The Source: news about digital libraries and library innovations from around the web

Introducing The Source

Got Data?: a Guide to Data Preservation in the Information Age

From the ACM Portal

The article discusses data preservation, exploring the issues and trends associated with preserving digital data. The author also examines the manner in which such data can be kept manageable, available, accessible, and secure. Examples of vital information stored digitally include medical records, financial data, and photos. Other topics include cyberinfrastructure (CI), defined as the distributed computer, information, and communication technology in a system, and the fact that there is more data being created than there is storage to host it.


Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Literacy (Note:PDF)

From the National Endowment for the Arts website

"Reading on the Rise", the National Endowment for the Arts’ new report, documents a significant turning point in recent American cultural history. For the first time in over a quarter-century, our survey shows that literary reading has risen among adult Americans. After decades of declining trends, there has been a decisive and unambiguous increase among virtually every group measured in this comprehensive national survey.


Always on: Libraries in a world of permanent connectivity

From the First Monday website

Mobile communication has been more widely adopted more quickly than any other technology ever. It represents a diffusion of communications and computational capacity into a growing part of our research, learning and social activities. Libraries have been working to develop network-ready services; mobile communication intensifies this activity and adds new challenges as they look at what it means to be mobile-ready. This has organizational implications as a shift of emphasis towards workflow integration around the learner or researcher creates new relationships with other service organizations on campus. It also has implications for how space is used, for library skills, and for how collections are developed.


We Love Open Source Software. No, You Can’t Have Our Code

From the Code4Lib Journal website

Librarians are among the strongest proponents of open source software. Paradoxically, libraries are also among the least likely to actively contribute their code to open source projects. This article identifies and discusses six main reasons this dichotomy exists and offers ways to get around them.


Service Equality in Virtual Reference (Note: PDF)

From the dLIST (Digital Library of Information and Technology) website

Research is divided about the potential of e-service to bridge communication gaps, particularly to diverse user groups. According to the existing body of literature, e-service may either increase or decrease the quality of service received. This study analyzes the level of service received by different genders and ethnic groups when academic and public librarians answer 676 online reference queries. Quality of e-service was evaluated along three dimensions: timely response, reliability, and courtesy. This study found no significant differences among different user groups along any of these dimensions, supporting the argument that the virtual environment facilitates equitable service and may overcome some challenges of diverse user groups.