Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate open source software (OSS) for digital libraries and collection management and to propose different utilization scenarios based on the characteristics of the tools. Design/methodology/approach – The tools are assessed on the basis of their technical features and options, the type of the content they manage, the support for common library operations such as cataloging and circulation, the searching support and the interoperability options. Then they are evaluated by users and finally a number of usage scenarios are analyzed based on the results of the evaluation. Findings – The basic findings of the study is that open source digital library and collection management tools offer advanced operations and support various metadata and interoperability protocols with easy and user-friendly interfaces. Most of the tools are extensively used under various settings and establishments already. Language support for the interfaces should be extended with more languages and some tools with limited operations should be improved to be of practical use. Practical implications – The findings of the paper could be used support the selection of specific open source tools for various types of establishments. Originality/value – The study reviews the characteristics of a few OSS for digital libraries and collection management and reveals their specific strengths and weaknesses. It also presents a number of realistic scenarios and proposes the usage of specific tools based on time, technology and staff constraints.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose and empirically test a theoretical model that considers the predictors of an individual’s perceptions of information privacy, and also how it relates to his/her behavioral intention toward approaching hospital web sites. Design/methodology/approach – This paper collects data using survey methodology. A total of 331 usable participants are gathered and analyzed via structural equation modeling. Findings – Significant predictors of information privacy concerns include a stated online privacy policy and a hospital’s reputation. Further, online privacy policy predicts a hospital’s reputation. Finally, hospital reputation and information privacy concerns significantly predict an individual’s behavioral intention toward approaching hospital web sites. Research limitations/implications – The study confirmed that an online privacy policy and reputation can effectively alleviate specific information privacy concerns; therefore, this may indicate that these two factors should be considered whenever investigating individuals’ information privacy concerns. Practical implications – To acquire a good reputation and to diminish individuals’ information privacy concerns toward hospital web sites, hospitals should pay attention to the posting of an online privacy policy and communicating such policies to given individuals. Originality/value – This paper fulfils the gap of exploring the relationship among online privacy policy, organization reputation, and information privacy concerns. Further, the hypothesized model and its findings could also provide useful information for managers who are intent on boosting hospital web site usage frequency patterns.

Purpose– Successful learning infrastructures and repositories often depend on well-organized content collections for effective dissemination, maintenance and preservation of resources. By combining semantic descriptions already lying or implicit within their descriptive metadata, reasoning-based or semantic searching of these collections can be enabled and produce novel possibilities for content browsing and retrieval. The specifics and necessities of such an approach, however, make it hard to assess and measure its effectiveness. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach– Therefore in this paper the authors introduce a concrete methodology toward a pragmatic evaluation of semantic searching in such scenarios, which is exemplified through the semantic search plugin the authors have developed for the popular DSpace repository system.Findings– The results reveal that this approach can be appealing to expert as well as novice users alike, improve the effectiveness of content discovery and enable new retrieval possibilities in comparison to traditional, keyword-based search.Originality/value– This paper presents applied research efforts to employ semantic searching techniques on digital repositories and to construct a novel methodology for evaluating the outcomes against various perspectives. Although this is original in itself, value lies also within the concrete and measurable results presented, accompanied by an analysis, that would be helpful to assess similar (i.e. semantic query answering and searching) techniques in the particular scenario of digital repositories and libraries and to evaluate corresponding investments. To the knowledge there has been hardly any other evaluation effort in the literature for this particular case; that is, to assess the merit and usage of advanced semantic technologies in digital repositories.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore various types of research materials in Indian institutional repositories. Design/methodology/approach – The repositories are identified from the Registry of Open Access Repositories (ROAR). The repository sites were visited to collect the data necessary for the study. Findings – The present study reveals that barring a few repositories the collections of most of the repositories are very low. The percentage of archived materials is high for journal papers, and moderate for conference papers/thesis. However it is very low for preprints/working papers, teaching resources and patents. Originality/value – The study provides an overview of archived material in institutional repositories in India.

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to investigate the current status of public universities in Bangladesh in terms of library resources and services, IT infrastructure and training requirements for the establishment of a centralized, networked electronic library for the universities in the country. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was conducted in March-April 2012 to ascertain the level of library automation practices, access to online resources and IT facilities utilized by the public universities in Bangladesh. The survey questionnaire was distributed through post and emails directed to the university librarians. The librarians were also asked to identify the type of IT-related training they had and the type of training they require. Findings – The survey results indicate that there are insufficiencies in library resources, automation practices, access to online resources and IT facilities in the universities. Although the use of computer and network technologies in older universities is reasonably high; newer universities are lagging far behind in the latest technology applications. The results also suggest significant training needs by the librarians across all areas of electronic information processing. Originality/value – This is the first time an attempt has been made to assess the readiness of the public universities in Bangladesh for implementing IT-based information services. The paper also proposed a framework for implementing an integrated electronic library for the universities in the country to offer them better access to a wide range of online resources and services.