KBR during the Covid pandemic: Accelerated roll-out of the digital strategy and preparations for a museum opening

Author(s):  
Sara Lammens

The covid pandemic forced KBR, Belgium's national library, to close its doors to the public and staff on March 18, 2020. The opening of a new museum had to be postponed. But ultimately, the covid closure led to an accelerated rollout of KBR's digital strategy.

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Janice Frank ◽  
Norman Duncan

This article reports on the findings of a study that aimed to explore experts’ and patients’ opinions and recommendations regarding adherence to antiretroviral medication. This study was prompted firstly by the lack of existing local research on adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) and secondly by the importance of adherence, given the recent introduction of ART to the public health sector. Four experts and seven patients were interviewed. The experts had worked within the HIV/AIDS field for at least two years while the patients (chosen from public antiretroviral roll-out programmes) had been on ART for at least six months. These interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic content analysis. This article focuses specifically on the recommendations for improving adherence that emerged from the experts' and patients' interviews. While the experts and patients generated two fairly distinct sets of recommendations (clearly informed by their different experiences and knowledge), both groups emphasised the importance of the mediating effects of social support and the healthcare provider–patient relationship in adherence to ART medication.OpsommingGesprekke met kundiges en pasiënte: Aanbevelings ter verbetering van ART-nakoming. Hierdie artikel doen verslag oor die bevindinge van ’n studie wat kundiges en pasiënte se menings en aanbevelings ten opsigte van die nakoming van antiretrovirale medikasievoorskrifte ondersoek het. Die studie is in die eerste plek uitgevoer na aanleiding van die gebrek aan bestaande plaaslike navorsing oor die nakoming van antiretrovirale terapie (ART) en in die tweede plek na aanleiding van die belangrikheid van nakoming in die lig van die onlangse bekendstelling van ART in die openbaregesondheidsektor. Onderhoude is met vier kundiges en sewe pasiënte gevoer. Die kundiges het vir ten minste twee jaar binne die MIV/Vigs-omgewing gewerk en die pasiënte (wat uit die openbare antiretrovirale bekendstellingsprogramme gekies is) het ten minste ses maande van ART-terapie ondergaan. Die onderhoude is getranskribeer en met die gebruik van tematiese inhoudsanalise ontleed. Hierdie artikel fokus spesifiek op die aanbevelings vir die verbetering van nakoming wat uit die onderhoude met die kundiges en die pasiënte gespruit het. Terwyl die kundiges en die pasiënte twee redelik uiteenlopende stelle aanbevelings gemaak het (wat duidelik deur hulle onderskeie ondervinding en kennis beïnvloed is), het altwee groepe beklemtoon dat die bemiddelende effek van maatskaplike ondersteuning en die verhouding tussen die pasiënt en die voorsiener van gesondheidsorg ’n belangrike rol speel in die nakoming van ART-medikasievoorskrifte.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Skøtt

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate what democratic challenges the digitisation of the public libraries in Denmark has entailed. Using the concepts from a national library professional strategy from 2012, an analysis of 9 librarians’ experiences with digital dissemination in practice is conducted. Design/methodology/approach The paper is a part of a larger research project called “If digitisation is the answer, then what was the question?”. This sub study builds on the semi-structured interviews with library staff members, case-descriptions of two central providers of digital public library materials, as well as literature studies of missions, vision and strategies from different public library policy institutions. To frame the study, a literature review has been conducted. Findings The author detects the presence of several incompatible conditions in digital dissemination. These conditions are predominantly of an organisational nature, potentially containing major consequences for citizens’ free and equal access to information, knowledge and culture. Among other things, the Danish public libraries risk substantiating an already existing and problematic polarisation between technologically capable and incapacitated groups of people. Originality/value The digital transformation of society has only just begun. Therefore, it is important to examine the consequences of the transition to digital media types for central cultural institution such as the public libraries. The present study is an early and minor contribution to the illumination of a process requiring many more and large-scale studies.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle Cazabon ◽  
Tripti Pande ◽  
Sandra Kik ◽  
Wayne Van Gemert ◽  
Hojoon Sohn ◽  
...  

Background: Xpert® MTB/RIF, a rapid tuberculosis (TB) molecular test, was endorsed by the World Health Organization in 2010. Since then, 34.4 million cartridges have been procured under concessional pricing. Although the roll out of this diagnostic is promising, previous studies showed low market penetration. Methods: To assess 3-year trends of market penetration of Xpert MTB/RIF in the public sector, smear and Xpert MTB/RIF volumes for the year 2016 were assessed and policies from 2014-2016 within 22 high-burden countries (HBCs) were studied. A structured questionnaire was sent to representatives of 22 HBCs. The questionnaires assessed the total smear and Xpert MTB/RIF volumes, number of modules and days of operation of GeneXpert machines in National TB Programs (NTPs). Data regarding the use of NTP GeneXpert machines for other diseases and GeneXpert procurement by other disease control programs were collected. Market penetration was estimated by the ratio of total sputum smear volume for initial diagnosis divided by the number of Xpert MTB/RIF tests procured in the public sector. Results: The survey response rate was 21/22 (95%). Smear/Xpert ratios decreased in 17/21 countries and increased in four countries, since 2014. The median ratio decreased from 32.6 (Q1:14.3, Q3: 58.9) in 2014 to 6.0 (Q1: 1.6, Q3: 17.0) in 2016. Nineteen countries (19/19; 100%) were not using GeneXpert machines to their full capacity, however seven countries (7/19; 37%) were running tests for other diseases on their NTP-procured GeneXpert systems in 2017, such as HIV, hepatitis-C virus (HCV), Chlamydia trachomatis, and Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Five (5/15; 33%) countries reported GeneXpert procurement by HIV or HCV programs in 2016 and/or 2017. Conclusions: Our results show a positive trend for Xpert MTB/RIF market penetration in 21 HBC public sectors. However, GeneXpert machines were under-utilized for TB, and inadequately exploited as a multi disease technology.


Author(s):  
Graham P. Cornish

The new information environment is a combination of technical advances and cultural attitudes; both of these have major implications for the role of the national library. As part of a Unesco-funded study in 1990, a survey was carried out to determine how national libraries were coping with the present situation; the situation varies, but there is cause for concern. The three basic characteristics of a national library – that it is publicly funded, gives access to the public, and acts as the national archive of material published in the country – are all called into question. Functions such as collection building, exploitation of the collections, and creation of the national bibliographic record need to be rethought. The new information environment has much to contribute to the handicapped, and national libraries should ensure the development of services for those with special needs. They need to respond to the changing situation rapidly by taking the lead in their respective countries; failure to take the initiative will leave it to be taken by people who will make decisions on purely technical, economic or political grounds.


2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-79
Author(s):  
Rachel Misrati

The fascinating story of the creation and development of this unique collection is matched only by the collection's importance as a resource of primary material for research in the social sciences, the humanities, and even the exact sciences. With over five and a half thousand leading Jewish personalities represented in their original handwriting, Abraham Schwadron's autograph collection is more than just the first Jewish Who's Who. The inscribed visiting cards, literary manuscripts, handwritten letters, and even musical scores are all evidence of a Jewish social milieu and cultural enterprise that stretches from the sixteenth century to the present day. The collection is a written record of the history of the Jewish people as it unfolded. No less dramatic is the man behind the collection, who from his youth in Galicia decided he would build a national Jewish autograph collection for the Jewish people and bring it to Jerusalem. The National Library of Israel is presently working to make this whole collection accessible to the public, first by rendering the collection searchable through the Library's online catalogue and then by digitizing the entire collection of autographs. This article traces the history of the collection, introduces the intriguing figure of Abraham Schwadron and his rationale for building the collection, and reveals the many ways that the collection's rich and fascinating potential can be used as a resource of original source material. At the end of the article there is brief reference to the National Library of Israel's project for digitizing the collection.


Author(s):  
Leon Gurevitch ◽  
Tim Miller ◽  
Simon Fraser

This article considers the creation of an exhibition at the National Library of New Zealand. Specifically, this project was a collaborative endeavour between the School of Design at Victoria University of Wellington and the National Library, aimed at utilising new technologies and traditional archival research to bring forgotten and rarely accessed data back to life in a public exhibition. From the outset this project sought to combine the best of both new educational technologies (augmented reality) with tactile, physical materials (created using laser cutting and 3D printing) that the public could handle and use in a way that would break down the barriers between exhibition objects and resurrected archival data. The result was an interactive exhibition focused upon the emergence of Wellington as a city and the growth of its waterfront over the last century and a half. The design research project took place between November 2016 and February 2017 and resulted in a project exhibition open to the public running from May 2017 to February 2018. The principle supervisors were Leon Gurevitch and Tim Miller with a research team of three research assistants (Stefan Peacock, Alasdair Tarry and Louis Elwood­Leach).


Author(s):  
E. Poltavskaya

The author investigates why the term “scientific library” may not be accepted as a separate class within the classification of libraries based on structural systematization. She also reviews the idea of the scientific library as seen by the national science in the 1930s when this phenomenon was first conceptualized. The concept by Dmitry D. Ivanov is examined; he made distinction between the two library processes: generation of library documents and their delivery to users. The author emphasizes the closeness of D. Ivanov’v ideas to her own interpretation of “the public library” concept. She concludes that the libraries of any structure (public or private individual) may support science though we may not identify a separate class of the scientific libraries within the general library classification based on structural systematization. However, the author does not rule out building an isolated classification where the concept of “the scientific library” will be divided into two types in accordance with the concept structure, namely “the public scientific library” and “private use library”. Further division would be similar to that of the general classification. The author considers the concept of “the research library” to be optional for the national library science.


Bibliosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 11-17
Author(s):  
S. V. Sokolov

The article «Applying Google Trends to study the German legal deposit copy system» discusses the use of web tools to investigate current library science problems. Using web-based statistical method the author searches the following issues:  the dynamics of interest in the subject of a legal deposit copy from the date of adoption of the Law on the German National Library (2006) to nowadays;  relations of the public interest peak changes in this topic to certain phenomena in the social and cultural life of Germany;  the federal dimension of these issues when comparing interest to the topic in different regions of Germany;  the public opinion on the popularity of legal copy among traditional and electronic sources.   The article is divided into four parts. The first one sets the work objective and main tasks, gives a general description of the chosen research method. The second part deals with the process of creating a semantic dictionary; analyzes traditional and electronic sources of synonymic dictionaries. It describes the strengths of such an online language matching service as semager.de. The third part dissects a group of keywords related to the topic of a legal deposit copy along with the most interesting and problematic, from the point of the author’s view, additional keywords such as the German National Library, network publications, and disserta­tions. Using web statistical tools the paper shows that the most intense issues regarding the legal deposit, the problems of the German National Library and online publications were raised in the lands of West Germany. Developing the legal deposit copy system will go, first of all, through online publications, greater cooperation with academic and scholar libraries; open access of scientific data and publications related to dissertations and theses of West German lands’ universities. The fourth part presents main conclusions and substantiates the method significance for library and sociological research.  


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