Abstract

Three solutions, along with their advantages and disadvantages, are shown to bring the library card to the smartphone: barcode reproduction, Passbook type applications, and NFC technology. Some are simple to implement and others more complex, but all are technically feasible and can be implemented immediately. The smart card concept, which provides a new avenue of communication between the library and the user, is also introduced. Finally, uses of iBeacons are explored.

Abstract

Gamification is the inclusion of game elements in contexts other than those traditionally related to leisure and entertainment. In recent years, it has grown as a trend as shown by the increase in the number of reports, papers, meetings, platforms, and software programs, as well as the number of gamification experiences that have been developed in multiple environments. The application of gamification to the library can generate important benefits, but for this to happen, a series of requirements are necessary to guarantee successful application. With the right processes in place, libraries can take advantage of the predisposition that we all have to play. The proper channeling of the game will serve to motivate and change user behaviors related to spaces, collections, services, and activities.

Abstract

The economic crisis and the rapid advances of information technology have led to reflection about how libraries should face the digital challenge and the need to adapt daily work routines and professional profiles. This paper considers whether libraries are restrained environments that can have an inhibiting effect on their profesional staff, harming their adaptation to the new digital environment. There are several reasons for this: technology dependence, a workplace model that gives priority to established structures, the rigidity of the structures involved in the decision-making process, and attachment to our traditional roles.

Abstract

Communication with the library user is being changed by the loss of the library’s information monopoly, the dematerialization of the book and the importance of technology in the non-face-to-face relationship. Within the new ways of communication, the ability to become used to tools and devices in a daily and non-work environment is essential. Library professionals must begin to understand the new ways of communication as a balance between the personal and profesional domains.

Abstract

The article presents an overview of the situation of school libraries in Spain, and suggests that, like the university library has become a resource center for learning and research, the school library could become also a resource center for learning and teaching, acting as a dynamizer and catalyst for the life of schools.

Abstract

We discuss the role of the library in development, touching on many dimensions, from being a contributor to the educational process to an agent promoting equitable distribution of wealth. Libraries constitute a network that supports both developing and developed countries and assures respect for fairness, the general quality of life for all people and the environment. At present, we see how the society has changed from manufacturing to the provision of services, and later to an economy based on knowledge. Indeed, the knowledge available in documents has followed a long process before arriving at the informative production and consumption that characterize current society.

Abstract

Starting from the premise that future information flows will be transmitted exclusively via electronic formats and that the future of books in their current structure is uncertain, the article analyzes the situation of uncertainty for libraries’ survival in the new systems of global information, where the immediacy of access to sources and collaboration are becoming standard. The authors invite a rethinking of paradigm tools that prevail in libraries. The study also aims to discuss the old paradigms as opposed to the changes that are taking place and focuses on defining a model of innovative thinking which can sustain the e-evolution” of libraries. Analyzing the perspectives from a qualitative research method founded on the triangulation of three or more different perspectives, the methodology-driven approach defines the paradigm changes that will be more influential in the near future and hence poses new ways to think about the interrelationship between different actors that will positively affect a sustainable e-evolution” of libraries if they are considered and seen from a global human-centered point of view.

Abstract

We reviewed projects and outcomes in the implementation and use of free software in the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) libraries. Free software is a growing movement with steadily increasing significance, especially in university environments. The use of standards improves the possibility of integration with other systems and enhances the efficient management of library data. At the moment UPC libraries are developing their institutional repositories, using open source software like DSpace to disseminate the institution’s teaching and research activities. The UPC libraries will continue to implement this cost effective software and promote its use among library users and the university community.

Abstract

The Internet, the new mobile devices and cloud storage are changing the way in which people deal with information; we still need great storage capacity and information readers but we also value ubiquity and data synchronization between the different devices that we are using. Access has become more important than storage. The web as a tool is leading to the obsolescence of digital media that are just 20 years old and boosts the multimedia possibilities of paper, an analog medium that facilitates the relationship between people and mobile devices. We go through some of the experiences carried out in the Muskiz public library exploring the new multimedia possibilities of paper.