More than twenty years ago,Wuhan University and Nanjing University offered library science(LS)graduate programs.Since then,LS graduate education has been growing quickly in many aspects.At the same time,however,LS gra...More than twenty years ago,Wuhan University and Nanjing University offered library science(LS)graduate programs.Since then,LS graduate education has been growing quickly in many aspects.At the same time,however,LS graduate education was also facing enormous challenges stemming from the dynamic development and wide applications of information technologies into the pedagogical arena of teaching and learning at all levels.Social evolution also made it necessary for LS educators to re-examine once again their graduate education model,curricular composition,educational philosophy and educational missions.In analyzing the present situation of LS graduate education in China,this paper focuses on the following issues:1)Growing size of LS graduate education(quantity and quality);2)educational objectives,including research direction and placement for graduates;3)structure of knowledge and curricular construction;4)conditions of administering a library school of high quality and 5)the management of teaching resources.The keystone of this paper is to pinpoint where current library science curricular deficiencies are lying.It is hoped that more serious scholarly discussions and perhaps also even concerted efforts among LS scholars and library practioners may be evoked in having the graduate education system of library and information science thoroughly realigned for the informational needs of the 21st century.展开更多
These authors have made a sampling survey of professional qualifications of library directors of various types of libraries in China.The subject coverage of this survey includes but not limited to the pattern of libra...These authors have made a sampling survey of professional qualifications of library directors of various types of libraries in China.The subject coverage of this survey includes but not limited to the pattern of library position distribution and work conditions of those library science degree holders.It also studies such matters as the occupational roles of library science graduates in the library,the influencing factors of their professional competency(as it is perceived by library directors),library directors' opinion about the core curriculum of library science educational programs,etc.On the basis of this survey result and analysis,these authors attempt to show how Chinese librarians' professional competency can be identified and nurtured to a higher level of attainment.展开更多
This paper gives an overview of the history and the present status of Chinese library and information science journals, and introduces the operation and management of Chinese library and information science journals b...This paper gives an overview of the history and the present status of Chinese library and information science journals, and introduces the operation and management of Chinese library and information science journals by taking Journal of Library Science In China, Library and Information Service, Journal of Academic Libraries, and Journal of Information Science as examples. Besides, six suggestions are given for the future development of Chinese library and information science journals.展开更多
This paper selects 998 articles as its data sources from four Chinese core journals in the field of Library and Information Science from 2003 to 2007.Some pertinent aspects of reference citations particularly from web...This paper selects 998 articles as its data sources from four Chinese core journals in the field of Library and Information Science from 2003 to 2007.Some pertinent aspects of reference citations particularly from web resources are selected for a focused analysis and discussion.This includes primarily such items as the number of web citations,web citations per each article,the distribution of domain names of web citations and also certain aspects about the institutional and/or geographical affiliations of the author.The evolving situation of utilizing online networked academic information resources in China is the central thematic discussion of this study.The writing of this paper is augmented by the explicatory presentation of 3 graphic figures,6 tables and 18 references.展开更多
(CJLIS,Chinese Title:《中国文献情报》)ISSN 1674-3393,CN 11570/G2;Price:$US 199/Volume Chinese Journal of Library and Information Science(CJLIS)is the first and only Englishlanguage academic journal in the field of Lib...(CJLIS,Chinese Title:《中国文献情报》)ISSN 1674-3393,CN 11570/G2;Price:$US 199/Volume Chinese Journal of Library and Information Science(CJLIS)is the first and only Englishlanguage academic journal in the field of Library and Information Science(LIS)that has been published in China’s mainland so far.It aims to establish a platform for students,researchers and professionals in LIS and archive science to engage in intellectual dialogs and to share best professional practices of their experience.展开更多
经国内外专家深入探讨和反复论证,经主管、主办单位同意,经国家新闻出版广电总局正式批准(新广出审[2015]1187号文),由中国科学院文献情报中心主办的Chinese Journal of Library and Information Science(《中国文献情报(英)》,CJLIS)将...经国内外专家深入探讨和反复论证,经主管、主办单位同意,经国家新闻出版广电总局正式批准(新广出审[2015]1187号文),由中国科学院文献情报中心主办的Chinese Journal of Library and Information Science(《中国文献情报(英)》,CJLIS)将于2016年起正式更名为Journal of Data and Information Science(《数据与情报科学学报(英)》,JDIS)。作为国内唯一的图书馆学情报学领域英文学术期刊,CJLIS自2008年创刊以来,以刊发符合国际规范的高水平学术研究论文、推动中国图书馆学情报学学科发展为己任,组织优秀稿源、坚守学术规范、推动开放获取、严控评议流程,赢得了业界的充分肯定和广展开更多
Purpose: Disseminating medical and health information is a mission of a public medical library. This paper describes a practice of a medical library in providing online access to health information for the general pub...Purpose: Disseminating medical and health information is a mission of a public medical library. This paper describes a practice of a medical library in providing online access to health information for the general public.Design/methodology/approach: A four-step workflow is developed to integrate and disseminate heterogeneous health information from medical associations. First, a raw data repository is developed to manage the original submissions from information providers.Second, each document in the raw data repository is represented in a standardized XML schema. Third, the medical terms are identified and manually annotated, enriching the semantics of health information. Lastly, all the semantically enriched XML documents are converted to HTMLs for online dissemination.Findings: A health information website, CHealth, was developed for Chinese speakers. It provides free online access for all without any login or IP constrains. CHealth is available at www.chealth.org.cn.Research limitations: The current workflow is time-consuming and labor-intensive due to the lack of information submission/exchange standard and commonly agreed-on consumer health terminology in Chinese.Originality/value: In this work, the target audience of the medical library has been extended from traditional academic/professional to the general public. Methodologies in library sciences have been combined with those in consumer health informatics in CHealth development.展开更多
This paper reviews literature pertaining to the development of data science as a discipline,current issues with data bias and ethics,and the role that the discipline of information science may play in addressing these...This paper reviews literature pertaining to the development of data science as a discipline,current issues with data bias and ethics,and the role that the discipline of information science may play in addressing these concerns.Information science research and researchers have much to offer for data science,owing to their background as transdisciplinary scholars who apply human-centered and social-behavioral perspectives to issues within natural science disciplines.Information science researchers have already contributed to a humanistic approach to data ethics within the literature and an emphasis on data science within information schools all but ensures that this literature will continue to grow in coming decades.This review article serves as a reference for the history,current progress,and potential future directions of data ethics research within the corpus of information science literature.展开更多
Purpose: Based on the weak tie theory, this paper proposes a series of connection indicators Acof weak tie subnets and weak tie nodes to detect research topics, recognize their connections, and understand their evolut...Purpose: Based on the weak tie theory, this paper proposes a series of connection indicators Acof weak tie subnets and weak tie nodes to detect research topics, recognize their connections, and understand their evolution.Design/methodology/approach: First, keywords are extracted from article titles and preprocessed. Second, high-frequency keywords are selected to generate weak tie co-occurrence networks. By removing the internal lines of clustered sub-topic networks, we focus on the analysis of weak tie subnets’ composition and functions and the weak tie nodes’ roles.Findings: The research topics’ clusters and themes changed yearly; the subnets clustered with technique-related and methodology-related topics have been the core, important subnets for years; while close subnets are highly independent, research topics are generally concentrated and most topics are application-related; the roles and functions of nodes and weak ties are diversified.Research limitations: The parameter values are somewhat inconsistent; the weak tie subnets and nodes are classified based on empirical observations, and the conclusions are not verified or compared to other methods.Practical implications: The research is valuable for detecting important research topics as well as their roles, interrelations, and evolution trends. Originality/value: To contribute to the strength of weak tie theory, the research translates weak and strong ties concepts to co-occurrence strength, and analyzes weak ties’ functions. Also, the research proposes a quantitative method to classify and measure the topics’ clusters and nodes.展开更多
Purpose: This paper intends to explore a quantitative method for investigating the characteristics of information diffusion through social media like weblogs and microblogs.By using the social network analysis methods...Purpose: This paper intends to explore a quantitative method for investigating the characteristics of information diffusion through social media like weblogs and microblogs.By using the social network analysis methods,we attempt to analyze the different characteristics of information diffusion in weblogs and microblogs as well as the possible reasons of these differences.Design/methodology/approach: Using the social network analysis methods,this paper carries out an empirical study by taking the Chinese weblogs and microblogs in the field of Library and Information Science(LIS) as the research sample and employing measures such as network density,core/peripheral structure and centrality.Findings: Firstly,both bloggers and microbloggers maintain weak ties,and both of their social networks display a small-world effect. Secondly,compared with weblog users,microblog users are more interconnected,more equal and more capable of developing relationships with people outside their own social networks. Thirdly,the microblogging social network is more conducive to information diffusion than the blogging network,because of their differences in functions and the information flow mechanism. Finally,the communication mode emerged with microblogging,with the characteristics of micro-content,multi-channel information dissemination,dense and decentralized social network and content aggregation,will be one of the trends in the development of the information exchange platform in the future.Research limitations: The sample size needs to be increased so that samples are more representative. Errors may exist during the data collection. Moreover,the individual-level characteristics of the samples as well as the types of information exchanged need to be further studied.Practical implications: This preliminary study explores the characteristics of information diffusion in the network environment and verifies the feasibility of conducting a quantitative analysis of information diffusion through social media. In addition,it provides insight into the characteristics of information diffusion in weblogs and microblogs and the possible reasons of these differences.Originality/value: We have analyzed the characteristics of information diffusion in weblogs and microblogs by using the social network analysis methods. This research will be useful for a quantitative analysis of the underlying mechanisms of information flow through social media in the network environment.展开更多
Purpose: This paper aims to explore best practices in academic and research libraries in providing information literacy(IL) instruction to science and engineering graduate students.Design/methodology/approach: Using t...Purpose: This paper aims to explore best practices in academic and research libraries in providing information literacy(IL) instruction to science and engineering graduate students.Design/methodology/approach: Using the questionnaire survey method, we conducted an IL assessment study on 114 graduate students enrolling in graduate courses offered by College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences(GUCAS).Findings: The current situation of graduate students' IL competencies and the need to develop them are revealed. An IL course was designed by subject librarians of National Science Library(NSL), Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS), with three patterns addressing the development of graduate students' IL competencies.Research limitations: It is only about the practice of subject librarians at NSL, CAS, in designing IL courses for graduate students enrolling in graduate courses offered by College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, GUCAS.Practical implications: The results can provide a lot of useful information for the improvement of IL competencies of graduate students in science and technology disciplines.Originality/value: It is significant for assisting future subject librarians in incorporating IL skills into their course, especially for academic and research librarians to prepare and develop IL courses for science and engineering graduate students.展开更多
The article tries to discover the major authors in the field of information seeking behavior via social network analysis. It is to be accomplished through a literature review and also by focusing on a graphic map show...The article tries to discover the major authors in the field of information seeking behavior via social network analysis. It is to be accomplished through a literature review and also by focusing on a graphic map showing the seven most productive coauthors in this field. Based on these seven authors' work, five probable research directions about information seeking behavior are discerned and presented.展开更多
Purpose: This study analyzes the current status of institutional cooperation in economics and management (EM) and library and information science (LIS) in China.Design/methodology/approach: Based on the Chinese ...Purpose: This study analyzes the current status of institutional cooperation in economics and management (EM) and library and information science (LIS) in China.Design/methodology/approach: Based on the Chinese Social Science Citation Index (CSSCI) database, we constructed institutional collaboration networks in EM and LIS, and analyzed the collaboration characteristics through social network analysis.Findings: In the development and evolution of the collaboration network of institutions in humanities and social sciences, EM is always at the center. It has extensive cooperation relationships with other fields. The position of LIS has also become centralized, and its interdisciplinary cooperation has increased. For both EM and LIS, we observed "small-world" and "scale-free" networks, indicating full communication and mature development in both disciplines. Based on a comparison of two institutions in the two fields, we confirmed the comprehensive development in EM and the extensive information exchange in LIS.Research limitations: We collected data only from humanities and social sciences, but did not consider the connection between EM and natural sciences, or between LIS and natural sciences. In addition, the paper lacks analysis of institutional collaboration at the micro level.Practical implications: The paper provides insights into the institutional cooperation characteristics in EM and LIS in China.Originality/value: The paper offers a new perspective on the characteristics of institutional collaboration in China.展开更多
Purpose: This paper documents an exploration of an innovative approach to the sharing of documents and information among the members of the National Alliance of Academies of Sciences (NAAS) in China, based on the p...Purpose: This paper documents an exploration of an innovative approach to the sharing of documents and information among the members of the National Alliance of Academies of Sciences (NAAS) in China, based on the practice initiated by the National Science Library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NSLC).Design/methodology/approach: Through interviews and user surveys, we analyzed the general information demands of users from provincial academies of sciences (PASs) and problems of their document and information service teams. Based on our findings, we designed targeted services to help Alliance members support their document resources, information services for science and technology (S&T) decisions, and their knowledge transfer achievements. Furthermore, we offered training courses for provincial service teams, researchers, and administrators, to improve their information skills. These activities represent a new collaborative model for professional library consortia.Findings: To date, our service has been extended to all Alliance members, covering 19 provinces in China, and the NSLC service covers all aspects of knowledge services of Alliance members, from basic document delivery services to subject information analyses.Research limitations: Different PASs have different understandings of the role of the document and information services in the process of scientific research. These differences limit information service sharing of the NSLC with the PASs, and affect the service performance. For the sake of convenience, the original survey was conducted in only three provinces, which may not fully reflect the information needs of users in each Alliance institution. In addition, quantitative and qualitative analyses have been limited by the coverage of the sample.Practical implications: Document and information sharing has not only taken advantage of the NSLC knowledge service system and cooperation model, it has also enhanced the range of services of the NAAS in China.Originality/value: Based on knowledge service enhancements, the NAAS in China has formed a new kind of library consortium, which has broken the traditional library alliance model that was based mainly on the sharing of resources and services.展开更多
文摘More than twenty years ago,Wuhan University and Nanjing University offered library science(LS)graduate programs.Since then,LS graduate education has been growing quickly in many aspects.At the same time,however,LS graduate education was also facing enormous challenges stemming from the dynamic development and wide applications of information technologies into the pedagogical arena of teaching and learning at all levels.Social evolution also made it necessary for LS educators to re-examine once again their graduate education model,curricular composition,educational philosophy and educational missions.In analyzing the present situation of LS graduate education in China,this paper focuses on the following issues:1)Growing size of LS graduate education(quantity and quality);2)educational objectives,including research direction and placement for graduates;3)structure of knowledge and curricular construction;4)conditions of administering a library school of high quality and 5)the management of teaching resources.The keystone of this paper is to pinpoint where current library science curricular deficiencies are lying.It is hoped that more serious scholarly discussions and perhaps also even concerted efforts among LS scholars and library practioners may be evoked in having the graduate education system of library and information science thoroughly realigned for the informational needs of the 21st century.
基金supported by the Special Funds of Library Society of China
文摘These authors have made a sampling survey of professional qualifications of library directors of various types of libraries in China.The subject coverage of this survey includes but not limited to the pattern of library position distribution and work conditions of those library science degree holders.It also studies such matters as the occupational roles of library science graduates in the library,the influencing factors of their professional competency(as it is perceived by library directors),library directors' opinion about the core curriculum of library science educational programs,etc.On the basis of this survey result and analysis,these authors attempt to show how Chinese librarians' professional competency can be identified and nurtured to a higher level of attainment.
基金supported by the Fund for Philosophy and Social Science,Ministry of Education of China (Grant No.03BTQ023)
文摘This paper gives an overview of the history and the present status of Chinese library and information science journals, and introduces the operation and management of Chinese library and information science journals by taking Journal of Library Science In China, Library and Information Service, Journal of Academic Libraries, and Journal of Information Science as examples. Besides, six suggestions are given for the future development of Chinese library and information science journals.
基金supported by National Social Science Fund of China(Grant No.08CTQ015)
文摘This paper selects 998 articles as its data sources from four Chinese core journals in the field of Library and Information Science from 2003 to 2007.Some pertinent aspects of reference citations particularly from web resources are selected for a focused analysis and discussion.This includes primarily such items as the number of web citations,web citations per each article,the distribution of domain names of web citations and also certain aspects about the institutional and/or geographical affiliations of the author.The evolving situation of utilizing online networked academic information resources in China is the central thematic discussion of this study.The writing of this paper is augmented by the explicatory presentation of 3 graphic figures,6 tables and 18 references.
文摘(CJLIS,Chinese Title:《中国文献情报》)ISSN 1674-3393,CN 11570/G2;Price:$US 199/Volume Chinese Journal of Library and Information Science(CJLIS)is the first and only Englishlanguage academic journal in the field of Library and Information Science(LIS)that has been published in China’s mainland so far.It aims to establish a platform for students,researchers and professionals in LIS and archive science to engage in intellectual dialogs and to share best professional practices of their experience.
文摘经国内外专家深入探讨和反复论证,经主管、主办单位同意,经国家新闻出版广电总局正式批准(新广出审[2015]1187号文),由中国科学院文献情报中心主办的Chinese Journal of Library and Information Science(《中国文献情报(英)》,CJLIS)将于2016年起正式更名为Journal of Data and Information Science(《数据与情报科学学报(英)》,JDIS)。作为国内唯一的图书馆学情报学领域英文学术期刊,CJLIS自2008年创刊以来,以刊发符合国际规范的高水平学术研究论文、推动中国图书馆学情报学学科发展为己任,组织优秀稿源、坚守学术规范、推动开放获取、严控评议流程,赢得了业界的充分肯定和广
基金supported by the National Key Technology R&D Program of China (Grant No.:2013BAI06B01)
文摘Purpose: Disseminating medical and health information is a mission of a public medical library. This paper describes a practice of a medical library in providing online access to health information for the general public.Design/methodology/approach: A four-step workflow is developed to integrate and disseminate heterogeneous health information from medical associations. First, a raw data repository is developed to manage the original submissions from information providers.Second, each document in the raw data repository is represented in a standardized XML schema. Third, the medical terms are identified and manually annotated, enriching the semantics of health information. Lastly, all the semantically enriched XML documents are converted to HTMLs for online dissemination.Findings: A health information website, CHealth, was developed for Chinese speakers. It provides free online access for all without any login or IP constrains. CHealth is available at www.chealth.org.cn.Research limitations: The current workflow is time-consuming and labor-intensive due to the lack of information submission/exchange standard and commonly agreed-on consumer health terminology in Chinese.Originality/value: In this work, the target audience of the medical library has been extended from traditional academic/professional to the general public. Methodologies in library sciences have been combined with those in consumer health informatics in CHealth development.
文摘This paper reviews literature pertaining to the development of data science as a discipline,current issues with data bias and ethics,and the role that the discipline of information science may play in addressing these concerns.Information science research and researchers have much to offer for data science,owing to their background as transdisciplinary scholars who apply human-centered and social-behavioral perspectives to issues within natural science disciplines.Information science researchers have already contributed to a humanistic approach to data ethics within the literature and an emphasis on data science within information schools all but ensures that this literature will continue to grow in coming decades.This review article serves as a reference for the history,current progress,and potential future directions of data ethics research within the corpus of information science literature.
基金funded by the National Social Science Youth Project “Study on the Interdisciplinary Subject Identification and Prediction” (Grant No.:14CTQ033)
文摘Purpose: Based on the weak tie theory, this paper proposes a series of connection indicators Acof weak tie subnets and weak tie nodes to detect research topics, recognize their connections, and understand their evolution.Design/methodology/approach: First, keywords are extracted from article titles and preprocessed. Second, high-frequency keywords are selected to generate weak tie co-occurrence networks. By removing the internal lines of clustered sub-topic networks, we focus on the analysis of weak tie subnets’ composition and functions and the weak tie nodes’ roles.Findings: The research topics’ clusters and themes changed yearly; the subnets clustered with technique-related and methodology-related topics have been the core, important subnets for years; while close subnets are highly independent, research topics are generally concentrated and most topics are application-related; the roles and functions of nodes and weak ties are diversified.Research limitations: The parameter values are somewhat inconsistent; the weak tie subnets and nodes are classified based on empirical observations, and the conclusions are not verified or compared to other methods.Practical implications: The research is valuable for detecting important research topics as well as their roles, interrelations, and evolution trends. Originality/value: To contribute to the strength of weak tie theory, the research translates weak and strong ties concepts to co-occurrence strength, and analyzes weak ties’ functions. Also, the research proposes a quantitative method to classify and measure the topics’ clusters and nodes.
基金supported by Sun Yat-sen University Cultivation Fund for Young Teachers(Grant No.:20000-3161102)the National Social Science Fundation of China(Grant No.:08CTQ015)
文摘Purpose: This paper intends to explore a quantitative method for investigating the characteristics of information diffusion through social media like weblogs and microblogs.By using the social network analysis methods,we attempt to analyze the different characteristics of information diffusion in weblogs and microblogs as well as the possible reasons of these differences.Design/methodology/approach: Using the social network analysis methods,this paper carries out an empirical study by taking the Chinese weblogs and microblogs in the field of Library and Information Science(LIS) as the research sample and employing measures such as network density,core/peripheral structure and centrality.Findings: Firstly,both bloggers and microbloggers maintain weak ties,and both of their social networks display a small-world effect. Secondly,compared with weblog users,microblog users are more interconnected,more equal and more capable of developing relationships with people outside their own social networks. Thirdly,the microblogging social network is more conducive to information diffusion than the blogging network,because of their differences in functions and the information flow mechanism. Finally,the communication mode emerged with microblogging,with the characteristics of micro-content,multi-channel information dissemination,dense and decentralized social network and content aggregation,will be one of the trends in the development of the information exchange platform in the future.Research limitations: The sample size needs to be increased so that samples are more representative. Errors may exist during the data collection. Moreover,the individual-level characteristics of the samples as well as the types of information exchanged need to be further studied.Practical implications: This preliminary study explores the characteristics of information diffusion in the network environment and verifies the feasibility of conducting a quantitative analysis of information diffusion through social media. In addition,it provides insight into the characteristics of information diffusion in weblogs and microblogs and the possible reasons of these differences.Originality/value: We have analyzed the characteristics of information diffusion in weblogs and microblogs by using the social network analysis methods. This research will be useful for a quantitative analysis of the underlying mechanisms of information flow through social media in the network environment.
文摘Purpose: This paper aims to explore best practices in academic and research libraries in providing information literacy(IL) instruction to science and engineering graduate students.Design/methodology/approach: Using the questionnaire survey method, we conducted an IL assessment study on 114 graduate students enrolling in graduate courses offered by College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences(GUCAS).Findings: The current situation of graduate students' IL competencies and the need to develop them are revealed. An IL course was designed by subject librarians of National Science Library(NSL), Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS), with three patterns addressing the development of graduate students' IL competencies.Research limitations: It is only about the practice of subject librarians at NSL, CAS, in designing IL courses for graduate students enrolling in graduate courses offered by College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, GUCAS.Practical implications: The results can provide a lot of useful information for the improvement of IL competencies of graduate students in science and technology disciplines.Originality/value: It is significant for assisting future subject librarians in incorporating IL skills into their course, especially for academic and research librarians to prepare and develop IL courses for science and engineering graduate students.
文摘The article tries to discover the major authors in the field of information seeking behavior via social network analysis. It is to be accomplished through a literature review and also by focusing on a graphic map showing the seven most productive coauthors in this field. Based on these seven authors' work, five probable research directions about information seeking behavior are discerned and presented.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.:71173249)
文摘Purpose: This study analyzes the current status of institutional cooperation in economics and management (EM) and library and information science (LIS) in China.Design/methodology/approach: Based on the Chinese Social Science Citation Index (CSSCI) database, we constructed institutional collaboration networks in EM and LIS, and analyzed the collaboration characteristics through social network analysis.Findings: In the development and evolution of the collaboration network of institutions in humanities and social sciences, EM is always at the center. It has extensive cooperation relationships with other fields. The position of LIS has also become centralized, and its interdisciplinary cooperation has increased. For both EM and LIS, we observed "small-world" and "scale-free" networks, indicating full communication and mature development in both disciplines. Based on a comparison of two institutions in the two fields, we confirmed the comprehensive development in EM and the extensive information exchange in LIS.Research limitations: We collected data only from humanities and social sciences, but did not consider the connection between EM and natural sciences, or between LIS and natural sciences. In addition, the paper lacks analysis of institutional collaboration at the micro level.Practical implications: The paper provides insights into the institutional cooperation characteristics in EM and LIS in China.Originality/value: The paper offers a new perspective on the characteristics of institutional collaboration in China.
基金jointly supported by the National Science Library of the Chinese Academy of Sciencesthe Bureau of Development and Planning of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
文摘Purpose: This paper documents an exploration of an innovative approach to the sharing of documents and information among the members of the National Alliance of Academies of Sciences (NAAS) in China, based on the practice initiated by the National Science Library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NSLC).Design/methodology/approach: Through interviews and user surveys, we analyzed the general information demands of users from provincial academies of sciences (PASs) and problems of their document and information service teams. Based on our findings, we designed targeted services to help Alliance members support their document resources, information services for science and technology (S&T) decisions, and their knowledge transfer achievements. Furthermore, we offered training courses for provincial service teams, researchers, and administrators, to improve their information skills. These activities represent a new collaborative model for professional library consortia.Findings: To date, our service has been extended to all Alliance members, covering 19 provinces in China, and the NSLC service covers all aspects of knowledge services of Alliance members, from basic document delivery services to subject information analyses.Research limitations: Different PASs have different understandings of the role of the document and information services in the process of scientific research. These differences limit information service sharing of the NSLC with the PASs, and affect the service performance. For the sake of convenience, the original survey was conducted in only three provinces, which may not fully reflect the information needs of users in each Alliance institution. In addition, quantitative and qualitative analyses have been limited by the coverage of the sample.Practical implications: Document and information sharing has not only taken advantage of the NSLC knowledge service system and cooperation model, it has also enhanced the range of services of the NAAS in China.Originality/value: Based on knowledge service enhancements, the NAAS in China has formed a new kind of library consortium, which has broken the traditional library alliance model that was based mainly on the sharing of resources and services.