Issues in Digital Academic Libraries

Janec 1

Issues in Digital Academic Libraries:

An Annotated Bibliography

Eric Janec

INFO522: Information Access & Resources

Katherine McCain, Instructor

12/8/10

Issues in Digital Academic Libraries: An Annotated Bibliography

Introduction

This annotated bibliography describes the research on the issues surrounding digital libraries in academic settings. The articles describe the interaction of digital resources with academic libraries and scholars, touching on a range of issues. The articles range from 1999 to 2010, and consider issues such as metadata construction, collection development, the creation and use of distributed libraries, and collaborative research using the digital arena. The articles describe issues arising from the interaction between existing library structures and digital implementations as well as the interaction between scholars and digital resources. While the majority of the articles were published after 2005, earlier articles are also included which have generalizable lessons on digitization issues in academia. The majority of the articles describe research conducted in the United States, but there are two articles from foreign sources, the UK and Iran, which describe issues from a different perspective as much of the American literature.

Topic Description

The issues in digital academic libraries in many cases mirror those of traditional libraries. For example, the articles in this library often mention issues in collection development, which is a well-researched area in traditional print libraries. Other examples of similar trends in digital libraries include publishing and scholarly communication, preservation of resources, and metadata concerns. While the topics are familiar, the specifics of the problems facing digital libraries are in many cases distinct from those of print libraries. For instance, in collection development, there are concerns about what subscription model best meets needs when supplying e-journals. There are also more general issues involving the addition of digital libraries to physical libraries, or in some cases the transition of resources from print to digital format. There are also several notable areas of discussion which occur in digital libraries which do not often appear in print libraries: the use of exclusively digital tools, either as research tools or as means of sharing and making data and research available, as well as the concept of a distributed library, wherein the library serves as a portal to external digital resources, rather than collecting them itself.

Literature Review

One of the most common trends in the research on digital academic libraries involves collection development. De Stefano(2001) notes that the choice of material selection is the critical factor to the success or failure of a digital library project, and proposes that libraries select resources for digitization which most benefit their communities needs, rather than collections which may be unique or special in other ways. Jamali, Nicholas, and Rowlands(2008) discuss the perceptions of e-books among academic users, and notes several advantages and disadvantages that they have over print. McCutcheon, Kreyche, Maurer, and Nickerson(2007) and Parandjuk(2010) both consider digital collection development as it is impacted by other factors. McCutcheon discusses the issues surrounding academic thesis and dissertation cataloging when there is no print copy, while Parandjuk considers the effects of continuing increases in digital holdings on the information architecture of digital libraries. Tenopir and Read(2000) and Wilson and Tenopir(2008) each consider how collection development of digital resources can be guided by observing the needs of the academic community. Tenopir and Read focus on database usage as an indicator of subscription needs, while Wilson and Tenopir examine citation of electronic as compared to print resources by publishing academics. These discussions of resource selection for digital libraries highlight the differences as well as the similarities between the considerations of resource selection for digital collections.

A separate and nearly opposite trend in digital libraries in academia is the construction of the digital library as a portal which leads to other, offsite resources. Distributed libraries can be discussed as either a central clearinghouse of data and research, independent of universities, as Borgman(2000, 2008) argues for, or as truly distributed resources throughout the visible and invisible web which academics can refer to(Lewandowski and Mayr, 2006; Jeng, 2005). The delineation between a distributed library and a library which subscribes to or is authorized to access other collections is not clear. Parandjuk(2010) discusses the case of the PALMM system, a shared and cooperative venture between the state universities of Florida, and Voss and Procter(2009) discuss Virtual Research Environments(VREs), accumulations of research tools and resources across various platforms for collaborative research. Included in the discussion of distributed libraries are considerations of database as compared to Web resources, illustrated by Mohsanzadeh and Isfandyari-Moghaddam's(2008) exploration of digital resource use in Iranian academic libraries, where national information infrastructure may not support distributed libraries as it does in America.

Related to collection development and distributed librarianship are issues of collaborative research made possible by digital academic libraries. Voss and Procter(2009) see VREs as a new platform for research to be done by teams across disciplines or geographical boundaries. Borgman(2000, 2008) focuses on the effects of digital libraries on publishing, including the possibility of circumventing traditional publication through electronic publishing with the assistance of university libraries. Wulfman(2009) discusses the case of the Perseus project, which collects a variety of early modern texts, and attempts to continually annotate them with links to new research as it develops. This type of project speeds the movement of ideas and narrows the distinction between collaboration and reaction. Considerations of how the adoption of digital resources alters the routes of scholarly communication include discussions of increased use of digital resources such as the Web of Science to explore the literature(Wilson and Tenopir, 2008) or through increased visibility of previously hidden academic resources due to projects such as Google Scholar and Vascoda(Lewandowski and Mayr, 2006).

Strung throughout the literature are discussions of the importance of metadata in any digital library. Borgman(2008) argues that proper metadata is critical to constructing the infrastructure which can support digital scholarly communication. Wulfman's(2009) discussion of the Perseus project and Lewandowski and Mayr's(2006) examination of the academic invisible web both demonstrate how proper metadata standards can bring order to otherwise overwhelming quantities of digital information. McCutcheon et al.(2007) and Parandjuk(2010) both consider the power of using librarian-formatted and user-filled metadata fields to organize information as it is created, in the case of electronic theses and collaborative libraries, respectively. Voss and Procter's paper on VREs includes discussions on the importance of metadata for allowing researchers to efficiently find and use resources across platforms. A common thread throughout all of these articles is the argument that standardization of metadata improves its power, and the importance of standardization to as great a degree possible when dealing with the glut of information available through digital libraries.

In addition to the discussion of digital libraries for collection and storage of information, there is a healthy segment of the research concerned with the additional tools that a digital environment makes available to academic researchers. Voss and Procter(2009) thoroughly discuss the possibilities in their article on Virtual Research Environments: platforms which pull together tools to assist and empower researchers throughout the lifecycle of a research project, from initial research to publication. Borgman(2000, 2008) examines how academics can improve publication and communication in scholarly circles through the use of digital tools, possibly creating distributed networks of thinkers outside of the traditional university. Kibirige(2000) and Nicholas(2005) consider the use of existing tools such as search engines. Both articles discuss the penetration of the search engine as the most popular digital tool not just for the public, but in academic circles. Kibirige compares search engines to databases and finds search engines to be much preferred, enough to argue that libraries should model their catalog and resource interfaces on search engines. Meanwhile Nicholas covers digital tools offered by journal publishers beyond basic search and browsing, and finds them severely under-used. While the possibilities for digital research are exciting, the research currently shows the standard search engine as the dominant force in designing new digital tools.

Another noticeable trend in the research is the concept of preservation. Preservation in this case takes on a different tone from preservation of print or other physical objects. Much of the research is concerned with preserving data itself to allow future researchers to study it, independent of any given platform. Borgman(2000) brings up the concern that because much of digital content is currently stored and owned by commercial enterprises, should it become unprofitable to continue to store that data, or should the company go out of business, the information becomes vulnerable, leading to a need to return libraries to their role as data repositories. De Stefano(2001) argues that digital resource selection is only tangentially aligned with standard ideas of preservation. De Stefano claims that digital resources should be selected for their utility to the library community, which may not align with preservation of information contained on physical materials, although it is not opposed. Voss and Procter(2009) argue along similar lines to Borgman in support of Virtual Research Environments. VRE projects need steady access to reliable data and tools, and Voss and Procter argue that standardized, reliable data repositories can provide the necessary support.

Throughout the discussion of digital resources and libraries, there are comparisons and contrasts to the issues found in similar physical resources and libraries. Borgman(2000) studies the differences between digital and print scholarly communication and publishing in great depth. Jamali et al.(2008) surveyed over 16,000 members of the academic community to understand the ways in which e-books are more or less useful than similar print resources. McCutcheon et al.(2007) note how digital versions of theses can pull useful metadata from their physical originals, such as title page, advisor signatures, abstract, etc. Wilson and Tenopir(2008) examine the citation habits of academics to determine how they use physical and digital resources and discover a trend towards digital use, hypothesizing that it may be driven by the library's own focus on transition from print to electronic journals. Wulfman's(2009) article on the Perseus project examines the possibilities for digital resources which are not available to print resources in his discussion of hyperlinked annotations of early modern texts. While the focus of the research is on the specifics of the digital issues, much of the research attempts to learn from previous research done on physical analogues. Whether in the case of resources such as journals or in organizing and acquiring information in collection and metadata policies, the research on digital libraries flows from and is informed by previous research on print and print-dominated libraries.

The research on digital trends in academic libraries as expanded in recent years, no doubt due to the acceleration of technology itself, and the additional possibilities and considerations that innovations in digital information systems bring. While these new technologies and systems are being developed, there seems to be a trend in the research showing that academic users are slow to adapt to new systems. They prefer comfortable, simple search engines and are slow to adopt new research tools being offered online. While electronic journals have been very successful, many other digital resources lag in measures of use. In addition, much of the research describes digital technology in terms of print systems, indicating a bridge between traditional services and technologies and new digital options. Researchers and innovators considering the application of digital library technology in academic libraries would be well served to consider to what degree the innovations will be useful and usable to academic communities, and design their systems and services accordingly.

Annotated Bibliography

Entry 1

Borgman, C. L. (2000). Digital libraries and the continuum of scholarly communication. Journal of Documentation, 56(4), 412-430.

Abstract: Contribution to a special issue in honour of the information scientist A. J. (Jack) Meadows. Explores the relationship between scholarly communication and digital libraries. Scholars, scholarly societies, publishers and libraries agree that their relationships have become unbalanced with the advent of electronic publishing, digital libraries, computer networks and associated changes in pricing, intellectual property policies and contracts, but they do not agree on solutions to redress the balance. Discusses problems worthy of research. (Original abstract - amended)

Annotation: This article covers scholarly publishing, as well as the notion of distributed academic work, including both distributed resources as well as distributed researchers. This article discusses the role of libraries in publishing academic work, and can be used to support arguments in favor of libraries or other non-commercial entities being the main repositories of scholarly work. Focuses on the instability of electronic articles, especially their vulnerability to commercial forces.

Search Strategy: I had found Social SciSearch to have a good number of relevant results in earlier searches and used a keyword search.

Database: Social SciSearch (Dialog file 7)

Method of Searching: Keyword Boolean, Title field

Search String: b7

ss (digital OR digitiz?)

ss (academi? OR university OR scholar?)

s librar?

s research

ss s7/TI

s s3 AND s8 AND s9 AND s10

Entry 2

Borgman, C. L. (2008). Data, disciplines, and scholarly publishing. Learned Publishing, 21(1), 29-38. doi:10.1087/095315108X254476

Abstract: Data are becoming an essential product of scholarship, complementing the roles of journal articles, papers, and books. Research data can be reused to ask new questions, to replicate studies, and to verify research findings. Data become even more valuable when linked to publications and other related resources to form a value chain. Types and uses of data vary widely between disciplines, as do the online availability of publications and the incentives of scholars to publish their data. Publishers, scholars, and librarians each have roles to play in constructing a new scholarly information infrastructure for e-research. Technical, policy, and institutional components are maturing; the next steps are to integrate them into a coherent whole. Achieving a critical mass of datasets in public repositories, with links to and from publisher databases, is the most promising solution to maintaining and sustaining the scholarly record in digital form. Adapted from the source document.

Annotation: This article covers several areas of the research. It discusses scholarly communication and publishing in depth, touching on how digital technology and systems could create new avenues for dissemination of academic research. The article also touches on the necessity of maintaining research data independently and the need for powerful metadata to allow useful searching of the literature. This article summarizes some of the important aspects of the transition from print to online publishing and is useful in considering research pertaining to independent or open access publishing.

Search Strategy: I used Social SciSearch to find many of my results, including this one, with a keyword search.

Database: Social SciSearch (Dialog file 7)

Method of Searching: Keyword Boolean with Title field.

Search String: b7

ss (digital OR digitiz?)

ss (academi? OR university OR scholar?)

s librar?

s research

ss s7/TI

s s3 AND s8 AND s9 AND s10

Entry 3

De Stefano, P. (2001). Selection for digital conversion in academic libraries. College and Research Libraries, 62(1), 58-69.

Abstract: Electronic technology has begun to change the way scholars conduct their research. Before this new approach to scholarly inquiry becomes a viable and productive method in institutions of higher learning, the existing resources that a scholar normally would use in the library must be converted to a digital format in order to be accessible electronically. How do academic libraries set about creating a body of knowledge and begin to convert traditional print collections to a digital format in order to satisfy what today's researchers want? This article examines previous methods of selection and collection building, and applies those supporting principles to today's collection-building efforts for digital collections. (Original abstract)

Annotation: The article discusses methods and rationales behind decisions covering what materials academic libraries should prioritize for digital collections. Notably, it argues against educational or preservation motivations, instead arguing that resources which would best serve the explicit library community should be given priority. Specifically, this means digitization of resources for the use of students and professors, which is in opposition to the popular trend of digitizing rare and underused but fragile collections.

Search Strategy: I used Social SciSearch in Dialog to find this result. This was part of an early wave of searching and so was a fairly basic keyword search. I had experimented with different search strings and used a single long search.

Database: Social SciSearch (Dialog file 7)

Method of Searching: Keyword search

Search String: b7

s (digitization OR digital) AND academic AND (library OR libraries) AND research

Entry 4

Jamali, H. R., Nicholas, D., & Rowlands, I. (2009). Scholarly e-books: The views of 16,000 academics results from the JISC national E-book observatory. Aslib Proceedings, 61(1), 33-47.

Abstract: Purpose -- This study, a part of JISC-funded UK National E-Books Observatory, aims to find out about the perspective of students and academics, the main e-book users, on e-books. Design/methodology/approach -- The paper provides an analysis of two open-ended questions about e-books, contained in a UK national survey conducted between 18 January and 1 March 2008. The survey obtained a response from more than 20,000 academic staff and students; 16,000 free-text responses were obtained to these two questions. Findings -- The study discloses that convenience associated with online access along with searchability was the biggest advantage of e-books. The study shows a potential market for e-textbooks; however, e-books have yet to become more student-friendly by improving features such as printing and screenreading. Originality/value -- This is the biggest survey of its kind ever conducted and it improves one's knowledge of what the academic community thinks of e-books. Adapted from the source document.