Openness, resource sharing and digitalization – an examination of the current trends in Finland

Abstract

Purpose Although resource sharing between scholars is evolving rapidly, This paper uses paper-based interlibrary lending (ILL) procedures in the service repertoire of academic libraries. However, the current business model of acquiring toll-access journals and e-books does not seem to fit very well with traditional ILL practices. In addition, the new models of peer-to-peer resource sharing between academics seem to be much more effective than ILL. Scholars arrange access to the needed publications by using legal (buying, exchanging) and illegal means (Sci-Hub, etc.). Furthermore, the demands for open access have increased, voiced not only by librarians and science funders but also by politicians. This development might change the scholarly publication ecosystem, even though older publications are still likely to remain closed. Design/methodology/approach This paper contrasts the ILL and usage statistics of Finnish university libraries with the use of ResearchGate, a popular academic social network, which we treat as an example of a peer-to-peer sharing service. Findings Based on the data, there seems to be a change of paradigm in the resource sharing: the traditional ILL seems to be decreasing and becoming more like a niche service and the digital use and use of social media peer-to-peer resource sharing applications seem to increase rapidly. Originality/value The paper examines current resource sharing trends. The analysis is based on the data of Finnish resource sharing, interlibrary lending and ResearchGate usage.

Factors affecting the adoption of integrated semantic digital libraries (SDLs): a systematic review

“…User-centered approaches, personalized subject category service, personalized assistance to users in finding required content (Kao and Wu, 2012), social network-centric perspectives, open access movement (Cole et al. , 2017; Saarti and Touminen, 2021), meaningful connections among individuals in a unified discovery place, support in teaching and learning via interactive and engaging ways (Pattuelli and Miller, 2015), emerging smart technologies, bridging the gap between the services offered by the libraries and the rapidly changing and competing needs of the humans, data curation (Gul and Bano, 2019), perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use (Yan et al. , 2016), the effectiveness of learning process, powerful and flexible collection management capabilities and knowledge-rich contents representation were key factors in motivating library leadership to adopt integrated semantic digital libraries to satisfy changing needs of the users' community (He et al.…”

“…Various benefits of semantic technologies encouraged library professionals to adopt integrated semantic digital library systems in organizations. Sharing of the material, collaborative research groups, saving of time, change of paradigm in resource sharing, and provision of relevant information attracted information professionals towards the implementation of SDLs (Burke, 2009; Khan and Bhatti, 2018; Saarti and Touminen, 2021). Development of repositories, storage of educational materials, smart library services, digital resource sharing, and rapid location of resources within a taxonomic structure provided perceived usefulness to the library professionals to revamp library services through the adoption of semantic technologies (Garcia et al.…”

“…Other challenges included the embryonic stage of institutional plans (Warraich and Rorissa, 2020); ambiguity and lack of formalization of resource descriptions, isolation of datasets that impede more exhaustive searches and the difficulty to carry out conceptual searches and navigation, lack of consensus between overlapping vocabularies, were hurdles that had to overcome to facilitate the access of users to semantic web resources (Morato et al. , 2013), manual paper based records (Shibambu and Marutha, 2022), traditional mind set (Saarti and Touminen, 2021), unauthorized access, plagiarism (Khan et al ., 2022), unwilling to change (Nejad et al., 2020), and financial constraints (Khezri et al., 2022).…”

“…Cloud computing, documented policies, proactive role of academic librarians, centralized eco-system, quality library system, technical support and a user-centric approach should be followed in SDLs Solomou and Koutsomitropoulos (2015), Nejad et al. (2020), Saarti and Touminen (2021), Khan et al . (2022), Khezri et al.…”

Didactical Transposition within Reflective Practice of an Indonesian Mathematics Teacher Community: A Case in Proving the Pythagorean Theorem Topic

“…The teacher trainer was accessing scholarly knowledge on proving Pythagorean theorem topic in literature such as books, articles, and scientific reviews from reputable scientific journals in digital form. Dissemination of the research findings as the university products in digitalisation has been progressing and becoming trends in various countries (Saarti & Tuominen, 2020;Moeini, Rahrovani & Chan, 2019).…”