Library Jargon Creates Barriers for Potential Users of Health Library and Information Services.

This paper is based on Helen Kiely's Masters dissertation on MA in Library and Information Service Management, successfully completed at the University of Sheffield in 2018. The aim of the study was to explore the extent to which users of a health care library service understood common terminology used by clinical librarians/information professionals. A survey was developed based on the terminology used for common services and was distributed to staff and students at an acute NHS Foundation Trust. One hundred and eight people participated over a four week period and were asked to provide definitions to the terms. Analysis of the responses for accuracy and common themes indicates that jargon can be a barrier to user access and recommendations are made with respect to the need for outreach to users and the language used in this practice for creating better accessibility. F.J.

A COVID-19 e o setor de bibliotecas em termos mundiais / COVID-19 and the library sector worldwide

Principais recursos das Bibliotecas para reagir à pandemia do coronavírus As informações e recursos abaixo são fornecidos de forma não exaustiva e serão atualizados periodicamente. Baseiam-se em informações disponíveis ao público e em informações enviadas para updates@ifla.org. Agradecemos a contribuição de mais ideias, referências, sugestões e correções, que podem ser encaminhadas para o mencionado endereço eletrônico. Veja também as nossas Perguntas Frequentes, especificamente em relação à IFLA.

Mixed-methods library evaluation integrating the patron, library, and external perspectives: The case of Namibia regional libraries.

The article presents a mixed-methods evaluation of regional libraries in Namibia, which incorporates three perspectives: the patron perspective (library users), the library perspective (library staff, management, and related officials), and the external perspective (including evaluators and monitoring data). Seven data collection methods were used: patron surveys, patron panel studies, focus group discussions, key informant and staff interviews, secondary data analysis, media analysis, and observations. The goal of the evaluation was to assess library performance for both formative and summative purposes by addressing evaluation questions on areas such as library services, use, and operations. Building upon the literature review of how mixed-methods approaches can contribute to library evaluation, the aim of this article is to show how a mixed-methods evaluation can be designed to examine multi-faceted library performance and to illustrate how the evaluation design allows information complementarity and can be utilized to present diverse viewpoints of the above three perspectives. The evaluation design, analysis process, and lessons learned from this study may be useful to evaluators engaged in evaluation of public services or programs (including public libraries) that examine multiple aspects of service performance and involve a variety of stakeholders.

Las bibliotecas públicas por el desarrollo sostenible / Public libraries for sustainable development

Las bibliotecas públicas son instituciones socioculturales comprometidas con el desarrollo sostenible. Desde el siglo XIX sus servicios generan beneficios en las comunidades y cuentan con su plena participación. En el marco de la agenda 2030, las bibliotecas públicas demuestran su valor e influencia en el desarrollo informacional y social de individuos, grupos e instituciones. En ese sentido, se identifican los objetivos de la agenda 2030 de las Naciones Unidas y se exponen las principales direcciones de trabajo de las bibliotecas públicas en torno al desarrollo sostenible basado en el método de análisis documental. Dicha exposición se realiza en función de cuatro dimensiones: acceso abierto y participación ciudadana, inclusión, cohesión, empoderamiento y desarrollo local, identidad y memoria, y espacios y actuaciones sostenibles. Esto permite advertir la diversificación de las actuaciones de las bibliotecas públicas y reafirmar su relevancia junto a otras instituciones públicas en la edificación de sociedades sostenibles(AU)

Public libraries are sociocultural institutions committed to sustainable development. Since the nineteenth century, public libraries services generate benefits in the communities with their full participation. In the framework of the 2030 agenda, public libraries demonstrate their value and influence in the informational and social development of individuals, groups and institutions. In this sense, the goals of the United Nations 2030 agenda are identified and the main work directions of public libraries regarding sustainable development are exposed based on the documentary analysis method. This exhibition is based on four dimensions: open access and citizen participation; inclusion, cohesion, empowerment and local development; identity and memory; and spaces and sustainable performance. The analysis of these dimensions allows to notice the diversification of the performance of public libraries and reaffirm their relevance with other public institutions in the building of sustainable societies(AU)

La calidad de la biblioteca universitaria y sus ventajas para la formación en educación superior / Quality of university library and its advantages for higher education training

Introducción: en las instituciones de educación superior, las bibliotecas son un componente esencial para el cumplimiento de los objetivos de formación e investigación, en tal sentido la calidad debe convertirse en una aspiración de la biblioteca universitaria. Objetivo: identificar los elementos teóricos relacionados con la calidad de las bibliotecas y los métodos, técnicas o instrumentos para la gestión de la calidad en bibliotecas universitarias. Métodos: el estudio tiene un carácter teórico, por lo cual se realizó una revisión bibliográfica basada en el análisis documental de fuentes de información en soporte impreso y digital para obtener información relacionada con las bibliotecas universitarias, normas y estándares para su funcionamiento y herramientas para la gestión de la calidad. Conclusiones: la exigencia de la calidad de los servicios universitarios impone a la biblioteca universitaria plantearse la evaluación y la gestión de la calidad como tareas necesarias(AU)

Introduction: in higher education institutions, libraries are an essential component for the fulfillment of training and research objectives- In this respect, quality must become an aspiration for the university library. Objective: to identify the theoretical elements related to the quality of libraries and the methods, techniques or instruments for quality management in university libraries. Methods: this study has a theoretical character, for which a literature review was carried out based on document analysis of information sources in printed and digital format in order to obtain information related to university libraries, norms and standards for the functioning, and tools for quality management. Conclusions: the demand for the quality of university services requires from the university library to consider evaluation and quality management as necessary tasks(AU)

The experience of educational quality in undergraduate nursing students: a phenomenological study.

AIM: The evaluation of academic education has become crucial in the European Union since the Bologna Process encouraged all European universities to reach high quality standards in education. Although several studies have been conducted on the quality of undergraduate nursing education, few studies have explored this topic from the students' perspective. The purpose of this study was to describe the experience of educational quality in undergraduate nursing students. METHOD: The phenomenological method was used to study 55 students (mean age 24 years; 73% female) pursuing a baccalaureate degree in nursing in three universities in central Italy. RESULTS: The following five themes emerged from the phenomenological analysis: 1) quality of faculties: teaching skills, preparation, sensitivity to students, self-discipline; 2) theory-practice integration and communication between teaching and clinical area; 3) general management and organization of the programme; 4) quality of infrastructures: libraries, classrooms, information technology, services, administration, and communication; and 5) clinical tutorship: humanity, relationships and ability of the clinical tutor to guide and support. CONCLUSION: This study's novel finding was a deeper understanding of the educational quality's meanings among undergraduate nursing students. Students thought educational quality consisted of the faculty members' sensitivity towards their problems and the clinical tutors' humanity, interpersonal skills, guidance and support.

Fungal spore concentrations in indoor and outdoor air in university libraries, and their variations in response to changes in meteorological variables.

The fungal spore concentration (FSC) in the air poses a risk for human health. This work studied the FSC in university libraries and how it is affected by environmental factors. A total of 347 samples were obtained using a Microbio MB2(®) Aerosol Sampler. The wind speed (WS), cross wind (CW), temperature (T), relative humidity (HR), barometric pressure (BP) and dew point (DP) were recorded using a Kestrel(®) 4500 weather station. The median indoor/outdoor FSC was 360/1230 CFU m(-3). FSC correlated inversely with BP, HR and DP; and positively with WS and CW; whereas T showed negative or positive correlation with FSC, depending on the region or sampling time. Eleven fungal genera were found and the dominant isolates were identified as Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus tamarii and Aspergillus oryzae. All fungi identified are known to be allergenic. It was concluded that environmental variables can influence the air FSC in different ways.

Today's medical knowledge. Evolution of data exchange between tradition and globalization.

The authors historically review bibliographic research concepts and define globalization in time. Moreover, recent free online data exchange is important in terms of medical progress, scientific updating and patient-care improving. In the author's opinion, data globalization is favoring medical knowledge flow even more. The concept of a traditional library has radically changed over time, gradually missing their pivotal role in research activity. To date, the birth of the Internet and its sudden development has given a great boost to the spread of worldwide information, quickly and cheaply. Nevertheless, besides the advantages, the Internet also hides misleading risks. In this paper, the professional Medline source is compared to common Internet sources. The authors state that Internet sources have a great importance in the spread of medical knowledge. They conclude, however, that the risk of too much available information could lead to a decrease in quality.

Web quality control for lectures: Supercourse and Amazon.com.

Peer review has been at the corner stone of quality control of the biomedical journals in the past 300 years. With the emergency of the Internet, new models of quality control and peer review are emerging. However, such models are poorly investigated. We would argue that the popular system of quality control used in Amazon.com offers a way to ensure continuous quality improvement in the area of research communications on the Internet. Such system is providing an interesting alternative to the traditional peer review approaches used in the biomedical journals and challenges the traditional paradigms of scientific publishing. This idea is being explored in the context of Supercourse, a library of 2,350 prevention lectures, shared for free by faculty members from over 150 countries. Supercourse is successfully utilizing quality control approaches that are similar to Amazon.com model. Clearly, the existing approaches and emerging alternatives for quality control in scientific communications needs to be assessed scientifically. Rapid explosion of internet technologies could be leveraged to produce better, more cost effective systems for quality control in the biomedical publications and across all sciences.

Electronic health record meets digital library: a new environment for achieving an old goal.

Linking the electronic health record to the digital library is a Web-era reformulation of the long-standing informatics goal of seamless integration of automated clinical data and relevant knowledge-based information to support informed decisions. The spread of the Internet, the development of the World Wide Web, and converging format standards for electronic health data and digital publications make effective linking increasingly feasible. Some existing systems link electronic health data and knowledge-based information in limited settings or limited ways. Yet many challenging informatics research problems remain to be solved before flexible and seamless linking becomes a reality and before systems become capable of delivering the specific piece of information needed at the time and place a decision must be made. Connecting the electronic health record to the digital library also requires positive resolution of important policy issues, including health data privacy, government encouragement of high-speed communications, electronic intellectual property rights, and standards for health data and for digital libraries. Both the research problems and the policy issues should be important priorities for the field of medical informatics.

Health care information services in Ireland.

Against a background of fundamental change in the Irish health care environment, a research project was commissioned to determine the information needs of all health care practitioners (including physicians, allied health professionals, managers, scientists, and technicians) as well as the public, patients, and their caregivers. The research, including a study of international best practice, revealed serious deficiencies in access, awareness, and availability of information for both staff and patients in Ireland. Recommendations include the establishment of a panel to develop a comprehensive national health information strategy and plan to coordinate the future development of health sciences information services.