Remote reading: a shelf list analysis of an academic library’s juvenile collection

Purpose This study aims to detail an analysis project of a juvenile collection within an academic library. The analysis became a starting point for the development of a coherent collection policy, and for charting a path toward a better maintained, more used, more diverse, inclusive and representative collection. Design/methodology/approach The analysis was done by using a catalog-generated shelf list, which revealed specific details about the aged state of the collection and brought to light the lack of attention the collection has been getting in recent years. Findings The analysis of a collection of children’s books in an academic library revealed a collection long out of date and unable to serve the needs of our user population. Research limitations/implications This analysis is specific to academic institutions that have collections of children’s material. Originality/value The literature on juvenile collections in academic libraries is relatively sparse. This research details a social justice approach to building and maintaining juvenile collections in academic libraries.

India’s research contribution to world LIS literature: a study 2011–20

Purpose This study aims to find out the India’s research contribution to world Library and Information Science (LIS) literature from 2011 to 2020. Attempt has been made to reflect both the number of research articles published by the Indian LIS researchers during the past decade and the percentage share of Indian LIS researchers to the world LIS literature. Attempt has also been made to reflect the 20 leading LIS researchers from India, 20 leading LIS journals in which Indian LIS researchers mostly prefer to publish their research results and leading LIS research institutions and more. Design/methodology/approach The scope of the study is limited to library and information research undertaken across the world in general and India in particular during the past decade, viz., 2011–20. To undertake the present study, data were retrieved from SCOPUS data source. The data were retrieved keeping in view the objectives of the study; accordingly, key words were framed and used to search the relevant data. Findings Overall 77,659 research articles were published in the subject discipline of LIS across the world during the past decade, viz., 2011 through 2020. During the period of study, LIS researchers from India contributed 3,562 research articles constituting 4.59% of the total global LIS research output. The USA emerged the leading LIS research country with 33.03% research contribution, while India emerged as the fifth largest LIS research country in the world. A total of 12.85% research articles from India were contributed by 20 leading researchers. Only two LIS research journals from India were found indexed in the SCOPUS, in which 18.10% research articles were published by Indian LIS researchers during the period of study. More than 80% research results produced by Indian LIS researchers were published in foreign LIS research journals, mostly published from the USA and the UK. A good lot of Indian LIS researchers prefer to publish their research results in open access research journals. Library professionals, teachers and scholars from University of Delhi and University of Kashmir were found more active in LIS research in India. Research limitations/implications India is one of the world’s popular LIS academic, research and practicing country and has more responsibility toward world LIS research, whereby India, apart from fulfilling its own LIS research requirements, has to meet out the global LIS research demand. Thereon, if it lacks on research front, which otherwise acts as a backbone in the survival of a subject discipline, the survival of subject discipline may become difficult. Social implications India is one of the most progressive LIS research countries in the world and is about to play a far greater role in propagating newer and modern library practices and services in the years to come. Originality/value Quantification of research output at regional level or country level is very common among LIS professionals; accordingly, the existing study adds to existing world LIS literature about the India’s contribution to world LIS research during the past decade.

Proposed independent organisational structure for memory institutions in Zimbabwe and South Africa

Purpose The idea of convergence of cultural institutions, especially the libraries, archives and museums (LAMS) to operate as one, has a long theoretical history which unfortunately has not been translated into practice. This subject has been discussed by a number of scholars but the implementation has just remained theoretical with only a few countries practically adopting such an organisational structure. In Africa, this concept of LAMS is yet to gain traction. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is aimed at proposing such LAMS structures for African nations, especially in Zimbabwe and South Africa considering the emergence of community “archives” which have blurred further the distinction between museology, archiving and librarianship. The motivation in advocating for the adoption of LAMS is also driven by the theory behind participatory archives which thrive on the advanced use of internet including social media platforms that can make it possible to have one-stop virtual archive on the cloud that also incorporates museums and libraries. Design/methodology/approach This is a concept paper which reviewed the literature on national and community archives in Zimbabwe and South Africa which were purposively selected because of their long history in archiving. This was done to come up with a proposed “independent” national heritage organisational structure. “Independent” structure because this paper was based on the assumption that the independence of decision-making in national archival structures in Zimbabwe and South Africa is compromised and biased towards the ethos of political parties’ ruling governments. Findings Proposed integrated framework for community archives into the sustainable national archival system which also incorporates the role that can be played by universities. The framework is likely to be feasible and of benefit in the countries that are struggling to have national mainstream independent archives which are just not paying allegiance to those who are in power. Originality/value This study is unique in the sense that it mixes LAMS and the concept of independent archival structure in a regional comparative nature that involves Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Barriers to an inclusive academic library collection

Purpose Libraries still endeavor to achieve diversity in many areas, including collections. Although many barriers to realizing this goal still exist, there are changes that can be made to improve the current situation. This paper aims to examine those barriers and discusses some ways librarians, administrators and publishers can help build inclusive academic library collections. Design/methodology/approach This paper will discuss the issues that the University of North Florida’s Thomas G. Carpenter Library discovered while trying to find ways to build a racially and ethnically diverse academic collection. Findings The lack of diversity in academic library collections has many causes, including inadequate institutional collection priorities, librarian bias, heavy workloads and the dearth of diverse voices in the publishing industry. Originality/value Diversity, equity and inclusion are key concepts to improving how libraries operate. However, libraries have struggled to realize this vision in many areas. This paper endeavors to identify ways academic librarians and publishers can make collections more diverse.

Developed DICOM standard schema with DSpace

Purpose This paper aims to present a novel DSpace-based medical image repository system planned explicitly for storing and retrieving clinical images using digital imaging and communication in medicine (DICOM) metadata standards. DSpace institutional repository software is widely used in an academic environment for accessing and mainly storing text-related files. DICOM images are particular types of images embedded with much system-generated metadata and organised using DICOM metadata standards. Design/methodology/approach The present paper talks about institutional repository software (DSpace) in archiving DICOM images. In the current study, the authors have tried to integrate the DICOM metadata standard with DSpace, which was compatible with Dublin Core (DC) and open archives initiative – protocol for metadata harvesting (OAI-PMH). After combining the DICOM standard with DSpace and the repository tested with a sample of 5,000 images, the retrieval results using various DICOM tags was very satisfactory. This study paves for the use of open source software (OSS) in storing and retrieving medical images. Findings The author has provided the DSpace software to recognised DICOM (.dcm) files in the first stage. In the second stage, a patch was developed to identify the DICOM metadata standard in Dspace, which has inbuilt DC metadata standards. Finally, in the third stage, retrieval efficiency was tested with a 5,000 .dcm image using the DICOM tag and the results were very fruitful. Research limitations/implications A major limitation of this study was the size of the data (5,000 DICOM images) with which the authors have tested the system. The system scalability has to be tested on various fronts like on cloud and local servers with different configurations, for which a separate study has to be done. Practical implications Once this system is in place, DICOM users can stock, retrieve and access the image from the Web platform. Furthermore, this proposed repository will be the warehouse of various DICOM images with reasonable storage costs. Originality/value In addition to exploring the opportunities of free open source software (FOSS) implementation in medical science, this study includes issues related to the performance of an open-source repository for retrieving and preserving medical images. It created and developed Open Source DICOM Medical Image Library with DICOM metadata standard with the help of DSpace. Thus, the study will generate value for library professionals and medical professionals and FOSS vendors to understand the medical market in the context of FOSS.

Lotka’s law and author productivity pattern of research in law discipline

Purpose This study aims to analyze the productivity patterns of authors using law literature indexed in Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) from 2016 to 2020 based on Lotka’s law. Lotka’s law of scientific productivity provides a platform for studying the variation between the actual and expected authors’ productivity patterns in a subject area over a specified period. Design/methodology/approach This study covers 3,334 open access journal articles in law subject. The law journals are subdivided into two basic divisions, namely, public law and private law. This paper focuses on the journal-wise distribution of publications, subject-wise distribution of publications, annual growth rate (AGR) as well as compound AGR and applicability of Lotka’s law in both public and private law by applying the least square method followed by Pao and doing the K-S goodness-of-fit test. Student’s t-test and chi-square test have been applied to verify the significant difference between the public law and the private law literature. Findings There is no significant difference between the public law and private law publications on their publications per issue. The chi-square test showed that there is no significant difference between the year-wise publications in public law and private law. The authorship productivity in public law differs from the distribution of Lotka’s inverse square law, whereas it follows Lotka’s law in the case of private law. Research limitations/implications This study is based on the articles published in open access English language journals which are indexed in the DOAJ. Originality/value This study will be useful to know the authorship productivity pattern of law literature for both public and private law individually.

Are patrons using the research books? A new approach to approval plan assessment

Purpose The purpose of this study is to present findings of an approval plan assessment project, which analyzed circulation statistics for four Gobi Select designations: research essential, research recommended, basic essential and basic recommended. Design/methodology/approach This study approaches approval plan assessment by analyzing three years of circulation statistics to determine which, if any, of the Gobi Select designations circulated the most. Findings This study reveals that books designated as “basic essential” have circulated at higher rates than other designations. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, no other studies have made use of Gobi Select designations to analyze circulation statistics for books obtained on an approval plan.

Global naturopathy research as reflected by Scopus during 2000-2019

Purpose The purpose of this study is to analyze research output in the naturopathy field at the global level and to examine the various trends in scientific literature available on naturopathy using bibliometric analysis. Design/methodology/approach The data was collected from the SciVerse Scopus database published from 2000 through 2019. The search was conducted using Medical Subject headings entry terms, i.e. “Naturopathy” OR “Naturopathic Medicine” using the “Document” search option. The search results comprised of documents that had these above search terms in their article title, abstract and keywords. The retrieved documents were then analyzed concerning different parameters like the growth of publications, authorship patterns, productive countries and institutions, highly cited papers, top prolific authors, funding agencies and document types. Findings The results of this study reveal that a total of 1,099 documents were published during 20-year time span. The most preferred publication type is research articles 683 (62.14%). Germany, USA, Australia, India and Canada were the most productive countries in terms of the number of scientific documents. The findings also show that the most preferred journal in the field of naturopathy is MMW Fortschritte der Medizin, with 115 documents followed by Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine with 58 documents. In contrast, the journal BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine had the highest citations per paper (17.85). For the 20-year study period, the average value for the degree of collaboration was calculated as 0.57, indicating 54% of the total publications in naturopathy were multi-authored. The value of the collaboration coefficient (CC) signifies the levels of multi-authored papers. CC was highest in the year 2019 (0.55) indicating that the publications were contributed in collaboration rather than in isolation and the number of multi-authored/mega-authored papers outnumbered the single authors in the collection of all authors in the year 2019. Bastyr University, USA was the most productive Institution. Journal articles were the most preferred form of publication. Practical implications This study traces various trends in the research behavior and preferences of researchers in the field of naturopathy. It thus can be of immense help to identify strong areas in naturopathy research. Further, this study will help the librarians to identify the core/preferred journals in naturopathy. Originality/value This paper makes an endeavor to carry an extensive bibliometric study that provides an overview of emerging trends in naturopathy research.

Assessing how the South African National Standard 15489 improve the importance and usability of the archive: case of the Universities of Venda and WItwatersrand

Purpose This paper aims to assess how the South African National Standard (SANS) 15489 improves the importance and usability of the archives at the University of Venda (UNIVEN) and the University of Witwatersrand (WITS). Design/methodology/approach Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used to assess how the standards improve the importance and usability of the archives. A total of 34 participants were selected to participate in the study; the choice of the population was because they are responsible for records management decisions in various divisions, departments and units. Data was obtained through structured interviews and observation. The study has established that there was much dissonance concerning records and archives management standards. Ethics approval was obtained from both the WITS and the UNIVEN research department. Informed consent was obtained from university staff members. Findings The research found that only the WITS adopted SANS 15489. This was shown by the availability of a classification system (file plan) and retention schedule while the UNIVEN did not value SANS 15489 standards to manage all records created. Research limitations/implications Although South Africa has 26 public universities, this study is only confined to the UNIVEN and the WITS. The researcher only focusses on the classification of records and disposal of records elements of SANS 15489. Practical implications The findings have practical implications in that they can be used for assessing the archives and records management programmes. Other related universities can also use the findings as a reference point in the planning of university archives and records management programmes. Social implications The findings were to assist the university authorities as decision and policymakers to ensure that records and archives management practices adhere to SANS 15489. Originality/value Few studies related to the assessment of records management programme in universities in South Africa is not yet fully conducted in South Africa public universities. This study could be a valuable input for universities to adopt SANS 15489 standards to develop and implement records management programmes.

Re-structuring library resources and services in IIT Delhi library: analytical study from users' perspective

Purpose This study aims to assess users' satisfaction from the re-structured library resources and services due to technological innovations in the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi library. It also identifies and suggests potential improvement areas. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts a survey research method to collect data from the end-users of the library. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire. In total, 100 copies of questionnaires were distributed to the students, and out of the filled received questionnaires, 92 were found dully completed and useable. Collected data were analyzed by using percentage and chi-square test for testing of hypothesis. Findings This study shows that users' usage and preference for e-resources and e-services are increasing as there is a general trend to overlook traditional print resources where e-resources are available in the first place. The study recommends that a radical rethinking is required to strengthen the electronic collection and improve the library services. Practical implications The paper has a direct practical implication. It suggests that as technology continues to evolve, it is likely that academic institutes find themselves identifying appropriate areas to redesign library activities and services regularly. This paper reveals the practice of re-engineering in academic library services and knowing students' specific preferences of resources and services to enhance library usage. Originality/value The study is based on the self-designed structured questionnaire. Primary data has been collected from the IIT Delhi library users, thus providing original information and informative inputs to the existing literature.