Editorial

Citation

Machin-Mastromatteo, J.D. and Tammaro, A.M. (2021), "Editorial", Digital Library Perspectives, Vol. 37 No. 4, pp. 325-327. https://doi.org/10.1108/DLP-07-2021-0062

Digital Library Perspectives has been evolving and will continue to do so. Between 2020 and 2021 we published the two-part special issue on COVID-19, and in these two years, we managed to keep up with the required periodicity of the journal with four issues per year. On the previous issue, we increased the number of articles published per issue to eight. Something that we will continue doing onwards, as we are ensuring that the publication process workflow is managed promptly and efficiently. For 2022, we are looking forward to our continued growth with eight articles per issue plus our editorial. We are also starting to plan another special issue, and we would like to continue including interviews with well-known digital library stakeholders (which could also highlight the activities of the many unsung heroes in our field), such as those that we published in 2020. We are also in the process of revising the journal aims and its definition of its main object of study (digital libraries) together with our Editorial and Advisory Board members, so please look forward to all of this for 2022.

We open this issue with “Research data management practices of chemistry researchers in federal universities of technology in Nigeria” by Abduldayan, Abifarin, Oyedum and Alhassan, in which they interviewed 40 chemistry researchers from five federal universities of technology in Nigeria about research data management. Their results highlighted that these researchers have an appropriate understanding of the concept of research data and its importance for research findings. Moreover, they uncovered experiences where researchers faced data loss because of using inappropriate storage means, backup methods and data protection. They agreed that the library may be a good preserver of research data, but there are still some concerns about the loss of ownership. However, making agreements with the library regarding research data preservation and management might be a worthwhile opportunity, as the interviewed researchers did not have any formal data management plans. It is important to highlight that this paper includes a very useful research workflow model for various chemistry areas, which might be useful for other fields and most surely for academic librarians who provide support services for researchers.

Ebiefung and Adetimirin contributed “Cyber ethics adherence and the use of electronic information resources by undergraduates in public universities in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria,” in which they surveyed over 7,000 undergraduate students from two Nigerian universities regarding their adherence to cyber ethics. Such a construct was divided in factors such as plagiarism, sharing and reuse of information, copyright issues, using unauthorized copies of proprietary software, privacy breaches and fabrication of citation details or even of information sources. Their findings revealed an extensive use of the internet for conducting academic work, although their adherence to cyber ethics guidelines was under 50% for every group under study.

Mehta’s “Digital library service model for predictive analysis of user satisfaction based on multivariate fuzzy logic,” presents a model for evaluating users’ satisfaction through the following parameters:

• technical equipment for information access;

• infrastructure response time;

• accessible e-resources;

• library service quality;

• information access tools;

• employees’ qualification; and

• software quality.

In “Assessment of e-service quality performance of university libraries,” Trivedi, Bhatt, Trivedi and Patel surveyed 239 graduate students to evaluate the performance of digital services quality and infrastructure in an Indian state university library. Their instrument allowed assessing 22 attributes organized in four dimensions:

1. library equipment;

2. library website;

3. library OPAC/internet; and

4. e-User education.

Their findings highlight various areas of opportunity for developing and improving upon their digital services.

Chaputula’s “Effects of digital devices on noise levels in an academic library” reports a mixed methods research grounded in the technology acceptance model, in which a questionnaire was applied to 110 students and a librarian was interviewed, both regarding the effects and strategies to alleviate the effect of digital devices on noise levels at the Mzuzu University Library in Malawi. The noise at the library has increased as a consequence of the usage of these digital devices, and the measures used to counteract this have not been very successful. This article includes an analysis of such measures and recommendations to improve them.

Głowacka’s “Assessment of the quality of digital libraries based on the principles of information architecture. Research plan” proposes an information architecture and usability model that was tested by evaluating the Europeana digital library. Such a model includes the following criteria:

• service identity;

• organizational system;

• labeling system; and

• navigation system.

This model may be useful for assessing the information architecture and usability aspects of any digital library.

In “Exploring data mining: Facets and emerging trends,” Bano, Gul and Shah discuss how data mining and its related technologies and techniques (such as numerical mining, textual mining, multimedia mining, Web mining, sentiment analysis and big data mining) can be used to produce information and derive knowledge from data. This viewpoint provides some views regarding data usage, its procedures, algorithms and techniques.

This issue closes with “Unveiling the veiled: Wikipedia collaborating with academic libraries in Africa in creating visibility for African women through Art+Feminism Wikipedia edit-a-thons,” in which Ukwoma, Osadebe, Okafor and Ezeani studied the effects of digital literacy on social change in the context of a Nigerian academic library usage of the Wikipedia platform within the edit-a-thon initiatives, specifically for developing content about women in academia, industry and politics. The authors provided results related to such content’s views, usage and the challenges behind its production as valid and reputable information sources.