Library partnerships in an age of openness

Librarians are strong collaborators. As we move toward the "next normal,” partnerships and collaboration will play an even larger role. In our post-pandemic world, what does "open” mean in terms of access to libraries, their staff, and their services? National libraries, for example, are still, to some extent, fixed in space in physical terms, despite having grown their digital offer before and considerably during the COVID-19 period. Through partnerships with public and academic libraries, the British Library has begun to improve access to its content and events. The library community now has an opportunity to build on experience and to think differently and collaboratively about what openness means in terms of spaces, content, and staff support for our communities in a hybrid digital and physical world—ensuring the enduring "why” and the transforming "how” of libraries in the 21st century. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Tackling the Next Pandemic: An Infodemic in Clinical Oncology Care

In some quarters, turbulence in these environments has been ginned up by a steady rejection of the threat of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and any expectation that vaccines are effective. [...]the anti-COVID-19 pandemic atmosphere has affected clinical oncology practice, generating healthcare information and commentaries that have been misleading, exploitative, and toxic (Fillon, 2022;Grimes, 2022;National Library of Medicine, 2021). [...]misinformation can give misplaced credibility to miracle cures and predatory providers touting unproven treatments (Fillon, 2022;Grimes, 2022). For these studies, so many variables can be the focus, such as target populations, influencers, clinical content, belief systems, patient attitudes and biases, disparities in healthcare access, and effective provider responses to erroneous information (Chou et al., 2020;Grimes, 2022, Hyatt et al., 2022;Teplinsky et al., 2022). * Continue to establish trust with our patients, so they depend on their oncology nurse as a source of reliable and accurate information.

European Libraries and Their Virtual Users: How the Pandemic Affected Digital Production and Participation

In the present article, we analyse the digital activity and behaviour of the European National Libraries and of their users on the most important social media, namely Facebook and Instagram, in a time window that covers the period before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. This activity was carried out within the framework of the Horizon 2020 European inDICEs project1 which aims to support libraries, museums and archives in developing digital strategies to experiment with engagement strategies driven by digital collections. The project is developing an Open Observatory, where GLAM professionals as well as creative industries, policy makers and researchers can find and analyse data on digital heritage accessibility and reuse, and explore case studies on novel value chains. In the article we present a specific use case based on National Libraries, which in the cultural heritage sector are among the most active institutions in digital services policies. Our aim is to understand how the Covid 19 pandemic has impacted the sector. After monitoring the National Libraries quantitative and qualitative level of digital activity in correlation with the forced wave of digitization led by the social-distancing policies, we have given a synthetic overview of the main findings, which regard, on one hand, a significant increase in online activities and followers of the social media pages in correspondence to the lockdown periods;on the other hand, we have observed passive participation of their users, with whom the institutions have shown they are unable to establish an active relationship, missing the chance to exploit the possibilities that the digital platforms can offer in terms of co-creation processes, digital community empowerment, development of new soft skills and shared knowledge resources. © 2022 Copyright for this paper by its authors.

Historical inclusion and exclusion: New Zealand archives as primary resources for historical research

Purpose>In response to the special issue call for papers on international sources for advertising and marketing history, this paper aims to provide information, this paper provides information on two prominent New Zealand archives: Archives New Zealand and the Alexander Turnbull Library (ATL).Design/methodology/approach>Archives New Zealand and the ATL were chosen as they are the two largest archives in New Zealand, and both have different but complementary roles – one for the preservation of government records and the other for the preservation of private collections. The history of each is provided as well as a discussion of relevant materials for marketing historians. This is followed by a discussion of the limitations of the archives with regards to their colonial contexts and potential for ignoring the “other” over the years.Findings>Archives New Zealand houses official government documents and thus occupational registrations, licences, trademarks, patents and copyright records are held, along with unique product design registration files and the complete history of health promotion in New Zealand. The ATL houses personal and thus biographically useful photographs, society records and minutes, personal letters and diaries, photos and glass plate negatives, portraits and paintings, architectural works and music.Originality/value>For researchers pursuing historical research in marketing, the archival documents offered by government archives and donated private collections from throughout the world provide invaluable resources. This paper also provides a discussion of the colonial focus on record-keeping and potential bias stemming from colonial structures of government and lack of representation of marginalised groups.

Digitised historic newspapers as a primary source for marketing historians

Purpose>This study aims to highlight the potential of digitised historic newspapers.Design/methodology/approach>This paper is a review of digitised historic newspapers as a primary source for marketing historians. It provides a survey of what is available internationally free of charge to the user. It also includes examples of the use of digitised historic newspapers drawn from the author’s own research.Findings>The paper reveals the huge potential for marketing historians of what is now available in a growing number of countries across the world. Much of this material is available free of charge to researchers with a connection to the internet.Originality/value>To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first paper to explore digitised historic newspapers as a primary source for marketing historians.

After COVID? Classical mechanics

COVID-19 has understandably been foremost in our minds over the last year and will continue to be for some time, but it is not the only urgent crisis that individuals, societies, and nations face. This essay looks at current events through the lens of Alvin Toffler’s publication The Third Wave, focusing especially on the accelerative nature of change today and how it increases complexity. Graeme Hawley, Head of General Collections at the National Library of Scotland, considers what accelerative change means in terms of the collections he is responsible for, and the extent to which COVID-19 is likely to impact accelerative change in the immediate future. The essay takes a broad look at topics that, although distinct in themselves, all share the qualities of velocity, and all seem to be happening at roughly the same time so that we can situate the post-COVID world in its fuller context. © 2021 David Baker and Lucy Ellis Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The Advocates Library, Edinburgh

In this article Sara Berry provides an account of some of the history relating to the Advocates Library in Edinburgh. She explains how the Advocates Library played a key role in the Scottish Enlightenment and acted as Scotland's national library up to the foundation of the National Library of Scotland in 1925. The article also looks at the library's integral role in supporting Faculty Members and the Scottish justice system through history to modern day. The last section looks at some of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on Members, library staff and working practices.

BEHAVIORAL PATTERN OF INFORMATION SEEKING USERS OF NATIONAL LIBRARY, KOLKATA

A library is an open system which in turn belongs to a subsystem of the education system, whose functions are dependent on the community concerned. The National Library plays a vital role in creating human resources and their development in our country. It is a life-long process in the appreciation of the achievement of humanity in knowledge and culture. It also helps in the replenishment of people's spirit by providing books for relaxation and pleasure, with assistance to the students. It performs a significant task in a developing country like India. The progress of a nation mainly depends on education, which provides to its citizens either through formal or non-formal means. In present study the behavioural pattern like their frequency of visit and dependence on the public library has been discussed with special reference to the National Library of India. The paper also explores the information seeking behaviour such as their purpose of visit, materials accessed during their visit to the National Library. The main objective of this study is to examine the services provided by National Library of India to its esteemed users.

Bridging the Gap

Facing many challenges of division in all aspects (social distancing, political and social divisions, remote work environments), University of South Florida Libraries took the lead in exploring how to overcome these various separations by providing access to its high-quality information sources to its local community and beyond. USFs purchases were informed by work at other institutions, such as the University of Minnesotas antiracism reading lists, which has in turn grown into a rich resource that includes other valuable resources like the Mapping Prejudice Project and a link to the Umbra Search.2 The Triad Black Lives Matter Protest Collection at the University of North Carolina Greensboro is another example of a cultural institution reacting swiftly to document, preserve, and educate.3 These new pages and lists being generated by libraries and cultural institutions seem to be curated by hand using tools that require human intervention to make them and keep them up to date. Umbra Search is a tool that aggregates content from more than 1,000 libraries, archives, and museums.4 It is also supported by high-profile grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the Council on Library and Information Resources. Despite enthusiasm from libraries and other cultural institutions, new purchases and curated content are not going to reach the world as fully as hoped. [...]libraries adopt open data formats in favor of locking away content in closed records like MARC, library and digital content will remain siloed from the internet.