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This study seeks to understand the current state of the development of linked open data (LOD) bibliographic portals to discuss their functionalities, contributions, value-adds and user experience.

A set of evaluative aspects grouped into three analysis dimensions was established: collections, tools—technologies and standards used—and web user interface. As the object of the study, four projects of diverse nature and volume were selected to help provide a better understanding of the trends in the solutions provided for the end user when accessing linked data collections.

Publishing LOD through visual interfaces maximises information enrichment, contextualisation and discovery, in addition to improving user experience, because of both increased navigation capabilities and interrelationships between data. These more flexible environments have metamorphosised the visualisation of bibliographic information. However, aspects that needed improvement were observed, primarily relating to (1) a more intuitive interaction, (2) possibilities of greater personalisation, (3) enhanced communication with the user to favour user engagement and (4) experimental spaces of data reuse.

Further quantitative and qualitative studies should be conducted to improve these portals, assess their adaptation to the behaviour of the user and their influence on the use of library collections.

This article investigates the potential of semantic technologies in bibliographic data portals, proposes a methodological model for their evaluation and advances conclusions about the usability and user experience that these platforms provide, compared to classic catalogues.

The purpose of this paper is to study the relevance of heritage collections and the convergence of methodologies and standards traditionally linked to Library and Information Science (LIS) in the development of digital humanities (DH) research in Spain.

This paper is based on a systematic review of scientific publications that are representative of DH in Spain and were published between 2013 and 2018. The analysis considered doctoral theses, journal articles and conference papers.

The results highlight the synergies between documentary heritage, LIS and DH. However, it appears that there is a scarcity of scientific literature to support the confluence of LIS and DH and a limited formal connection between heritage institutions and the areas of academia that reuse and enrich these source collections.

The review of representative scholarly DH publications was mainly based on the metadata that describe the content of articles, thesis and conference papers. This work relies on the thematic indexing (descriptors and keywords) of the analysed documents but their level of quality and consistency is very diverse.

The topic of the study has not been explored before and this work could contribute to the international debate on the interrelation and complementarity between LIS and DH. In addition, this paper shows the contribution that standards and documentary methodologies make to projects in which technology is applied to humanities disciplines. The authors propose that there is an urgent need to strengthen the “scientific relationships” between heritage institutions, as well as enhancing links between the academic field of DH and LIS in order to improve teaching and research strategies in conjunction.

This study aims to explore the current presence of e‐books in the collections of Spanish academic libraries, from the viewpoint of the contents on offer.

Exploration of the library web sites was undertaken in order to gauge the level of presence of packages that distribute electronic books. In evaluating the extent of content available, the data recorded were compared with those derived from another research carried out in 2004. Similarly, an approximate indication of the topic areas with greatest representation was attempted, distinguishing multi‐disciplinary suppliers from those specializing in one field.

Out of the 50 existing universities 36 support the subscription of at least one collection of electronic books. The universities of the communities of Andalusia, Catalonia and Valencia are those that have reached a greater implementation of e‐books. There is a considerable diversity – many universities have subscribed to collections specializing in literature and in the field of engineering. The main multi‐disciplinary collections purchased by libraries are E‐libro and NetLibrary.

This is a sector that is definitely taking off in Spain and will require progressive acceptance on the part of the academic community. Librarians have the responsibility to aid their users in understanding the growing complexity of the information market and the increasing range of resources available for research.

The research is a necessary approach to the integration of collections of e‐books into Spanish public universities. Encouraging the use of monographs in electronic format takes on great importance, when it is borne in mind that e‐books will have a crucial role in the new model for education advocated by the European Higher Education Area (EHEA).

The purpose of this article is to highlight the role of science repositories in the development of e‐science. It aims to provide an overview of the open access collections currently operating in Spain.

This paper is an examination of the tools, type of contents, coverage and aims of the digital research collections generated by Spanish academic bodies.

There is only a limited development of institutional repositories, although it is possible to detect a growing tendency to create them. At the present moment, these digital collections seem principally to be seeking visibility for scientific output such as theses, journals, work in progress, preliminary results and other fringe or unconventional literature, without currently making use of academic teaching and learning materials or corpora relating to the cultural heritage.

It would be desirable for government to become involved in encouraging open access within a new model for academic communication. It would appear crucial for the repositories aimed at spreading knowledge of scientific research to set in place mechanisms for rigorous peer assessment, so as to ensure the quality of the scholarly work deposited.

This paper considers the role of science repositories in the development of e‐Science. The availability of resources for e‐science, the need to support the compilation of repositories of information in electronic format and the access to digitized content is a matter of maximum priority for any national science policy. Designing a new model for academic communication requires collaboration from the authorities, from universities, from librarians and also support from researchers themselves.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the status of institutional repositories (IRs) in the South Asian region. The various characteristic features of IRs are studied.

Open directory of open access repositories (DOAR) as a data-gathering tool was consulted for extracting the desired data.

India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh lead other South Asian nations in terms of IRs count. Majority of the IRs are operational in nature with higher number of operational IRs from India. In terms of record count, India leads the list. “Journal articles” outscore other content type and majority of the IRs have OAI-PMH as their base URL. DSpace stays a prioritized software for content management in IRs. Majority of the IRs have not defined their content management policies. English stays a prioritized language of the content dotting the South Asian IRs and majority of the IRs not providing usage statistics. A good score of IRs has incorporated Web 2.0 tools in them with RSS as the preferred Web 2.0 tool. A good count of the IRs has not customized their interface. Majority of the IRs have interface in two languages.

The main limitation of the study is that the findings of the research are based on the data collected through the repositories indexed by Open DOAR.

The study tries to explore the characteristic features of IRs from the South Asian region.

This study aims to highlight the many distinguishing characteristics of open-access repositories that archive “Patents” in the Directory of Open-Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) provided by Asian nations.

The OpenDOAR was chosen as a data collection tool that provides a quality-assured list of repositories indexed globally. The data was extracted on 28 March 2023.

The study found that only eight Asian countries contributed to open-access repositories on OpenDOAR, with China being the highest contributor. These countries mainly focused on institutional repositories, primarily using DSpace and English as the main language interface. Web 2.0 tools, especially RSS and Atom, were commonly used, along with some presence of social media platforms on the sites, although to a lesser extent. While many repositories followed the OAI-PMH protocol, a considerable portion did not adopt open-access policies.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first one that brings to light the different features of repositories archiving one of the important content types, i.e. “Patents” in the OpenDOAR by Asian countries.

The study aims to showcase the developmental perspective of “grey literature” and its importance to different sectors of the society. Furthermore, issues, challenges and possibilities concerned with the existence of “grey literature” have also been discoursed.

The study is based on the existing literature published in the field of “grey literature” which was identified with the aid of three leading indexing and abstracting services, Web of Science, SciVerse Scopus, and Google Scholar. Keywords like grey literature, black literature, The Grey Journal, The International Journal on Grey Literature, International Conference on Grey Literature, non-conventional literature, semi-published literature, System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe (SIGLE), European Association for the Exploitation of Grey Literature (EAGLE), white literature, white papers, theses and dissertations, GreyNet, grey literature-electronic media, Grey market, open access, OpenNet, open access repositories, institutional repositories, open archives, electronic theses and dissertations, institutional libraries, scholarly communication, access to knowledge, metadata standards for grey literature, metadata heterogeneity, disciplinary grey literature, etc. were searched in the select databases. Simple as well as advanced search feature of the databases were made use of. Moreover, for more recent and updated information on the topic, the “citing articles” feature of the databases was also used. The “citing articles” were consulted on the basis of their relevance with the subject content.

The study helps to understand the definitive framework and developmental perspective of “grey literature”. “Grey Literature” has emerged as a promising content for enhancing the visibility of the ideas that were earlier unexplored and least made use of “Grey literature” has also overcome the problems and issues with its existence and adoption. Technology has played a catalytic role in eradicating the issues and problems pertinent to the “grey literature” to a greater extent.

The study is based on the published literature that is indexed by only three databases, i.e. Web of Science, SciVerse Scopus and Google Scholar. Furthermore, some limited aspects of “grey literature” have been covered.

The study will be of great help to various stakeholders and policymakers to showcase the value and importance of “grey literature” for better access and exploitation. It will also be of importance to those interested to know how the literature tagged as grey changed with the passing time and how it through its unseen characteristics has evolved as an important source of information at par with the “white literature”.

The study tries to provide a demarcated and segregated outlook of the “grey literature”. It also focuses on various issues, problems and possibilities pertinent to the adoption and existence of “grey literature”.

Open access repository is an essential element of an organization's strategy for enhancing the visibility and accessibility of its intellectual output to a global audience. Owing to its importance, the study aims to explore the current status of open access repositories in India and China by analyzing the different characteristic features of repositories.

The data for the study is collected from OpenDoar which is labeled as a quality assured repository directory across the globe. The country-wise contribution of Asian repositories is extracted from OpenDoar using various filtration options available in the repository. Further, the URL of every Indian and Chinese repository was manually accessed to gather the following metadata: Repository Type, Software Usage, Repository Interface Language, Year of Development, Subject Coverage, Content Coverage, and the utilization of Web 2.0 tools by repositories.

The findings of the study highlights that among the Asian countries, India is at 4th rank while China is at 5th rank in terms of repository count. The study depicts that India has shown more promising growth than China.  However, both the countries mainly focused on institutional repositories while disciplinary, aggregated, and governmental repositories are very few in number, therefore building such repositories is the need of an hour. Dspace as the preferred software and English as a dominant interface language occupy the prominent places in the repositories of both countries. Moreover, the repositories of both countries have embraced web 2.0 tools like RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0 and Atom with little presence of social media tools.

The study has limitations, and results should be interpreted with caution. The comparison between the two countries is based on only one data source, i.e. OpenDoar. However, there is a possibility that future studies can take various repository directories as a data source that will give a clear picture of comparison.

The study can be beneficial to the policymakers and the administrators of these two regions as it will provide them a vivid picture of the diffrent characteristic features of their repositories so that they can formulate better policies that will be helpful to foster green open access.