Bibliographic Classification in the Digital Age: Current Trends &amp; Future Directions

Khusro

2022

ITAL

Self Cite

Library and information science has been at an infant stage in Pakistan, primarily in resource management, description, discovery, and access. The reasons are many, including the lack of interest and use of modern tools, techniques, and best practices by librarians in Pakistan. Finding a solution to these challenges requires a comprehensive study that identifies the current state of libraries in Pakistan. This paper fills this gap in the literature by reviewing the relevant literature published between 2015 and 2021 and selected through a rigorous search and selection methodology. It also analyzes the websites of 82 libraries in Pakistan through a theoretical framework based on various aspects. The findings of this study include: Libraries in Pakistan need a transition from traditional and limited solutions to more advanced information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled, user-friendly, and state-of-the-art systems to produce dynamic, consumable, and sharable knowledge space. They must adopt social semantic cataloging to bring all the stakeholders on a single platform. A libraries consortium should be developed to link users to local, multilingual, and multicultural collections for improved knowledge production, recording, sharing, acquisition, and dissemination. These findings benefit Pakistani libraries, librarians, information science professionals, and researchers in other developing countries. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind providing insights into the current state of libraries in Pakistan through the study of their websites using a rigorous theoretical framework and in the light of the latest relevant literature.

Section: Resource Description Discovery and Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Library Management Practices in the Libraries of Pakistan

Khusro

2022

ITAL

Self Cite

“…The rich semantics of tables can be used in the bibliographic classification of a digital library's collection to increase the search width of the digital library. 96 Blind and visually impaired users can be assisted in using digital libraries, as they may need help at physical and cognitive levels. At the physical level, the blind may face difficulty in accessing information, identifying path and status, and efficiently evaluating information.…”

Section: Accessibility Of Digital Library Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accessibility of Tables in PDF Documents

Fayyaz

Khusro

2021

ITAL

Self Cite

People access and share information over the web and in other digital environments, including digital libraries, in the form of documents such as books, articles, technical reports, etc. These documents are in a variety of formats, of which the Portable Document Format (PDF) is most widely used because of its emphasis on preserving the layout of the original material. The retrieval of relevant material from these derivative documents is challenging for information retrieval (IR) because the rich semantic structure of these documents is lost. The retrieval of important units such as images, figures, algorithms, mathematical formulas, and tables becomes a challenge. Among these elements, tables are particularly important because they can add value to the resource description, discovery, and accessibility of documents not only on the web but also in libraries if they are made retrievable and presentable to readers. Sighted users comprehend tables for sensemaking using visual cues, but blind and visually impaired users must rely on assistive technologies, including text-to-speech and screen readers, to comprehend tables. However, these technologies do not pay sufficient attention to tables in order to effectively present tables to visually impaired individuals. Therefore, ways must be found to make tables in PDF documents not only retrievable but also comprehensible. Before developing such solutions, it is necessary to review the available assistive technologies, tools, and frameworks for their capabilities, strengths, and limitations from the comprehension perspective of blind and visually impaired people, along with suitable environments like digital libraries. We found no such review article that critically and analytically presents and evaluates these technologies. To fill this gap in the literature, this review paper reports on the current state of the accessibility of PDF documents, digital libraries, assistive technologies, tools, and frameworks that make PDF tables comprehensible and accessible to blind and visually impaired people. The study findings have implications for libraries, information sciences, and information retrieval.

“…Thematic Digital Universities are similar to digital libraries, and focus on creating and indexing OER, as well as improving learning in the information age. 8 Although Thematic Digital libraries are mostly comprised of OER, they also develop complete training programs with some of these resources (e.g., Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs). They are partners with Canal-U, the video library for higher education, as well as the French national platform for Massive Open Online Courses (FUN-MOOC).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ontology for the User-Learner Profile Personalizes the Search Analysis of Online Learning Resources

Kordahi

2022

ITAL

We hope to contribute to the field of research in information technology and digital libraries by analyzing the connections between Thematic Digital Universities and digital user-learner profiles. Thematic Digital Universities are similar to digital libraries, and focus on creating and indexing open educational resources, as well as improving learning in the information age. The digital user profile relates to the digital representation of a person’s identity and characteristics. In this paper we present the design of an ontology for the digital User-Learner Profile (OntoULP) and its application program. OntoULP is used to structure a user-learner’s digital profile. The application provides each user-learner with tailor-made analyses based on informational behaviors, needs, and preferences. We rely on an exploratory research approach and on methods of ontologies, user modeling, and semantic matching to design the OntoULP and its application program. Any user-learner could use the OntoULP and its application program.