This paper aims to provide a review of recent trends in the open access (OA) movement, as well as to discuss the significance of those trends for information access in developing…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide a review of recent trends in the open access (OA) movement, as well as to discuss the significance of those trends for information access in developing countries.
Design/methodology/approach
An analysis of the recent literature was carried out, focusing on the benefits of a greater information access in developing countries. The paper also brings together the diverse experiences from the authors on OA publishing and archiving with institutions in a number of developing countries.
Findings
Knowledge workers in developing countries are now getting access to scholarly and scientific publications and electronic resources at a level that is unmatched historically. This is highly significant, if developing countries are to meet the millennium development goals. The OA movement and the growing number of Open Archive Initiative‐compliant institutional repositories promise to provide even greater access to resources and publications that were previously inaccessible. These low cost technology and interoperability standards are providing great opportunities for libraries and publishers in developing countries to disseminate local research and to bridge the south‐north knowledge gap.
Originality/value
This paper therefore provides recommendations for knowledge workers on how to actively participate in and contribute to the global knowledge commons. The results and recommendations contained in the paper should be of interest to authors, policy makers, funding agencies and information professionals in both developing and developed countries.
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Lauren Fralinger and Jonathan Bull
In an educational world with increasing internationalization, digitization, assessment and financial justification, US institutions, especially academic libraries, must justify…
Abstract
Purpose
In an educational world with increasing internationalization, digitization, assessment and financial justification, US institutions, especially academic libraries, must justify each new project. Institutional Repositories (IRs) are no exception. The authors attempt to identify factors that might affect the international usage of US IRs as part of assessment efforts to determine an IR's return‐on‐investment.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was disseminated to IR administrators asking for demographic information, international usage counts for website hits and downloads, and any internationalization efforts connected to the IR in order to determine any influencing factors on an IR's international usage.
Findings
While many IRs reported various rates of international usage, the largest group of respondents did not report an international usage rate for both page hits and downloads, despite overwhelmingly expressing an importance of international traffic to their IR and parent institution.
Research limitations/implications
It is not clear if this non‐reporting of international usage could be due to ignorance, apathy, or lack of technological support on the part of the IR administrators.
Practical implications
Determining international usage as a part of an IR assessment might be problematic or even impossible for many US IRs.
Originality/value
This study suggests that many IR administrators either do not know, do not care, and/or cannot record international usage data for their respective IRs, which could hinder determining an international return‐on‐investment for the IR.
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Nancy Gómez, Atilio Bustos‐Gonzalez, Julio Santillan‐Aldana and Olga Arias
The purpose of this paper is to estimate open access penetration ratios through cross‐analysis of existing social context and open access indicators in Latin America.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to estimate open access penetration ratios through cross‐analysis of existing social context and open access indicators in Latin America.
Design/methodology/approach
The following parameters were used to characterize the chosen countries. On one hand, it takes social context indicators like digital opportunity index (DOI), GDP 2007 (Organization for Economic Co‐operation and Development) (www.oecd.org/home/0,3305,en_2649_201185_1_1_1_1_1,00.html), scientific output 2005, and investment in science and technology vs GDP 2004. On the other hand, it analyses open access indicators considering the two main open access strategies – the green and gold routes – and the existing legal framework.
Findings
This paper discusses the evolution of DOI and compares with open access parameters (numbers of repositories, number of registries in repositories, DOAJ journals and number of creative commons licences) in the context of scientific information in developing countries in Latin America.
Research limitations/implications
This paper is not an exhaustive survey and limits the comparison to the Latin American Countries, focalized in Brazil, Chile and Argentina.
Originality/value
This paper gives an overview of the situation of three particular countries: Brazil, Chile and Argentina, and explains the position of these countries in the open access movement in Latin America.
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Rosemeire Barbosa Tavares, Sely Maria de Souza Costa and Mark Hepworth
This qualitative study was carried out in Candangolaˆndia, in Brasilia’s surroundings, Brazil. It comprised procedures that aimed to test the use of participatory research and…
Abstract
This qualitative study was carried out in Candangolaˆndia, in Brasilia’s surroundings, Brazil. It comprised procedures that aimed to test the use of participatory research and action (PRA) in interactive and multidirectional communication amongst community members, in order to enable them to work together in the identification, access and use of information to solve social problems. The assumption behind this proposal was that as doing so, citizens develop abilities of information literacy and capabilities of collaborative work. The research tested the efficacy of PRA specifically in information science, using principles of critical thinking and participatory techniques within an epistemological interpretative approach in the identification of community information needs, access and use. Specific techniques such as oral presentation, people introduction, cards, games, brainstorm, workgroups, discussion, and question and answer were applied in 24 activities performed during six meetings with an intentionally selected group of citizens. The set of activities in each meeting was related to the meeting objective. Data analysis was based on grounded theory principles, particularly the coding process. Findings confirmed that PRA is a suitable methodology to explore abilities of information literacy and attitudes of collaborative work as a result of an interactive and multidirectional communication. In fact, community participants were able to identify, classify and prioritise information needs, as well as use information solutions for a selected social problem. Ultimately, these actions have proved to be helpful for participants to develop a heightened sense of citizenship.
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Teresa Susana Mendes Pereira and Ana Alice Baptista
The purpose of this paper is to present an instance of the system developed in the OmniPaper project, regarding the mechanisms of distributed information retrieval. These…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present an instance of the system developed in the OmniPaper project, regarding the mechanisms of distributed information retrieval. These mechanisms were developed for newspaper articles and they were then instantiated in the context of the scientific publication.
Design/methodology/approach
One of the steps of the system's development was the definition of the metadata layer that supports the research and the navigation functionalities as well as the contents' syndication. Several tasks were performed for the definition of the metadata layer, namely: analysis of several metadata standard vocabularies; selection of the metadata elements; definition of an application profile and the RSS template; development of a metadatabase, through the use of a native Resource Description Framework (RDF) database management system to store the RSS descriptions of the scientific publications; implementation of the search and navigation processes developed in the prototype; finally, tests and validation of all developed functionalities.
Findings
The RSS technology is well suited for handling the description of scientific contents. RDF records that were used in the OmniPaper RDF prototype were replaced by RSS. The subject and lexical thesauri were kept. This strong metadata layer allows the creation of several services that facilitate the conceptual search of scientific contents.
Research limitations/implications
The system implemented was tested but not evaluated in a real environment with specific users.
Originality/value
This paper presents a system that uses a central metadatabase to support conceptual searching mechanisms. This is a solution for a value‐added service for the scientific community that is fully based in state‐of‐the‐art standard technologies and is fully open for integration with other systems. Moreover this could be implemented by journals to improve the current mechanisms used to access, distribute and disseminate the scientific research developments.
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Mark Hepworth and Geoff Walton
This chapter gives a general overview of the book, indicates the rich diversity of information literacy (IL) and information behaviour (IB) work carried out and is organised into…
Abstract
This chapter gives a general overview of the book, indicates the rich diversity of information literacy (IL) and information behaviour (IB) work carried out and is organised into four broad areas moving from the strategic to the highly contextualised. The four areas are specifically: strategic view; delivering information literacy education; the link between university and work; beyond higher education. The approach for each chapter is summarised. This chapter also examines the inter-related nature of the concepts of information literacy and information behaviour. It shows how these ideas are contextualised, theorised and researched. The authors argue that far from being conflicting approaches to the same problem of information capability, they are, in fact, complementary. Though these are epistemologically different both have much to offer in terms of explanation and also as tools for fostering information capability. The history of information literacy and information behaviour is overviewed and their inter-relation explored. It is argued that information literacy can be viewed as the practitioners’ model for delivering information capability whilst information behaviour, being more research focussed, explains it. A diagram is presented at the end of the chapter which helps to highlight and summarise the distinctions and similarities between IB and IL research.
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Several recent developments (notably, the breakdown of traditional distinctions between different types of financial activity, the globalisation of financial markets and…
Abstract
Several recent developments (notably, the breakdown of traditional distinctions between different types of financial activity, the globalisation of financial markets and increasing emphasis on systemic stability as a regulatory objective) have prompted policy‐makers to search for an ‘optimum’ regulatory structure that is adapted to the new market environment. Further impetus has been given to this debate by the radical overhaul of regulatory structures, along quite different lines in Australia, the UK and Japan, and the ongoing deliberations within the US Congress over structured financial reform. This paper examines alternative ways of organising the regulatory function in the context of the new financial market environment. The first section reviews the objectives, targets and techniques of regulation. The second section describes the new market environment and the restructuring of the financial services industry. The third section assesses the implications of this new environment for the structure of regulation. The fourth section addresses the international dimension. The final section provides a summary and conclusion. The paper is based on a presentation made at the World Bank Conference, El Salvador, June 1998.