A decade of job realignment movement at large Chinese and American academic libraries from 1998 to 2007

Based on a questionnaire survey,the paper made a comparative study on the changes of traditional library positions within the context of the emerging professional positions and functional units at some large academic libraries in China and in the United States from 1998 to 2007.It describes how some of the library professional positions and functional units have gone through a time period of intensified and proactive position allocation realignment in terms of their rise,decline,fission and/or fusion within the administrative context of their library's evolving changes in missions,objectives and service delivery structure under the impact of the rapid development of information technologies.Such changes are graphically demonstrated in several charts in this paper to highlight the evolutionary development of academic librarianship in general and the waves of changes for library position reallocations in specific in the ten-year period under study.It is believed that such a study can be useful for discerning the overall developing trend of academic librarianship,especially in the area of the rising professional and social status of academic librarianship during this period.The movement of library position allocation realignment was a corresponding response at the time to the influx of applicable information technologies to the library scene.It not only made the library operation to become'leaner and meaner,' but also gave added impetus to the rise of the professional and social status of their practitioners in the society due to the latter's enhanced service delivery innovations and capabilities for meeting their constituencies' timely information needs more satisfactorily.

The Optimization Path of Research Support Services in University Libraries from the Perspective of Affordance Theory

University libraries,as an integral component of university research capabilities,are tasked with serving education by providing research support to faculty and students.This study adopts an affordance research perspective originating from ecological psychology to explore the optimization path of research support services in libraries in the new media era.Based on the characteristics of university library services,this research analyzes three aspects:production affordance,mobile affordance,and social affordance,and proposes practical recommendations to guide future research service practices of university libraries.

Academic institutional repositories in China:A survey of CALIS member libraries

Purpose: China Academic Library & Information System(CALIS) planned to launch an institutional repository(IR) project to promote IR development and open access at colleges and universities in China. In order to get to know the current state of IRs in academic institutions, with the help of Peking University Library, CALIS Administrative Center conducted this survey.Design/methodology/approach: We conducted an online survey of CALIS member libraries.Findings: Firstly, the development of IRs at China's colleges and universities is still in its infancy. Secondly, the Chinese colleges and universities have reached a consensus on the objective for having an IR. Thirdly, they are having high expectations of IR functions. Fourthly,they prefer to establish a centralized IR system at a minimum cost. Finally, there are both similarities and differences between the Chinese academic institutions and their counterparts in other countries in the state of IR development.Research limitations: The questionnaire needs to be improved because there is a lack of enough questions for those who do not plan to build an IR. Comparatively lower rate of valid questionnaire return can affect the accuracy of the results. It is hard to go into an in-depth discussion only based on the data collected from this questionnaire survey, and consequently,the findings from the survey can hardly present an accurate and comprehensive picture of the current state of IR development in the academic sector in China.Practical implications: The survey results provide essential foundation for CALIS IR project,and meanwhile the research can serve as a reference source for the future studies of the development of IRs at China's colleges and universities.Originality/value: It is the first national survey focused on the development of IRs in academic institutions in China.

Transforming the academic library for the future

Purpose: To meet the changing needs of academic and specialized users,university and research libraries are transforming their collections,staff,and services. At the UCLA Library,four principles underlie changes that have been made to support teaching,learning,and research by UCLA students,faculty,researchers,and staff. Efforts have focused on building and enhancing research collections,enriching the student experience through expanded teaching and learning services,transforming the Library's role to support the entire research process,and re-conceptualizing the physical and virtual spaces of the Library to create an expansive and flexible scholarly environment. To support and inform these efforts,the Library is building a robust research agenda and deepening opportunities for faculty engagement.These changes challenge the traditional model of library staffing,and the Library has responded by identifying new areas in which leadership is needed and new recruitment tracks for academic appointments. Implementing such a transformative process has many stakeholders and requires broad input,discussion,and committed engagement to ensure its success.Design/methodology/approach: The UCLA Library has developed its strategic planning process over several years building on broad constituent input,unit and individual work plans,and constituent feedback. The process is high level as well as operational in nature and draws on basic metrics to motivate change.Findings: The four principles of the transition have been sustained over a period of years.Implications and limitations: This article is the personal observation of the author drawing on his own leadership experience and informed by the senior management and staff of the UCLA Library.Originality/value: The process and direction of this transition are focused on the UCLA Library and its role in the UCLA academy.

Establishing an academic digital library& information system in China: The case of CADLIS

China Academic Digital Library & Information System(CADLIS) was established as a public service system in 1996. Its mission is to improve the resource sharing for China's higher education. The framework of CADLIS is constructed to allow easy interconnection and interoperability. This paper presents an introduction to the portal,academic resources, bibliographic system, service network, digital library technical platform,standards and criteria of CADLIS as well.

Digital libraries: A testbed for multimedia technology

A distinguishing feature of a digital library is that it has Terabyte volumes of multimedia resources. One challenge for researchers in the field of multimedia is to find a testbed for showing the potentials of multimedia technologies such as video summarization, semantic annotation, multimedia cross indexing and retrieval, and etc. Deeper research and wider applications of digital libraries revealed their indispensable role as testbed for multimedia technologies. This paper presents challenging issues of some key techniques used in digital libraries and their specific needs for multimedia technologies.

Development and construction of China's higher education libraries

Libraries in China's higher education institutions have been developing in keeping pace with the flourishing development of China's higher education. This article aims to make an introduction to the construction of China's higher education libraries, especially the recent three decades' achievements since China's reform and opening-up in 1978. In this article, the authors draw a general picture of the development of libraries in China's higher education institutions, covering such eight aspects as management, types and positioning,organizational structure and personnel, expenditure and buildings, reader service, building and sharing of resources as well as automation system.

Adapted Services by University Libraries from the Lockdown to the Post-Pandemic Period:The Case of USST

As public assembly occupancies,academic libraries in China have been implementing effective strategies in response to the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic since January 2020,in order to meet the teaching,learning,and researching needs of the faculties and students due to the closure of libraries.The library at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology(USST)is one of the typical cases with significantly increased user access during the pandemic.In this article,a reflection is made on the emergency measures and endeavours by the library in USST to adapt various services,including digital resources guarantee while working remotely,moving from an offline reference service to online ones,extending circulation from an in-door service to an out-door service,the use of social media,and so on,in order to discuss the emerging problems and to analyze the lessons learned.On this basis,this article proposes suggestions for university libraries to realign their development directions and measures to digital collections and online services as well as to improve the vocational skills of librarians in the post-epidemic period,so as to provide more professional,active,and considerate services in the future.

Social bookmarking behaviors of college students:A survey of Wuhan University Library users

Purpose:To have a better understanding of library users' social bookmarking behaviors,we conducted a survey of college students to examine how much attention they have paid to social bookmarking results,their social bookmarking motivations and behaviors on book sharing sites and in their library's OPAC,and their expectations to their library's social bookmarking service.Design/methodology/approach:A questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate social bookmarking behaviors and motivations of users of Wuhan University Library(WUL) on book sharing sites and in WUL's OPAC.A total of 700 questionnaires were distributed and357 valid questionnaires were retrieved.SPSS was used for data analysis.Findings:The results revealed that there were differences between users' social bookmarking behaviors on book sharing sites and in the Library's OPAC.Users preferred to use tags than add tags on book sharing sites.The main tagging motivation on book sharing sites was for meeting users' specific needs such as collection management and book recommendations.As for the Library,the lack of publicity and promotion of the social bookmarking service led to insufficient use of the Library's service.Due to a lack of knowledge of the social bookmarking service,users did not care about the lectures or publicity campaigns about the Library's social bookmarking service.Research limitations:Because social bookmarking was not common among WUL users,and the questionnaires could be handed out to a limited number of people,it was hard to describe users' social bookmarking behaviors in the Library's OPAC by investigating a sample of 357Library users,and therefore we only investigated users' social bookmarking behaviors on the book sharing sites.Practical implications:The survey results provide insights into library users' social bookmarking behaviors and motivations.The study will help academic libraries improve their social bookmarking service.Originality/value:In spite of growing popularity of social bookmarking sites,little has been known about the social bookmarking behaviors of library users.This study investigated college students' social bookmarking behaviors and motivations,providing suggestions for academic libraries to improve their social bookmarking services.

A study of the IC^2 Culture Exploring Project of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) Library

The paper analyzes the environments confronted with academic libraries and the evolving characteristics of Shanghai Jiao Tong University that give shape to the conception and implementation of an IC2Culture Exploring Project. This innovative model of SJTU Library operation is not only in concert with the strategic goals of SJTU but also with two other conspicuous developmental trends in the larger academic library circle;namely, 1) a trend toward the deepening of library service support in academic arena on the one hand and 2) the trend of diversifying library outreach services on the other hand.Based on our first-hand involvement in all phases and aspects of this project and its subsequent review and analysis undertakings, this paper expatiates upon the IC2Culture Exploring Project of SJTU Library in terms of its vision, its specific mission objectives, its program design, its unique characteristics, its launching process, its salient case studies, its initial results and its strategies for a sustainable development in the future.

The college students' response to customized information services based on Library2.0 technologies at universities in Nanjing

Through a questionnaire survey of students’ response from 6 universities in Nanjing, this paper aims to determine their varying degrees of satisfaction about the customized information service based on Library2.0 technologies. In so doing, the authors carefully examined the data collected from the returned questionnaires about such key issues as the students’ perceptions about the customized information service via a Library2.0platform, self-initiated use experience of such a mechanism, their achieved information searching results vis-à-vis their expectations, etc. In addition, the authors also made a comparative study between information providers(i.e. librarians) and information consumers(i.e. students) at Chinese and American academic libraries.

A preliminary study of Lib-PassPort:JALIS' regional interlibrary loan management system

This paper reviews the development of Lib-PassPort service program by Jiangsu Academic Library & Information System(JALIS). The service has realized a reader self-directed method of interlibrary loan of printed books at more than 130 university libraries within Jiangsu Province of China in the last 5 years and with a cumulative interlibrary circulation of nearly 190,000 volumes. The paper describes the framework of the clientele, structure, functions, policies, and management mechanisms of the services, and demonstrates its contribution to the improved accessibility of library materials in the region.

Enhancement of students' learning with mobile devices: Taking librarian-faculty collaboration in SJTU as an example

Purpose： This paper presents an innovative program of Shanghai Jiao Tong University Library which aims to help engineering students to make use of mobile devices to improve their learning efficiency. Design/methodology/approach： Information literacy training and course learning resources were integrated into students＇ learning process. Surveys on students＇ learning with the touch pads were conducted to help evaluate the program＇s effectiveness. Findings： Our practice showed that collaboration of library staff with faculty members is an effective way to integrate information literacy education and course-specific library resources into students＇ learning with mobile devices, which has greatly improved the efficiency of students＇ learning. Research limitations： First, our literacy training still focused on the use of mobile devices in information access, but not on how to evaluate and manage their information resources with mobile devices. Second, subject librarians need to shift their role from information service providers into information resource instructors while developing the partnership with faculty members and teaching assistants. Practical implications： This paper provides learning efficiency of university students with touch pads conveniently. a new insight into the way of how to enhance such new technical devices as smartphones and Originality/value： Our practice can be used as a valuable guide for libraries that plan to leverage mobile technologies to enhance students＇ learning efficiency.

Library open 24/7:A study of user needs and library management concerns

Facing competition from Web-based information service development, academic librarians need to find ways to attract more users to the physical library buildings. This study investigated user needs and library management concerns for a 24/7 service through two surveys: 1) User feedback survey at Seton Hall University Library, and 2) Survey of Academic Library Deans and Directors in the USA. Based on these two surveys, the paper not only discussed the current status of libraries open 24/7 in the USA and showed the demographics of users of the 24/7 service at Seton Hall University, it also stated reasons to use the 24/7 service. In addition, the paper revealed library management concerns of the24/7 service. Three implications, which have been guided by Scott Bennett's theory of learning commons for planning library space, were drawn from the findings in this paper.

CALIS service framework and its implementation

In relation to the service strategies, service systems, and service items provided by CALIS, this paper introduced the service architecture of China Academic Library and Information System(CALIS). Based on this, the authors analyzed several services of CALIS, such as online union cataloging service, cooperative purchasing service, western journal current contents service, and interlibrary loan and document delivery services, as well as their effectiveness. In addition, future CALIS service strategies are also discussed in this paper.