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Digital Libraries in Academia: Challenges and Changes

Adams, A and Blandford, A (2002) Digital Libraries in Academia: Challenges and Changes. In: Lim, EP and Foo, S and Khoo, C and Chen, H and Fox, E and Urs, S and Costantino, T, (eds.) Digital Libraries: People, Knowledge, and Technology: 5th International Conference on Asian Digital Libraries, ICADL 2002, Singapore, December 11–14, 2002: Proceedings. (pp. 392 - 403). Springer-Verlag: Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany.

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Abstract

Although web accessible digital libraries (DLs) have greatly increased potential information accessibility within academia, the use of these resources varies widely across disciplines. This study, within contrasting departments (Humanities, Computing and Business) of a London university, reviews the social and organisational impacts of DLs across these disciplines. In-depth interviews and focus groups were used to gather data from 25 lecturers and librarians, and results analysed using the grounded theory method. Webaccessible DLs are identified as changing the roles and working patterns of academic staff (i.e. lecturers, librarians and computer support staff). However, poor accessibility due to inappropriate implementation strategies, access mechanisms, searching support & DL usability reduces the use of these resources. Consequently, web and personal collections without guarantees of quality are widely used as an accessible alternative. One conclusion is the importance of implementation strategies (e.g. giving feedback on document context, collection boundaries, ownership, accountability and support) in informing DL design.

Type:Proceedings paper
Title:Digital Libraries in Academia: Challenges and Changes
ISBN-13:9783540002611
Open access status:An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI:10.1007/3-540-36227-4_44
Publisher version:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36227-4_44
Additional information:Conference Theme/Springer book title - Digital Libraries: People, Knowledge, and Technology
Keywords:Asian, CONFERENCE, digital, knowledge, libraries, library, PEOPLE, technology, CHALLENGE, LIBRARY, Technology
UCL classification:UCL > School of BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Computer Science

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