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Welcome to Volume 13, issue 1 of eLucidate for Spring 2016.
There is some fascinating and thought-provoking reading for you in this issue. Karen Blakeman argues that, while knowledge of alternative search tools is vital, it is no longer sufficient to have advanced search expertise; that information professionals require savvy appraisal skills and a better understanding of how search outputs are generated and manipulated. She also raises the issue of the “right to be forgotten” and the impact that is having on excluding potentially critical information from search results.
Michael Upshall introduces the great semantic Diffbot debate, yet another initiative to extract meaning from the web. But does it?
Martin White, playing devil’s advocate, also touches on “search” asking the pertinent question: do intranet managers really need an information architecture, or is click and search the way to go? Search-driven versus menu-driven? A useful debate to revisit.
UKeiG has addressed many issues impacting on research activity over the years: most notably Open Access, copyright and intellectual property, but also search tools and advanced information retrieval skills. A key theme of this issue is scholarly digital publishing and research impact evaluation tools. The Library Research Services Team at the University of Hull provide a practical overview of bibliometrics and the associated commercial and public domain e-resources utilised to support this activity. Bibliometrics has immense value in academia and across all sectors, but has drawbacks as well as benefits. Altmetrics - the impact of social media on research visibility (who is talking about YOUR research?) – is featured and is one theme we will revisit in more depth in a future issue. Michael Upshall also touches on social networking, and highlights a key report about changing resource discovery behaviour amongst researchers. How do scholars find articles in 2016? Is traditional A&I on the decline? He also provides oversight of scholarly publication processes, and charts the rise of the library as publisher.
UKeiG was proud to be one of the supporters of the first LISDIS (Library and Information Science Dissertations) conference, held at the University of Huddersfield on 14th November 2015. The organisers explain the rationale behind the event and highlight some of the themes from the day. In future issues we hope to support this initiative by showcasing the fascinating e-information research undertaken by students across the UK LIS education sector.
In a time of escalating international crises, with the systematic destruction of cultural heritage in conflict zones, Chloe Menown, the recipient of UKeiG’s Early Career Professional conference grant, reflects on the destruction of libraries. She left me thinking that there must be a greater urgency to drive forward digital preservation through advanced imaging technologies and digitisation projects. She also touches on the de-professionalisation of staff in public libraries, raising how this could exacerbate the digital divide; the e-information have and have-nots. Again, food for thought for future issues of elucidate.
I’d like to thank all of our contributors. Each article is rich in cross-references to useful follow-up documents and more detailed web content. The UKeiG management committee is keen to receive your feedback and to hear your recommendations for future articles. We’d be delighted to hear about any projects or research you have underway. Drop me an email if you’d like to contribute any article. Notes for contributors are included at the end of this issue.
Gary Horrocks
Editor, eLucidate
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In this issue:
eLucidate 13 (1) Spring 2016 (Whole issue as PDF)