Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries

The following sections are included:

• Preface

• Honorary Committee

• International Scientific Committee

• Keynote Talks

• Contents

The Information Science course of the University of Porto in Portugal has a learning unit designed Research Methodology. As a teacher of this discipline I encourage students to develop research studies using either qualitative or quantitative methods applied to possible future professional scenarios, namely when analyzing librarians' users satisfaction. The aim of this communication is to present some examples of those research essays and to discuss future ways for teaching and learning those issues as well as different professional frames where those methods are needed to solve problems.

Mixed methods research is becoming increasingly articulated, attached to research practice, and recognized as the third major research approach or research paradigm, along with qualitative research and quantitative research. Inquiry and investigation about problems of an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary domain, such as library and information science studies require decision to be taken about an appropriate research design. In making such a decision, the researcher must tacitly assume a philosophical point of view or a research paradigm. There are four research paradigms which construct the basis of the selection of research methodology and research methods designs. These paradigms include: a) positivism, b) interpretivism, c) critical theory, and d) post-structuralism (Bazargan, 2007). Positivism is the basis of quantitative research method, and of the qualitative research methods are the three paradigms mentioned above (namely; interpretivism, critical theory, and post-structuralism). Because of the nature and complexity of problems in library and information science settings and also the newly matters evolved in this multidisciplinary field, such as information technologies, digital libraries and so on, neither of the quantitative nor qualitative research methods, alone, are able to investigate problems pertaining to them thoroughly. Therefore, researchers of this domain require have a shift toward applying a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods designs that is named mixed methods research. In this article, first of all we concisely review the philosophical point of views (paradigms) which construct the basis of research methods. Thereafter history and the characteristics of mixed methods research will be reviewed. Finally, applications of mixed methods research in the library and information science (LIS) are discussed.

Since the last two decades, Wageningen UR Library has been involved in bibliometric analyses for the evaluation of scientific output of staff, chair groups and research institutes of Wageningen UR. In these advanced bibliometric analyses several indicator scores, such as the number of publications, number of citations and citation impacts, are calculated. For a fair comparison of scientific output from staff, chair groups or research institutes (that each work in a different scientific discipline with specific publication and citation habits) scores of the measured bibliometric indicators are normalized against average trend (or baseline) scores per research field. For the collection of scientific output that is subjected to the bibliometric analyses the repository Wageningen Yield (WaY) is used. This repository is filled from the research registration system Metis in which meta data for scientific output is registered by the secretaries of the research groups of Wageningen UR. By the application of a connection between the meta data of publications in WaY and citation scores in Thomson Reuters' Web of Science, custom-made analyses on the scientific output and citation impact of specific entities from Wageningen UR can be performed fast and efficiently. Moreover, a timely registration of new scientific output is stimulated (to ensure their inclusion in future bibliometric analyses) and the quality of meta data in WaY is checked by the library staff and research staff from the research entities under investigation, thus promoting communication between the library and customers.

Leadership and management are two terms that are often used interchangeably. In fact, they describe entirely different concepts, as leadership is more than a component of the functions of management. Management is the process of administering and coordinating resources to ensure than an organization accomplishes its mission and goals. Library and information science (LIS) has a managerial focus; librarians manage the infrastructure of a library: its collections, staff, technology, and facilities. For this reason, the interconnection between management and leadership is the domain of LIS theory and practice. The purpose of leadership is to challenge the status quo as libraries undergo a transition in organizational culture, the services they offer, and workforce restructuring as they try to better fulfill the organizational and broader institutional mission. Management, on the other hand, prepares the infrastructure for that transition.

As early as 1950s, the term managerial leadership was coined, but its definition was imprecise. "No definition of the phrase 'managerial leadership' has gained general acceptance. In fact, it is often referred to but left undefined" or merely equated to particular leadership theories and styles. [1] The term recognizes (or at least should) that leadership is not exclusively a top-down process between the boss as a leader and subordinates.

This paper, which aligns with the program in managerial leadership in the information professions at Simmons College, [2] views managerial leadership as encompassing an examination of leaders, followers, the interaction between the two groups, and, in this context, leadership becomes a process whereby people influence others to develop, accept, and carry out a shared vision that guides future actions of the organization. As a result, that process is longitudinal and involves events (actions, impacts, and accomplishments). Because leadership is not always effective or positive, [3] it should not automatically be assumed that goals and events are always successfully met or that staff members are sufficiently motivated or inspired to challenge themselves and others. The purpose of this paper is to build on the international research agenda that Candy Schwartz and I presented in 2008 and that illustrates that LIS research needs to go beyond a preoccupation with understanding the style, personality, traits, and other characteristics of the boss and that person's influence on organizational dynamics and performance. [4]

The intention of this keynote is to present some more or less provocative ideas concerning the development of public libraries.

In USA and Western Europe, we do witness the same types of developments in public libraries and we see very similar themes of discourses independent of the national and local culture in which these libraries operate. Some of the themes concern the management structure and organisation but more important is probably the current think about service delivery in a broad sense. Service delivery concerns the activities. It is areas like collection and collection management, the allocation of resources to the different part of the collection, the interplay and relationship between national internet-based delivery and the local service. Another important theme is the effort concerning the public library and its integration into the community taking up different forms of citizen services, cooperation and partnership with the local community, but also a focus on playing a new and more active role in the cultural scene by for example emphasising learning activities, lifelong learning, internet courses and different forms for events and exhibitions. The ambition is to become a local meeting place, a third room; a common intended to generate social capital.

This discourse and many of the activities resulting from it like 23 thinks, the libraries in the second world and experiments with various forms of social technology appear to how a great appeal in the library profession.

However, both library statistics and numerous studies of users and their preferences give a more differentiated picture. In most countries, the public libraries face economic hardship. They witness stagnating or decreasing numbers of visitors and the issues of traditional materials also tend to decrease. The public appear to value especially the services and products that suffer due to economic pressures and the internal priority setting in libraries. Overall, it appears – at least at the surface – that users do have a rather traditional view of the public library and their stated preferences also seems to be very traditional as they are oriented towards books and information and to a lesser degree towards new services and delivery forms.

It is of course of paramount interest to investigate possible discrepancies between the discourse and the practices in the professions and the users' preferences, priorities and level of satisfaction.

There is probably no right solution to the problem, but it is of both a practical and theoretical significance to investigate which factors influence the development of the discourse and the activities in the professions and in the public libraries and is also important to be able to measure users perception of the significance and importance of the service delivery and to which degree this is connected with measures of satisfaction.

The keynote discusses users' perception of the significance of the various services and presents a model for how it is possible to measure the significance of the single service.

This measure is related to measures of satisfaction and what influence that factor.

The keynote further discusses the factors behind the profession's discourse and practices.

The concept of an organisational recipe is introduced in relation to organisational culture as two factors that have influence on the way libraries tend to adopt different forms of innovations. Of course, leadership plays an important role and the keynote also introduces measures of the personality traits of library directors and discusses this in relation to the innovation and development process but also in relation to the "sense" or construction the profession is creating of the user.

Finally, the keynote discuss possible consequences and outcomes of the fragile relationship between users and a public service as public libraries.

The paper seeks the policies and strategies that Greek libraries apply in order to discover, communicate and attract potential users. Theoretically, every non-user is a potential user of a library and it is common sense that most of the people avoid visiting libraries. Being so, libraries undertake the responsibility to appeal to their clients. The paper:

Seeks the communicative methods that libraries apply in order to increase the users,

Examines the strategy for appealing new users or new group of people,

Seeks the state of the art of Greek libraries, their communication policy,

Describes the marketing research on the above theme, and

Proposes best practices.

In the article the role of document information in the process of library management is indicated. The organization of work with documents is a very important part of the management processes and taking managerial decisions, it influences the efficiency and the quality of management. The development of new technologies implies the system approach to the process of taking decisions on the basis of flexible informational analytical integrated system of management.

The processing project of the service database of regulating information in the scientific medical library of Siberian State Medical University (Tomsk, Russia) is presented.

The paper presents a methodology of achieving change management in the university libraries and its application to a case study on Transilvania University Library of Brasov. The model discussed in the paper, original in many aspects, outlines two major stages determining the results of the changes upon the organization's overall performance: implementing changes from a strategic point of view and approaching change as a project. The case study includes a synthetic presentation of the library revealing changes done in the last decade and the major deficiencies associated to the changes management approach. The authors present the central priorities of the strategy elaborated by the library management for the coming years and underline the expectation of their achievement with good results, through the professional approach of the change, based on modern management methods and principles, such as team work, staff involving and leadership.

I would like to speak about the Library of the Department for German Language and Literature at the University of Tartu. The University of Tartu is one of the oldest universities in the Nordic countries, founded in 1632. After the collapse of the Soviet Union the situation in our country was changing. We had to build up new society, a new educational system. The example of our library illustrates the developments in Estonia very well. In many areas we had to start from scratch. When learning foreign languages, it is natural that the dictionaries, lexicons and scientific literature are at students' disposal, but in Tartu it was not so. The first German Professor in Tartu – Claus Sommerhage¹ - started establishing a library. Without intensive support of the German and Swiss funds our library would not exist today. Our library is getting better every day, the students and lecturers use it more and more often.

The key feature in the development of any organization is knowledge sharing among its employees. There are various factors that motivate people to share their knowledge and managing its flow assists in its dissemination. The aim of this study is to investigate which intrinsic or extrinsic factors motivate librarians to share knowledge in the workplace. To be more specific, a research project was conducted in April 2008 which was based on a questionnaire instrument and semi-structured interviews. The participants were 34 librarians working in four academic and college libraries in Greece. The data collected were analyzed using the SPSS software. Apart from the descriptive statistics, a set of Spearman's correlations were used in order to check any connection between the values under research. The findings revealed that librarians appeared to value more intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivation for sharing knowledge. The mean values showed that the main factors motivating librarians to share knowledge was the fact that it was important for them to do so (6.59) and because they could benefit from other colleagues, by sharing knowledge (6.35). Of less importance was the fact that it might help them get promoted (2.24). The Spearman's correlations were performed in order to test any relationship between any of the four general knowledge sharing attitudes and the factors of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. One example is that of the attitude "When I have knowledge that might be relevant for others in the library, I do what I can to make it available to them" and the intrinsic motivation factor "I enjoy doing so" (rs=0,479, N=34, p<0.01, two-tailed). The results of this study suggest that librarians acknowledge the importance of the role of intrinsic motivation in knowledge sharing and thatteam-based culture can benefit the success of knowledge sharing initiatives within libraries.

At the beginning of the 21^st century, academic libraries are more and more involved in the creative process of knowledge. New management strategies have been introduced into the reorganization of academic libraries, and they are involved more and more in producing higher performance, in both theory and practice…

People have become increasingly dependent on digital information and the Internet as a medium for gaining and exchanging information. However, despite promising developments, numerous challenges that are related to digital content and collection, interoperability, standards, knowledge organization systems, users and usability, legal, organizational and social issues, staff education; infrastructure; language barrier and technology remain. This paper concludes that digital libraries are a key technology especially for developing countries. They can assist human development by providing a non-commercial mechanism for distributing humanitarian information on topics such as health, agriculture, nutrition, hygiene, sanitation, water supply and many other areas ranging from disaster relief to medical education. The paper recommends that adapting quickly to new digital technology is vital for success.

The goal of project Bernstein is the creation of a European integrated digital environment about paper history and expertise. The project connects European watermark databases and thus offers a comprehensive and significant information source about paper. The databases are augmented by specialized image processing tools for measuring, authenticating and dating papers and by a plenitude of contextual data with bibliographical and geographical contents.

This paper presents the results of the project Bernstein. An internet portal allows the multilingual access to all databases connected to Bernstein. Statistical information is extracted from about 120.000 items in the combined databases of the project and presented in numerical form or through powerful diagram visualizations. Data export capabilities forward the statistical information to a cartography tool which can show e.g. the distribution and the trade routes of paper and watermarks.

The Cactus computer system originally supported the archaeological research of a plantation on the Caribbean island of Curaçao. The database consisted of 800 digital images of 17th and 18th century documents from the archives of the Dutch West India Company (WIC). Because the material was so interesting it was decided to broaden the scope of the project, and currently the database contains about 4500 documents (17.000 pages), fully indexed (persons, ships, places and subjects). The current planning is to put the system on the Internet at the end of 2009.

The following sections are included:

• Introduction

• Scholarly communication and Open Access

• Potential library journal cancellations

• Journal cancellations and librarians preferences

• Conclusions

• References

• Notes

This paper focuses on problems with exposing the digital libraries supporting OAI-PMH to the Semantic Web services. The most wanted thing for OAI-PMH metadata is being querable via SPARQL. This means the OAI-PMH formats must be converted and served as RDF. Another important thing is supporting the fourth rule of linked data, which is about interlinking relevant resources. The interlinking can be done by mapping resources across different SPARQL endpoints. But problem arises when the fields to be mapped are not a perfect match. The solution may be some similarity metric with an established threshold.

This paper presents results of the survey which was performed in the frame of the European project named ENRICH (ECP-2006-DILI-510049), funded under the eContentPlus programme. The aim of the survey was to acquire users' preferences regarding various aspects of two essential digital library functions: individual collections (static and dynamic) and individual virtual documents. Overall number of the survey responses reached 459 responses gathered from digital library users from 12 European countries. The image of users' preferences formed on the basis of responses lead to the definition of requirements for the creation of personalised virtual digital libraries. In this paper we present adopted procedure for performing the survey, analysis of the responses and final conclusions regarding personalised virtual digital libraries.

This paper presents the aims, the methodology and the preliminary results of an in-progress investigation into the users of four libraries belonging to the City Library Network (one main library and three satellite public libraries) in Perugia, a city in the centre of Italy with 160,000 inhabitants. The main aim of the investigation is to explore the degree of satisfaction, the needs, the motivation and the perceptions of both real and potential users, by means of quantitative and qualitative research methods. It also aims to be a reflection on the methodology used, accepting that the dichotomy "qualitative versus quantitative" has long been set aside and considers the two approaches in fact deeply complementary. On an operational level, the investigation foresaw the use of questionnaires to evaluate user satisfaction, and face-to-face interviews and focus group sessions aimed at examining specific issues raised by the questionnaires, enquiring not only into the "how much" of the incidence of certain variables but more interestingly into the "why". Finally, the paper examines the relationship between empirical research and theoretical speculation. The investigation has attempted to ascertain the validity of the application of Grounded Theory Methodology and to establish whether the ATLAS.ti program is able to guarantee greater objectivity when applying qualitative research techniques.

12 semi-structured interviews with faculty members of the University of Tartu have been conducted in order to start generating a grounded theory about the academic library's communication with different patrons. What is the meaning of the academic library for faculty members and how they perceive the issue of availability of reading materials proposed for students are the main research questions discussed in this paper. Additionally, some attention has been paid at current alternatives of making compulsory reading materials available for students.

This work presents the preliminary results of an information behaviour study of students in two Spanish universities. A qualitative methodology was adopted and the results analysed following the grounded theory. The results were classified according to the reasons that motivated the information seeking behaviour, the means used for their resolution and the results of the search process. The use of a qualitative perspective allowed us to obtain a general picture of university students' information problems. Future lines of research are determined, and the results include a future research agenda.

The aim of the research "Municipal Public Libraries: Value, Trust and Satisfaction with the Services" is to evaluate the value of services provided by the public libraries in the level of local community.

According to the first results obtained, the resources and places to gather information differ from cities to the country, depend on the age group of the inhabitants, their information literacy, the financial position, accessibility to the internet and some other factors.

User profiles were designed through a qualitative approach to a case study of a public library, starting from an analysis of space social relations, of how the building's design shaped reading practices and of how space was actually being used.

The volume of information available on the Web in various languages and the growing number of the non-English native speaking users generate a need for developing and providing Cross Language Information Retrieval (CLIR) systems. The efficient development of such systems depends greatly on gaining a better insight into users' interactions and search behaviours in multilingual environments. In this context, the decision about which method/s to employ is considered essential. This study reports on the reasons why a mixed methods research was adopted; the decision for implementing questionnaire, observation, retrospective thinking aloud and interviews; the way in which they were combined and the values and limitations posed by such an implementation.

Librarians regularly meet customers who have various behavioural problems or experience stressful life situations (unemployment, divorce, loss of a beloved, bereavement, etc.) As librarians we often encounter library users who are upset, anxious or extremely frustrated. How should we handle such customers?

Librarians should be aware of the fact that it is not the librarian who is the cause of frustration in library users. Customers are usually categorized into four behaviour types, two dominant and two submissive subtypes. Librarians should also be aware of the subtype to which they belong.

When communicating with difficult customers we should stay calm and maintain composure. Allowing people to have their say without being interrupted and to ventilate their feelings can be most beneficial. When replying we can use plural ('we can try to…') We should also try to avoid using denial. It is better to use affirmative sentences and offer some solutions. Politeness and determination are advisable.

Psychologists assume that such difficult customers may have suffered early childhood traumas. They tend to re-enact a traumatic experience because at the time they have not been able to express and verbalize their feelings in the respective situation. As a result of these traumas they tend to alternate between the roles of aggressor and victim.

Surveys show that the more optimistic librarians are, the more leisure in speaking style and dressing, and the more often they refer to work related experience, the more successful librarians will be in communicating with the difficult customer.

Information Literacy is still largely absent from the priorities of national information and education policies. A need for a systematic body of evidence on the strategic role of Information Literacy is recognised and leads to the identification of a set of variables, which can be useful to provide a first picture of the Information Literacy polices in Europe, with a particular focus on Higher Education. The set of variables constitutes the theoretical framework supporting the European Observatory on Information Literacy Policies and Research .

Information literacy and civic literacy intersect in ways that are important to society and that demonstrate the value of librarians and publishers. Librarians and publishers play an important role in cultivating information literacy in the populace so that citizens can carry out their civic responsibilities in an informed and responsible way. The spread of the Internet and the challenges it poses to traditional information providers creates new challenges for publishers and librarians.

This paper discusses the models of teaching information literacy at the University of Tartu. The library offers two general e-learning courses: Fundamentals of information literacy as an optional subject for baccalaureus and master's students and Introduction to information research as an elective subject for doctoral students. Based on the basic course, subject librarians offer discipline-specific online courses which are taught as a part of some subjects and are compulsory for students.

This paper presents partial results of a research developed during the year 2002 to 2006. Population analyzed was Science and Technology teachers of Spanish universities. The investigation has worked with sample academic users, distributed among 19 Spanish universities. The main contribution of this study is to present a BIQUAL tool. It is useful for the evaluation of the quality services in university libraries and especially of Science and Technology. This tool is created using the user's point of view. Results identify behaviour of these users and the aspects that concern the quality of the service in this environment. We also discuss about some problems and difficult experimented in this research. We analyzed the use of quantitative methods, in special, survey as well as it effectiveness to library quality management.

From the beginning of the 1990's, different types of quality management and evaluation systems have become integrated into higher education institutes in Finland due to the creation of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). At the same time, an overhaul of the higher education legislation and structures was instigated in Finland. This has meant that the university services, e.g. libraries have had to integrate more efficiently into the core processes of the universities. The paper describes the building of the quality management system in one library and especially how different types on quality measurement systems - statistical analyses, benchmarking, surveys - are used in order to improve the quality of the library services. A major emphasis is in the involvement of management at both the strategic and everyday level.

Quality in academic libraries is a multi-dimensional construct. Quality management and quality assurance is part of measuring performance excellence. Libraries are services. To improve service quality, stakeholders' needs and expectations should be monitored and measured, shortfalls should be identified and addressed.

Some basic principles are common to all measurements, but quality metrics will focus on the unique nature and factors that could affect quality of academic library services. Measuring quality includes the resources, resource delivery, the service environment, the management and staff, and the different stakeholders. In the digital environment, the academic library also moves from collection to connection, with new demands and performance indicators. Both quantitative and qualitative measurements are required to evaluate the overall performance of the library. The ultimate goal of measurement is improving the "fitness for purpose" of the library.

Public Libraries can surely play a significant social, cultural and economic role. Improvements on quality however are a necessary prerequisite. On the other hand, quality is a complex and subjective concept, which should incorporate at any given time the true (expressed and implied) needs of all interested parties. This paper investigates and empirically assesses the current perceptions for quality in Greek public libraries in order to suggest a way forward for quality management implementation. For that purpose a survey based on semi-structured interviews with the directors of Greek public libraries has been constructed and the results are presented.

The Association of Research Libraries(ARL) has engaged in the implementation of the Task Force on New Ways of Measuring Collections' recommendations and developed a new index, the Library Investment Index, originally called 'Expenditures-Focused Index' which was published in the Chronicle of Higher Education for the first time in 2007. The Expenditures-Focused Index was renamed in 2008 to the Library Investment Index to better reflect the notion that money spent on libraries is reflective of investments in intellectual, scholarly, and community capital. This paper offers a closer examination of the implications of the Library Investment Index (formerly known as Expenditures-Focused Index) and discusses its importance for the research and wider library community. It addresses both the methodological advantages and limitations as well as the political significance of the development of this index.

Preparing students to work in the digital environment is an important responsibility of library and information science (LIS) schools. While most LIS schools offer courses or modules related to different aspects of digital information management, there are few dedicated digital library programmes in Europe. This paper discusses an action research strategy used to examine the relevance and methods of teaching/learning information and knowledge management (IKM) within the Digital Library Learning (DILL) joint international master curriculum at Tallinn University.

Only science, technology and research would alleviate the intertwined social and economic challenges of developing nations such as Ethiopia. This study adopts a qualitative approach and uses the case study method. Fourteen researchers and librarians were interviewed in four organizations in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This study reveals that the current scholarly communication system in Ethiopia is faced with technological and social challenges. Open access is undoubtedly a viable alternative to Ethiopia. It is viable because it has been proved so in many developing countries. Ethiopian universities and research institutions should adopt open access policies and strategies that would improve the access and dissemination of scientific research results. A concerted effort is required from administrators, librarians, researchers, funding agencies and government to implement and fully harness open access in Ethiopia.

The purpose of this research is to identify Ghanaian LIS professionals' conception of DLs and how knowledge of DL has impacted on LIS education in Ghana. Various high level librarians and lecturers from the main library school in Ghana were interviewed using the phenomenographic research approach to discover variations in perceptions leading towards identification of qualitatively different conceptions of DLs. The findings identify 7 categories of Ghanaian information professionals' conceptions of the digital library and show them to be both similar to, and in some part different from conceptions described or exhibited in previous research by their counterpart professionals in the developed world. The research implies that as a new concept that thrives on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), knowledge about DLs is very useful for its full development and operations. It is even more important to find out people's knowledge about the concept in areas where there is inadequate and unavailable ICT as well as other socio-economic situations which pose real challenges. The research project contributes knowledge to the LIS field in Ghana. It is believed that a common basic understanding on the DL phenomenon can help solve some of the challenges and make the development of DLs in Ghana possible. Once academic libraries manage to establish their digital collections, it will not be difficult to have a national digital collection and then to think of digitally preserving the rich cultural heritage of Ghana for lasting preservation.

This paper discusses the data collection technique used to determine the skills and knowledge required of academic librarians working in a digital library environment in Australia. The research was undertaken as part of the researcher's master's thesis conducted at Tallinn University. The data collection instrument used was a freely available online survey tool, and its advantages and disadvantages are discussed in terms of the desired outcomes and circumstances surrounding the thesis project. Decisions regarding the design of the questionnaire are also discussed.

Knowledge economy is resulting into competition which increases the demand for innovation. The wave has urged libraries which faced no competition before to think of ways to add and show more value to its users. The coming of digital libraries and other information providers challenges traditional libraries to improve its practices before becoming obsolete. This paper is based on the findings from the research for the Master thesis focused on establishing the relationship between intellectual capital and knowledge sharing. It is an explanatory survey addressing the issue of intangible assets as unseen value in public libraries. The research intended to use both a questionnaire and interview to ensure validity. A questionnaire was designed in such a way that key questions were asked alternatively in the same questionnaire to compensate the interview which its feasibility was constrained by time and distance. The questionnaire was then administered to six different universities to ensure reliability of the findings. As a consequence of distance and difficulties in selecting respondents, snowball sampling was used. Descriptive narrative and mapping were then used to explain the findings. Due to time and distance constraints the research focused only on the aspect of human capital and structural capital and leaves such aspects as customer capital, renewal capital and process capital to be covered by other researchers.

The viability of the use of instant messaging (IM) clients (e.g. Skype and MSN Messenger) to conduct online synchronous interviews is debatable due to the limitations inherent in computer-mediated communication. This data collection technique was utilized in the researcher's master's thesis project, which explored the concepts of trust and risk in the online hospitality network, The CouchSurfing Project. Semi-structured interviews were conducted over Skype and MSN Messenger with respondents from five different countries. Various challenges and benefits of IM were experienced by the researcher and the respondents. In the opinion of the researcher, it was found that the advantages had outweighed the disadvantages due to the circumstances of the thesis project.

The following sections are included:

• Introduction

• Quantitative Results of LISA

• Qualitative Results of LISA

• Conclusions

• References

Information literacy is the key skill required for lifelong learning, however, acquiring information literacy skills is not enough by itself for success; individuals should also develop confidence in these skills. Low self-efficacy beliefs may be a significantly limiting factor for individuals to use their information literacy skills effectively. Determining the level of self-efficacy beliefs for information literacy will enable individuals 'at risk' to be identified. Therefore, it is suggested to use self-efficacy scales as additional assessment tools while mixing and matching assessment methodologies to gather usable information for the evaluation of information literacy instruction programs.

In the light of the digital library development and of the online communication development, the university education develops in its turn new educational instruments and at the students' disposal to improve their professional skills and their individual studies. The university libraries, which have traditionally been focused on supporting the scholars' needs in research, have begun to play a more active role in this changing the educational system, as a result of the Bologna process. Incorporating the new technologies in the didactic process, accessing the electronic informational resources, using the web space for communication, all these imply qualitative research so as to determine and to optimize the students' learning methods, and we see a movement in the library world of libraries actively pursuing this. However, to be able to play an active role in the students' acquiring of scholarly skills, libraries need to implement systems for uncovering the gaps in students' knowledge. We find that theories and practices from the fields of market research and marketing analysis provide a helpful perspective. In this paper we will present a system for an university library to gain knowedge about their student's needs. This consists of several parts, and we will use examples of surveys, questionnaires and structured interviews. Also, we will present an analysis of data that have been acquired as part of our collaboration in European projects between the university libraries of Brasov, Romania and Bergen, Norway

This paper contextualizes and describes the design and implementation of the Portuguese school libraries Self Evaluation Model. This instrument, inspired by evidence-based practice, contributes to assess the impact of school libraries in teaching and learning, whilst raising their profile at the heart of educational communities. Created by the School Libraries Network, it is aimed at collecting objective information on how school libraries develop and operate, how they contribute for effective student learning and success and for the goals of lifelong learning.

As an international organisation dedicated to improving access to information through libraries, IFLA has a number of core activities in place to achieve this goal. The Action for Development through Libraries Programme (ALP), and the Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (FAIFE) Committee are two such activities that have in recent years benefitted from substantial funding from the Swedish International Development and Co-operation Agency (Sida). Through Sida's funding IFLA has been able to undertake training and education activities for librarians in all areas of librarianship – from cataloguing to Internet access in libraries.

Sida's funding for IFLA ends in December 2009. What do libraries and library organisations do when the money for activities runs out? How do they best persuade funders, potential funders and other stakeholders that the activities they carry out offer value for money, and have an impact beyond the numbers of people trained? How can libraries show exactly how important they are to their users and wider society? This paper talks briefly about IFLA's experiences with funders' evaluation requirements and the difficulties of finding an evaluation methodology that is appropriate for the type of international activities IFLA engages in. It discusses the need for success stories and best practice in IFLA's advocacy work, and suggests that impact assessment offers a way to show the real value of library work to key partners and stakeholders.

This paper offers a definition of impact assessment and discusses some of the implications of this and other definitions. A particular approach to impact assessment is introduced, as developed for use in a variety of library and information service settings (Markless and Streatfield, 2006) and the principles underpinning this approach are described. This approach has been adapted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Global Libraries Initiative when providing impact planning and assessment support to grantees through their 'IPA Road Map'. The approach was also adopted by the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) in devising its impact assessment strategy for evaluation of its future Free Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (FAIFE) work. The importance of impact assessment in a variety of settings is outlined: from school libraries to university researcher support and from public libraries to electronic information services. Some 'unofficial' observations are offered on the relationships between impact assessment, advocacy and service sustainability, particularly in relation to major service development programmes such as the Global Libraries Initiative.

After about five months of operations some of the Global Libraries Public Access Computers Centres started to show positive impact on people life. Building an Impact Assessment Framework and implementing it in an effective and efficient way is looking like a tough and rewarding challenge.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the provision of information and communication technology (ICT) services and applications in secondary school library media centres (SLMC) in the state of Kuwait. This study focuses on the school community (teachers and pupils) and their skill at using, and knowledge of, ICT. There has been no previous research which has investigated the use of ICT in secondary school library media centres, so this study aims to fill the gap. In order to thoroughly understand the phenomenon, an interpretive case study approach has been adopted, and multiple qualitative and quantitative data gathering techniques have been utilised. In order to research the subject within context, pertinent literature was reviewed from both developed and developing countries. Initially, data gathering instruments showed remarkable findings. Both qualitative and quantitative data analysis approaches were used to produce valid and reliable results. The findings indicated that there was a significant lack of ICT related services in Kuwaiti school libraries. The results also showed that integration of ICT services into SLMCs was strongly advocated by teachers and pupils alike. To conclude, the results highlighted the need to better understand the importance of new environments in education. The findings of this research also highlighted the need for Kuwaiti policymakers to review and improve the current situation.

Based on a linguistic algorithm, supported by an uncertainty theorem, the infopragmatics is a new method that offers an efficient solution, but not limited, to those Spanish speaking users who try to get the most useful information from academic databases which contents is in English. Presents a search analysis, an application of the language of levels understanding table, brief considerations on the ambiguity of the term "relevance" and statistical reasons to put infopragmatics into action at our National University Library System.

In this paper, the potential uses of Web 2.0 technologies for the improvement of communication with library clients are examined. Wikis, blogs, RSS, mash-ups and other Web 2.0 tools and services can assist librarians in their efforts to present information online and better connect with their clients, especially the younger generations of Internet users. In three different studies we investigated (1) the familiarity of informatics students with Web 2.0 tools, (2) the computer literacy and Internet use by librarians in higher-education institutions, as well as their assessment of the potential uses of various Web 2.0 tools for interaction with the clients of their library, and (3) the use of Web 2.0 tools on the websites of public libraries in Croatia.

It is essential that web designers understand what users expect of web services, how they perceive service quality dimensions such as security, usability and information quality, and which ones they value the most. In this study, the users' service quality perceptions of two different web sites were investigated. Data were obtained from 1,900 users of web sites of a for-profit online bookstore and a not-for-profit national information center through the E-Qual Index that was administered online. Findings of the study indicate that users of both for-profit and not-for-profit web sites attach more importance to the "trust" and "quality of information" dimensions as web service quality indicators. Users' expectations should therefore be regularly measured to review the design and information structures of both for-profit and non-profit web sites.

Evidence about internet access and use in Brazil is presented using 2005 Brazilian Bureau of Census data. The importance of internet access outside home, especially by disadvantaged groups is pointed out as well as the impact of socio-technical factors on types of internet access and use is analysed. The relevance and the complexity involved in identifying and classifying internet use and social factors involved are stressed. The role played by specific "social facilitators" of internet use, with emphasis on the role of the public libraries, is also considered.

Hurricane Katrina was the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history and one of the deadliest. In 2006, the University of Southern Mississippi established the Katrina Research Center (KRC) as an multi-disciplinary center for research and education to facilitate the gathering of information on the effects of and recovery from catastrophic natural disasters such as Katrina. The purpose of this case study is to document the creation and development of the Katrina Research Center, including its mission, vision, organizational structure, funding, collection development, community outreach, research and educational activities.

A longitudinal study at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) used citation analysis to analyze the reference lists of 480 master's and doctoral (M and D) theses and dissertations submitted at TUT between 2004 and 2007. The purpose was to determine what types of information sources M and D students at TUT use most, how the patterns of use differ across the seven faculties of the university, and to what extent the Library and Information Services (LIS) keeps or provides access to the journals that are mostly used by M and D students. More than 37 000 citations were analyzed over the four-year period. The study found several similarities but also some distinct differences in the use of information sources across the seven faculties of TUT. It also identified more than 60 different information sources used by M and D students. With regard to journal use, the study found that out of 3 641 different journals cited, most journals were only cited once over a period of four years. However, a small percentage of journals were highly and/or frequently cited.

This paper presents findings of a recent study on the experience and roles of agricultural extension advisors in the context of knowledge creation and flow in organizations. Data were collected through interviews with eleven principal and senior extension advisors and a consultant from different Prefectures and organizations as well as questionnaires from 135 extension advisors in the Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. The purpose of the study was to explore the preferences and roles played by extension advisors in relation to knowledge sharing among advisors, farmers and other stakeholders. Results show that the Japanese agricultural agencies are actively involved in facilitating knowledge creation within their organizations. The extension advisors, as intermediaries and catalysts, are the key links between farmers and the relevant agencies in terms of providing personalized and need-based information for decision-making.

This paper describes the creation, and philosophy of, a Department whose structure and functions were all aimed at supporting knowledge creation by both individuals and project teams for the UK's Ministry of Defence. Underlying these services was a deep understanding gathered over 30 years of how research scientists learn, and how we need to aid that learning process. This process is demonstrated graphically by a development of Max Boisot's "Social Learning Cycle".

As Research Support is becoming an increasingly topical issue within academic libraries in the UK, this paper examines two different surveys that Loughborough University Library undertook to assess the effectiveness of its research support. The first was a benchmarking survey amongst 1994 Group universities, which produced quantitative data to enable the Library to identify its relative strengths and weaknesses and plan for the future. The second was a more inward looking survey which examined the information needs of a sample of research centres. This produced a mixture of qualitative and quantitative data. The paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of both methods and how the results were carried forward into operational plans.

The article summarises findings from a qualitative study that was conducted in rural Uganda, East Africa. The main aim of the study was to investigate the accessibility and use of health information in the lower echelons of Primary Health Care (PHC). Women, as PHC providers in an African family, were focussed on, as well as health workers. An interview schedule that consisted of open questions and one relating to health information critical incidents was used. A holistic inductive paradigm was adopted with a grounded theory analysis. The findings highlight a model of information behaviour that was driven by the value and impact of information unlike previous information models, which have been driven by information needs. The value and effect of information on PHC was as experienced and reported by the interviewees. Implications of the study and areas for further research are highlighted.

In the last 10 years there have been big changes in the Portuguese academic libraries services as in other academic libraries over the world. These changes include the adoption of automatic catalogues and the electronic access to bibliographic data bases and scientific journals in full text. Nowadays physical and digital sources are together. Professors, students and researchers are able to access simultaneous to a great amount of quality information pay and open access. The Portuguese Government has been investing to improve the access to the production of knowledge so as to develop the country. It is important to know the return on the investments in university libraries. The purpose of this paper is to identify the impact of the electronic sources in the Portuguese academic libraries.

This paper describes an ongoing project to assess:

- The use of electronic scientific information and the correlation to the scientific production of the Portuguese academic community according to standard performance measures indicators and bibliometrics data.

- The economic value of these library services. In order to estimate in monetary terms the value of these services for end-users we use the contingent valuation method (CVM). This study reports the results of a qualitative e-survey of academic community.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the use of electronic information resources by graduate students at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Fifty-nine graduate students affiliated with four Departments of Education voluntarily participated in the study. A specifically designed questionnaire was administered to gather information about the awareness of resources, the frequency of use, the kind of information sources preferred by students, the main reasons for using the resources, the perceived effectiveness of the searches, the factors encouraging their use and the major obstacles in terms of using them effectively. In addition, the authors sought information on the ways students identify the sources they use, the level of training they have received in using the services and their training needs. Results showed that the vast majority of the participants used Internet search engines rather than specialized databases and full-text resources. It is quite interesting, that nearly half of the respondents (49.1%) had never used ERIC, the fundamental resource of education literature. Only 6.8% became familiar with electronic resources by attending the library training programs. The main problem associated with the non-use of resources was lack of adequate searching skills. The above findings suggest limited use of electronic resources by graduate students, mainly due to absence of basic skills. In order to exploit the full potential of electronic information, university library should undertake a more active role in informing, promoting, and educating the members of the academic community.

The following sections are included:

• The icing on the cake

• I – Bpi: Cultural Events are Part of the Library

• II – Cultural Events as Tools for the Acquisition of Knowledge

• III – Cultural events as a tool to enlarge the Library's collection

• IV – The Public of Cultural Events: Proposals for an Evaluation

• Conclusion

The online information systems the authors planned and constructed for research and teaching on the ancient manuscripts are described as first. The corresponding web sites, used to store the bibliography and more general data on ancient manuscripts, are soon after analyzed; it is also shown how they contributed in the creation of communities of learning and practice with the people involved in their use. The special case of the Malatestiana Library is then described; the staff in that library is in fact responsible for the implementation of the Open Catalogue of manuscripts and its continuous updating. At last, some considerations on the influence of new technologies and the role that ancient libraries can play in education are discussed.

There is an ongoing scholarly debate on the exact time and speed of replacement of parchment with paper. There are three different hypotheses about the time of change: the first one based on Sobolevskij research suggests that paper completely replaced parchment as early as in 14^th century; the second one put forward by Hunter is that parchment was still widely used during the 15^th century; and the third ones dates the change as late as 16^th century. Nowadays it is relatively easier to gather mass evidence on the writing materials using digital catalogues of European manuscripts; this allows to apply quantitative methods on a larger scale studying the process of replacement of parchment by paper on the wider European context. In this paper we present a statistical study based on the data within an electronic catalogue of manuscripts including 823 Bulgarian manuscripts currently stored in Bulgaria. We then extend our study with more than thousand parchment manuscripts from the Delorez's Codicology, 45 volumes of documents in Dubrovnik archives and over 1000 parchment manuscripts from the Bodleian and British libraries. This study is based on the manuscript dating provided in the catalogues. Our basic conclusion is that while there is rare evidence of any Bulgarian parchment manuscripts dated after 1350, and this is in controversy with manuscript collections from libraries in Central and Western Europe.

Analyzing the type of material or media for the benefit of all users and taking into account the developing electronic and networked environment, the new cataloguing rules must closely interconnect with ISBDs and FRBR standards and at the same time with the library oriented softwares. ISBDs and cataloguing rules must keep their own specific terminology and must provide accurate definitions showing how each term in this specific terminology is conceptually related to the FRBR terminology. On the other hand, library oriented software must be understood and used accordingly.

That is why one of the most challenging issues of today knowledge and library management is bringing FRBR model into current cataloguing process. This also stands for the theme of the proposed paper.

The following section are included:

• Author Index