In terms of utility and technical quality, open source software solutions have become a common option for many libraries. As barriers to adoption have been reduced and systems such as FOLIO appear poised to change the landscape of LIS technology, it is worth examining how the use of open source can support the normative core values of librarianship, and to outline a strategy for critical engagement with the technology that is beneficial to patrons and libraries. That strategy will require further codification, institutionalization and investigation of open source at many levels.

Universities and scientific educational institutions today need targeted information services to ensure that their user communities have the information they need. This study aims to design, develop, implement, and evaluate a mobile application for academic library services at Tarbiat Modares University (Tehran, Iran). A four-stage process was utilized to accomplish this aim. In the first phase, relevant literature was reviewed to obtain appropriate data requirements for the app. A questionnaire was designed and administered to survey expert librarians on the most suitable data requirements. The second phase involved the design of the user interface and user experience with the assistance of experts, followed by the evaluation of the experience. The third phase involved the development of the app in the Android Studio environment using the Java programming language, based on the requirements identified in the first and second phases. The app was then made available to the user community. Finally, the app was evaluated in the fourth phase using a questionnaire tool. The researchers found this approach to application development to be both economical and effective in the context of a developing country.

At the University of Memphis, a team of librarians and library staff formed the Research Guides Redesign Team (RGRT) to redesign, organize, and evaluate the University Libraries’ (UL) research guides. The purpose of the project was to ensure that the new design of the research guides homepage was intuitive to use. While it is impossible to ensure absolute usability for every user, this usability study attempts to eradicate the most common interface issues in community experiences at the University of Memphis. The RGRT conducted usability testing to evaluate the effectiveness of the new standardized format, grouped headings, and the appearance of the interface. The RGRT worked within the limitations of Springshare’s software to create the design and then chose five users to complete various task scenarios. Upon analysis of the users’ ability to complete the tasks, the RGRT discovered that overall, the design was effective, but they did make a few minor changes. This study describes the process and includes the original design, the new design, edits made after usability testing was conducted, and plans for future testing.

In order to explore the connection between cinematography and graphics programming at Cloud901, I am using my experience in film and programming to develop a “virtual production” initiative in our space. This project serves the purpose of teaching youth how to write programs within Unreal Engine while creating a platform where those interested in the film, programming, music, and visual art aspects of our space can collaborate.

Inspired by pandemic-transformed instruction, this paper examines the digital accessibility of five tech tools used in information literacy sessions, specifically for students who use assistive technologies such as screen readers. The tools are Kahoot!, Mentimeter, Padlet, Jamboard, and Poll Everywhere. First, we provide an overview of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and digital accessibility definitions, descriptions of screen reading assistive technology, and the current use of tech tools in information literacy instruction for student engagement. Second, we examine accessibility testing assessments of the five tech tools selected for this paper. Our data show that the tools had severe, significant, and minor levels of digital accessibility problems, and while there were some shared issues, most problems were unique to the individual tools. We explore the implications of tech tools’ unique environments as well as the importance of best practices and shared vocabularies. We also argue that digital accessibility benefits all users. Finally, we provide recommendations for teaching librarians to collaborate with campus offices to assess and advance the use of accessible tech tools in information literacy instruction, thereby enhancing an equitable learning environment for all students.

Academic libraries are experiencing significant changes and making efforts to deliver their service in the digital environment. Libraries are transforming from being places for reading to extensions of the classroom and learning spaces. Due to the globalized digital environment and intense competition, libraries are trying to improve their service quality through various evaluations. As reference service is crucial to users, this study explores user satisfaction towards the reference service through WhatsApp, a social media instant messenger, at a major university in Hong Kong and discusses the correlation between the satisfaction rating and three variables. Suggestions and recommendations are raised for future improvements. The study also sheds light on the usage of reference services through instant messaging in other academic libraries.

The use of artificial intelligence and machine learning has rapidly become a standard technology across all industries and businesses for gaining insight and predicting the future. In recent years, the library community has begun looking at ways to improve library services by applying AI and machine learning techniques to library data. Chat reference in libraries generates a large amount of data in the form of transcripts. This study uses machine learning and natural language processing methods to analyze one academic library’s chat transcripts over a period of eight years. The built machine learning model tries to classify chat questions into a category of reference or nonreference questions. The purpose is to predict the category of future questions by the model with the hope that incoming questions can be channeled to appropriate library departments or staff.

Objective: Social networking sites are appropriate tools for sharing and exposing scientific works to increase citations. The objectives of the present study are to investigate the activity of Iranian scholars in the medical sciences in ResearchGate and to explore the effect of each of the four ResearchGate metrics on the RG score. Moreover, the citation metrics of the faculty members in Scopus and the relationship between these metrics and the RG score were explored. Methods: The study population included all SBMU faculty members who have profiles in ResearchGate (N=950). The data were collected through ResearchGate and Scopus in January 2021. The Spearman correlation coefficient was applied to examine the relationship between ResearchGate metrics and Scopus indicators as well as to determine the effect of each ResearchGate metric on the RG score. Results: The findings revealed that the publication sharing metric had the highest correlation (0.918) with the RG score and had the greatest impact on it (p-value <0.001), while the question asking metric showed the lowest correlation (0.11). Moreover, there was a significant relationship between the RG score and Scopus citation metrics (p-value <0.05). Furthermore, all four RG metrics had a positive and significant relationship with Scopus indicators (p-value <0.05), in which the number of shared publications had the highest correlation compared to other RG metrics. Conclusion: Researchers’ participation in the ResearchGate social network is effective in increasing citation indicators. Therefore, more activity in the ResearchGate social network may have favorable results in improving universities’ ranking.

This paper examines the decision points over the course of ten years for developing an Institutional Repository. Specifically, the focus is on the impact and influence from the open-source community, the needs of the local institution, the role that team dynamics plays, and the chosen platform. Frequently, the discussion revolves around the technology stack and its limitations and capabilities. Inherently, any technology will have several features and limitations, and these are important in determining a solution that will work for your institution. However, the people running the system and developing the software, and their enthusiasm to continue work within the existing software environment in order to provide features for your campus and the larger open-source community will play a bigger role than the technical platform. These lenses are analyzed through three points in time: the initial roll out of our Institutional Repository, our long-term running and maintenance, and eventual new development and why we made the decisions we made at each of those points in time.

The Digital Public Library of America has created a process by which rights-free or openly licensed resources that have already been harvested can be copied over into Wikimedia Commons, thus creating a simple path for including those digital collections materials into Wikipedia articles. By meeting internet users where they already are, rather than relying on them to navigate to individual digital libraries, the access and usage of digital assets is dramatically increased, in particular to user groups that might otherwise not have a reason to interact with such digitized resources.