Alexandria: The Journal of National and International Library and Information Issues

This article reports a study of the literature of national libraries, as evidenced by the content of three bibliographic databases – Library and Information Science Abstracts, Library and Information Science and Technology Abstracts and Web of Science – for 2014–2015. The results, which are neither comprehensive nor systematic, give an indication of the size of the literature, the sources, languages of publication, authorship pattern and content. The aim is to gain an overview of what is happening, currently, within publications from, and about, national libraries. The study suggests that the national library literature comprises about 100 items annually; the smallest body of literature for any of the main sectors of librarianship. This literature shows a Bradford scatter, with 94 journals and a few book and proceedings sources identified in this study. The main language of publication is English, although a variety of European languages are represented. National libraries worldwide are covered, with a focus on reports from Europe, North America and Australasia. Content is concentrated on general descriptions of libraries and their services, on collections and documents and on technology issues. Digital curation is a major part of 20% of the set. Issues of dataset curation per se have no almost presence in this set of national library literature.

Twenty-first-century researchers are applying new methods of computational analysis, such as topic modelling, to data retrieved from library catalogues. Consequently, libraries should understand the way in which their metadata delivery decisions impact on the potential use of the collection. This article is an account of digital humanities research in the collection of the New Zealand Cartoon Archive at the Alexander Turnbull Library, using the Digital New Zealand application program interface to test the current metadata delivery system. The article is therefore essentially a case study with some suggestions that may have wider applicability. Greater transparency needs to occur in the nature and extent of the digital offering, the data offered needs to be checked for usability and it needs to be considered as one of many offerings made to researchers. We propose listening to researcher feedback, thereby extending the life cycle of digital data beyond monodirectional delivery. Furthermore, because many issues are not discovered until metadata is unlocked for reuse, we argue that it is beholden on libraries either to seek the feedback of researchers analysing their data or to road-test their own metadata’s structure and delivery.

The University of Oxford’s institutional repository for data, Oxford University Research Archive (ORA)-Data, was launched in May 2015. This article describes a current-state assessment of ORA-Data in relation to the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) policy framework on research data and offers some future directions in implementing a more systemic lifecycle approach to research data curation at the University of Oxford with reference to the Digital Curation Centre’s Curation Lifecycle Model. Insights into the attitudes and requirements of EPSRC-funded researchers at the university in relation to research data management, from a survey we conducted, are explored. Descriptive metadata and identifiers, preservation actions, access, use and reuse and community engagement are considered. ORA-Data is positioned within the wider context of Oxford’s research data management roadmap.

National cum public library services were set up in Tanzania and in a number of other African countries just before or shortly after independence. In addition to being the national public library service, the Tanzania Library Services Board (TLSB) is a legal deposit library and produces the national bibliography. Starting from virtually nothing, TLSB was operating purpose-built libraries in the main urban centres by the mid-1970s. It received much support from the Tanzanian government and from foreign donors up until then, but afterwards the financial situation became more difficult. However, 50 years after its introduction, TLSB operates 21 regional, 18 district, and one divisional library. It has approximately 400 staff. Like other national public library services in Africa, the main challenge has been to extend service to the rural areas where the majority of the population live. A newer challenge is to adapt a traditional service to the environment of young Tanzanians growing up with the mobile phone and the internet.

This article reports on work in progress within the Standing Committee of International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)’s National Libraries Section to develop up-to-date IFLA guidelines for national libraries to supersede the previous published United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) standard (Sylvestre, 1987). The article notes there is no standard or prescriptive definition for the concept of ‘national library’: national libraries exist in a multiplicity of forms determined not least by the size, cultural history and economic development of the country they serve. Nevertheless there has been much written on the functions of national libraries and the literature in this area is reviewed. Thus, the Standing Committee agreed that it would be inappropriate to seek to develop updated guidelines or standards for national libraries that would be prescriptive: rather, it was thought that the adoption of an empirical approach, providing a wide range of exemplars and case studies of actual national library practice, would provide the national library community with a useful development toolkit. An initial pilot study to collate exemplars/case studies from 12 participating national libraries was undertaken in spring 2015. The output of the pilot study tabulated in an annex to this article constitutes an indicative inventory of national library best practice case studies, and for this reason it was thought that its wider dissemination here would be of professional interest. Finally the article reports on the next steps currently being undertaken via an online survey to document comprehensively and at a high level of granularity the functions currently being undertaken by national libraries.