Overview of content related to 'search technology'

Editorial Introduction to Issue 63: Consider the Users in the Field

editor — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:00:00 +0000

Richard Waller introduces Ariadne issue 63.

For those who can either remember or are battling still to make the technology work, be it coding, integration or test, it is easy and understandable enough if the technology assumes an overwhelming profile on the horizon of one's project and daily work. It is very understandable when they privately grumble that colleagues unburdened with the minutiae of such work display a breath-taking insouciance to the consequences of asking for a change in spec because there has been an unexpected development in the requirements of the users.

Mobilising the Internet Detective

editor — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:00:00 +0000

Diana Massam, Andrew Priest and Caroline Williams describe a recent project to adapt the online Internet Detective tutorial, to deliver a user-friendly mobile site which reflects their market research into user preferences for mobile content.

'The mobile phone is undoubtedly [a] strong driving force, a behaviour changer…Library users will soon be demanding that every interaction can take place via the cell phone' [1]

Archives in Web 2.0: New Opportunities

editor — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:00:00 +0000

Marta Nogueira describes how three Web 2.0 applications (Facebook, Flickr, YouTube) can work as a virtual extension for archives and other cultural organisations, by identifying benefits obtained from the use of Web 2.0 applications.

Archives are using Web 2.0 applications in a context that allows for new types of interaction, new opportunities regarding institutional promotion, new ways of providing their services and making their heritage known to the community. Applications such as Facebook (online social network), Flickr (online image-sharing community) and YouTube (online video sharing community) are already used by cultural organisations that interact in the informal context of Web 2.0.

Don't You Know Who I Am?

editor — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:00:00 +0000

John Paschoud looks into identity and access management in the pre-digital and digital age, and describes how the JISC Identity Management Toolkit can help us manage identities better.

Way back in prehistory, when libraries were buildings with books in, identity management was a pretty simple challenge for them. A library was either truly 'public', in which case you did not care who came in (the more people, the more popular you were, which was 'a good thing'). Otherwise, you had to be a member, and the security officer on the door knew your face, or you could show him (it was usually a 'him', then) a card or something to prove you were a member.

For a library to trust you to take some of its books away with you (without hiding them under your coat), you usually did have to be a member, and becoming a member entailed some sort of registration process in which you might have to prove who you were with some official-looking document. The details of each member could be recorded in some sort of register, and a card issued. Effectively taking someone's membership away again, for whatever reason, was a bit more difficult - unless there was an opportunity to wrest the precious library card from them physically!

Admissions Rules

A few years ago now our Projects Team at the London School of Economics (LSE) Library [1] was involved in documenting and analysing the admissions rules of academic libraries in London. This was before our own library agreed to provide full access to 'the general public' (in return for Heritage Lottery grants towards a £20m building project), but I was intrigued to find that our own admissions rules included all sorts of bipartite agreements with institutions such as Kings College London (proximity, I guess) and the School of Oriental and African Studies (a lot of common-interest post-colonial subject material in each of our collections).

The most interesting 'right of access' I found in our admissions rules was 'accredited diplomatic staff of a recognised foreign country, attached to an embassy, consulate or diplomatic mission in London'. I never actually observed anyone trying to exercise this particular right (I am excused counter duties at the library because I do not know enough about books), but I was aware that my colleagues who did serve on the Admissions Desk rota were a wonderfully diverse lot; with collectively far more knowledge of international and political affairs than this duty required. I imagined the possible scene of an intending visitor from some small state (in some dispute with the United Nations, perhaps) being rebuffed by one of our Library Assistants because he was not accredited by a recognised foreign country. I am sure all our LAs are much too diplomatic themselves for anything like that to actually happen now; but it did get me thinking.

What we also discovered in the course of the same investigation was the great number of other academic libraries to which I was allowed admission, on the strength of my status as a staff member at LSE. We decided to test this out with a small 'mystery shopper' exercise. Having retrieved a copy of the access rules for South Bank University Library (with, listed somewhere on page 2, the clause allowing LSE staff members reciprocal access) I duly set off on the 171 bus, armed with the plastic card that identified me as such (with the usual un-fetching photo and the magnetic strip that magically opened the turnstile at the LSE Library when I came into the office every morning). There were two serious flaws in this plan. The first was due to the fact that single-sided photocopying was clearly the norm at South Bank, and the otherwise very polite security officer at the Perry Library was only in possession of page 1 of their admissions rules, and so he couldn't see a reason to let me in. I would like to believe that the second flaw was a result of my personal fame in the library world; but it was really because quite a lot of librarians tend to circulate around jobs in London universities, and a former LSE Library colleague was currently managing the counters there, recognised me and told the officer to let me in. The project team decided that I would need some serious disguises before being allowed out to do any more mystery shopping!

Usability Inspection of Digital Libraries

editor — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:00:00 +0000

Lorraine Paterson and Boon Low highlight findings from the usability inspection report conducted for the UX2.0 research project.

Planning the Future of the National Library of Mongolia

editor — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:00:00 +0000

Monika Segbert-Elbert and David Fuegi describe the National Library of Mongolia's plans to modernise its infrastructure and services.

In November 2008, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded a grant to Stichting eIFL.net to help the National Library of Mongolia (NLM) create a strategic plan in the course of 2009.

eIFL.net [1] is an international not-for-profit organisation with a base in Europe and a global network of partners. It works with libraries around the world to enable sustainable access to high-quality digital information for people in developing and transition countries [2]. Founded in 1999, eIFL.net began by advocating for affordable access to commercial e-journals for academic and research libraries in Central and Eastern Europe. Today, eIFL.net partners with libraries and library consortia in over 45 developing and transition countries in Africa, Asia and Europe. Its work has also expanded to include other programmes designed to increase access to knowledge. eIFL.net's approach is to partner with libraries organised in national library consortia - groups of libraries that share common goals - thereby effectively reaching millions of people. Library consortia can speak with one voice to stakeholders and policy makers, and share resources and activities in order to serve their communities.

Mongolia is a huge land-locked country bordering Russia and China. Its 3 million inhabitants are somewhat isolated geographically and linguistically and by comparative poverty. English is not much used and the National Library of Mongolia is little known in the West. Even its links with China and Russia are not strong though many of its senior staff were trained in the former Soviet Union.

The circumstances creating the opportunity for the National Library of Mongolia to raise its profile and potentially transform the library scene in Mongolia depended on two main events: the decision of the Emir of Kuwait announced late in 2007 to gift a new national library building to Mongolia [3]; and the development of the eIFL-supported Consortium of Mongolian Libraries in Mongolia [4]. The former raised the profile of the Library in government and necessitated a focus on planning. The latter helped provide a professional forum in which issues could be examined and library stakeholders consulted.

The National Library of Mongolia, also known as the State Central Library, is the largest library in Mongolia with more than 3 million books and publications, and an outstanding collection of 1 million rare and valuable [mainly religious] books and manuscripts. Potentially one of its most important roles is to act as the 'methodological centre' for professional in-service training for public librarians in Mongolia. The national library has been connected to the Internet since 2001 and is also a key member of the recently founded Consortium of Mongolian Libraries that aims to expand access to electronic resources for academics and researchers, students and citizens.

Moving Towards Interoperability: Experiences of the Archives Hub

editor — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:00:00 +0000

Jane Stevenson and Bethan Ruddock describe the work that the Archives Hub team has been doing to promote the sharing of content.

Turning on the Lights for the User: NISO Discovery to Delivery Forum

editor — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:00:00 +0000

Laura Akerman and Kim Durante report on Discovery to Delivery, Creating a First-Class User Experience, a NISO Forum on today's information seekers and current standards developments held in March 2010 at the Georgia Tech Global Learning Center.

RDA: Resource Description and Access

editor — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:00:00 +0000

Wendy Taylor and Helen Williams report on CILIP's Executive Briefings on RDA : Resource Description and Access held at CILIP on 23 March 2010 and repeated at the Bloomsbury Hotel on 30 March 2010.

News and Events

editor — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:00:00 +0000

Ariadne presents a brief summary of news and events.

Engagement, Impact, Value Workshop

University of Manchester
Monday 24 May 2010
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/engagement-impact-value-201005/

Book Review: Library Mashups

editor — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:00:00 +0000

Aldalin Lyngdoh reviews a book on the basics of mashups and how they have been used in libraries worldwide.

This book is intended for readers who have some knowledge of computers, computer programming and libraries.