While libraries have always worked to help breach the digital divide by providing free Internet access, public access computers and teaching media literacy, the current pandemic has made it abundantly clear that much more needs to be done. This article proposes ways that libraries might work with community, state, national and even global partners to help promote universal broadband.

This research compares automatic subject metadata generation when the pre-1800s Long-S character is corrected to a standard < s >. The test environment includes entries from the third edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, and the HIVE automatic subject indexing tool. A comparative study of metadata generated before and after correction of the Long-S demonstrated an average of 26.51 percent potentially

When selecting a web analytics tool, academic libraries have traditionally turned to Google Analytics for data collection to gain insights into the usage of their web properties. As the valuable field of data analytics continues to grow, concerns about user privacy rise as well, especially when discussing a technology giant like Google. In this article, the authors explore the feasibility of using

This article presents a content analysis of academic library Instagram accounts at eleven land-grant universities. Previous research has examined personal, corporate, and university use of Instagram, but fewer studies have used this methodology to examine how academic libraries share content on this platform and the engagement generated by different categories of posts. Findings indicate that showcasing

The following case study describes an academic library’s recent experience implementing the harvesting method to submit electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) into the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global database (PQDT). In this lesser-known approach, ETDs are deposited first in the institutional repository (IR), where they get processed, to be later harvested for free by ProQuest through the

The Internet of Things (IoT) is built on a strong internet infrastructure and many wireless sensor devices. Presently, Radio Frequency Identification embedded (RFID-embedded) smart cards are ubiquitous, used for many things including student ID cards, transportation cards, bank cards, prepaid cards, and citizenship cards. One example of places that require smart cards is libraries. Each library, such

This study aimed to measure the impact of digital heritage collections by analysing the citations received in scholarly outputs. Google Scholar was used to retrieve the scholarly outputs citing Memòria Digital de Catalunya (MDC), a cooperative, open-access repository containing digitized collections related to Catalonia and its heritage. The number of documents citing MDC has grown steadily since the

Near field communication (NFC) is a set of standards for smartphones and similar devices to establish radio communication with each other by touching them together or bringing them into proximity, usually no more than a few inches. Near Field Communication (NFC) is one of the short range wireless communication technologies based on RFID. NFC provides secure and inherent communication between electronic

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND LIBRARIES | JUNE 2020 https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v39i2.11937 Dr. Sandra Valenti (svalenti@emporia.edu) is Assistant Professor, School of Library and Information Management, Emporia State University. Brady Lund (blund2@g.emporia.edu) is doctoral student of Library and Information Management at Emporia State University. Ting Wang (twang2@emporia.edu) is doctoral student of

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND LIBRARIES | JUNE 2020 https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v39i2.12367 Kevin Ford (kevinford@loc.gov) is Librarian, Linked Data Specialist in the Library of Congress’s Network Development and MARC Standards Office. He works on the Library’s Bibframe Initiative, and similar projects, such as MADS/RDF, and is a member of the ITAL Editorial Board. The ideas and opinions expressed here

The purpose of this study was to understand the viewpoints and attitudes of researchers at Louisiana State University toward the new public search interface from SirsiDynix, Enterprise. Fifteen university constituents participated in user studies to provide feedback while completing common research tasks. Particularly of interest to the librarian observers were identifying and characterizing where

This article discusses the benefits of the bento-box method of searching library resources, including a comparison of the method with a tabbed search interface. It then describes a usability study conducted by the Franklin University Library in which 27 students searched for an article, an ebook, and a journal on two websites: one using a bento box and one using the EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS). Screen

Throughout its early years, the Oral Roberts University (ORU) Library held a place of pre-eminence on campus. ORU’s founder envisioned the Library as central to all academic function and scholarship. Under the direction of the founding dean of learning resources, the Library was an early pioneer in innovative technologies and methods. However, over time, as the case with many academic libraries, the

This article presents a mixed-methods study of the methods and maturity of user experience (UX) practice in academic libraries. The authors apply qualitative content analysis and quantitative statistical analysis to a research dataset derived from a survey of UX practitioners. Results reveal the type and extent of UX methods currently in use by practitioners in academic libraries. Themes extracted

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND LIBRARIES | MARCH 2020 https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v39i1.11519 Graham Sherriff (graham.sherriff@uvm.edu) is Instructional Design Librarian, University of Vermont. Dan DeSanto (ddesanto@uvm.edu) is Instruction Librarian, University of Vermont. Daisy Benson (daisy.benson@uvm.edu) is Library Instruction Coordinator, University of Vermont. Gary S. Atwood (gatwood@uvm.edu) is

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND LIBRARIES | DECEMBER 2019 25 Matt Cook (matt_cook@harvard.edu) is Digital Scholarship Program Manager, Harvard Library. Zack Lischer-Katz (zlkatz@ou.edu) is Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Oklahoma Libraries. Nathan Hall (nfhall@vt.edu) is Director, Digital Imaging and Preservation Services, University Libraries, Virginia Tech. Juliet Hardesty (jlhardes@iu.edu)

Business intelligence (BI) refers to methodologies, analytical tools, and applications used for data analysis of business information. This article aims to illustrate an application of BI in libraries, as reporting modules in library management systems are usually inadequate for a comprehensive business analysis. The application of BI technology is presented as a case study of libraries using the BISIS

This paper details an approach for accurately machine sorting Library of Congress (LC) call numbers which improves considerably upon other methods reviewed. The authors have employed this sorting method in creating an open-source software tool for library stacks maintenance, possibly the first such application capable of sorting the full range of LC call numbers. The method has potential application

An intriguing new opportunity for research into the nineteenth-century history of print culture, libraries, and local communities is performing full-text analyses on the corpus of books held by a specific library or group of libraries. Creating corpora using books that are known to have been owned by a given library at a given point in time is potentially feasible because digitized records of the books

Language-learning apps are becoming prominent tools for self-learners. This article investigates whether librarians and employees of academic libraries have used them and whether the content of these language-learning apps supports foreign language knowledge needed to fulfill library-related tasks. The research is based on a survey sent to librarians and employees of the University Libraries of the

In 2016, Hudson County (NJ) Community College (HCCC) deployed several wireless keyboards and mice with its iMac computers. Shortly after deployment, library staff found that each device’s required USB receiver (a.k.a. dongle) would disappear frequently. As a result, HCCC library staff developed and deployed 3D printed port covers to enclose these dongles. This, for a time, proved very successful in

Increasingly sophisticated content management systems (CMS) allow librarians to publish content via the web and within the private domain of institutional learning management systems. “Libraries as publishers” may bring to mind roles in scholarly communication and open scholarship, but the authors argue that libraries’ self-publishing dates to the first “pathfinder” handout and continues today via

In spring 2015, the Cal Poly Pomona University Library conducted usability testing with ten student testers to establish recommendations and guide the migration process from LibGuides version 1 to version 2. This case study describes the results of the testing as well as raises additional questions regarding the general effectiveness of LibGuides, especially when students rely heavily on search to

Libraries are one of our most valuable institutions. They cater to people of all demographics and provide services to patrons they wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else. The list of services libraries provide is extensive and comprehensive, although unfortunately, there are significant gaps in what our services can offer, particularly those regarding technology advancement and patron privacy. Though

Digital humanities is an academic field applying computational methods to explore topics and questions in the humanities field. Digital humanities projects, as a result, consist of a variety of creative works different from those in traditional humanities disciplines. Born to provide free, simple ways to grant permissions to creative works, Creative Commons (CC) licenses have become top options for

The open access (OA) movement seeks to ensure that scholarly knowledge is available to anyone with internet access, but being available for free online is of little use if people cannot find open versions. A handful of tools have become available in recent years to help address this problem by searching for an open version of a document whenever a user hits a paywall. This project set out to study

Highlights of this issue include a new look to journal, regular columns, and the 2019 LITA/Ex Libris Student Writing Award-winning paper

After a disaster, news reports and online platforms often document the swift response of public libraries supporting their communities. Despite current scholarship focused on social media in disasters, early uses of social media as an extension of library services require further scrutiny. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recognized Hurricane Sandy as one of the earliest U.S. disasters

Reviews the arrival of and technology supporting online ticketed-pass programs in libraries. These programs allow library patrons to reserve single-day tickets to local attractions of all kinds. Offerings began with traditional museums but now include science centers, zoos, gardens, performances, tours, classes, and more. Further discussed is the new service delivery paradigm this represents: complementary

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND LIBRARIES | JUNE 2019 2 Bohyun Kim (bohyun.kim.ois@gmail.com) is LITA President 2018-19 and Chief Technology Officer & Associate Professor, University of Rhode Island Libraries, Kingston, RI. I am happy to share some updates on what I covered in my previous column. First of all, I am excited to report that the merger planning of LITA, ALCTS, and LLAMA is back on track. The

Libraries in the United States handle sensitive patron information, including personally identifiable information and circulation records. With libraries providing services to millions of patrons across the U.S., it is important that they understand the importance of patron privacy and how to protect it. This study investigates how knowledge transferred within an online cybersecurity education affects

Over five decades, Information Technology and Libraries(and its predecessor, the Journal of Library Automation) has influenced research and practice in the library and information science technology. From its inception on, the journal has been consistently ranked as one of the superior publications in the profession and a trendsetter for all types of librarians and researchers. This research examines

This article will describe how permissionless metadata blockchains could be created to overcome two significant limitations in current cataloging practices: centralization and a lack of traceability. The process would start by creating public and private keys, which could be managed using digital wallet software. After creating a genesis block, nodes would submit either a new record or modifications

This article presents the results of a pilot project that tested the application of algorithmic topic modeling to chat reference conversations. The outcomes for this project included determining if this method could be used to identify the most common chat topics in a semester and whether these topics could inform library services beyond chat reference training. After reviewing the literature, four

The library has always played an important role in faculty development. But with the rise of online degrees, being able to support faculty in a virtual context becomes increasingly challenging. This column analyzes some areas to consider when exploring the way in which libraries can continue to assist with these efforts.

Information System (IS)/IT project success is a growing interest in management due to its high impact on organizational change and effectiveness. Libraries have been adopting integrated library systems (ILS) to manage services and resources for years. It is essential for librarians to understand the mechanism of IS project management in order to successfully bring technology innovation to the organization

While the discoverability of traditional information resources is often the focus of library website design, there is also a need to help users find other services such as equipment, study rooms, and programs. A recent assessment of the Brigham Young University Library website identified nearly two hundred services. Many of these service descriptions were buried deep in the site, making them difficult

The main purpose of the article is to divide the web preservation process into small explicable stages and design a step-by-step web preservation process that leads to creating a well-organized web archive. A number of research articles are studied about web preservation projects and web archives, and designed a step-by-step systematic approach for web preservation. The proposed comprehensive web preservation

This article argues that the current technological revolution that is happening in Artificial Intelligence is not just about its prevalence in daily life, but the real revolution is about the emergence of AI tools that may help to democratize its use. Lowering the barrier to a technology that is perceived more as science fiction than accessible for mass utilization. A Public Library shares its approach

User stories and use cases help focus any development project on those who stand to benefit, i.e. the project’s stakeholders, and can guard simultaneously against insufficient planning and software bloat. And the concepts, though most often thought of with respect to large-scale projects, apply in all circumstances, from the smallest feature request to an existing system to the redesign of a complex

This article describes a bibliographic mapping project recently undertaken at the Library of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW). The MARC Advisory Committeerecently approved an update to MARC that enables the use of dereferenceable Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) in MARC subfield $0. The ISAW Library has taken advantage of MARC’s new openness to URIs, using identifiers from

Announcing our new regular column, Public Libraries Leading the Way, and summarizing this issue's contents.

As with any shared format for serializing data, Primo’s PNX records have limits on the types of data which they pass along from the source records and into the Primo tool. As a result of these limitations, PNX records do not currently have a provision for harvesting and transferring rights information about HathiTrust holdings that the Kansas State University (KSU) Library system indexes through Primo

The rising cost of textbooks for students has been highlighted as a major concern in higher education, particularly in the US and Canada. Less has been reported, however, about the costs of textbooks outside of North America, including in Europe. We address this gap in the knowledge through a case study of one Irish higher education institution, focusing on the cost, accessibility, and licensing of

Linked Open Data (LOD) is a core Semantic Web technology that makes knowledge and information spaces of different knowledge domains manageable, reusable, shareable, exchangeable, and interoperable. The LOD approach achieves this through the provision of services for describing, indexing, organizing, and retrievingknowledge artifacts and making them available for quick consumption and publication. Thisis

Modern academic libraries are hubs of technology, yet the gap between the library and IT is an issue at several small university libraries across Canada that can inhibit innovation and lead to diminished student experience. This paper outlines results of a survey of small (<5,000 FTE) universities in Canada, focusing on IT and the library when it comes to organizational structure, staffing, and location

A review of articles published in Information Technology and Libraries in the 1990s and what libraries were working on at that time.

Libraries have historically made great efforts to ensure the confidentiality of patron personally identifiable information (PII), but the rapid, widespread adoption of information technology and the internet have given rise to new privacy and security challenges. Hypertext Transport Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is a form of Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) that enables secure communication over the public

A report on the work of the Steering Committee investigating the proposed merger of LITA with ALCTS (Association for Library Collections and Technical Services) and LLAMA (Library Leadership and Management Association) and the four working groups.

Given the inherent challenges music materials present to systems and searchers (formats, title forms and languages, and the presence of additional metadata such as work numbers and keys), it is reasonable that those searching for music develop distinctive search habits compared to patrons in other subject areas. This study uses transaction log analysis of the music and performing arts module of a library’s

As 2018 draws to a close, we have our last retrospective look at ITAL's past, and announce a new feature for the future.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate information literacy as an increasingly evolving trend in computer education. A quantitative research design was implemented, and a longitudinal case study methodology was conducted to measure tendencies in information literacy skill development and to develop a practical information literacy model. It was found that both students and educators believe that

This case study describes how librarians and enterprise architects at an Australian university worked together to document key components of the Library’s “as-is” enterprise architecture (EA). The article covers the rationale for conducting this activity, how work was scoped, the processes used, and the outputs delivered. The author discusses the short-term benefits of undertaking this work, with practical

Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a commonly used data model in the Semantic Web environment. Libraries and various other communities have been using the RDF data model to store valuable data after it is extracted from traditional storage systems. However, because of the large volume of the data, processing and storing it is becoming a nightmare for traditional data-management tools. This challenge

Book-recommendation systems are increasingly common, from Amazon to public library interfaces. However, for archives and special collections, such automated assistance has been rare. This is partly due to the complexity of descriptions (finding aids describing whole collections) and partly due to the complexity of the collections themselves (what is this collection about and how is it related to another

This is the President's meessage column from LITA President Bohyun Kim regarding the current discussion of forming a new division from LITA, ALCTS, and LLAMA that embraces the breakdown of silos and positive risk-taking to better collaborate and move our profession forward.

With higher education increasingly being online or having online components, it is important to ensure that online materials are accessible for persons with print and other disabilities. Library-related research has focused on the need for academic libraries to have accessible websites, in part to reach patrons who are participating in distance-education programs. A key component of a library’s website

This September 2018 issue of ITAL continues our celebration of the journal’s 50 th anniversary with a column by former Editorial Board member Mark Dehmlow, who highlights the technological changes beginning to stir the library world in the 1980s. The seeds of change planted in the 1970s are germinating, but the explosive growth of the 1990s is still a few years away.

We attempt to improve user satisfaction with the effects of retrieval results and visual appearance by employing users’ own information. User feedback on digital platforms has been proven to be one type of user cognition. Through conducting a digital literature resource organization model based on user cognition, our proposal improves both the content and presentation of retrieval systems. This paper

A retrospective review of the 1980s issues of the Journal of Library Automation and Information Technology and Libraries . Includes some commentary about the past and how it relates to the present in the area of library technology.