Nicholas Joint

Information literacy evaluation: moving towards virtual learning environments

Evaluates the evidence for and against the effectiveness of electronically delivered information literacy programmes in comparison with personal contact teaching. Shows that computer‐aided learning approaches to user education have great strengths but also undeniable weaknesses. The way to promote higher levels of information literacy in the electronic library environment is to increase the levels of computer‐led delivery, as long as this is done in such a way as to maximise the strengths of the format. This is best done in the context of an integrated virtual learning environment (VLE). Such an environment would promote information literacy synergistically as one of a suite of multiple electronic literacies that can be learnt alongside each other. Exploiting a VLE in this way would also facilitate the integration of information literacy into the broader curriculum. Computer‐based user education to date could be viewed as having been constrained by a need to imitate well‐established, tutor‐delivered user education methods. Without an ambitious programme of integration into larger scale e‐learning models, this pattern of constraint will continue.

Current research information systems, open access repositories and libraries

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of larger developments in the international research information environment, and to outline their impact on the open access movement within libraries.Design/methodology/approach – A narrative account of recent historical developments such as national current research information systems (CRIS), and their local campus equivalents, together with an analysis of the relationship of these systems with national research policies, and particularly their relationship with research evaluation policy.Findings – Developments in the research landscape have important effects on grass‐roots LIS practice, and have given a great boost to open access repositories while preserving the traditional role of commercial journal publications. This complementary relationship was completely unexpected at the outset of the open access movement, which was specifically intended to reduce the importance of commercial journal publications.Research limitations/implications – Th...

Web 2.0 and the library: a transformational technology?

Purpose – This paper is the final one in a series which has tried to give an overview of so‐called transformational areas of digital library technology. The aim has been to assess how much real transformation these applications can bring about, in terms of creating genuine user benefit and also changing everyday library practice.Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides a summary of some of the legal and ethical issues associated with web 2.0 applications in libraries, associated with a brief retrospective view of some relevant literature.Findings – Although web 2.0 innovations have had a massive impact on the larger World Wide Web, the practical impact on library service delivery has been limited to date. What probably can be termed transformational in the effect of web 2.0 developments on library and information work is their effect on some underlying principles of professional practice.Research limitations/implications – The legal and ethical challenges of incorporating web 2.0 platforms into ma...

Virtual reference, Second Life and traditional library enquiry services

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine recent thinking about reference services and library use of virtual reference (VR) software, in order to put into context the value of advanced social networking technologies such as Second Life to libraries and their users.Design/methodology/approach – A brief review of the main developments in the recent history of VR, combined with a comparison of the relevant features in common between generic VR packages and Second Life.Findings – That the key weaknesses of established VR services are also found in Second Life, but that these weaknesses should be readily overcome as technical advances are made and librarians clarify to software providers the type of functionality they require from their services.Research limitations/implications – The need for a higher level of complex authentication functionality, as necessitated when combining digital library subscription services with interactive virtual library environments, is outlined and defined. This is a fert...

Institutional repositories, self‐archiving and the role of the library

Purpose – To raise some unresolved questions about the practical implementation and management of institutional repositories – in particular, the level of resource needed to support the process of self‐deposit into institutional repositories.Design/methodology/approach – An opinion piece based on practitioner insights into their cataloguing practice and into digital preservation issues.Findings – That metadata creation and the formulation of digital preservation policies for institutional repositories require significant resource, if they are to be carried out well. This level of resourcing may have been underestimated hitherto in the process of proselytising for institutional repositories.Research limitations/implications – This practice‐based supposition could be tested more rigorously by proper research investigation.Practical implications – Suggests that libraries and librarians are well placed to give input to the metadata and digital preservation activities inherent in building institutional reposit...

Democracy, eLiteracy and the internet

Purpose – Argues that the internet has an important contribution to make to the improvement of the democratic process, but that this contribution can only be effective with advocacy and support from information professionals and educators; the cultivation of eLiteracy by such information professionals and educators is vital in delivering the democratic potential of the internet.Design/methodology/approach – An opinion piece based on current and recent trends in thinking about digital citizenship, the internet and democracy.Findings – Hopeful initial visions of the impact of internet technologies on democracy have been shown to be in some ways too optimistic. Many of the most notable social impacts of the internet on our collective well‐being have been harmful. The cultivation of eLiteracy as a democratic attribute of citizenship should enable us to make the most of the social beneficent potential of the networks.Research limitations/implications – Purely an expression of belief about what may prove to be ...

The Web 2.0 challenge to libraries

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to illustrate issues surrounding Web 2.0 technologies and their relevance to libraries by general discussion and examples from library practice.Design/methodology/approach – A broad narrative account of Web 2.0 developments combined with illustrations of how one library in particular reacted to these developments.Findings – It was found that all libraries need to evolve a Web 2.0 strategy to promote this aspect of their services, but that they will need to devise solutions to specific problems as part of this strategy. These include the range of Web 2.0 platforms that are on offer and the authentication and workload issues associated with this diversity. A single, unified library system‐based approach to Web 2.0 is offered as a viable alternative to using disparate external services.Research limitations/implications – This paper does not resolve the difference between a multi‐platform Web 2.0 strategy and the single, unified library system‐based approach, although a ...

Promoting practitioner-researcher collaboration in library and information science

Purpose – To investigate ways of developing positive partnerships between practice‐based librarians and those active in library and information (LIS) research.Design/methodology/approach – An opinion piece reflecting on issues currently discussed in the practitioner and research communities.Findings – That there are a number of practical strategies that practitioners, researchers and funding bodies can adopt to maximise the potential for mutually beneficial collaboration.Research limitations/implications – An expression of opinion about the value of partnering in research to the library practitioner community, and about the reasons why partnerships in this area may not occur as frequently or fruitfully as they could.Practical implications – If taken further, the suggestions made in this editorial would enhance the quality and increase the quantity of practice‐based LIS research collaborations.Originality/value – This opinion piece attempts to shed light for researchers on attitudes to research among the p...

The electronic book: a transformational library technology?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to form one of a series which will give an overview of so‐called “transformational” areas of digital library technology. The aim will be to assess how much real transformation these applications are bringing about, in terms of creating genuine user benefit and also changing everyday library practice.Design/methodology/approach – An overview of the present state of development of the electronic book (e‐book), looking at perceptions in the popular press, statistical data from reputable sources, recent findings from the publicly funded quango Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), consultants funded by JISC, individual comment from well‐informed writers and observations from contemporary library practice.Findings – The paper finds that the e‐book has not proven itself as a transformational technology in the context of library services, nor as a consumer product to be sold directly to end users. It does have the potential to be so, if certain problems related to usa...

Strategic approaches to digital libraries and virtual learning environments (VLEs)

Purpose – Argues that the successful introduction of digital libraries in the 1990s has important lessons for the successful implementation of e‐learning strategies.Design/methodology/approach – An opinion piece based on current and recent trends in digital library and e‐learning development.Findings – Pragmatic information strategies have important parallels with potentially effective strategies for introducing VLEs. Information strategies were marketed as tools for pursuing more efficient ways of conducting existing forms of research and teaching. Initially, e‐learning platforms may well be best marketed as tools for facilitating existing forms of teaching carried out with transmission‐based pedagogies.Research limitations/implications – An expression of belief about what may prove to be likely methods for implementing virtual teaching and learning tools. Offers potential for exploration via more in‐depth research.Practical implications – Offers a concrete strategy for successfully implementing in every...