Leading article: Science journals: Publishing progress

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Leading article: Science journals: Publishing progress
The Guardian. London (UK): Oct 13, 2003. Pg. 19


Abstract (Summary)


Backed by Nobel prize winners and a respected US charity, "open access" aims to overturn three centuries of publishing tradition. This alternative has arrived just in time - as even well-financed university libraries are finding it difficult to stock the full range of scientific journals, thanks to annual subscriptions which now carry a price tag of as much as pounds 15,000. But for the new publishing model to work, two things have to change: one is to do with mindset; the other with money. First, scientists must start using the online journals rather than established outlets for important new bits of research. Second, the way of funding the process of peer review, which ensures scientists can trust what they read, must be redesigned.


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Things I learned from my Reading Assignment (RA)



A challenge facing the modern age is ensuring that knowledge spreads through society, that access to resources should not only limits for those who can afford it.
“Open Access Publication” offers inexpensive access to information to make new ideas available to someone else. For a third world country it would be very helpful for those who cannot afford subscription of expensive academic journals where publishing houses controls the cost of its distribution, this would benefit in boosting and enhancing poor countries in alleviating education and ending poverty. Access to resources should be accessible also anywhere and anytime; thanks to “Internet” that offers an inexpensive and convenient way for information e.g. where a scholar student from the Philippines could access information from the U.S. in the recent scientific software development in biochemistry for his/her report. In addition posting of information thru “Internet” is immediate compare to the traditional way of “commercial publishing houses” where within its initial distribution in the market information were already out-of-date this defeat the purpose of giving recent information or development specially in the field of science, technology, & medicine. “Open Access Publication” is an alternative for those who cannot afford libraries - and even well-financed university libraries that are finding it difficult to stock their full range academic journals, a convenient modern way compare to traditional way of stocking.
Access to resources for me should be free for all, but the debate regarding copyright and plagiarism is a big issue. But as a user one should be responsible to exercise observance of proper citation of these “Open Access Publication” giving credit to authors may give way to a more liberal perpetual access to free information.

Revitalizing the Library OPAC: Interface, Searching, and Display Challenges

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Revitalizing the Library OPAC: Interface, Searching, and Display Challenges
Jia Mi, Cathy Weng. Information Technology and Libraries. Chicago: Mar 2008. Vol. 27, Iss. 1; pg. 5, 18 pgs



Abstract (Summary)



The behavior of academic library users has drastically changed in recent years. Internet search engines have become the preferred tool over the library online public access catalog (OPAC) for finding information. Libraries are losing ground to online search engines. In this paper, two aspects of OPAC use are studied: (1) the current OPAC interface and searching capabilities, and (2) the OPAC bibliographic display. The purpose of the study is to find answers to the following questions: Why is the current OPAC ineffective? What can libraries and librarians do to deliver an OPAC that is as good as search engines to better serve our users? Revitalizing the library OPAC is one of the pressing issues that has to be accomplished. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]



Copyright American Library Association Mar 2008
[Headnote]



The information-seeking behavior of today's academic library users has drastically changed in recent years. According to a survey conducted and published by OCLC in 2005, approximately 89 percent of college students across all the regions that were included in the study (including areas outside the United States) begin their electronic information searches with Internet search engines.1 More than half of U.S. residents used Google for their searches. Internet search engines dominate the information-seeking landscape. Academic libraries are the ones affected most, because many college students are satisfied with the answers they find on the Internet for their assignments, and they end up not taking advantage of the many quality resources in their libraries.
For many years, before the Internet search engine emerged, library catalogs were the sole information-seeking gateway. Just as the one-time industry giant Kodak has lost ground to digital photography, academic library OPACs are losing ground to online search engines. All along we academic librarians have devotedly and assiduously produced good cataloging records for the public to use. We have diligently and faithfully educated and helped our faculty and students find the proper library resources to fulfill their research needs and assignment requirements. We feel good about what we have achieved. Why have our users switched to online search engines?

* The evolution of user behavior

It is technology and rising user expectations that have contributed to the changes in user behavior. As Coyle and Hillmann pointed out: "Today's library users have a different set of information skills from those of just a few decades ago. They live in a highly interactive, networked world and routinely turn to Web search engines for their information needs."2 A recent study conducted by the University of Georgia on undergraduate research behavior in using the university's electronic library concluded that Internet sites and online instruction modules are the primary sources for their research. 3 The students' year of study did not make much of a difference in their choices. Tenopir also concluded from her study of approximately 200 scholarly works published between 1995 and 2003 that no matter what type of resources were used, "convenience remains the single most important factor for information use."4

Recently, OCLC identified three major trends in the needs of today's information consumers-self-service (moving to self-sufficiency), satisfaction, and seamlessness. 5 Services provided by Google, Amazon, and similar companies are the major cause of these emerging trends. Customers have wholeheartedly embraced these products because of their ease of use and quick delivery of "good enough" results. Researchers do not need to take information literacy classes to learn how to use an online search engine. They do not need to worry about forgetting important but infrequently used search rules or commands. In addition, the search results delivered by online search engines are sorted using relevance ranking systems that are more user-friendly than the ones currently employed by academic library OPACs. These are just some of the features that current academic library OPACs fail to deliver. In 2004, Campbell and Fast presented their analysis of an exploratory study of university students' perceptions of searching OPACs and Web search engines. 6 They found that "[s]tudents express a distinct preference for search engines over library catalogues, finding the catalogue baffling and difficult to use effectively." As a result, library OPACs, because they do not fulfill user needs, have been bombarded with criticism. 7
We often hear librarians complain about how library users forget what they have learned in user education classes. Librarians sometimes even laugh at users' ignorance and ineffectiveness in searching library OPACs. This legacy mentality has actually prevented librarians from recognizing the changes in user behavior and expectations that have occurred in the past decade. Rarely have librarians considered ineffective OPAC design to be at the root of unsuccessful OPAC use. Roy Tennant has mentioned frequently in his presentations that "only librarians like to search; users prefer to find"; that "users aren't lazy, they are human."8 It is only natural that library users turn to Internet search engines first for their information needs…………


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Things I learned from my Reading Assignment (RA)



Today providing online search tips and offering information literacy classes only help a little. The basis of current OPAC search systems is Boolean logic. For many years now, teaching students how to properly use Boolean operators has been one of the essential topics in information literacy classes. After taking these classes, do students use Boolean operators when searching?


Most of the students nowadays are becoming less interested on coming over and doing their research in the library, instead of consulting the library OPAC for possible search resources students rely more on online search engines e.g. laptops; i-phones, and psp giving instant result. Creativity is vital in marketing & capturing user attention to visit the library. Students are drawn to “easy result” & “convenience” which online search engines offer. With these challenges facing by Librarians, changes should be made to tap what online search engines offer. A convenient & interactive user-friendly library OPAC that could adapt to user expectations is essential, still without compromising delivery result of information. In addition stressing the use of library OPAC in information literacy classes would also help.


Librarians should consider revitalizing library OPAC as top priority and meeting librarians’ expectations of user behavior should adjust to today’s needs. Educating users to become fluent in using OPAC search commands and rules has become less relevant as users now seldom read and follow instructions. But it should not stop there, still it is the responsibility of the Librarians to gradually change the user in their ignorance and ineffectiveness in searching possible search resources using the library OPAC & its patronage for a just “good enough” delivery result of information. Shifting of Libraries to Web 2.0 incorporating it with Library system would drawn more library user, to be current and stable on the trends introducing interactive methods for user satisfaction would still keep library at the forefront.

Library 2.0 Theory: Web 2.0 and Its Implications for Libraries

http://www.webology.ir/2006/v3n2/a25.html


Library 2.0 Theory: Web 2.0 and Its Implications for Libraries
Jack M. Maness. e-mail: jack.maness@colorado.edu. CO, USA: 2006.


Abstract (Summary)

This article posits a definition and theory for “Library 2.0”. It suggests that recent thinking describing the changing Web as “Web 2.0” will have substantial implications for libraries, and recognizes that while these implications keep very close to the history and mission of libraries, they still necessitate a new paradigm for librarianship. The paper applies the theory and definition to the practice of librarianship, specifically addressing how Web 2.0 technologies such as synchronous messaging and streaming media, blogs, wikis, social networks, tagging, RSS feeds, and mashups might intimate changes in how libraries provide access to their collections and user support for that access.

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THREE Things I learned from my Reading Assignment (RA)

1. During Web 1.0 content is controlled on the internet innovation of Web 2.0 change this concept it introduced involvement on becoming more interactive and given fully accessibility to its end user. End users became more important where it provides now most of the material on the internet. (e.g. Social Networks: Facebook, Friendster, Twitter, Multiply, YouTube etc. ; Blogs & Wikis: Wikipedia stc.)

2. Web 2.0 changes the concept & the expectation on library services it introduces democracy where end users become more involved as participants. It gradually shifts the library services on focusing more on facilitation of information transfer and information literacy rather than providing controlled access to it.

3. Through Web 2.0 education anytime, anywhere, at any level is possible its application revolutionizes interactive web-based services, its influence on education is not only significant for opening up many educational opportunities for the students as learners and teachers as educators but as well as for the communities globally.

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APPLICATION/IMPLICATION


Application of Web 2.0 in the Library system will revolutionize Library profession where Librarians becoming facilitators. This implies that library services will gradually change, focusing more on the facilitation of information transfer and information literary rather than providing controlled access to it. Paradigm shift of Libraries adapting Web 2.0 is essential to be current and stable building new trends in education offering opportunities to teach and learn in most innovative ways, using interactive methods allowing users globally interact with one another.

Digital Dilemmas: How Elementary Preservice Teachers Reason about Students' Appropriate Computer and Internet Use

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Digital Dilemmas: How Elementary Preservice Teachers Reason about Students' Appropriate Computer and Internet Use
Yasmin B Kafai, Althea Scott Nixon, Bruce Burnam. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education. Norfolk: 2007. Vol. 15, Iss. 3; pg. 409, 16 pgs


Abstract (Summary)
While the successful integration of computers into classroom instructional practices continues to be an important topic of educational research and policy (Cuban, 2001), educators face additional concerns involving appropriate uses of computer technologies, such as students plagiarizing from the Internet, spreading rumors in chat rooms, and accessing pornographic web sites at computers in schools. Many issues related to the use of information technologies appear to be multifaceted issues.\n For instance, as legal regulations are set into place for what counts as acceptable in the digital culture, preservice teachers can use pedagogical strategies that build from students' prior knowledge and justifications to help students understand the legal and ethical issues surrounding school uses of information and content from digital sources such as the Internet.

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Copyright Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education 2007
[Headnote]
With increased computer technology use in schools, preservice teachers must be prepared to deal with ethical issues involved in a range of computer uses, such as students plagiarizing from the Internet or accessing adults-only web sites. We investigated preservice teachers' judgments regarding several scenarios of student uses of the computer and Internet. Results show that most of the preservice teachers believed that appropriate uses of the computer and Internet involve specific classroom and school rules rather than universal considerations. We also asked the preservice teachers to predict elementary school students' responses to the same scenarios. Preservice teachers were at times able to predict students' judgments for whether the behavior was appropriate; however, they were unable to explain why students made those judgments. Our findings provide valuable information for teacher education programs on how preservice teachers can be better prepared for classroom incidents and, in turn, can help students understand the issues involved in various uses of the computer and Internet.


While the successful integration of computers into classroom instructional practices continues to be an important topic of educational research and policy (Cuban, 2001), educators face additional concerns involving appropriate uses of computer technologies, such as students plagiarizing from the Internet, spreading rumors in chat rooms, and accessing pornographic web sites at computers in schools. As a result, school administrators across the nation have begun developing curriculum materials on computer ethics and implementing acceptable use policies to regulate computer and Internet use (Dill & Anderson, 2003). These local policies, however, continually change amidst national debates on whether laws, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Copyright Term Extension Act, make "the United States less free and ultimately less creative" (Boynton, 2004, p. 42). These laws are also ambiguous, forcing people to interpret them in multiple ways and decide on their own what uses of the computer and Internet are appropriate (Davis, Samuelson, Kapor, & Reichman, 1996).
Teachers confront such issues on a daily basis in their classrooms. While trying to implement computers in their classroom curriculum, they must deal with highly debated, continually changing, and oftentimes difficult to understand policies regulating student computer and Internet use. Teachers need not only to understand these policies but also to have an awareness of students' beliefs, so that they can offer students more than a set of policy regulations to follow: "Ethical issues are complex [and] a list of rules is not adequate to help enhance a student's understanding" (Carpenter, 1996, p. 60). Increasing understanding is of particular importance for teacher education programs where education in computer ethics is now part of most teacher-credential ing requirements (International Society for Technology in Education [ISTE], 2002). More than 90% of states have adopted or incorporated technology standards that include computer ethics. Yet despite these requirements, we know virtually nothing about preservice teachers' judgments and justifications about dilemmas in the digital domain or their understanding of students' judgments and justifications.
As preservice teachers prepare to deal with the application of acceptable use policies in their daily classroom life, their pedagogical decisions need to be informed by students' beliefs, which may not be the same as theirs. If preservice teachers understand students' judgments and justifications, they can help students develop a better understanding of the issues regarding appropriate uses of information and content from digital sources such as the Internet. We argue that such understanding has the potential to create more responsible participation and to impact student use beyond the traditional short-term behavioral adjustments. Using student beliefs to inform pedagogical practice is common in other school disciplines (e.g., Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000), yet little research on what teachers know about student judgments and justifications about appropriate uses to inform their classroom computer practices has been done, providing the impetus for the study described in this article.
This article reports findings from a study of preservice teachers' judgments and justifications about digital dilemmas. We presented 66 elementary school preservice teachers with four scenarios that addressed student copyright use and web browsing and computer use in school settings. We asked these preservice teachers to judge whether the behaviors described in the scenarios were appropriate (their judgments), and to explain why (their justifications). We also asked these teachers to make predictions of how students would respond to the very same scenarios. We compared these predictions with a dataset of actual responses from 215 elementary school students. Our findings provide valuable information for teacher education programs on how preservice teachers can be better prepared for classroom incidents and, in turn, can help students understand the issues involved in various uses of the computer and Internet.


THREE Things I learned from my Reading Assignment (RA)

1. Paradigm shift on classroom instructional practices through innovation in technology such as the use of Computers and Internet resources creates a classroom environment that is more interactive and interesting for both learners and educators. Using Internet puts the concept of “anytime, anywhere” into a higher level as long as learning is concerned. (e.g. online classes or e- classes : a class caters for those are too far or too busy to attend class ; learners who missed class could now go over the lecture notes and presentation of that day through online etc.). Possibility is endless.

2. An educators and learners major dilemma on using Internet resources concerns the reliability, validity and authority of growing information resources available in many websites. Educators also face additional concerns on ethical issues involving appropriate uses of computer technologies, such as students plagiarizing from the Internet, spreading rumors in chat rooms, and accessing pornographic web sites at computers in schools.

3. It is a fact that there are many advantages to use the services of the Internet particularly the tools and resources on the Web. But information overload could also be hazardous not only for children, young adult but adult as well, there are legal and ethical issues that most of the end-users are not aware of.





APPLICATION/IMPLICATION

Integrating the use of Internet on classroom instruction encourages more students to take an active role in their education however information overload is uncontrollable. Institutions (e.g. school & university) least can do to pacify or control issues concerning digital dilemmas on appropriate use of Computer and Internet is to set legal regulations on ethical issues using these digital resources. Dissemination of proper information of institution on ethical issues using digital resources is essential for community education for them to comply on such rules and regulations. Legal rules and regulation would discourage unnecessary use of Computer and Internet

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Opening Up Library Automation Software

Marshall Breeding. Computers in Libraries. Westport: Feb 2009. Vol. 29, Iss. 2; pg. 25, 3 pgs

Abstract (Summary)

Open source software has caught on in a big way within the library automation arena, but we'll see that this is not the only approach possible as libraries seek options to gain more access and control over their data and other aspects of their technology environment. The Z39.50 protocol provides a standard approach for search and retrieval for information systems and has been very effective as the basis for library applications such as federated search among information resources, virtual union catalogs for library consortia, search and selection of MARC records from bibliographic services or peer libraries, and other scenarios.

Copyright Information Today, Inc.-ARCHIVED Feb 2009

[Headnote]

IN TODAY'S WORLD WHERE LIBRARIES FACE INCREDIBLE CHALLENGES TO BE EVER MORE INTERCONNECTED, WE NEED TO CONSTANTLY WORK TOWARD HIGHER LEVELS OF OPENNESS.

One of the major themes that I've observed in the recent era of the library involves the demand for more openness in all aspects of the technology infrastructure. Libraries often articulate frustration at automation systems that fail to offer adequate access to the data and functionality of their automation systems. Libraries increasingly resist rigidly closed automation products that do not provide flexible access to the data and provide ways to connect to other products. Today's library automation environment favors systems that can deliver, in one way or another, products that break away from closed, proprietary systems to allow libraries more liberal access to their data. Open source software has caught on in a big way within the library automation arena, but we'll see that this is not the only approach possible as libraries seek options to gain more access and control over their data and other aspects of their technology environment.

The need to protect a library's investment in its data provides one of the key drivers for increased openness. The data that describes the collections and reflects the operations of the library represents one of a library's most important assets. The value of the cumulative investment of library personnel to create a database that accurately reflects its collection probably outweighs the value of the software used to produce and maintain that data. Likewise, data endures longer than any given software product. In the course of a library's automation history, it will likely migrate through multiple automation systems, yet the data created should pass intact from one to the next.

An interest in interoperability with other software products and information systems also fuels demand for openness. Libraries increasingly expect to do more with their data than simply use it within a single automation product. A typical library technology environment includes multiple interrelated systems, many of which need to access data and functionality from others. In order for multiple systems to communicate with each other and work together efficiently, library automation products need to embody a high level of interoperability.

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THREE Things I learned from my Reading Assignment (RA)

1. A computer and its ability to sort and search million records would only takes seconds that
make it more convenient for the end-user to access and retrieve information.

2. Computer System is essential in Information Retrieval. Without Computer System
storage, preservation. retrieval, and dissemination of materials in digital format are not possible.

3.Through computer system automation is possible, access to resources no longer geographically limited to the library where resources are physically housed, now access to resources can be used by numerous end-users at the same time.