Birger Hjørland, Hans Jørn Nielsen and Helene Høyrup
– The aim of this article is to introduce the special issue of Journal of Documentation focusing on perspectives on research libraries.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this article is to introduce the special issue of Journal of Documentation focusing on perspectives on research libraries.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper outlines the theme of the issue and its underlying problems.
Findings
The traditional services of research libraries may diffuse to other kinds of institutions. There is, however, a need for information specialists studying and improving research infrastructures. Future services probably need to be more focused, domain-specific and based on research in information science.
Originality/value
The introduction is written to assist readers surveying the issue and to share the thoughts of the editors in planning the issue.
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Keywords
The aim of this paper is to reposition the research library in the context of the changing information and knowledge architecture at the end of the “Gutenberg Parenthesis” and as…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to reposition the research library in the context of the changing information and knowledge architecture at the end of the “Gutenberg Parenthesis” and as part of the rapidly emerging “semantic” environment of the Linked Open Data paradigm. Understanding this process requires a good understanding of the evolution of the “document” notion in the passage from print based culture to the distributed hypertextual and RDF based information architecture of the WWW.
Design/methodology/approach
These objectives are reached using literature study and a descriptive historical approach as well as text mining techniques using Google nGrams as a data source.
Findings
The paper presents a proposal for effectively repositioning research libraries in the context of eScience and eScholarship as well as clear indications of the proposed repositioning already taking place. Furthermore, a new perspective of the “document” notion is provided.
Practical implications
The evolution described in the contribution creates opportunities for libraries to reposition themselves as aggregators and selectors of content and as contextualising agents as part of future Linked Data based scholarly research environments provided they are able and ready to operate the related cultural changes.
Originality/value
The paper will be useful for practitioners in search of strategic guidance for repositioning their librarian institutions in a context of ever increasing competition for scarce funding resources.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine the monographic literature related to developments in research libraries within recent years and the strategies that they are adopting to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the monographic literature related to developments in research libraries within recent years and the strategies that they are adopting to deal with change. The main aim is to identify any visibly established directions along which research libraries adapt to their social and organizational environments.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative content analysis was applied to identify topics emerging from the texts. The chosen texts were read and topics signifying directions of change in the immediate environment of research libraries were mapped. This initial topic map was used for ascertaining the reactions of research libraries to identified changes. The activities of libraries directed to future anticipated changes were noted separately.
Findings
The review shows the surprising resilience of research libraries and their ability to change within a short period of time. This ability signifies that research and academic libraries as organizations perfectly adapt to the incessant transformations of current times, contrary to the widely spread stereotypical image of them as conservative institutions. At the same time, they seem to be keeping true to their core of mediating services to researchers and to their place in the chain of scholarly communication.
Originality/value
The article identifies the main directions of transformation of research libraries and outlines their potential roles in the future of digital scholarly communication.
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Hans Jørn Nielsen and Birger Hjørland
A key issue in the literature about research libraries concerns their potential role in managing research data. The aim of this paper is to study the arguments for and against…
Abstract
Purpose
A key issue in the literature about research libraries concerns their potential role in managing research data. The aim of this paper is to study the arguments for and against associating this task with libraries and the impact such an association would have on information professionals, and consider the competitors to libraries in this field.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper considers the nature of data and discusses data typologies, the kinds of data contained within databases and the implications of criticisms of the data-information-knowledge (DIK) hierarchy. It outlines the many competing agencies in the data curation field and describes their relationships to different kinds of data.
Findings
Many data are organically connected to the activities of large, domain-specific organizations; as such, it might be difficult for research libraries to assume a leadership role in curating data. It seems more likely that the qualifications of information professionals will come to be needed in such organizations and that the functions of research libraries will shift toward giving greater prevalence to their role as specialists in scholarly communication. In some cases, however, research libraries may be the best place to select, keep, organize and use research data. To prepare for this task, research libraries should be actively involved in domain-specific analytic studies of their respective domains.
Originality/value
This paper offers a theoretical analysis and clarification of the problems of data curating from the perspective of research libraries.
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By using the UNISIST models this paper argues for the necessity of domain analysis in order to qualify scientific information seeking. The models allow better understanding of…
Abstract
Purpose
By using the UNISIST models this paper argues for the necessity of domain analysis in order to qualify scientific information seeking. The models allow better understanding of communication processes in a scientific domain and they embrace the point that domains are always both unstable over time, and changeable, according to the specific perspective. This understanding is even more important today as numerous digitally generated information tools as well as collaborative and interdisciplinary research are blurring the domain borders. Nevertheless, researchers navigate “intuitively” in “their” specific domains, and UNISIST helps understanding this navigation. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The UNISIST models are tentatively applied to the domain of art history at three stages, respectively two modern, partially overlapping domains, as well as an outline of an art historical domain anno c1820. The juxtapositions are discussed against the backdrop of, among others, poststructuralist concepts such as “power” and “anti-essentialism”
Findings
The juxtapositions affirm the point already surfacing in the different versions of the UNISIST model, that is, structures of communication change over time as well as according to the agents that are charting them. As such, power in a Foucauldian sense is unavoidable in outlining a domain.
Originality/value
The UNISIST models are applied to the domain of art history and the article discusses the instability of a scientific domain as well as, at the same time, the significance of framing a domain; an implication which is often neglected in scientific information seeking.
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– The purpose of this paper is to improve comprehension of some of the intricate interrelations between research libraries, the role of media and the knowledge production system.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to improve comprehension of some of the intricate interrelations between research libraries, the role of media and the knowledge production system.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper establishes arguments from a historical analysis of stages in the conceptual development of digital media and stages in the digitization of library functions. The historical approach leads to some discussions and forecasts of the future of research libraries.
Findings
Digital media have a disruptive, revolutionary potential, but path dependency is often a modifying component in the historical development. This is demonstrated in different stages of the development of the interrelationship between digitization, digital media and research libraries. Digital media become disruptive due to the strength of the historical dynamic, rather than as a result of particular agencies. Today the historical dynamic has reached a point where all institutions concerned with knowledge handling will have to redefine themselves. Research libraries are gradually incorporated into a number of new “research infrastructures” which are being built around different kinds of data materials, and each research library may specialize according to some sort of coordinated criteria.
Originality/value
This paper demonstrates new openings to a theoretical and conceptual understanding of the interrelationship between digital media and developments of research libraries.