Abstract

With the increasing dominance of electronic content and digital collections in academic libraries, the capabilities lacking in the current slate of automation systems has increasingly become an obstacle to progress. A new generation of digital services platforms for libraries is emerging, designed to provide a more comprehensive approach to the management and access to all formats of library materials: print, electronic and digital. These new systems involve a modernization of technology, embracing service-oriented architectures, availability for APIs to facilitate interoperability with external systems, support for task workflows more aligned with current operational realities, and more tightly coupled discovery interfaces that deliver access to library collections and services in a more unified and comprehensive manner. These new products, emerging in this era of cloud computing, have been designed for deployment through software as a service and rely on highly shared data models.

Abstract

Management of digital objects -pictures or other kinds of digital files- is a major challenge for organizations. It is a strategic process that involves several tasks within the institution, from the digitization of a physical document to the right document management process, through proper definition of the functional requirements for the tool used to publish and manage digital objects. A case of two institutions, Consortium of Academic Libraries of Catalonia and the Cartography Institute of Catalonia, is presented. Both faced this strategic process and choose the ContentDm tool for publishing and managing their digital images.

Abstract

Spain’s national agency for library coordination (Dirección General del Libro, Archivos y Bibliotecas, Subdirección General de Coordinación Bibliotecaria) has launched a series of initiatives to disseminate and preserve the national bibliographic heritage. The digitization of collections and their internet distribution (using well-known standards such as DC, OAI-PMH,OAIS, Premis, SRU/SW) is their most recent project. In addition to all the benefits this brings, their efforts to build consensus for the project is especially appreciated. Of particular significance, they have secured the cooperation of Spain’s autonomous communities (i. e., regional governments), all of their initiatives incorporate technology and procedures compliant with the action Digital Libraries of the EU’s VII Framework Programme.

Abstract

With the increasing dominance of electronic content and digital collections in academic libraries, the capabilities lacking in the current slate of automation systems has increasingly become an obstacle to progress. A new generation of digital services platforms for libraries is emerging, designed to provide a more comprehensive approach to the management and access to all formats of library materials: print, electronic and digital. These new systems involve a modernization of technology, embracing service-oriented architectures, availability for APIs to facilitate interoperability with external systems, support for task workflows more aligned with current operational realities, and more tightly coupled discovery interfaces that deliver access to library collections and services in a more unified and comprehensive manner. These new products, emerging in this era of cloud computing, have been designed for deployment through software as a service and rely on highly shared data models.

Abstract

Spanish university libraries have had to adapt their services to the virtual environment after the classroom-based teaching lockdown in March 2020 due to Covid-19. Given the possibility of a greater virtual dimension of learning and teaching during the next academic year, these library services should be improved. This paper analyzes how university libraries are strengthening their support for online learning and are progressively being integrated into the virtual campus, as well as the actions that are necessary to enhance these services and the main difficulties perceived by their librarians. For this purpose, a sample of professionals from university libraries was interviewed, and the research literature on this subject was also reviewed to identify the main international experiences that can be considered as benchmarks for improving virtual library services. Both the research literature and the librarians interviewed agree on two aspects: the need to increase collaboration with other university departments and the wide scope for improvement in the integration of the library into online learning, which is currently limited.

Abstract

Despite the investment of economic and human resources made by Spanish public libraries to create digital collections while continuing to play their traditional role as mediators between users, technology, and reading, there are conditioning factors that make it difficult for e-book lending to be integrated as yet another service within those provided by libraries and to be fully accepted by readers. With the aim of identifying the elements underlying the slow consolidation of digital lending, a literature review was carried out to determine the state of the art, mainly in both the USA and Spain, the e-book market aimed at Spanish public libraries is analyzed, the technological difficulties involved in lending and downloading for users are presented, and the influence of the measures adopted by the publishing sector and public administrations are examined. The need to make license commercialization models more flexible, simplify digital rights management systems, and decouple collections from electronic lending platforms, as well as avoid the dispersion of library resources across various interfaces, is highlighted.