This book will enable libraries to make informed decisions, develop new services and improve user experience by collecting, analysing and utilising data. With the wealth of data available to library and information services, analytics are the key to understanding your users and your field of operations better and improving the services that you offer. This book sets out the opportunities that analytics present to libraries, and provides inspiration for how they can use the data within their systems to help inform decisions and drive services. Using case studies to provide real-life examples of current developments and services, and packed full of practical advice and guidance for libraries looking to realise the value of their data, this will be an essential guide for librarians and information professionals. This volume will bring together a group of internationally recognised experts to explore some of the key issues in the exploitation of data analytics and metrics in the library and cultural heritage sectors, including: the role of data in helping inform decision making; approaches to collecting, analysing and utilising data; using analytics to develop new services and improve the user experience; the opportunities of library data as 'big data'; the role of 'small data' in delivering meaningful interventions for users; practical advice on managing the risks and ethics of data analytics; how analytics can help uncover new types of impact and value for institutions and organisations. This book will be an invaluable resource to librarians and library directors interested in developing a data-driven approach to their service provision and decision making, and to those involved in the delivery and development of services, management of library systems and infrastructure as well as those who liaise with students and researchers. Students on library and information science courses will find this a useful tool. The book will also be of relevance to those managers and practitioners in other cultural heritage sectors such as museums, archives and galleries.

This landmark textbook is the essential resource for students, academics and researchers globally exploring information behaviour, users and information literacy. Drawing on international research, practice and theory across sectors this provides the authoritative overview of the information behaviour field today. Invaluable reading for library and information courses as well as related social science courses this will also prove useful for LIS professionals grappling with user issues in their day-to-day work.

This ground-breaking edited collection explores the challenges of preserving complex digital objects such as simulations, visualisations, digital art and video games. Drawing on the outputs of the JISC-funded Preservation of Complex Objects (POCOS) symposia, enhanced with specialist pathfinder solutions, this book will cover topics such as the legal and technical challenges of preservation, curation and authority, and digital archaeology. Written by international experts from a broad background of library, collecting institutions, information and computer science, and digital preservation backgrounds, this collection showcases the state of the art of the discipline and brings together stakeholder perspectives from across the preservation community. Readership: Academics and students on digital preservation, digital humanities and information management courses, those working in preservation and collecting for memory institutions, computer scientists, artists, games and emulation communities, archaeologists and digital forensic scientists.

This landmark text represents the first attempt to discuss the sustainable development of digital information in three key aspects: economic, social and environmental sustainability. Taking as its starting point the premise that digital information systems and services form the backbone of a knowledge society and digital economy, this book explores the challenges of ensuring sustainability of information in an evolving digital world. Chowdhury addresses the key factors and policies influencing digital information sustainability and presents a new balanced model of sustainability for digital information systems and services. Illustrated with case studies and informed by the latest research and policies, this cutting-edge text is a must-read for anyone concerned with the future of the information profession. Readership: Those involved in setting policy and direction for information institutions, digital library managers and developers, researchers and students on LIS and digital information courses.

«This essential guide to customer-based/patron-driven collection development will allow librarians to navigate the rapid changes in what users expect of libraries. The traditional «top down» approach to collection development definitely has its drawbacks: even after spending a good deal of time, energy, and resources, librarians are sometimes frustrated to find that their library's collection is not being used as they anticipated. But there's another strategy that's gaining momentum. This book gathers together the best practitioners in the emerging field of customer-based collection development to find out what library users need and want and provide strategies to allow librarians to manage collections accordingly. Drawing on the experiences of professionals from a variety of academic and public libraries, Customer-based Collection Development: * Offers strategies for planning and implementing a customer-based collection program * Summarizes its potential impact on a library's budget * Discusses cataloguing implications, and other day-to-day operational issues * Presents guidelines for evaluating and marketing. Customer-based Collection Development is one way for libraries to navigate the rapid changes in what users expect of libraries, and this new anthology is an important guide to this approach.»