Digital Libraries

Objective: The purpose of this study was analytical review of the book Designing the Digital Library, written by Mehdi Alipoor-Hafezi and published by SAMT in 2019 based on the criteria and standards of the university textbooks. The type of research was applied in terms of  purpose. As regarded method, it was a mixed-method approach. The analysis, review  and extraction of required data have been simultaneous. The checklist was used for assessing formal writing structure and content features on a Likert-type 5-pointed scale. Author's expertise in the field can be mentioned as the main advantage of the book. The textbook is the only work in Persian in the field of designing digital libraries. A separate chapter on legal  issues in digital libraries can also be considered as another positive point of this work. At the same time, this work has also notable points for improvement, the most important of which are   writing points. In general, the work in hand in terms of evaluation of formal writing structure and content criteria received scores of 46, 46, 63 and 63, respectively and achieved at least 70 percentage points, passing as a  book appealing to its audience. In spite of some defects and weaknesses, the studied textbook is one of few books on designing digital libraries and suitable for students and audience.

Purpose: The present research has been done with a view to evaluation and ranking of production and management of digital resources in the supply chain of digital libraries. Methodology: The present research is essentially an applied one and the method employed, has been descriptive survey based on Shanon Entropy and Fuzzy TOPSIS methods. Findings: According to our findings, the risks of “Collection development strategy of digital resources” with highest rate of Proximity Coefficient(PC)=%731 stand in the first place and then the other ones in order include: risks of “Management strategy of digital resources at libraries” with PC=%7186, “The high cost of technological changes of information carriers and storage formats” with PC=711 and “Competence of library software in detecting repetitious copies” with PC=%651. Conclusion: 26 risks for production and management of digital resources in the supply chain of digital libraries have been identified and amidst production and management risks of digital resources in the supply chain of digital libraries the risk of” Collection development strategy of digital resources” stands in the first place.

Purpose: The present paper aims at identifying and extracting the dimensions, components, and criteria of digital library evaluation based on experts` opinions and the 5S conceptual framework of Goncalves.Methodology: This was an applied, documentary, and survey research making the best use of the fuzzy Delphi method (to extract criteria and develop the conceptual model), forming a trinity in methodology. To refine the components, and criteria, 20 Iranian and foreign experts were polled about digital libraries in 3 stages. The results of each stage were refined based on Minkowski formula. This was an applied research since it presented the evaluation criteria of Iranian digital libraries, and its results can be practically used, enabling digital libraries to evaluate and examine their status quo, and accordingly plan and enhance their activities. It was a descriptive study based on the research design and data collection method. To gather the data, three methods were used: documentary study, fuzzy Delphi (to extract criteria and develop the conceptual model), and survey, creating a trinity in methodology. Findings: During the three stages of the experts` poll, in Stream component 4 criteria, Structure component 4, Space component 4, Scenario component 5 and in societies component 3 ones were refined and also the results of each stage were refined using the formulas of Cheng and Lin model and ultimately the experts agreed with each other on 20 criteria. Conclusion: A digital library evaluation model was designed with 5 dimensions (components), 20 criteria, and 50 sub-criteria. It was offered to all organizations and universities as an evaluation model for digital library performance examination, so that they properly perceive the efficiency and effectiveness of digital libraries and their services.

Purpose : Library users need to have integrated access to digital library content and services. Preparing these services needs syntactic and semantic interoperability infrastructure. Nowadays most digital library applications syntactically have the ability to exchange with each other. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to propose semantic integration architecture for digital libraries to enable them to prepare new semantic services for their users. Method : This study was carried out in the following steps: firstly research literature was collected and studied. Studying research literature helps the researcher to prepare a primary version of the checklist to collect data in this study. The next step aimed to survey the semantic interoperability ability of digital library management systems. In this regard, 26 Iranian digital library management systems were studied by the researcher-made checklist in the previous step. The studied digital library management systems have syntactic interoperability functionalities. Then this study’s semantic integration architecture was proposed according to the analysis and results of the study. Finally, the "demonstration" method was used to assess the proposed architecture. Findings : Findings showed that studied digital library management systems focused on textual materials and paid very little attention to other library information resource formats. Moreover, in many cases, the studied digital library systems did not fill the contents of semantically needed metadata fields. On average, they attempt to document metadata fields such as subject and keywords, by existing reference materials such as Library of Congress Subject Headings and subjective thesauruses that they needed. Conclusion : According to the findings, the architecture of the semantic integration model based on the results of this study was proposed with three data, inference machine, and application layers.