Showing papers in "JLIS.it in 2014"

Links between Libraries and Museums: a Case Study of Library-Museum Collaboration at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum

Abstract: Established in 2005, the Hong Kong Maritime Museum (HKMM) is a relatively new private museum that aims to collect all forms of materials related to the development of boats, ships, maritime exploration and trade, and naval warfare on the South China coast, as well as its adjacent seas The Museum not only serves as a unique platform for teaching and learning of the local heritage in Hong Kong, it also contributes greatly to the promotion of community engagement and social connections The HKMM is also equipped with its own museum library, and it is called the CSSC (China State Shipbuilding Corporation) Maritime Heritage Resource Centre In addition to supporting various research activities carried out by the Museum, this Resource Centre also serves as a central, and yet comprehensive repository for publications, and other archival documents on maritime heritage and history related to Southeastern China This paper aims to compare the distinctive operational practices, and user needs between museums and libraries It also examines the benefits and challenges of museum-library collaborations in the new knowledge-driven society This paper features an interview with Kitty But (Librarian, CSSC Maritime Heritage Resource Centre, The Hong Kong Maritime Museum) and Robert Trio ( Project Officer for Technology, The Hong Kong Maritime Museum) , and in which they discussed their professional experiences in the fields of audience education; the implementation of different new technologies associated with the museum and library services; and various collaborative initiatives carried out between the Museum and the Resource Centre Upcoming challenges and opportunities faced by both the Museum and Resource Centre are also discussed in this paper

The usability issues of faceted navigation in digital libraries

Abstract: The last decade transformed faceted navigation from a “nice-to-have” into a “must-have functionality” for all online web services that contain a search function. The movement has been started by commercial websites, such as online clothing stores, with the purpose of facilitating access to the products. Now, faceted search seems to be more and more well-known within the community of information institutions and their digital services, too, as for example the online catalogue of the Library of Congress or Europeana show. In this context, as well, the feature is often sold as an added value to access the content of their sites in a more effective way. Still, experience shows that the use of faceted navigation in a digital library context is more complex than for online clothing stores. For this reason, it is important to focus on the usability of such functionalities and to test it as often as possible during implementation and regular use, as well. Site providers have to be aware of one important fact: a faceted search that has not been implemented correctly or does not work in the way the user expects it, will create frustration and/or not be used at all. This implies in a worst case scenario that users don’t come back to the site anymore, and may even spread their negative experience among the community. To prevent this, usability tests, either with experts or real users, should be conducted regularly. This can be done with common usability tests, using direct human interaction with a system, or with online tests, where test user are free to fill in the test whenever they want. In both cases, test results illuminate a system’s weaknesses and expose dysfunctional issues, which should be improved in order to offer a positive experience to its users. For more than five years, the project ACCEPT, a subproject of a Swiss national project called e-lib.ch, analyzes the usability and usefulness of digital libraries, by using user oriented methods. Experience has shown that filters provided through faceted navigation are considered as positive and very useful by end users. Nevertheless, based on different test results, several returning mistakes have been detected and it turns out that there are some ‘unwritten standards’ concerning e.g. position, labelling or ranking which should be respected to fulfil the aim of a good usability which users do expect of such web services. In this poster we will first give an introduction to faceted navigation, actual design issues and their use in digital libraries and then present testing methods, which can be easily applied in a digital library context. Together with a list of best practices concerning faceted navigation drawn out of different test experiences, the paper should give the reader all important information to evaluate its current faceted navigation and see where improvements could be made.

Transforming and enhancing metadata for enduser discovery: a case study

Abstract: This paper describes the process developed by Binghamton University Libraries to extract embedded metadata from digital photographs and transform it into descriptive Dublin Core metadata for use in the Libraries’ digital preservation system. In 2011, Binghamton University Libraries implemented the Rosetta digital preservation system (from Ex Libris) to preserve digitized and born-digital materials. At the same time, the Libraries’ implemented the Primo discovery tool (from Ex Libris) to bring together not only the digital collections in Rosetta, but also bibliographic holdings from our integrated library system and other sources. Currently, the Libraries are working with the campus photographer to preserve and provide access to 350,000+ digital images. Most of these images depict campus events, such as Homecoming, Commencement, etc. that are of historical and immediate social value to the campus community. These images are used widely in marketing and outreach materials, and on the University’s website. However, owing to volume of photographs, as well as to budgetary and other constraints, it is not possible to have library staff inspect the photographs and create a complete descriptive metadata record for each, so we needed to explore different options. Each of photographer’s images contains embedded metadata (file format, date and time stamps, location, etc.) and additionally, many of the files also contain basic descriptive information supplied by the photographer, including his name, keywords and/or a short description. Using this basic metadata as a starting point, cataloguing and systems librarians at Binghamton University Libraries were able to create an automated process to reformat and enhance the available descriptive information, crosswalk it to the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set, and map keywords to controlled subject and location terms (including Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), Thesaurus for Graphic Materials (TGM), Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN), etc.) Following the initial set-up, the only steps requiring manual intervention are extracting and identifying new keywords, updating the mapping table, running the scripts, proofreading the Dublin Core metadata once it has been produced, and lastly, depositing the images and metadata into the preservation system. Using this collection as a case study, we will demonstrate how embedded metadata can be upcycled in order to produce complete descriptive metadata records, which can then be integrated and indexed with metadata from other sources, and ultimately made discoverable by library users. After all, no matter how well a repository takes care of a file, how well it keeps, preserves or displays it, it makes no sense to put an digital object into a system if you cannot find it later. The Libraries’ workflow and portions of code will be shared; issues and challenges involved will be discussed. While this case study is specific to Binghamton University Libraries, examples of strategies used at other institutions will also be introduced. This paper should be useful to anyone interested in describing large quantities of photographs or other materials with preexisting embedded metadata.

An atlas of classification. Signage between open shelves, the Web and the catalogue

Abstract: Questo lavoro presenta il progetto di segnaletica per gli scaffali aperti classificati che e in corso di realizzazione presso la Biblioteca di Scienze sociali dell'Universita di Firenze, nella quale si indicizza per classe con la Classificazione Decimale Dewey. Per rendere realmente efficace l'ordinamento classificato, un sistema di segnaletica deve chiarire la complessita, renderla esplicita, cioe deve fare intuire agli utenti la logica in base alla quale sono ordinati i documenti sugli scaffali, presentando in modo visibile e comprensibile le entita e le relazioni che compaiono nell'indicizzazione per classe. Questa segnaletica e fondata sulla comunicazione cross-mediale, e integra le modalita comunicative della biblioteca a vari livelli, sia nel contesto dello stesso medium, sia tra media diversi: tra i cartelli sulle testate degli scaffali, tra questi cartelli e il sito web della biblioteca, tra il sito web e il catalogo. Per questo sistema integrato sono particolarmente adatti i dispositivi mobili come i tablet e gli smartphone, perche danno la possibilita di accedere al Web mentre ci si muove tra gli scaffali. Il collegamento diretto tra gli scaffali aperti classificati e il catalogo e reso possibile dai codici QR stampati sui cartelli.

BeWeb. The cross portal of cultural ecclesiastical heritage

Abstract: BeWeb – online ecclesiastical cultural heritage – is a project to establish a portal dedicated to the cultural and artistic heritage of the Catholic Church, by providing an integrated view of data regarding churches, the artwork and items of worship they contain, library and archive funds of diocesan and religious institutes, with a special focus on cultural, scientific and pastoral care aspects, in order to provide an authoritative tool for users to know more about these extraordinary assets.Our goal is to share the outcome of all activities carried out by dioceses and ecclesiastical cultural institutes to manage and enhance their cultural and artistic heritage, both through the catalogue – which provides a virtual map of buildings, items, cultural institutes, archives, funds and libraries – and also through content creation, by connecting different resources together and helping users find their way through this wealth of material, in order for them to appreciate aspects related to pastoral care and worship, in addition to history and culture. Integrating this kind of information leads to a clearer perception of the Church’s unique cultural heritage, which can be understood only by referring to local contexts that provide users with a fundamental key for interpretation.The digital inventory of ecclesiastical cultural and artistic heritage, that Italian dioceses have been urged to contribute to by the Italian Bishops’ Conference since 1997 – with the support of the National Office for Ecclesiastical Cultural Heritage (UNBCE) acting as coordinator – has led to the creation of a massive digital data bank in the last ten years. The inventory documents an extremely important, sizeable and peculiar cultural heritage, and testifies to the sense of responsibility and spirit of service of dioceses and religious institutes.UNBCE has laid down the methodology, identified strategies, provided means and support in the different work stages, but this project has been and still is a major networking effort, to which each diocese and institute contribute, safeguarding the added value that is given by the close union between information and heritage which, in several online projects, is sometimes undermined.The various inventory projects are the result of intense activity based on specific agreements signed with the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and respective Central Institutes, to promote filing initiatives that comply with relevant national and international standards, safeguarding filing entities’ specifities. The traditionally active dialogue between UNBCE, Ministry officials and particular Churches has led to the pursuit of shared goals in implementing this ambitious project.Currently, BeWeb hosts the data banks of several Italian dioceses’ historic and artistic heritage, in addition to fact sheets regarding dioceses and cultural institutes (museums, archives and libraries). Over time, it will be enriched with data banks of architectural heritage, archival funds and library assets, thus becoming a cross-sectoral portal of ecclesiastical cultural heritage with and extraordinary potential.BeWeb engages in dialogue on a 360° radius: this project also includes continuous updates and reflections regarding national and international scenarios, through a semantic web, open data and integration with internationally-renowned archives such as VIAF, ULAN, TGN. All this is also made possible by the development of access point control and standardization (authority files).BeWeb’s aim is to provide for different navigation needs: from average users looking for basic information to specialists engaging in more sophisticated searches. BeWeb acts as a mediator between users and cultural institutions, to enhance the Church’s important cultural heritage through greater participation by making communication easier.

New displaying models of bibliographic data and resources: cataloguing/resource description and search results

Abstract: The logical model outlined in Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records in 1998 has led to a theoretical reflection on the function of data and their organization into catalogues that hasn’t found stable effects in the representation of information yet. A consequence of the wide theoretical resonance of FRBR report was the review of regulatory codes and standards for electronic recording of bibliographic data. The first code that partly implements the FRBR model is the Italian one, published in 2009, the Italian cataloguing Rules: REICAT. The revision the Anglo-American cataloging rules has resulted in a new tool, based on the FRBR model and not set as a cataloging code: RDA. Resource Description and Access, released in 2010. To changing patterns of information models and contents’ media it has to add new information environment available to users, accustomed to using search engines as information retrieval tools, powerful and generalist. Today’s electronic catalogs are based on MARC formats for encoding of information, aimed at sharing and exchanging bibliographic records. However, the library data encoded in MARC exchange formats are invisible to search engines. Gradually, over the last few years, software modules devoted to cataloging have been differentiated from those for consultation, data visualization interfaces dedicated to users aimed to simplify the search mechanisms. One of the open issues relating to the new display systems concerns the selection and presentation of data. The sorting order is based on the criteria of relevance, which is based on scores that a software assigns to the record in relation to the weight or importance of the words entered in the search string. The new display systems of users ‘ searches, the discovery platforms that simultaneously query heterogeneous data bases for content and location, including also the OPACs, no longer use the languages of librarianship. The final display of search results does not conform to librarians’ models, judged commercially unclear for end-users, now accustomed to the seeming simplicity of the search engines. The risk , both at scientific and at professional level, is to lose the opportunity to propose not only a model for description of resources, but also a model for displaying data, the structural representation of entities based on the FRBR model, or RDA or REICAT principles. The paper here proposed analyzes different patterns of bibliographic data visualization that libraries’ OPACs and library service platforms begin to offer, focusing on three categories of innovations in displaying of cataloguing data: the data proposed by discovery tools or library service platforms, that transform and integrate information taken from the Integrated Library Systems with other collections accessible through libraries; the data derived from the cataloguing based on RDA started in some libraries; the displays of bibliographic data emulating the hierarchical organization among entities foreseen by FRBR.

Rare books in the Vatican Library: reshaping the catalogue

Abstract: This contribution will focus on the aims of the Rare Books’ Section of the Vatican Library. Taking as a start the analytical cataloging of incunabula, the Section will deal with similar cataloging of the books printed in the 16th century and later. Analytical cataloging requires deep skill in reading and interpreting the features which bear witness to the book’s journey through history: handwritten notes, coats of arms, owners’ identification, printers’ marks, bindings, etc.In recent years, the Section also takes part in the rare books’ digitization project known as “Project Polonsky”. Thanks to digitization, scholars from all over the world will be able to see the rare incunabula preserved in the Vatican Library.

The right to be forgotten: What changes after the European Court of Justice judgment against Google

Abstract: In questo breve intervento si prende in esame la recente sentenza della Corte di Giustizia Europea sul tema del diritto all’oblio che ha posto in primo piano le responsabilita nel trattamento dei dati personali in carico ai gestori dei motori di ricerca. Google e stato ritenuto responsabile della tutela dei dati personali contenuti nelle pagine indicizzate, percio i cittadini possono direttamente rivolgersi ad esso per ottenere la deindicizzazione delle informazioni che li riguardano. L’analisi dei primi effetti della sentenza mostra come questo duplice ruolo di giudice e di giuria rivestito da Google debba essere ripensato per garantire un punto di equilibrio tra la tutela della memoria individuale e il diritto all’informazione per i cittadini.

Using a Google Search Appliance (GSA) to search digital library collections: a case study of the INIS Collection Search

Abstract: Libraries are facing many challenges today. In addition to diminishing funding and increased user expectations, the use of classic library catalogues is becoming an additional challenge. Library users require fast and easy access to information resources regardless whether the format used is paper or electronic. Google search, with its speed and simplicity, set up a new standard for information retrieval which is hard to achieve with the previous generation of library search facilities. Put in a position of David versus Goliath, many small, and even larger libraries, are losing the battle with Google and letting many of its users use Google rather than library catalogues. The International Nuclear Information System (INIS) hosts one of the world’s largest collections of published information on the peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology. It offers online access to a unique collection of 3.6 million bibliographic records and 320,000 full-texts of non-conventional (grey) literature. This large digital library collection suffered from most of the well-known shortcomings of the classic library catalogue. Searching was complex and complicated, required some training in using Boolean logic, full-text searching was not an option, and the response time was slow. An opportune moment came with the retirement of the previous catalogue software and with the adoption of Google Search Appliance (GSA) as an organization-wide search engine standard. INIS was quick to realize a great potential in using such a well-known application as a replacement for its online catalogue and this paper presents the advantages and disadvantages encountered during three years of GSA use. Based on specific INIS-based practice and experience, this paper also offers some guidelines on ways to improve classic collections of millions of bibliographic and full-text documents, while achieving multiple benefits such as increased use, accessibility, usability, expandability and improving the user search and retrieval experience.

Cui prodest libraries authority work

Abstract: Eleven years ago, in Florence, during an international conference on authority control, many experts reflected on this important aspect of cataloguing. This paper looks at the current state of authority work and try to conceive some cues to reshape authority control. Libraries can afford this costly process only in cooperation with other partners, especially cultural and research institutions but also publishers, local governments and other interested subjects. Two examples of successful partnership are the Social Networks and Archival Context Project and the well-known Virtual International Authority File. An opportunity for libraries could be also to extend authority control to wide bibliographic databases that abound with homonymies

RDA’s Pros And Cons: One Point Of View From Brazil

Abstract: This study group intends to analyze the Resource Description and Access (RDA) code’s pros and cons, under one point of view of some Brazilian catalogers, that is, from an emerging country. The five International Meetings of Experts on an International Cataloguing Code (IME ICC) brought many expectations world-wide about a new international cataloging code, free as the International Standard Bibliogrpahic Description (ISBD), and that could merge different points of view for cataloging questions. The RDA proposes itself to be this international cataloging code. Undoubtedly, it brings innovations and various positive points, as the introduction of digital materials and some elements from the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Description (FRBR) family. At the same time, RDA can be analyzed under other aspects, such as: a) it is not as close to FRBR as expected, by keeping a more descriptive approach instead of a relationship model one; b) it is not as far from AACR2 as expected, by keeping rules and examples to catalog manifestations instead of a multiple level approach; c) as a consequence, it doesn’t use all possibilities offered by the new computer technologies; d) the facet translation versus adaptation: in Brazil, AACR2′s translation was restricted to the original text, not including solutions and examples used in our country and with our language. It is expected that RDA respects these issues; e) and last, but not least, the RDA prices for licencing or copyright must consider the current world economic crisis, specially for emergent and developing countries. RDA remains an open question, although it brough many improvements for cataloging practices.

Enlightening music: the catalogue and digitisation project of Verdi's archive at the “Archivio Storico Ricordi” in Milan

Abstract: Our contribution concentrates on the processes of cataloguing and digitising of hand–written letters and business documents belonging to the ''Ricordi Historical Archive'' in Milan, which is at present housed in the Braidense National Library; the archive possesses documents referring to the history of the publishing company covering the two centuries of its activitiesStarting from the ledgers compiled by Giovanni Ricordi, which cover a period from 1814 up to the middle of the 19th century to the documents relative to the school of engraving, the archive also houses a large number of editorial catalogues, published by Ricordi and by other publishing houses which it took over, as well as the original contracts stipulated with composers and librettists from Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini to Arrigo Boito The collection of about 15,000 hand–written letters covers the period from the beginning of the 19th century to the end of the 20th century and includes documents sent to Ricordi from writers, singers authors, and composers such as Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini and Ottorino Respighi and librettists Luigi Illica, Giuseppe Giacosa and Arrigo Boito The second part of the correspondence is made up letter–books and business correspondence which were kept intact from 1888 to 1962, except for the period from 1944 to 1953 Since 2006, work has been carried out to catalogue and digitise the Ricordi Archive based on the standards set out by the National Library Service (Servizio Bibliotecario Nazionale – SBN) which is head of the Central Institute for the Single Catalogue (ICCU) The structure and use of the archive and the external transmission of its contents are safeguarded and enhanced thanks to the combined work of cataloguing and digitisation of this heritage: the preliminary cataloguing of the documents uses a simplified model of the scheme adopted in the description of the manuscript according to sw Manus, elaborated by ICCU: the detailed cataloguing uses seven main fields (identifier, creator, publisher, subject, description, contributor, date) followed by six fields relative to the material details of the document (type, format, language, relation, library, shelfmark); digitisation is done after cataloguing of the pieces: in this brief contribution we will show the production phases (Shooting mode, electronic formats of the digital articles, identification of images) and post–production (Indexing and editing of metadata mag) of the digitised files

Business models for selection and acquisition of ebooks for Italian academic libraries. A comparison of three platforms (EBL, ebrary, EBSCO)

Abstract: In recent years, the spread of ebooks has grown exponentially. 24/7 availability, portability, the advanced tools offered by platforms make this product particularly interesting for academic libraries, which are in an experimental phase with regard to the selection and acquisition of ebooks. The article analyzes three platforms (EBL, Ebrary, EBSCO), to find out whether an Italian medium-sized university library can buy foreign titles in electronic rather than paper, and under what conditions. It provides information about titles catalog, business models, features available. The cut is practical/experimental, since the comparison among the platforms is based on a set, used as a representative sample, of 150 monographs, published in the last 5 years by different publishers and purchased on paper.