digital¡. Fifth strategic plan for UPC libraries 2012-2014

Postprint (published version)

Public libraries: adapting to the digitised environment. An interview with John Lake

During John Lake's visit to Barcelona to take part in a seminar organized by the Facultat de Biblioteconomia i Documentació (Department of Library and Information Science) at the University of Barcelona (UB)1 EPI sought an interview to further explore some of the themes addressed in the seminar, drawing on his extensive experience in the world of public libraries.

The glasses of the transept's rosette of the Cathedral of Tarragona: characterization, classification and decay.

The glasses of the rosette forming the main window of the transept of the Gothic Cathedral of Tarragona have been characterised by means of SEM/EDS, XRD, FTIR and electronic microprobe. The multivariate statistical treatment of these data allow to establish a classification of the samples forming groups having an historical significance and reflecting ancient restorations. Furthermore, the decay patterns and mechanisms have been determined and the weathering by-products characterised. It has been demonstrated a clear influence of the bioactivity in the decay of these glasses, which activity is partially controlled by the chemical composition of the glasses.

The glasses of the transept's rosette of the Cathedral of Tarragona: characterization, classification and decay.

The glasses of the rosette forming the main window of the transept of the Gothic Cathedral of Tarragona have been characterised by means of SEM/EDS, XRD, FTIR and electronic microprobe. The multivariate statistical treatment of these data allow to establish a classification of the samples forming groups having an historical significance and reflecting ancient restorations. Furthermore, the decay patterns and mechanisms have been determined and the weathering by-products characterised. It has been demonstrated a clear influence of the bioactivity in the decay of these glasses, which activity is partially controlled by the chemical composition of the glasses.

Threading libraries performance when applied to image acquisition and processing in a forensic application

Peer-reviewed

Use and availability of scholarly journals in Catalan academic libraries

This paper presents the results of a survey of academics affiliated to the universities that are members of the Consortium of Academic Libraries of Catalonia (CBUC) and an analysis of the availability in the libraries of these universities of the references cited in a sample of articles published by these academics. The results reflect the major importance that researchers assign to scholarly journals as the main source of scientific information. Most state that they use electronic journals either exclusively or in any case more than print journals, a preference that is higher among younger scholars. With regard to frequency of reading, four out of ten researchers state that they read journals virtually every day, while nine out of ten report that they do so at least once a week. Scholars claim that the obstacles they face when trying to download an article are related to the lack of subscriptions. However, the availability study showed that most of the articles cited in their publications are available at least at one of the CBUC libraries. Though most researchers keep a copy of the articles they consult, just over a third of them use some kind of reference management software.

Towards personalization in digital libraries through ontologies

In this paper we describe a browsing and searching personalization system for digitallibraries based on the use of ontologies for describing the relationships between all theelements which take part in a digital library scenario of use. The main goal of thisproject is to help the users of a digital library to improve their experience of use bymeans of two complementary strategies: first, by maintaining a complete history recordof his or her browsing and searching activities, which is part of a navigational userprofile which includes preferences and all the aspects related to community involvement; and second, by reusing all the knowledge which has been extracted from previous usage from other users with similar profiles. This can be accomplished in terms of narrowing and focusing the search results and browsing options through the use of a recommendation system which organizes such results in the most appropriatemanner, using ontologies and concepts drawn from the semantic web field. The complete integration of the experience of use of a digital library in the learning process is also pursued. Both the usage and information organization can be also exploited to extract useful knowledge from the way users interact with a digital library, knowledge that can be used to improve several design aspects of the library, ranging from internal organization aspects to human factors and user interfaces. Although this project is still on an early development stage, it is possible to identify all the desired functionalities and requirements that are necessary to fully integrate the use of a digital library in an e-learning environment.

Archaeological Excavation Confirms the Geophysical Anomalies Recorded at the Cathedral of Tarragona - A Comparative Study

An integrated geophysical survey was conducted in September 2007 at the Cathedral of Tarragona (Catalonia, NE Spain), to search for archaeological remains of the Roman temple dedicated to the Emperor Augustus. Many hypotheses about its location have been put forward, the most recent ones suggesting it could be inside the present cathedral. Tarragona’s Cathedral, one of the most famous churches in Spain (12th century), was built during the evolution from the Romanesque to Gothic styles. As its area is rather wide, direct digging to detect hidden structures would be expensive and also interfere with religious services. Consequently, the use of detailed non-invasive analyses was preferred. A project including Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and Ground probing radar (GPR) was planned for a year and conducted during a week of intensive field survey. Both ERT and GPR provided detailed information about subsoil structures. Different ERT techniques and arrays were used, ranging from standard Wenner-Schlumberger 2D sections to full 3D electrical imaging using the MYG array. Electrical resistivity data were recorded extensively, making available many thousands of apparent resistivity points to obtain a complete 3D image after full inversion. The geophysical results were clear enough to persuade the archaeologists to excavate the area. The excavation confirmed the geophysical interpretation. In conclusion, the significant buried structures revealed by geophysical methods under the cathedral were confirmed by recent archaeological digging as the basement of the impressive Roman Temple that headed the Provincial Forum of Tarraco, seat of the Concilium of Hispania Citerior Province.