Editorial

Citation

Tammaro, A.M. and Machin-Mastromatteo, J.D. (2022), "Editorial", Digital Library Perspectives, Vol. 38 No. 4, pp. 397-398. https://doi.org/10.1108/DLP-11-2022-136

This issue of Digital Library Perspectives opens with “Application of the principle of transparency in processing of European national libraries patrons' personal data,” in which Katulić, Katulić and Grgić examined 45 European national libraries’ privacy statements as provided in their websites to determine how they handled and operationalized personal data and transparency guidelines, as mandated by the General Data Protection Regulation and the WP29/EDPB Transparency Guidelines. They found that, although libraries from member states comply slightly better with these principles than those from nonmember states, this is still an area that should be improved.

Awan, Richardson and Ahmed contributed “Current status of research support services in university libraries of Pakistan,” in which they analyzed such services and compared them with international studies on the topic. They surveyed 175 Pakistani university libraries and found that their research support services are basic, although librarians are keen on offering them, they have identified the need for improving their collections to better satisfy researchers’ needs, and perhaps the most significant challenge is to be able to offer newest and more advanced services for this particular group of users.

In “A model about students’ behavioural intention to use university WeChat Library,” Zhang and Xi performed a thousand observations in six Chinese universities by using the modified theory of acceptance and use of technology to determine their intention to use the university WeChat Library. Consistently with technology acceptance models, they found that information quality, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, performance expectancy and social influence were the variables that mostly drove students’ use of this digital library service.

Ganesan and Gunasekaran presented “Assessment of information literacy skills and knowledge-based competencies in using electronic resources among medical students,” in which they administered a questionnaire to 120 medical students enrolled at the Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute (India) to inquire about their acquisition of information literacy skills, centering on use, purpose for using information, search strategies and the information sources that they used. Their findings included that the favorite sources were Bentham Sciences, ProQuest, PubMed and MedlinePlus. However, in general, they should improve their level of information literacy, as they have many challenges in finding relevant information and in handling digital resources.

In “Relevance of blockchain technology and the management of libraries and archives in the 4IR,” Tella, Amuda and Ajani qualitatively examined Nigerian 10 librarians’ and 10 archivists’ perceptions of blockchain technology related to library and archives management within the context of the so-called fourth industrial revolution. Their perceptions were positive and recognized that blockchain technology may contribute to selecting, preserving and sharing information, while allowing to create verifiable records, although the cost is the main challenge that prevents the adoption of this technology.

Hamad, Al-Fadel and Fakhouri submitted “The role of academic libraries and information specialists during times of health crises in Jordan: the COVID-19 pandemic case,” in which they surveyed 295 Jordanian library staff from 10 public universities. They found it very relevant for libraries to raise awareness toward the pandemic and provide adequate support to users in the form of selecting and providing health information resources and ensuring access to library services.

In another COVID-19 related article, Singh’s “Role of National Digital Library of India (NDLI) for facilitating open access resources (OARs): an investigation on COVID-19 research repository,” provides insights about the availability of COVID-19 related information resources and argues about the importance of such digital resources, and specifically of the NDLI repository, to support research and education.

“The Miiyupimatisiiun Research Data Archives Project: putting OCAP® principles into practice,” by Adelson and Mickelson deals with the operationalization of the OCAP® principles to digitize and transfer the research data archive of the Whapmagoostui First Nation community. The authors drew attention toward the importance of having more resources and legal mechanisms for supporting indigenous communities regarding the archival of their data.

Latham’s “A perspective on collaborative partnerships to expand campus buy-in for digital collections” explored the collaboration of libraries with other units at the Jacksonville State University (USA) campus to improve the development of digital collections, specifically the challenges behind acquisitions. Such collaborations may result in developing unique digital collections that otherwise may not be possible and they can boost the library’s visibility and importance in any university.

Porsche, Suchá and Martinek contributed ‘The potential of Google Analytics for tracking the reading behavior in web books’, in which they conducted a pilot quantitative study on 190 web book users regarding their reading behavior, by employing Google Analytics. They found that users preferred scrolling versus navigation, they read from 2 to 4 pages per session, each session was just over one hour on average, reading was mostly done on computers and mobiles, and one of the most used features was font resizing.

Hernandez-Carrion provided “End of libraries/renaissance in the peer-to-peer sharing economy revolution age? Librarians of the future educating for a sustainable world,” which includes a very provocative and interesting title to close this issue of Digital Library Perspectives. In this article, the author explored libraries’ possibilities related to the integration of p2p digital platforms, then defined potential applications and business models in what he called the “renaissance of new libraries,” which requires educating, growing services, integrating external skills, promoting the disruptive economy through participation and creating cooperative markets.

This issue of Digital Library Perspectives ends the 2022 volume and as such we wanted to take this opportunity to thank our authors, reviewers, editorial board members, our publisher (Emerald) and its staff, and especially our readers for their support. Our journal has been growing and improving during these past years and we are very proud that we have been able to maintain its periodicity of four issues per year with articles that are increasing in quality, as well as keeping reasonable times in our entire workflow for processing submissions. To see the journal’s current results in articles’ downloads, citations and altmetrics, which are on the rise, have been extremely rewarding for us and assures us that we are on the right path for developing an excellent journal on the topic of digital libraries. Thank you all and look forward to our next volume in 2023!