the country to incorporate it into Europeana, the single portal / gateway to distributed European cultural heritage resources developed as an initiative of the European Commission, (b) the development and operation of openarchives.gr, a single, unified search engine over Greek digital libraries and repositories that currently indexes metadata from 39 systems (more than 340000 records) and (c) the inclusion of content (roughly 40000 items) from disparate data sources to Pandektis, a thematic repository of cultural heritage and humanities material and Helios – the institutional repository of the National Hellenic Research Foundation.
EuropeanaLocal is a best practice network project, which will help Europeana to enhance its content and service by applying automated metadata harvesting among distributed repositories. Greek content providers and its metadata aggregator, the Veria Central Public Library (VCPL), are in a testing metadata harvesting period, in the framework of EuropeanaLocal. This paper analyzes the practices that the Greek Institutional Repositories follow in order to transform their metadata schemas to European Semantic Elements (ESE) profile and to export this profile through OAI-PMH to the VCPL aggregator. In addition, it describes the way in which the VCPL aggregates the ESE exported metadata output. Finally, it emphasizes on the transformation and aggregation tools that have been launched on a local level, before Europeana disseminates its official ones.
This paper presents the EuropeanaLocal project, funded by the European Commission that aims to assist cultural repositories to provide access to digital content that they hold to Europeana, the European Digital Library. The paper emphasizes at the effort of Greek Institutional Repositories to provide cultural content to Europeana via their involvement at the EuropeanaLocal project. Greek libraries, museums and archives content providers trying to adopt interoperability standards, the automated metadata harvesting model of Europeana, enrich their metadata by applying the European Semantic Elements metadata schemas in order to be able to migrate their metadata and make available their content of immense value to Europeana. Finally, the paper analyzes the results of a research conducted in Greek repositories participating in the project, which demonstrates their readiness for this project, problems encountered, the diversity of materials and standards that they are used, etc. Finally, the paper illustrates the growing opportunities arise for libraries and other cultural institutions (archives, museums) through their participation in the EuropeanLocal Project.
There is a trend in cultural organizations, such as, libraries, museums, archives, to digitize or to make available via the Web digitally born content, which turns to be vital for them. However, this mass digital production arise interoperability issues on metadata schemes, harvesting, protocols and systems and other critical points like access, intellectual property and preservation. In this context, Europeana is developing a common multilingual access point, which will make it possible to search Europe’s distributed digital cultural heritage online. The Europeana service tries to manage this cultural heritage content by applying automated metadata harvesting model in a range of distributed repositories. This effort is enhanced by the best practice network project EuropeanaLocal, which will help local and regional libraries, museums, archives and audio-visual archives to make the enormous amount of content that they hold available through Europeana and deliver new services. This paper analyzes the cultural heritage management prototype within Europeana and EuropeanaLocal framework. Finally, it emphasizes, as a case study, on the effort that the Greek cultural content repositories make to incorporate the Europeana’s standards, in order to provide Europeana service with cultural heritage content metadata through OAI-PMH automated harvesting procedure.
The National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), through its Central Library, offers an Institutional Repository (IR) and ETD submission service, currently operating in a pilot testing period. The main objectives of this paper can be summarized into three major points. Primarily, to evaluate the IR service pilot period, focusing on the ETD submission process. Secondarily, to refine and improve the above mentioned process and, finally, to promote the concept of selfarchiving and open access. The project was undertaken by implementing a web-based survey, targeting on the ETD submission users’ population. The data were imported into and processed by statistical analysis software. The key results were exposed online, as part of the IR system, updated in real time, since the survey is an ongoing procedure. The statistical analysis produced useful results regarding various aspects of the IR service. The major descriptive statistics focused on user groups, administrative staff and procedure grading, as well as access policy selection. Moreover, cross tabulations and correlations were created between all variables, for example “university department” and/or “ETD type” associated with “access policy”. A positive user attitude towards the procedure was noted, which motivates us to further enhance and expand the service. Our first milestone is to broaden the service to incorporate all the university departments. For that to happen, the statistical results will be used to forecast, define and, finally, determine the process needs, both in technical and human resources terms. Process weaknesses detected will be rectified, wherever possible, whereas process strengths will be used to market the service. At the same time, certain improvements, such as the transition from a semi-automated metadata importing process into the main IR (DSpace), to a fully automated one (batch), are already in development.
We present the results of a questionnaire survey for the access and reproduction policies of 67 digital collections in 34 libraries (national, academic, public, special etc) from 13 countries. We examine and analyze the above policies in relation to specific factors, such as, the acquisition method, copyright ownership, library type (national, academic, etc.), content creation (digitized, born-digital) and content type (audio, video, etc.); how these factors affect the policies of the examined digital collections. Responses were received from a range of library sectors but by far the best responses came from academic libraries, in which we focus. We extract policy (access, reproduction) rules and alternatives according to these factors that lead to a policy decision tree on digital information management for academic libraries. The resulting decision tree is based on a policy model; the model and tree are divided into two parts: for digitized and born-digital content.
This paper describes the challenge, development and pilot implementation of the Institutional Repository (IR) at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). It portrays the vision of the Central Library of NTUA, to provide open access to grey literature, in order to promote the scientific research. Our Digital Library (DL) is a DSpace installation, containing unique digitized collections and an evolving IR with ETDs. Our primary goal is to establish new routines to academic community for ETDs, e-submission and self-archiving. We already have the “law”; the relevant decision of the senate that gives us the right to collect-deposit the ETDs and to define the necessary specifications, standards and procedures for writing, e-submission, storage, deposit and access of ETDs. We adhere to the templates that each department has established for ETD writing, however, our prospect is to implement a flexible, integrated and unique template, based on ETD guide. Current progress constitutes the preparation and implementation of a web-based e-submission form for ETDs and its relevant online help (in Greek and English); the necessary modification and addition of Dublin Core (DC) metadata fields for ETDs DC registry; and the policies for, metadata storage and accessibility, copyright ownership and access of ETDs. We have two access points for ETDs, the library’s OPAC and the DSpace system, for interoperability, metadata preservation, and integration reasons. Additionally, modifications have been made to the DSpace web interface for satisfying our user-centered needs. Finally, the appropriate metadata, copyright and access policy documentation is available on our website and is analyzed. Current steps include the formal promotion of ETDs and e-submission procedure, and the evaluation of the pilot testing period (approximately six months) of IR. Future plans: personalization, integration of DL collections and services, submission of modifications to the DSpace development community; participation in NDLTD Union Catalogue and movement.
In this PhD thesis, the access and availability policies (policies from now on) of libraries’ digital content are examined in relation to specific factors, which according to bibliography, affect them. The factors refer to acquisition method, intellectual property, content type, digital content creation type and library type. The intellectual property and policies relation is examined in different countries worldwide. The electronic theses and dissertations, is the case study selected for analyzing the relation of policies and content type. Alternative access policies for such content are proposed. The national and academic libraries worldwide, is the core for the policies and library type’s relation analysis. The questionnaire, the personal observation and the study of the relevant literature are the methods used for collecting the research data. Generalized rules in relation to the factors are extracted for the libraries’ followed policy practices. The absence of an appropriate model for national and academic libraries’ digital content is ascertained. Two flexible access and reproduction policy models for national and academic libraries’ digital content are proposed. The models contain simplified policy rules, resulted from libraries’ common policy practices, supplemented by alternative policy proposals. Each model results in a decision tree, which proposes alterative and flexible access and reproduction policy routes according to the factors, digital content creation type, acquisition method and intellectual property that apply on each case. The proposing policy models and the decision trees that result in, hope to be helpful in resolving the policy problem. Additionally, they may constitute useful tools (guides) in forming the policies and managing the national and academic libraries’ digital information (content).
The access and reproduction policies of the digital collections of 10 leading university digital libraries worldwide are classified according to factors such as the creation type of the material, acquisition method, copyright ownership etc. The relationship of these factors is analysed, showing how acquisition methods and copyright ownership affect the access and reproduction policies of digital collections. The article concludes with rules about which factors lead to specific policies. For example, when the library has the copyright of the material, reproduction for private use is usually provided free with a credit to the source or otherwise mostly under fair use provisions, but commercial reproduction needs written permission and fees are charged. Finally, common practice on access and reproduction policies are extracted and conventional policies are mapped onto digital policies.
The digital content of libraries is different from commercial digital products, such as, computer applications, software tools, and computer code or data streams, but they have the same sharing, reproduction and distribution digital properties and similar knowledge management problems. We examine the policies applied to commercial and library digital content. We classify the commercial digital products, according to their use and distribution properties, and we analyze their policy components. Mapping on library and commercial sector policies is illustrated, and their similarities and differences are extracted. Within this mapping, we conclude by showing, how a subset of the library policies can be transferred and implemented by companies. We show how this implementation could be beneficial for commercial companies, because libraries have great experience in providing digital content and in implementing policies. In this sense, libraries are leading the way, by showing to commercial companies how to handle and provide digital content.
The access and reproduction policies of the digital collections of ten leading university digital libraries worldwide are classified according to factors such as the creation type of the material, acquisition method, copyright ownership etc. The relationship of these factors is analyzed, showing how acquisition methods and copyright ownership affect the access and reproduction policies of digital collections. We conclude with rules about which factors lead to specific policies. For example, when the library has the copyright of the material, the reproduction for private use is usually provided free with a credit to the source or otherwise mostly under fair use provisions, but the commercial reproduction needs written permission and fees are charged. The extracted rules, which show the common practice on access and reproduction policies, constitute the policy model. Finally, conventional policies are mapped onto digital policies.
Today's libraries provide a broad and diverse range of resources, from books to videos and databases, and sharing conditions for each depend on modality, source, and mode of usage. In this paper, we introduce and discuss a flexible, semi-automated mechanism to assist in setting policies and tracking their implementation based on the Secure Content Exchange Negotiation System (SCENS). We consider how SCENS can be extended and applied to libraries, including as a tool for reconciling multi-institutional or multi-national policies. We also show how monitoring of SCENS negotiations can help set library sharing policies and resolve future conflicts by tracking the evolution of sharing agreements.
The access and reproduction policies of the digital collections of fifteen leading academic and national digital libraries worldwide are classified according to factors such as the creation type of the material, acquisition method and copyright ownership. The relationship of these factors and policies is analyzed and quantitative remarks are extracted. We propose a policy model for the digital content of the national and academic libraries. The model consists of rules, supplemented by their exceptions, about which factors lead to specific policies. We derive new policy rules on access and reproduction when different copyright terms are applied. We conclude with findings on policies. Finally, we compare national and academic library policies, showing interesting results that arise on their similarities and differences.
We analyze the use of the digital content of non-profit libraries, such as, national and academic, worldwide, as expressed through the restrictions of intellectual property and the knowledge management policies. We classify the policies according to factors, such as, the content creation type, its acquisition method and intellectual property, analyze their relationship and extract quantitative remarks. We propose a policy model of access, reproduction and use for the digital content of national and academic libraries. The model contains not only library implemented practices, but also, new, and not implemented so far, policies, which can offer solutions to management of digital information and knowledge; in addition, rules on policies supplemented by their exceptions. Two separate policy models, for the digitized and the born-digital, arise and presented respectively, and relevant conclusions that valid on each case are extracted. Finally, findings on policies, common, for national and academic libraries, and unique, are presented.
We examine the factors (creation type of the material, acquisition method, copyrightownership etc.) and the access and reproduction policies of the digital collections of ten leading university digital libraries. We classify the policies according to the factors and analyze their relation, showing how the acquisition method and the copyright ownership define the access and reproduction policies for the digital collections. We conclude with rules about which factors lead to specific policies. For example, when the library has the copyright of the material, the reproduction for private use is provided usually free with a credit to the source or otherwise mostly under fair use provisions and the commercial reproduction needs written permission from and fees given to the library. Finally, we extract the common practice onaccess and reproduction policies and we map the conventional to digital policies.
In this paper, we examine the access and reproduction policies of the digital material of seven National Libraries. The selection of the examined National Libraries is based on the variation of their digital content and the diversification of their access policies. Our goal is to discover the differences among the implemented access policies of these National Libraries. We analyze the access and reproduction policies that these libraries have implemented for their digital material showing the different levels of access, the copyrights, the privacy and publicity rights. We also mention the acquisition policies, because, often, the access and the reproduction policies are related to the way that the library has acquired the material and the status of its copyright ownership. When the digital content (text, image, audio, video etc.), does not have restrictions (copyright, privacy and publicity rights limitations, distribution restrictions etc.), then the most common access policy is the “free access”. Otherwise, when the digital material has restrictions, then the access policy is restricted for onsite users only and the reproduction requires written permission or fees. The implemented access policies differ in various aspects. We generalize them into one unified policy, which can implement the specific policies by varying some of its parameters. We study these parameters and explain their most useful alternative values and their semantics. We also foresee new policy parameters that will be appropriate to more complex policies that will be needed soon.
We explore the digital collections of ten National Libraries and the applied access policies, when the digital material is free or restricted or the reproduction requires written permission or fees. We classify the implemented access policies according to their characteristics. We examine the differences among the implemented access policies and we generalize the solution approaches combining the varying parameters and other relevant emerging ones. The selection of the access policies is crucial for the acceptance and maintenance of the digital libraries. The success of any conventional or digital library depends on the usage of its material from the users. The usage of the material depends on the selection of the access policy.
We examine the disposition policies of Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) among three institutions: National Documentation Centre of Greece (NDC), Virginia Tech (VT) and West Virginia University (WVU) of USA. In addition, we compare the implemented disposition policies by the three institutions, and we analyze their similarities and differences. We select the three institutions because they comprise a representative sample of different national ETD initiatives. While the content of the dissertations and the technologies to provide them exist, the availability is limited by the absence of decisions concerning the applicability of policies. We suggest alternative access policies in order the ETDs to be more open and accessible to all. We analyze these questions and make suggestions about the solution approaches of these problems, especially solutions about the disposition policies of the digital material. Finally, we compare the implemented and the proposed policies.