Development of a Navigation and Information Service for a University Library

Author(s):  
Guenther Retscher ◽  
Alexander Leb
Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 432
Author(s):  
Guenther Retscher ◽  
Alexander Leb

A guidance and information service for a University library based on Wi-Fi signals using fingerprinting as chosen localization method is under development at TU Wien. After a thorough survey of suitable location technologies for the application it was decided to employ mainly Wi-Fi for localization. For that purpose, the availability, performance, and usability of Wi-Fi in selected areas of the library are analyzed in a first step. These tasks include the measurement of Wi-Fi received signal strengths (RSS) of the visible access points (APs) in different areas. The measurements were carried out in different modes, such as static, kinematic and in stop-and-go mode, with six different smartphones. A dependence on the positioning and tracking modes is seen in the tests. Kinematic measurements pose much greater challenges and depend significantly on the duration of a single Wi-Fi scan. For the smartphones, the scan durations differed in the range of 2.4 to 4.1 s resulting in different accuracies for kinematic positioning, as fewer measurements along the trajectories are available for a device with longer scan duration. The investigations indicated also that the achievable localization performance is only on the few meter level due to the small number of APs of the University own Wi-Fi network deployed in the library. A promising solution for performance improvement is the foreseen usage of low-cost Raspberry Pi units serving as Wi-Fi transmitter and receiver.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1021 ◽  
pp. 257-260
Author(s):  
Qing Chen

It’s the library’s duty to offer barrier-free service for the disabled. And applied-information technology is applied into the barrier-free service, which may be found helpful to promote the disabled readers’ initiatives and help them seek for information conveniently in library. There are some measures university library can take to offer barrier-free service with applied-information technology such as opening more free computer-training classes for disabled readers to improve their information skills, offering aural OPAC service, posting the copies of library resources by E-mail and providing assistive technology and equipment related to information service. In addition to these measures, some activities like enriching the spiritual and cultural life of the disabled readers and increasing the communication between able-bodied people and the disabled.


Author(s):  
Dr. Rae E. Pienaar

From the 1994 CAIS Conference: The Information Industry in Transition McGill University, Montreal, Quebec. May 25 - 27, 1994.The majority of libraries still provide the majority of their services for free. But fee-based information services attached to non-profit making institutions such as libraries is not a novel concept any longer. The information explosion has brought many changes to, amongst others, the university library and at present industry and commerce rely heavily on the expertise offered by the staff of those libraries.This paper does not propose to address any ideological issues of "feeversus free" but would rather focus on the following: 1 the need for industry and commerce for utilizing the university library and its resources;2 the university library as information broker with reference toinformation skills complemented with specialized subject knowledge and experience 3 the organization of the wide range of services offered and the pricing of these services; and4 a short, but detailed description of INFOBANK, a dynamic andsuccessful regional fee-based information service to industry and commerce at the library of the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.A university library can therefore be even more effective in promoting access to information by making it available in the community, albeit for a price. Libraries interested in establishing such fee-based services should nevertheless be aware of the pitfalls associated with the creation and management of these services. Knowledge of the latter will undoubtedly help establish a programme that serves the needs of clients whilst contributing towards the overall image of the parent institution.


2015 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 13-19
Author(s):  
Alexandra Büttner

Since 2006 Heidelberg University Library has been encouraging the idea of Open Access in the field of art history. Today, as part of the Specialized Information Service for Art it offers art historians from all over the world, through the platform arthistoricum.net, three different services for e-publishing in Open Access: (1) ARTDok – a digital repository for single publications and review articles, (2) ARTJournals – a publication management platform for e-journals and (3) ART-Books – a platform for monographs and edited volumes. Apart from providing scholars with software to help them publish professional peer-reviewed open access articles, the library also supports art historians in the transition from print to e-publications by offering them the technical infrastructure as well as organisational support. The service at Heidelberg University Library has shifted towards engaging more closely with academics and setting into practice their individual needs, leaving them to focus on research and contents. These newly developed processes based on a collaborative effort of art librarians and scholars place an important emphasis on the accessibility and provision of art historical research data in Open Access.


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