Editorial

Citation

Ashcroft, L. (2013), "Editorial", New Library World, Vol. 114 No. 3/4. https://doi.org/10.1108/nlw.2013.072114caa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: New Library World, Volume 114, Issue 3/4

A recent report discusses how university libraries can make use of technology to improve students’ experience, noting that students increasingly want to use electronic resources. The report focuses on four functions of the university library, which are resource availability, resource discovery, integration and providing 24/7 access. It highlights how libraries can adapt technology to help with each function and to provide better services (http://bit.ly/PMiMJF). One aspect of adapting technology is reported in the paper from Chen and Gilchrist with results from a study examining the usage and production of educational videos on YouTubeEDU, which aims to provide free global access to higher education videos. They make a number of comments including that the distinction between learning and entertainment will continue to be blurred, and that YouTubeEDU will need to highlight the academic capabilities of their contributors by creating a dedicated, clearly organised website for academic content.

Encyclopaedia Britannica recently moved to a purely digital environment and, continuing commitment to education in the mobile age, has launched an app to provide digital content direct to Apple smartphones and tablets. The app is a significant addition to their online and mobile offerings, and it has won an Appy award in the reference category. A deal with CILIP means that every CILIP member can download the app to an iOS mobile device and search and use content for free. The paper from Sarkar presents the results of a study which looks at widget applications on library websites. This study investigates the characteristic features, purpose of use and types of widget applications and illustrates the relevance of the different approaches taken by various libraries.

In the UK, Salford City Council has shifted its IT infrastructure to the cloud and is offering business cloud-based services. Data and information will be securely stored on a new network. The council is using this new network, which is cost effective and which has spare capacity, to create a community cloud for local businesses. The council also hopes that to generate income through re-selling of cloud services, such as data storage. The impact of cloud computing for academic libraries is the topic of the paper from Mavodza. She comments that cloud computing is a reality that continues to be explored and used and outlines a number of advantages of using it together with a number of current concerns about which librarians need to be knowledgeable.

Results of a recent survey carried out by the Universities and College Information Systems Association (Ucisa) in the UK showed that students have better access to library services through mobiles. According to 37 per cent of respondents, mobile solutions were offered for library users, and it found that library services are most likely to offer students specifically tailored access through mobile devices (www.ucisa.ac.uk/tel). Nowlan, in her paper, presents feedback from a university community survey into their use of mobile devices, which aimed to understand how academic libraries can provide effective mobile services. She discusses how students at the University of Regina wanted to interact with the library on their mobile devices and the construct ion of a mobile site to meet their needs. She points out that mobile technologies are constantly changing and that continuous assessment is important.

One type of grant funding is the research grant. Recently Friends of Princeton University Library announced their annual grants available for short-term research projects for topics considered including scholarly use of archives, manuscripts and other rare and unique holdings of the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, in addition to some grants for specific study areas. These grants are designed to cover travel expenses and study in Princeton, which might be a reason for personal motivation to apply. However, the paper from Keogh examines motivation for library grant writing among academic librarians. She reports the results of a small study for which participants were selected from recipients of US federally funded grants, which are publicly available. Findings indicate that both intrinsic and extrinsic factors were present in respondents’ motivations for grant writing. The results of the study should be useful to those in the library arena who are interested in grant writing.

The Open Access Publishers Association (OASPA) represents the interests of open access journal publishers around the world in scientific, technical and scholarly subjects. It formed in order to help share information, set standards and promote advocacy and innovation in the open access arena. Some models, such as OpenOnline, can allow authors to make articles available to non-subscribers on publication or for archive in final form. The indexing of open access journals is the topic of the paper from Cummings, which reports on a study of three large, commercially available, full-text aggregation databases. Results of this study showed that very small percentages of open access journals were indexed by these aggregators. He comments that an environment where open access research literature is more findable by researchers than it is currently requires tools other than traditional abstracting and indexing tools.

Linda Ashcroft