Evaluation of University of Queensland Library Spaces: three case studies at St Lucia Campus

Introduction: The paper reports on an evaluation study of spaces in the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSHL), Biological Sciences (BSL) and Walter Harrison Law (WHLL) Libraries of the University of Queensland (UQ). The study was part of an evaluation of the quality and patterns of use of spaces in UQ libraries, which aimed to propose recommendations for future improvements and decision-making. This paper presents a study of areas of weakness in existing SSHL spaces, and impacts of the refurbishment of spaces at BSL and WHLL on students’ experiences. The findings evidence a link between students’ learning experiences and the quality of library spaces.Methods: An online survey, “Students’ Experiences and Perceptions of Library Physical Spaces”, was designed to collect data from students. The survey questions addressed seven topics: (1) overall satisfaction with spaces in the UQ Libraries; (2) welcoming nature of the library entry; (3) lighting; (4) acoustics; (5) furniture; (6) wayfinding; and (7) preferences for different space types in the library.Results: 1505 students completed the surveys, with 1098 responses recorded to open-ended questions on why students visited the libraries and the physical characteristics of the spaces that influenced their experiences. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data elucidated key design challenges and considerations. In particular, the data suggested that the provision of individual quiet study spaces remains an important role of academic libraries, with Studying Alone identified as the most important reason for student visits.Conclusions: The findings highlight the importance of individual study spaces and propose a number of recommendations in relation to physical space design and management.Relevance: Academic libraries face the challenge to keep pace with change in relation to students’ demographics, pedagogy and technology. In doing so, it is important to have an understanding of the evolving patterns of students’ learning behaviours, space uses and preferences through ongoing evaluation of library spaces.

Digital library service quality assessment model

With the introduction of digital library services, the quality of service (QoS) has become paramount importance for evaluating the performance of the digital library service provisioning. Various models and frameworks have been proposed to evaluate digital library QoS. However, the prevalent research concentration in QoS for digital library is on the dimensions of the perspective of users’ perception. In this paper, we address the same research problem from a different dimension which is from the perspective of the digital service providers. To this end, we propose a new model suitable for evaluating the performance of digital library services. We argue that the level of QoS provided by the digital service providers have direct impact on the perception and satisfaction of the digital service end-users.

Service level agreements for the digital library

Digital libraries offer a massive set of digital services to geographically distributed library patrons. The digital services are commonly sourced from third-party service providers for charge. As externally sourced digital services are becoming prevalence, issues regarding their quality assessment are gaining critical importance. Unfortunately, sourcing digital services from external providers has brought with it stringent quality of service (QoS) demand from the library service users. Currently, there is no way for ensuring QoS between the digital service providers and the library management. In this paper, we propose service level agreements (SLAs) to capture the QoS requirements of the digital service users and the commitments, as well as adherence of the digital service providers.

A general method to eliminate laboratory induced recombinants during massive, parallel sequencing of cDNA library.

Massive, parallel sequencing is a potent tool for dissecting the regulation of biological processes by revealing the dynamics of the cellular RNA profile under different conditions. Similarly, massive, parallel sequencing can be used to reveal the complexity of viral quasispecies that are often found in the RNA virus infected host. However, the production of cDNA libraries for next-generation sequencing (NGS) necessitates the reverse transcription of RNA into cDNA and the amplification of the cDNA template using PCR, which may introduce artefact in the form of phantom nucleic acids species that can bias the composition and interpretation of original RNA profiles.

re.reading: Pound at the Lenton Parr Library

Catalogue and essays to accompany re.reading - Pound at the Lenton Parr Music, Visual and Performing Arts Library, an exhibition run in conjunction with Melbourne Rare Book Week 2014. Essay. Project Manager Georgina Binns. Essay entitled The Call of Patrick Pound written by Chris Bond.

Building a digital library : what to expect as a technology project manager on a library construction project

The Taylor Family Digital Library is the central library opened in 2011 at the University of Calgary dedicated to supporting digital scholarship, creativity, analysis and a supportive learning environment for students. The new building is a technologically advanced converged cultural institution, with mandates to continually evolve in order to meet the needs of students and researchers. The infrastructure to support these mandates required research, collaboration and intense planning, resulting in new construction and technology standards for library renovation and construction projects. This pragmatic article is written for those who will follow in similar footsteps; it provides a roadmap for those embarking on the construction of a new technologically advanced library building.

Exploring spatiotemporal trends in commercial fishing effort of an abalone fishing zone: a GIS-based hotspot model

Assessing patterns of fisheries activity at a scale related to resource exploitation has received particular attention in recent times. However, acquiring data about the distribution and spatiotemporal allocation of catch and fishing effort in small scale benthic fisheries remains challenging. Here, we used GIS-based spatio-statistical models to investigate the footprint of commercial diving events on blacklip abalone (Haliotis rubra) stocks along the south-west coast of Victoria, Australia from 2008 to 2011. Using abalone catch data matched with GPS location we found catch per unit of fishing effort (CPUE) was not uniformly spatially and temporally distributed across the study area. Spatial autocorrelation and hotspot analysis revealed significant spatiotemporal clusters of CPUE (with distance thresholds of 100's of meters) among years, indicating the presence of CPUE hotspots focused on specific reefs. Cumulative hotspot maps indicated that certain reef complexes were consistently targeted across years but with varying intensity, however often a relatively small proportion of the full reef extent was targeted. Integrating CPUE with remotely-sensed light detection and ranging (LiDAR) derived bathymetry data using generalized additive mixed model corroborated that fishing pressure primarily coincided with shallow, rugose and complex components of reef structures. This study demonstrates that a geospatial approach is efficient in detecting patterns and trends in commercial fishing effort and its association with seafloor characteristics.