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The paper discusses the design, development and evaluation of a task‐based digital library, the Digital Work Environment (DWE), for the academic community of higher education institutions (HEI) with Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, as a test case. Three different information organisation approaches (alphabetical, subject category and task‐based) were used to organise the wide range of heterogeneous information resources that were interfaced to DWE. A user evaluation study using a series of task scenarios was carried out to gauge the effectiveness and usefulness of DWE and these information organisation approaches. The time taken by respondents to identify and access the relevant information resources for individual tasks was also measured. The findings show that the task‐based approach took the least time in identifying information resources. Regression analysis of information resource location time with gender, age, computer experience and digital resource experience of the participants are also reported.

The purpose of this paper is to point out the commonalities of research in digital libraries and digital preservation with regard to the issues of users and context of information.

The paper's approach is a review of selected literature and reports of research projects focusing particularly on digital preservation research.

It is noted that just like the digital library community the digital preservation research community is also confronted with the challenges of capturing, storing and making use of the information related to users and context.

The paper points out some current research in digital preservation that aims to handle the users and context information for building future digital preservation systems. It highlights some major challenges in these areas.

The paper reports on the state of the art research in digital preservation.

Reference services have taken a central place in library and information services. They are also regarded as personalised services since in most cases a personal discussion takes place between a user and a reference librarian. Based on this, the librarian points to the sources that are considered to be most appropriate to meet the specific information need(s) of the user. Since the Web and digital libraries are meant for providing direct access to information sources and services without the intervention of human intermediaries, the pertinent question that appears is whether we need reference services in digital libraries, and, if so, how best to offer such services. Current digital libraries focus more on access to, and retrieval of, digital information, and hardly lay emphasis on the service aspects. This may have been caused by the narrower definitions of digital libraries formulated by digital library researchers. This paper looks at the current state of research in personalised information services in digital libraries. It first analyses some representative definitions of digital libraries in order to establish the need for personalised services. It then provides a brief overview of the various online reference and information services currently available on the Web. The paper also briefly reviews digital library research that specifically focuses on the personalisation of digital libraries and the provision of digital reference and information services. Finally, the paper proposes some new areas of research that may be undertaken to improve the provision of personalised information services in digital libraries.

The main objective of this paper is to review work on the usability and impact of digital libraries.

Work on the usability and impact of digital libraries is reviewed. Specific studies on the usability and impact of digital libraries in specific domains are also discussed in order to identify general and specific usability and impact measures.

The usability studies reviewed in this paper show that a number of approaches have been used to assess usability. In addition to the technical aspects of digital library design (e.g. architecture, interfaces and search tools), there are a number of usability issues such as globalisation, localisation, language, culture issues, content and human information behaviour. Digital libraries should, however, be evaluated primarily with respect to their target users, applications and contexts.

Although a digital library evaluation study may have several objectives, ranging from the evaluation of its design and architecture to the evaluation of its usability and its impact on the target users, this paper focuses on usability and impact.

This paper provides insights into the state‐of‐the art in relation to the usability and impact of digital libraries.

The purpose of this paper is to establish a law on the durability of thick aluminium wire bonds in low cycle fatigue for different geometries and wire diameters under a purely mechanical load.

Bond wires with different geometries were tested with various loads and a mechanical test bench, and their endurance was determined. The same load situation was modelled with finite element analysis and then compared against the experimental results.

A correlation was found between the plastic strain per cycle and the determined lifespan. Therefore, the lifespan can be calculated by mechanical‐plastic simulation for various loop geometries and loading cases.

The loop height strongly influences the durability of the wire bond, whereas other parameters, such as the loop angle, have a weaker influence on the bond heel lifetime.

The mechanical simulation is able to replace the time‐consuming lifetime experiments.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the multi-tiered framework supported by the NDLTD-Taiwan systems to achieve the collaboration and cooperation with universities and colleges in building electronic theses collection in Taiwan.

The paper describes the outcomes of multi-tiered framework, its user roles, tasks, and thesis-specific workflow, as well as the function for simulating user roles.

The framework is the result of supporting both the two-tiered and the three-tiered frameworks on the NDLTD-Taiwan systems platform. The design guidelines emerged out of the outcomes of task analysis.

The multi-tiered design not only accommodates graduation procedures for member universities and colleges, but also supports bibliographic control and collections building.

The paper shows that the multi-tiered design, which emerged out of the existing theses processes of member institutions, is inclusive. The framework allows member universities and colleges to choose an appropriate framework, either two-tiered or three-tiered, for managing their e-theses processes. In addition, role simulation allows the NCL administrator to reproduce problems encountered by the users to help troubleshooting.

The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which digital library projects incorporated reference services to increase the value of the collections and support the use of information.

After defining digital library service types, the study surveyed 60 digital collections/projects from the Digital Initiatives Database (DID) and analyzed what types of services have been offered and how they varied.

Findings showed that digital collections scored high marks in offering services in two areas – search and digital reference; however, the findings also revealed that they have been limited in giving valuable information services in other areas.

The study shows that the current practice of digital initiatives needs to integrate various services not only to help users find information, but also to instruct users to better utilize the library and its other services.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of customer service in the academic library setting and ways in which its management can be best approached in the electronic environment.

The study adopts a two‐phase methodology. First is a content analysis of the literature on customer service in libraries, focusing on electronic services, to identify main issues and strategies being used to address customer issues. This is followed by a qualitative data‐gathering approach to explore user perspectives on the quality of electronic services, focusing on customer service.

The findings reveal that the concerns of library customers in the web environment are similar to those in the traditional library environment. They are concerned about receiving online help for technical problems and also help to search and use information. Reference services are still highly in demand with an emphasis on the characteristics of the online librarian. Another major need is the ability to give feedback and receive a quick response from the library.

The study is limited to web‐based library customer service quality as perceived by postgraduate students at four research universities. Thus, it cannot be generalized to the whole academic library's clientele views, though it is applicable to electronic library services at other institutions. The subjectivity of the researchers' interpretations of qualitative data are also acknowledged.

This paper will be helpful to academic libraries in managing the quality of electronic library services by focusing on what the customers require and deem important. This study contributes to the growing body of knowledge on electronic customer services in academic libraries.

This study contributes to the shortage of studies on the perceived quality of library electronic library services, as is evident in the literature.

Being part of a “learning community” requires that knowledge workers keep themselves informed of developments in their area of expertise. However, as we all know, an information saturation problem exists, not least because of the Internet. Modes of informing are specific to each person’s concerns, as are the topics they want to be informed about. Libraries and information centers have sought to accommodate this need in the past by promoting Current Awareness Services (CAS) and Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI), either through print or electronic means. With the migration of these systems to the Internet, intranet, or corporate portal, it has become the vogue to customize or personalize these access points in accordance with user interests. On the horizon is the promise of intelligent software agents as an additional aid for filtering and retrieving information. This article will argue that librarians need to continue embracing the model principle of CAS, as a tool of relevance, and as a function for remaining visible to their client communities.

Although the industrial application of drones is increasing quickly, there is a scarcity of applications in manufacturing. The purpose of this paper is to explore current and potential applications of drones in manufacturing, examine the opportunities and challenges involved and propose a research agenda.

The paper reports the result of an extensive qualitative investigation into an emerging phenomenon. The authors build on the literature on advanced manufacturing technologies. Data collected through in-depth interviews with 66 drone experts from 56 drone vendors and related services are analyzed using an inductive research design.

Drones represent a promising AMT that is expected to be used in several applications in manufacturing in the next few years. This paper proposes a typology of drone applications in manufacturing, explains opportunities and challenges involved and develops a research agenda. The typology categorizes four types of applications based on the drones’ capabilities to “see,” “sense,” “move” and “transform.”

The proposed research agenda offers a guide for future research on drones in manufacturing. There are many research opportunities in the domains of industrial engineering, technology development and behavioral operations.

Guidance on current and promising potentials of drones in manufacturing is provided to practitioners. Particularly interesting applications are those that help manufacturers “see” and “sense” data in their factories. Applications that “move” or “transform” objects are scarcer, and they make sense only in special cases in very large manufacturing facilities.

The application of drones in manufacturing is in its infancy, but is foreseen to grow rapidly over the next decade. This paper presents the first academically rigorous analysis of potential applications of drones in manufacturing. An original and theory-informed typology for drone applications is a timely contribution to the nascent literature. The research agenda presented assists the establishment of a new stream of literature on drones in manufacturing.