Li Si

An investigation and analysis of the application of Web 2.0 in Chinese university libraries

– This paper aims to provide an overall picture of the application of Web 2.0 technologies in Chinese university libraries. The focus of the research is what types of Web 2.0 technologies were applied in such libraries as well as their function and user interface., – The top 30 Chinese university libraries were selected to investigate the application of Web 2.0 technologies. Content analysis was used in terms of quantitative approach. Data were collected by accessing these 30 university libraries web sites within five weeks., – Two‐thirds of Chinese university libraries deployed one or more Web 2.0 technologies. Only one‐tenth of libraries adopted more than four Web 2.0 technologies. RSS was the most widely applied, while Wiki was the least. The application of Web 2.0 technologies among Chinese university libraries was not extensive and profound enough., – The findings can be utilized to evaluate the status of Web 2.0 technology applications. The statistical data are very useful and authentic sources for improving the level of Web 2.0 technology application. It may enable future research to analyze other aspects (e.g. the application of RSS or Blogs for services)., – This unique study explores the application of Web 2.0 mainly in Chinese university libraries that deployed any types of Web 2.0 technologies. This study is very useful for Chinese university libraries in evaluating/deploying Web 2.0. Library managers, librarians, and other libraries may also find this helpful, once they decide to implement such technologies in their libraries.

Investigation and analysis of research data services in university libraries

– This paper aims to find the current situation of research data services by academic libraries and summarize some strategies for university libraries to reference. Recent years have seen an increasing number of university libraries extended their traditional roles and provided research data services. , – This paper selected 87 libraries of the top 100 universities listed in the World’s Best Universities released by the USA News in October 2012 as samples and conducted a Web site investigation to check if there were any research data services provided. In addition, it made an interview with the Wuhan University Library’s Research Data Service Workgroup to understand the procedure, difficulties and experiences of their research data service. Based on the survey and interview, it analyzed the current status and difficulties of research data services in university libraries and proposed some strategies for others to reference. , – Of the 87 university libraries investigated, 50 libraries have offered research data services. Most of the services can be divided into six aspects: research data introduction, data management guideline, data curation and storage service, data management training, data management reference and resource recommendation. Among these services, research data introduction is the most frequently provided (47.13 per cent), followed by data curation and storage services (43.68 per cent), data management guideline (42.53 per cent), data management reference (41.38 per cent), resource recommendation (41.38 per cent) and data management training (24.14 per cent). The difficulties met by research data service of Chinese academic libraries are also concluded. , – Through Web site investigation and interview with the Wuhan University Library’s Research Data Service, this paper presented an overall picture of research data services in university libraries and identified the difficulties and experiences of research data services of the Wuhan University Library. Based on some successful examples, it put forward some strategies for university libraries to reference. This study is very useful for academic libraries to promote their research data services.

An empirical study on the performance evaluation of scientific data sharing platforms in China

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to conduct performance evaluation of eight main scientific data sharing platforms in China and find existing problems, thus providing reference for maximizing the value of scientific data and enhancing scientific research efficiency. Design/methodology/approach – First, the authors built an evaluation indicator system for the performance of scientific data sharing platforms. Next, the analytic hierarchy process was employed to set indicator weights. Then, the authors use experts grading method to give scored for each indicator and calculated the scoring results of the scientific data sharing platform performance evaluation. Finally, an analysis of the results was conducted. Findings – The performance evaluation of eight platforms is arranged by descending order by the value of F: the Data Sharing Infrastructure of Earth System Science (76.962), the Basic Science Data Sharing Center (76.595), the National Scientific Data Sharing Platform for Population and Health (71....

A Survey of the Application of Web 2.0 in Top 30 Chinese University Libraries

This paper takes the top 30 Chinese university libraries as a sample, and investigates the application of Web 2.0 technologies including RSS, Wiki, Blog, Tag/Folksonomy, IM, Podcast/Vodcast, Toolbar and Ajax. The results show that there are two-thirds of libraries adopting one or more Web 2.0 technologies. Only one-tenth of libraries adopting more than four Web 2.0 technologies. RSS was the most widely applied technology and Wiki was the least used one. The application of Web 2.0 technologies was not extensive and profound enough and was still in the early stage of development. The main reason lies in some shortcomings of technology application, librarian quality, service marketing and information literacy and etc.

Investigations about new methods of library marketing in Chinese “985” Project Universities

Purpose – Under the new technological environment, academic libraries meet an extremely intense competition in offering information services, and marketing becomes an important means to attain the goal of their sustainable development. The purpose of this paper is to get an overview of library marketing in Chinese “985” Project Universities, the authors undertook a survey on each library of “985” Project Universities released on the web site of Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. And then the authors identified some successful practices based on the survey. Design/methodology/approach – First, the content of each web site, along with the individual hyperlinks and categories that every library web site has, were browsed to check the availability of the categories. Second, the search function of each library was explored using terms like “blog,” “video” and “tutorial” to retrieve information about services. Third, the Google search engine was used to retrieve information from Renren, mi...

Some Strategies of Marketing Academic Library to College Students

Based on a systematic and in-depth research into the college students, the authors discuss some factors baffling marketing, and put forward some marketing strategies such as developing an integrated retrieval system and making it easy to use the library resource; strengthening information literacy education and making preparation for the library marketing; being integrated into users’ web workflow to strengthen the library’s visibility and impact; taking advantage of the crowd intelligence to facilitate the discovery and sharing of library resource; engaging in the campus life and upgrading the library’s image; optimizing the disposal of library space and making it attractive to our college students.

An empirical analysis of user behaviour on multilingual information retrieval

Purpose This paper aims to understand user information behaviours when they perform multilingual information retrieval. It also offers reference for the development of multilingual information retrieval systems and relevant service platforms. Design/methodology/approach The authors designed an experiment on multilingual information retrieval with WorldWideScience, utilized Camtasia studio7 (a screen capturing and recording tool) to record overall operational processes of subjects and collected participants’ thought processes with think-aloud protocols. Meanwhile, a questionnaire survey and interviews were used to examine the subjects’ background information, their feelings for the experiment and their ideas about the experimental platform, respectively. Thirty-two valid data points were obtained by 41 subjects. Findings The users preferred their own language for retrieval. Most users from social science chose general search or advanced search freely according to the tasks. The majority of the participants selected key words directly from the tasks as search terms. Doctoral candidates were more likely to construct a search query with logic symbols. Translation tools were utilized for assisting retrieval and solving doubts of translation. When facing obstacles, users stayed on the original web page to explore continually, followed by back to homepage. Originality/value This paper provides a study of user behaviour through investigating how users behave on the whole process of retrieving multilingual information. The findings offer advice for optimizing the function of multilingual information retrieval systems and service platforms.

Performance Evaluation of Subject Navigation System in Chinese Academic Libraries

The performance evaluation of subject navigation system refers to the evaluation of the subject navigation system, mainly using some indicators and measurement standards in respects of resource selection, resource organization and retrieval, librarian, service process, service system and user feedback, etc. This paper analyses the concept of performance evaluation and the importance of performance evaluation of subject navigation system, and proposes a series of evaluation indicators and evaluation methods.

An investigation of functions and some optimizing strategies of thesauri with web interface

Based on investigation of the interfaces of 37 thesauri online, analyzing these thesauruss browsing interface and browse method, thesauruss searching interface and search method, display format of query results, language, subject fields covered and so on, according to the principles of accessibility, easiness and use-friendliness, this article puts forward some optimizing strategies about thesauri with Web interface involving creating rich and well-round homepage interface, building complete and ease-use search function, offering multi-path browsing assistant index method, improving website function, positioning rationally interface framework and developing multilingual thesauri.

Knowledge organization systems and interfaces of digital libraries in china

The paper introduces the type and function of knowledge organization systems, investigates and analyses knowledge organization systems and interfaces in Chinese digital libraries, puts forward some suggestions on strengthening KOSs in Chinese digital libraries.