Digital initiatives have become increasingly common in academic libraries, but inconsistent definitions, standards, and expectations limit and, in some cases, negatively impact the effectiveness of practitioners. This article explores the discourse surrounding professional titles and responsibilities in digital initiatives within North American…

This study examined determinants of library and information science undergraduate students' first impression with the university library websites. A total enumeration method was used to involve 54 year 4 undergraduate students of Library and Information Science from two selected universities. Undergraduate Students' Determinants of First…

This paper presents a novel approach to designing an online, open-source course in systems librarianship, an area of librarianship that may be perceived as complex and intimidating because of the technologies involved. The course design focuses on making systems librarianship more approachable for library and information science students who may…

This study seeks to explore what factors influence students' ICT use and web technology competence. The objectives of this study are the following: (a) To what extent do certain elements of Rogers' (2003) Diffusion of Innovations Theory (DOI) explain students' ICT use, (b) To what extent do personality characteristics derived from the Big Five…

Photographs tell a story and illustrate an experience more profoundly than words alone. Real-time, text-based communication is an increasingly normal part of daily life as mobile devices and social networks proliferate. Yet, in the steady stream of tweets, comments, status updates, notifications, and e-mail, the details are easily lost in the…

Literature on library service models is scarce and exists mainly in non-traditional formats such as blog entries and webpages. Nonetheless, the subject evokes heated debate among librarians with many supporting the model they are using, sometimes without understanding that there are other options which perhaps could be better for their…

Public libraries are heavily affected by political and policy-making processes that shape the funding, activities, and roles of libraries in society, with the explosion of information policy decisions in the past two decades significantly increasing the responsibilities of libraries while also increasing limitations on their activities. Research…

Librarians regularly encounter students who struggle to understand and apply information literacy concepts. A qualitative survey administered to information literacy practitioners asked about troublesome content and analyzed results using the threshold concepts pedagogical framework first described by Jan Meyer and Ray Land. A threshold concept…

This paper describes a procedure to manage connotations, so that they may be identified in the document databases of television channels. The system is based on Ranganathan's facets, as this is the best tool to describe actions--i.e. the units analysed in television--which enable the identification of the connoted information by introducing or…

This article proceeds from the position that obsession with technology is a distraction from librarians' true mission and explores how a constellation of emerging information technologies might empower librarians to reconsider their commitment to the technological treadmill and instead turn to a more humanistic orientation. This article presents…

Web 2.0 technologies have transformed the way people in information industries engage with their clients, collaborate on projects, promote their services and gather community knowledge. In this paper, we describe the impact of industry adoption of Web 2.0 technologies on an information management course. The students in this course are either…

The study is an evaluation of an employability training programme provided by Inverclyde Libraries in West Central Scotland and the role of information literacy within the training programme. Inverclyde is an area with high unemployment and pockets of multiple deprivation. Modern, applicable skills are also lacking. The findings are based on…

Large-scale projects such as the Internet Archive (www.archive.org) send out crawlers to gather snapshots of much of the web. This massive collection of archived websites may include content of interest to one's patrons. But if librarians want to control exactly when and what is archived, relying on someone else to do the archiving is not ideal.…

The potential of librarians working in e-science, a term for using the Internet and other digital tools to facilitate scientific data collection, management, and sharing, has been the cause of much discussion. Many professionals agree that librarians could participate in or facilitate e-science tasks. This article explores what e-science…

The present paper discusses results of a study which aimed to explore the knowledge and use of Web 2.0 technologies by LIS academics in Iran and to explore the challenges they face for using these technologies. The research method was explorative and empirical. Data was collected through a web-based survey questionnaire containing both open and…