Digital preservation of information sources at academic libraries in Jordan: an employee’s perspective

Purpose Digital preservation requires new skills and collaboration among library staff to maintain long-term access to information resources. Digital content and digital technologies pose a serious challenge to information institutions to continue to select, preserve and access information resources. However, there is an urgent need to increase awareness of the new trends in the partnership between research communities and academic libraries; there is also a need for new digital preservation-related skills among librarians. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the benefits, importance, requirements and challenges of digital preservation in academic libraries in Jordan.Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire was disseminated to 150 library staff working at the 10 public universities in Jordan, with 133 questionnaires suitable to analyze with a response rate of (88.6%).Findings The results indicate a moderate perception of the benefits and importance of digital preservation, as well as the requirements and challenges in academic libraries in Jordan to carry out the digital preservation process. This indicated the importance of increasing the academic libraries' – specifically academic libraries in Jordan – awareness of the vast and important benefits of digital preservation to maintain long-term access to information. It was noted that factors such as sex, experience, educational level and specialization did not affect the results.Practical implications The findings will provide insights for other academic libraries on how to plan and develop preservation policies to maintain access to information.Social implications Access to information is a human right that contributes to the advocacy of sustainable development, and hence, digital preservation can facilitate long-term availability and accessibility to information.Originality/value This paper provides insights and practical solutions for academic libraries in response to technological development and the change requirements. It will help academic libraries handle and cope with the challenges of providing distance library services over digital channels.

Stretching the Training Dollar in Stringent Economic Times

This article provides suggestions on ways in which the library can engage in staff training even on a very stringent budget. Three strategies are suggested, and these are (a) each one teach one, (b) leveraging the knowledge of faculty and library staff, and (c) utilizing the power of the webinar.

Community Partnership Program (PKM) Procurement and Management Efforts of Vocational School Libraries August 17, 1945 According to the National Library Standards Agency (BSNP) of the Republic of Indonesia

Partners in the implementation of this community partnership program are SMK 17 Agustus 1945 which is located on Jalan Nginden Semolo no.44 Surabaya. The facilities owned are IT-based, it's just that the obstacles faced by schools in supporting the teaching and learning process, especially the facilities and convenience of libraries, have not met the national library standards. Based on the input of teachers and library staff as well as direct observations made by the service team, there are several problems, namely: 1) There is no arrangement of library material collections according to their field of knowledge; 2) There is no book cataloging in accordance with the field; 3) Inventory of library materials has not been managed properly and correctly, by providing a book slip for each book; 4) There is no circulation service yet, because officers are burdened with routine public relations activities and lack of library personnel; 5) There is no guidebook in managing library materials, officers have not used standard guidelines. There are two stages in implementing the solution that must be completed with partners, namely: 1) the planning stage which includes: coordination with library staff, teachers, and school principals as initial input, direct observation to obtain evidence related to initial input; 2) Implementation phase which includes: Arrangement and classification of library collections, cataloging library collections, inventory, making library circulation services, making manuals. The results of the community service activities concluded that there were significant differences before and after the procurement and management of the library. This is evident from the results of activities in the form of classification, the arrangement of library collections has been well realized, the room layout is neatly arranged, cataloging library collections, numbering and installation of slips have been installed properly, making library circulation services, and making library management manuals. manual has been realized. From a series of community service activities, it has a success rate of 100%. This is shown from all activities that have been completely completed and the results can be enjoyed by students, teachers and visitors to the SMK 17 August 1945 Library and no less important for the sake of school accreditation.

Library staff support with Fourth Industrial Revolution's application to provide information resources to remote clients during the COVID-19 library services

PurposeThe Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) have challenged the academic libraries system with a paradigm shift that has never been experienced before. This article highlights how the library staff offered support with the 4IR to the remote during the COVID-19 era; to ensure that the provision of information resources does not halt because of the imposed lockdown COVID-19 regulations. The purpose of this study was to examine the library staff support with 4IR's application to provide information resources to remote clients during the COVID-19 library services.Design/methodology/approachThe study was anchored by the positivism research paradigm and used a quantitative research approach. Microsoft Form was used to design an online questionnaire to collect data from the library staff working in a distance education environment in Gauteng Province of South Africa. The collected data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).FindingsThe findings discovered that the library staff was keen on job innovation; however, the COVID-19 restrictions were a major cause for the library staff not to provide information resources to remote clients effectively.Research limitations/implicationsThe 4IR has both positive and negative effects on the library staff and the remote clients. To ensure that academic libraries fully embrace the 4IR; it is imperative to examine how the remote clients affected by digital divide can benefit from this revolution since they do not have access to adequate gadgets such as laptops/personal computers/tablets/smartphone/iPods and data for Internet connection.Practical implicationsThis study contributed to the Library and Information Science's (LIS) field by adding value to the knowledge base concerning how the library staff working in academic libraries operating in a distance education environment in Gauteng Province of South Africa offered support to the remote clients during the COVID-19 pandemic that impacted the drastic adoption of the 4IR.Social implicationsStakeholders, library management and policymakers gained insight to revisit the existing library staff support regarding mentoring, coaching training remote clients on how to access and download online information resources. This is inspired by the fact that COVID-19 significantly influenced library services' value for knowledge by facilitating policy changes and aligning with 4IR.Originality/valueThe study greatly influences policymakers and information practitioners to mobilize new methods of library staff support.

Implementation of a secure room booking system at the University of Manitoba Libraries

Providing group study rooms is an important service offered by a university library to support learning and collaboration. A good room booking system should be convenient for students to use and would require a minimum involvement of library staff regarding managing bookings and keys. This article studied the implementation of the Juno Secure Room Booking system at the library to replace LibCal, which is a popular room booking system used by a large number of university libraries in North America. This article discussed the advantages that the Juno system has compared to LibCal, the design of an online booking website using the Juno Application Programming Interface (API), and the enhancement the library designed and developed based on student feedback. This article also discussed how the library successfully engaged a college to use this system to manage study rooms for classes and exams.

Library Staff Need More Support in Order to Alleviate Teaching Anxiety

A Review of: Lundstrom, K., Fagerheim, B. & Van Geem, S. (2021). Library teaching anxiety: Understanding and supporting a persistent issue in librarianship. College & Research Libraries, 82(3), 389-409. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.82.3.389 Abstract Objective – To determine academic librarians’ attitudes towards their teaching, how teaching anxiety manifests itself, and how teaching anxiety affects these attitudes. Design – Online Survey. Setting – The survey was distributed through various library science listservs. Subjects – Any library staff with a teaching component in their role were invited to respond. There was a total of 1,035 initial responses. Methods – The survey questions were based on a previously published survey about teaching anxiety by Davis (2007). However, the survey for this study added questions about formal and self-diagnosis of other types of anxieties, physical and psychological anxiety symptoms, and how teaching anxiety impacts other areas of the respondents’ lives. There were also questions on potential supports to reduce teaching anxiety, as well as potential barriers to these supports. Main Results – It was found that approximately 65% of respondents experience teaching anxiety. Approximately 40% of those respondents were formally diagnosed with anxiety, and approximately 42% were self-diagnosed. There was a significant association between a formal diagnosis of anxiety, and teaching anxiety. There were also significant associations between past training, preparation, and teaching anxiety, with anxiety occurring less with increased training and preparation. Conclusion – Teaching anxiety is a significant issue among library staff. Supports in the form of workshops on teaching as well as coping with anxiety can possibly help to reduce this phenomenon.

Capturing the big picture

This project report describes an internal scan of library staff involved in instruction in a large academic library system. 64 semi-structured interviews were conducted and qualitatively analysed in order to produce a summary of instruction across the library system, and both the challenges faced and supports desired by these instructors. The most often mentioned challenges included the wide variety of students and class characteristics encountered, limitations around time, and navigating faculty expectations. The supports described with greatest frequency were professional development opportunities to support instruction practice, a greater sense of community among those doing instruction, and increased awareness of instruction practices both across the library system and in the institution at large. These finding allowed the authors to form recommendations for the library system to help advance instruction in support of teaching and research in the institution.

Evaluasi kinerja staf UPT perpustakaan UNJA menggunakan analisis diskriminan

UPT Library UNJA is a Service Unit whose duties and functions are closely related to science, education, and development, especially in managing and providing various literacy, references, information, and documentation. The performance of its management staff strongly influences the management system of the UNJA Library UPT. Ideally, the performance measurement of UPT Library staff can refer to the applicable ISO standards. However, a more comprehensive performance evaluation based on the specifics and factors that affect the performance of UPT UNJA staff and the classification of staff performance evaluation is critical. UPT Library Staff Performance Evaluation based on ISO 11620: 2014 Document concludes that staff performance is good. On the other hand, the application of discriminant analysis of the performance of the Jambi University Library UPT staff analyzed 15 variables with Performance Quality as a variable consisting of two categories, namely Good and Very Good. The Stepwise Method in Discriminant Analysis reduces several independent variables so that the most significant variables in this analysis are the ability to make decisions (X6), Honesty (X8), Initiative in the line of Tasks (X9), and Skill Problem Solver (X11).

Digital dissemination skills in public libraries

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate what con`sequences the digitisation of public libraries’ knowledge dissemination and the transition to online services has, for library staff members’ perception of their skills. This discussion is interesting because library staff members, by politicians, stakeholders, and other opinion makers, have been appointed as key facilitators of citizens’ continued attachment to civil society and the labour market. Design/methodology/approach This study is based on interviews with library staff members at Danish public libraries. Empirical data were collected through semi-structured e-mail interviews, based on an interview formula, and via follow-up telephone conversations. Library professional rapports and research literature were identified and applied as a theoretical framework in the creation of the analytical apparatus. Findings There were several different explanatory models available when respondents had to articulate their current challenges. The first model regarded the library staff members’ lack of skills as a political-organisational issue, occurring because of a lack of invest in their continuing education. Continuing education had therefore become a personal matter. The second model highlighted the library staff members’ lack of skills as an individual, library professional problem, where the responsibility for solving the problem lay with the individual employee. Originality/value Several studies have been conducted on library staff members’ skills and how they change, due to the transition to digital forms of dissemination. The present study strives to give employees a voice, which is why the respondents’ experiences are the starting point for the analytical work. Such studies are essential to understanding the extent and nature of the problem.