Group Four

Foundation of Information Science Group Project

Abubeker Ali and Fikerte Alemayehu

11/30/2018
Abstract
Academic libraries are one of the most basic and powerful information centers, many of these
institutions in developing countries are still providing access to physical collections and they are
not yet shifted to automated catalog and digital libraries. Many challenges and influences are
affecting the role of Academic libraries in providing access using different information
infrastructures in global environment, in this paper we tried to discuss four challenges (i.e.
Invisible infrastructure, Content and collections, Preservation and access, and Institutional
boundaries) and also we have discussed a possible strategies which can enhance the role of
academic libraries in providing access and services in global environment using different
information infrastructures in order to overcome those challenges and also we discussed possible
outcomes if they (academic libraries) properly apply the strategies we design.

Acronyms and Abbreviation

GII-global information infrastructure.
ILS-Integrated library system.
MARC-Machine readable catalog
URL-Uniform resource locator

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INTRODUCTION
Global information infrastructure means using different information infrastructure (like
telecommunication network ,transmission medium and delivering tool ) to create communication
in order to enhance way of living , way of thinking ,way of communicating and way of
developing once own information need throughout the world or Globally. When we say GII it’s
supposed to reach the global community and allow different information centers to provide
information access and to share ideas and information’s globally.

In today’s world Libraries are, but one of many institutions that could no longer function without
computer networks, at least in the developed world. Libraries depend upon computer networks as
a means to provide access to local and remote information resources (Borgman, 2003). And there
is paradigm shift from Traditional library to integrated library system (ILS), this shift is not still
happen in academic or any type of libraries in developing and under-developing countries since
there is big information gap, lack of trained expertise and lack of budgets in those countries.

Integrated library systems (i.e., automated systems that support core processing functions such as
acquisitions, serials, cataloging, and circulation) offer a familiar example of an infrastructure
within an organization. Library with ILS means integrating all library services and activities with
in single database as shown in the figure below.

CATALOGING

CIRCULATION

OPAC
ILS Database

Figure 1Integrated Library system

SERIAL CONTROL

ACQUISITION

As shown in the figure 1 traditional/manual library service are transformed into integrated library
system and use single Database to operate in cooperation and to provide services to patron.

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In general, it is obvious that in order to have best libraries and information centers with efficiently
and effectively functional routine, in providing access to different services and in satisfying their
users and to operate in global environment the libraries must start using different information
infrastructures (i.e. advanced Hardware and software’s, communication network and protocol)
and recruit expertise to overcome any challenges and to be competitive in global environment.

1. Challenges
There are a lot of challenges which restrict and force Libraries from addressing and providing
effective services, and in determining their present and future roles in their nation’s information
infrastructure and in a global information infrastructure. Academic libraries should play key roles
in the emerging global information infrastructure. To do so, they must address a number of
complex challenges.

Those challenges are:-

 Invisible infrastructure
 Content and collections
 Preservation and access
 Institutional boundaries

1.1 Invisible infrastructure

Infrastructure means basic physical and organizational structure needed for the operation of
society. From this definition we started point out what physical and organizational library
structures are invisible while there is still well operated process in providing service to their
patrons. The reason behind this challenge is the emerging of integrated and digital library service,
due to this the physical library building of academic libraries with its physical collections is
invisible to digital library patrons/users.

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In Addition to this some of the activities/function in traditional libraries are victim of being
invisible.

Some of invisible information infrastructure in academic libraries can be:-

 Many of library user may not be aware on physical contents of the library since some of
academic libraries are start providing digital services .If users/patrons get materials online
and access to automated catalog they don’t think about the physical collections of the
libraries, so there will be physically invisible collections in Academic libraries.
 Acquisition: Acquiring material is basic task accomplished with in the library, there are
lot of activity to be done in order to receive a material either through donation or
purchasing.
For instance:-
1. Acquisition department start process of obtaining documents by identifying the
material to be purchased or to be received through donation including donator.
2. Purchase order:-the actual process of acquiring documents by creating orders,
generating orders from approved suggestions, checking pending orders, and
lastly, receiving documents.
 Cataloging:-creating bibliographical information/meta data is also function of library which
is invisible infrastructure. Here this task of Academic libraries needs a lot of tough
processes in which users are not aware of (i.e. how to create metadata’s which are important
for searching materials) but they use it(metadata’s) to find the basic information of materials
and shelf location of the material.
 the invisible infrastructure can create a lot of impact on physical collections of academic
library:-
 Minimization in allocation of budgets.
 Minimization in properly preserving and protecting materials from different
natural hazards (i.e. there may me exposing material to light).
 Minimization in professional and para-professional expertise due to the integration
of digital library systems and services since much of the activity can be done with
less number of expertise, with less effort and with short period of time.

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 1.2. Content and collections
Traditionally, Academic libraries need to use different mechanisms and processes (i.e.
acquisition) to collect any type of material to their collection, and also they provide means to
access the content of physical collections.

According to Buckland’s (1992) collections in side libraries are collected for many purpose:-

 Preservation (keeping materials for the future, as they may be unavailable if not collected
at the time of their creation).
 Dispensing (providing access to their contents).
 Bibliographic (identifying what exists on a topic).
 Symbolic (conferring status and prestige on the institution).

There are a lot of challenges related to content and collection of Academic Libraries, perhaps
much of problem related to content and collection are resolved through different strategies
through incorporating global information infrastructure related to Automation and Digital
Libraries.

Any academic library with physical collection may not have enough collection to satisfy their
users, due to this challenge libraries need to shift way of service delivering into digital and online
service in order to satisfy their patron and also this can allow the libraries to participate in global
service deliveries.

On the one hand it is obvious that the impact of automation and Digital Libraries are massive on
accessing, delivering and managing collection of academic libraries in order to satisfy the patron,
On the other hand many of academic libraries provide access using physical collection but not
good enough to satisfy user information need.

The other issue is the need to maintain coherence of library collections (Lynch, 1999).
Descriptions (and sometimes content) of journal articles, for example, can be found
in catalogs, indexing and abstracting databases, and digital libraries. Users want to
identify articles of interest and to move seamlessly from bibliographic references to
the full text, and from references in those texts directly to the full content of the cited

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articles. Sometimes they also wish to link directly to primary sources on which the
articles are based. Efforts at improving the coherence of collections include the CrossRef
initiative (http://www.crossref.org) developed by a consortium of major scholarly publishers to
link citations using Digital Object Identifiers (http://www.doi.org), and the Open
Archives Initiative (OAI)(Borgman,2003). CrossRef allows users to follow citations across the
boundaries of individual publishers, while the OAI enables libraries to make their
digital collections more widely available in a standard form (Lagoze & Van de
Sompel, 2001).

1.3. Preservation and Access

The physical collection inside academic libraries are too old and crumbling mostly in developing
and under developing countries, so it is difficult to preserve properly from natural hazards(i.e.
Temperature), and maintain continual migration to new formats and new media as they become
available. And convert them into electronic format in order to extend their usage, life and access
of any collection inside academic libraries. There was project done in order to preserve the
collection of academic library, the name of project is "retrospective conversion" which aims to
convert bibliographic records from their present form such as shelf list cards or a brief circulation
record to full machine-readable (MARC) bibliographic records. Conversion is done by
"matching" a library's old records (whether on cards or in a non-MARC format) to a database of
full records in machine readable form. This conversion is difficult since much of the collection are
too old, some parts of material are crumble and slightly or fully damaged, with in this kind of
situation and challenges it’s hard to increase the role of academic libraries without using global
information infrastructure in global environment.

On the other hand, lack of consistent URL is also another challenge which affect academic
libraries from providing services using different information infrastructure in global environment.
As we all know that online resources are most commonly identified by URLs (Uniform Resource
Locators), (Berners-Lee, Masinter, & McCahill, 1994). URLs identify a location, rather than a
document, and thus are far less stable than bibliographic references, so simple change in any of
home page or URL will automatically direct the user to other location, when a new content is
added the previous home page will updated so with in this kind of situation the user may not find
the information they looking for.

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In general, nowadays a lot of collection inside academic libraries have been brought and
converted into automated catalog and digital libraries using Global information infrastructure (i.e.
Z39.50 protocol for importing Bibliographic information from other library in MARC format )
,since no need to re-invent the wheel, and also using different automation and digital library open
source software’s).

1.4. Institutional boundaries

Academic Libraries are mostly collect published books, periodicals, journals and institutional
repositories (i.e. Thesis and dissertations), the libraries kept all these materials with in boundaries.
In a world of physical materials, access was determined by physical space: users had to decide
which building to enter. Access mechanisms like catalogs are located inside the buildings. If the
user/patron want to access to those material they are supposed to enter the buildings or the
boundaries unless the libraries didn’t support digital/online library.

Information institutions like Academic libraries face similar concerns, such as the risk of
becoming an invisible part of the infrastructure, due to the changing nature of collections,
boundaries are blurring between the collections and services provided by these institutions and
other entities, and preservation and access for contents.

Almost all of academic libraries in developing countries works on intranet (networking

environment with in boundaries) , so with this nature of network most of the time academic
libraries can get difficulty in providing information infrastructure to other information centers in
global environment using global information infrastructure .For instance ,if we want to retrieve
any bibliographic information or catalog on any web search engine we couldn’t get any result
because search engines retrieve web pages , since the database of most academic libraries are
localized in intranet network and the difficulty of establishing context for searching.

Academic libraries must start providing access for everyone who need to use it instead of giving
almost all of library services with in confined boundaries, in order to address this challenges the
libraries must start using integrated libraries and providing services for almost all users inside or
outside their buildings.

In conclusion, GII have various importance in facilitating, providing access and delivering
different information service for different types of libraries and information centers globally. For

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instance if we see one function of library , inter-library loan(Advanced loan) using this function
of ILS in academic library allow patrons/users to borrow and access any kind of material outside
their boundary or library building through different information infrastructure(like network and
protocol) and communication technologies between the libraries.

2. Strategies and Outcomes

Basic functions of Academic libraries specially cataloging and acquisition are tough and
time taking process they needs a lot of effort to be accomplished and all these activities
became invisible due to the emerging of digital libraries, and also the library patron are
not aware of all those processes .

All those invisibility and challenges bring a lot of impact as stated above, due to this there should
be some kind of strategies to protect academic libraries from number of challenges and to allow
the library to operate in Global environment in order satisfy users information needs.

 Some of strategies proposed to overcome challenges which affect the role of academic
libraries to provide services using different infrastructures in global environment :-
 Using academic libraries with old physical collection as part of nation’s museums and
historical center beside to delivering service.
 Design very attractive environment, rooms and buildings confined with proper
ordering of collections.
 Recruit most talented and humble expertise in the area, who can satisfy information
needs of patrons and who can play great role in achieving mission of libraries.
 Academic libraries must address the issue of preserving physical collection and
providing better access to patrons through applying integrated library system.
 Academic libraries must regularly convert physical collection into automated catalog
and digital libraries using Global information infrastructure (i.e. Z39.50 protocol for
importing Bibliographic information from other library in MARC format) and also
using different automation and digital library open source software’s).
 In addition to the above by using advanced technologies academic libraries can create
flexible way of providing library services outside their boundaries, beside service to
physical collection, in order to satisfy global community’s information need without
any restriction.

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Academic libraries can benefit, if they properly applied strategies mentioned above and they can
provide balanced and adequate service, some of outcomes can be:-

 There will be integrated automated catalog and digital library with attractive physical
collections.
 Global information infrastructures can play great role in enhancing the visibility of the
library in global environment in order to provide adequate service to their library users or
patrons at the right time, even if it took too much time to accomplish the task.
 The academic library can get additional incomes and benefits from building and designing
museums using old physical collections beside its service delivery.
 The user of academic library can benefit from ILS (i.e. through different automations and
digital library software) with attractive physical library environment in order to satisfy
patrons globally, and library can have good image in global environment.
 It may increase the demand of library in term of receiving physical collection from
international donator.

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3. Conclusion and summary

Information centers play great role in providing access and services to any information seeker.
Libraries are one of the most basic information centers, Academic libraries are one of different
libraries which involve in providing access (manly physical collection) to library users. Now
days there is paradigm shift to online technologies and digital libraries but, many challenges
affect the role of Academic libraries in providing access using global information infrastructure
in global environment. Many of challenges are discussed in the paper, Lack of skilled expertise
in the area can trigger the challenges happen in academic libraries in addition to technological
backwardness. Academic libraries are one of many institutions, which cannot operate without
the aid of technologies specially internet so they have to be part of global environment by
using global information infrastructure. Libraries should explore different strategies which can
enhance their role in global environment, for instance preserving physical collection and design
attractive environment with full of infrastructure to boost patrons information need. Through
different strategies, academic libraries can get a lot of outcome including the image of library
in global environment.

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References
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Locators (URL).
Borgman, C. L. (2003). The Invisible Library: Paradox of the Global Information Infrastructure, Vol.
51, No. 4, Spring 2003, pp. 652-674
Buckland, M. K. (1992).Redesigning library smices: A man@sLo. Chicago: American Library
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Lagoze, C., &Van de Sompel, H. (2001).The Open Archives Initiative: Building a low-barrier
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1997 (pp. 85-97). Chicago, IL: American LibraIy Association, 1999.

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