Information Technology and Libraries articles from March 2010

Information Technology and Libraries archives from March 2010

President's Message: Join Us at the Forum!
March 1, 2010... The first LITA National Forum I attended was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It seems like it was only a couple of years ago, but in fact nine National Forums have since passed. I was a new librarian, and I went on a lark when a colleague invited me to...

Editorial: And Now for Something (Completely) Different
March 1, 2010... The issue of ITAL you hold in your hands--be that issue physical or virtual; we won t even go into the question of your hands!--represents something new for us. For a number of years, Ex Libris (and previously, Endeavor Information Systems) has...

A Partnership for Creating Successful Partnerships
March 1, 2010... When Marc asked me to write this column I eagerly accepted because I feel strongly about libraries leveraging their role to their greater advantage in the rapidly changing information landscape. I see sponsorships and partnerships as an...

Editorial Board Thoughts: Issue Introduction to Student Essays
March 1, 2010... The papers in this special issue, although covering diverse topics, have in common their authorship by people currently or recently engaged in graduate library studies. It has been many years since I was a library science student--twenty-five in...

Monitoring Network and Service Availability with Open-Source Software
March 1, 2010... Silver describes the implementation of a monitoring system using an open-source software package to improve the availability of services and reduce the response time when troubles occur. He provides a brief overview of the literature available...

Tending a Wild Garden: Library Web Design for Persons with Disabilities
March 1, 2010... Nearly one-fifth of Americans have some form of disability, and accessibility guidelines and standards that apply to libraries are complicated, unclear, and difficult to achieve. Understanding how persons with disabilities access Web-based...

The Path toward Global Interoperability in Cataloging
March 1, 2010... Libraries began in complete isolation with no uniformity of standards and have grown over time to be ever more interoperable. This paper examines the current steps toward the goal of universal interoperability. These projects aim to reconcile...

Tagging: An Organization Scheme for the Internet
March 1, 2010... How should the information on the Internet be organized? This question and the possible solutions spark debates among people concerned with how we identify, classify, and retrieve Internet content. This paper discusses the benefits and the...

Dublin Core, DSpace, and a Brief Analysis of Three University Repositories
March 1, 2010... This paper provides an overview of Dublin Core (DC) and DSpace together with an examination of the institutional repositories of three public research universities. The universities all use DC and DSpace to create and manage their repositories....

Geographic Information Systems: Tools for Displaying In-Library Use Data
March 1, 2010... In-library use data is crucial for modern libraries to understand the full spectrum of patron use, including patron self-service activities, circulation, and reference statistics. Rather than using tables and charts to display use data, a...