Editorial

Citation

Machin-Mastromatteo, J.D. and Tammaro, A.M. (2022), "Editorial", Digital Library Perspectives, Vol. 38 No. 2, pp. 133-134. https://doi.org/10.1108/DLP-05-2022-134

At the moment of writing, there are two interesting developments related to our common topics of interest. Firstly, we got the announcement that the French Centre for Direct Scientific Communication and the Confederation of Open Access Repositories are collaborating in the development and release by spring of 2022 of a directory of open access preprint repositories [1]. It will be interesting to follow this project, as preprints have become increasingly important, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a directory of this type is indeed necessary and may be very useful. The second announcement is related to the release of the OpenAlex [2] catalog of over 200 million scientific documents, which was named after the Library of Alexandria. OpenAlex features a linked data system based on five entities: works, authors, host locations, institutions and topics. It also facilitates three ways for accessing their dataset: an API, a database snapshot and a website, which is scheduled to go live in February 2022.

We open this issue with ‘A bibliography of Canadian Inuit periodicals: A case study in Omeka.net migration’, in which Rankin presented the experience, process and best practices for developing an indigenous bibliography website by using the Omeka.net cloud-based service. This included a migration from CSV files, mapping metadata elements under Dublin Core, and using Omeka and TimelineJS.

Onyebinama, Anunobi and Onyebinama submitted ‘Determinants of research output submission in institutional repositories by faculty members in Nigerian universities’, where they analyzed content submission by Nigerian lecturers by university type, discipline, academic qualification, rank and teaching experience. They found that higher submissions came from lecturers within the Social Sciences, also from those with doctorate degrees, those who were senior lecturers, and had from 6 to 10 years of teaching experience.

In ‘Digital preservation in institutional repositories: A systematic literature review’, Barrueco and Termens conducted an interesting review of 21 articles from 2009 to 2020 about digital preservation policies, strategies and activities of institutional repositories. They identified how repositories are achieving long-term preservation and availability of their digital documents. However, they noted a certain bibliographic scarcity, particularly from Europe, which makes it difficult to identify in more depth the implementation of digital preservation.

Warraich, Rasool and Rorissa presented ‘Challenges and prospects of linked data technology: A qualitative study of Pakistani LIS professionals’ insights’, where they implemented a phenomenological study to explore linked data-related challenges, prospects and librarians’ skills needed for such initiatives to take place in Pakistan. From interviews with 18 librarians, they found that digital library resources’ visibility must be increased and the main challenges included implementing MARC standards, a low level of awareness, lack of skills, privacy issues and time constraints.

In ‘Development and validation of core technology competencies for systems librarian’, Naveed, Siddique and Mahmood presented a validated list of digital competencies for systems librarians in Pakistan, organized in six core technological areas and that was developed from their literature review, experts’ perspectives and pilot testing. Such core areas included: basic computing, programming and Web publishing, computer networks, cloud computing, database management systems and information systems.

Ahmad and Sheikh submitted ‘Impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) on student’s learning: A case from university of the Punjab, Pakistan’, where they assessed the impact of technologies on student’s learning, by centering on availability, accessibility and user-ability. They found an adequate level of access to applications and resources and that there was a correlation between availability, accessibility and user-ability, thus arguing that technology is important for learning outcomes.

In ‘Application of cloud technology in digital cultural heritage: An analysis of public culture cloud platforms in China’, Wanyan and Shang investigated the advantages of cloud technologies for developing cultural heritage platforms in China by employing interviews and the analysis of 21 platforms. They divided the advantages found in four categories: integration of decentralized heterogeneous resources, coordination and cooperation, accurately matching user needs and promotion of balanced service development.

Finally, Zibani, Rajkoomar and Naicker presented ‘A systematic review of faculty research repositories at higher education institutions’, in which they conducted a review of publications from 2015 to 2021 related to institutional repositories, specifically regarding research information management. This is revealed through the selected studies reviewed. Their findings highlighted the motives for developing such repositories, the services provided, their benefits and usage.

Notes

1. See the press release (in French) at www.ccsd.cnrs.fr/2022/02/le-ccsd-et-coar-annoncent-la-creation-d-un-repertoire-pour-les-serveurs-de-preprints

2. See https://docs.openalex.org