Comparing COVID-19 and general health information-seeking behaviors among Chinese international students in South Korea

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Ahead of Print.
The study compares the COVID-19 information-seeking behavior of Chinese international students, who represent Korea’s largest international student group, with their general health information seeking behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted indepth semi-structured interviews with 30 Chinese international students who had been living in Korea for at least a year and were enrolled in degree programs. Two independent researchers coded the interview transcripts based on grounded theory until they reached an agreement. Our study revealed that the health information-seeking behaviors of participants differed depending on whether they were seeking general health information or COVID-19 information. Moreover, we found a notable discrepancy between the sources of information that participants preferred to use for general health information and the sources they actually used. Participants rated COVID-19 information as more accurate, authoritative, complete, current, useful, and objective compared to general health information. Our study highlights the critical need for comprehensive support from various organizations, including campus communities, local healthcare organizations, and the Korean and Chinese governments, to provide reliable and accessible health information to Chinese international students.

Valuing cultural public goods in times of pandemic: What happened to the libraries?

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Ahead of Print.
Libraries are one of the most representative institutions of cultural heritage in that they are charged with safeguarding information, fostering knowledge and activating memory. Over the years, they have widened the scope of their functions to also become cultural centres geared towards dissemination and cultural creation, in addition to playing an ever more important role in terms of social interaction and inclusion. This paper seeks to estimate the economic and social value that people assign to public libraries in the city of Medellin (Colombia) which, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, were forced to temporarily halt their onsite services. The contingent valuation method was used, based on a virtual questionnaire aimed at users and non-users in order to estimate the potential value of the direct and passive use of libraries during the pandemic. In addition, certainty analysis was applied to evaluate the trend of stated contributions as reporting reliability increases. Relevant and significant positive willingness to pay was found, and was seen to be greater amongst users who were most sure of their valuations, whilst payments remained stable in the certainty range of non-users. The results highlight the key role played by libraries as local public goods, even during a pandemic and therefore, their function as a basic cultural service as well as of drivers of inclusion and urban change.

Characteristics of LIS research articles affecting their citation impact

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Ahead of Print.
The paper analyzes the citation impact of Library and Information Science (LIS) research articles published in 31 leading international LIS journals in 2015. The main research question is: to what degree do authors’ disciplinary composition in association with topic, methodology, and type of contribution affect their citation impact? The impact is analyzed in terms of the number of citations received and their authority, using outlier normalization and subfield normalization. Quantitative content analysis is used to analyze article characteristics including topic, methodology, type of contribution, and the disciplinary composition of their author teams. The citations received by the articles are traced from 2015 to May 2021. Citing document authority is measured by the citations they had received up to May 2021. The overall finding was that authors’ disciplinary composition is significantly associated with citation scores. The differences in citation scores between disciplinary compositions appeared typically within information retrieval and scientific communication. In both topics LIS and computer science jointly received significantly higher citation scores than many disciplines like LIS alone or humanities in information retrieval; or natural sciences, medicine, or social sciences alone in scientific communication. The paper is original in reporting a joint analysis of content characteristics, authorship composition, and impact.

The evolution and development landscape of scholarly communication based on the analysis of published articles

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Ahead of Print.
This paper aims to unveil the comprehensive research landscape and gain insights into the evolving trend of primary research content within the scholarly communication domain. Leveraging various literature visualization tools, the study delves into the key research themes and their progression in scholarly communication from articles retrieved in Web of Science spanning the years 1996–2021. Moreover, the investigation delves into the historical roots and seminal works in the field. Notably, recent years have witnessed a remarkable focus from scholars on information dissemination, scientific assessment, emerging evaluation frameworks rooted in modern social media, open access, and social networking. The identified classic works indicate that scientific comprehension, citation behavior, communication, and online collaboration have garnered sustained research interest within the scholarly communication realm. In summary, the prevailing research content has transitioned from a closed, publication-centric model to an open network characterized by globalization and diversity. Concurrently, the transformation of scholarly communication is advancing toward digitalization, openness, socialization, networking, and enhanced accessibility.

Comparing COVID-19 and general health information-seeking behaviors among Chinese international students in South Korea

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Ahead of Print.
The study compares the COVID-19 information-seeking behavior of Chinese international students, who represent Korea’s largest international student group, with their general health information seeking behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted indepth semi-structured interviews with 30 Chinese international students who had been living in Korea for at least a year and were enrolled in degree programs. Two independent researchers coded the interview transcripts based on grounded theory until they reached an agreement. Our study revealed that the health information-seeking behaviors of participants differed depending on whether they were seeking general health information or COVID-19 information. Moreover, we found a notable discrepancy between the sources of information that participants preferred to use for general health information and the sources they actually used. Participants rated COVID-19 information as more accurate, authoritative, complete, current, useful, and objective compared to general health information. Our study highlights the critical need for comprehensive support from various organizations, including campus communities, local healthcare organizations, and the Korean and Chinese governments, to provide reliable and accessible health information to Chinese international students.

Valuing cultural public goods in times of pandemic: What happened to the libraries?

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Ahead of Print.
Libraries are one of the most representative institutions of cultural heritage in that they are charged with safeguarding information, fostering knowledge and activating memory. Over the years, they have widened the scope of their functions to also become cultural centres geared towards dissemination and cultural creation, in addition to playing an ever more important role in terms of social interaction and inclusion. This paper seeks to estimate the economic and social value that people assign to public libraries in the city of Medellin (Colombia) which, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, were forced to temporarily halt their onsite services. The contingent valuation method was used, based on a virtual questionnaire aimed at users and non-users in order to estimate the potential value of the direct and passive use of libraries during the pandemic. In addition, certainty analysis was applied to evaluate the trend of stated contributions as reporting reliability increases. Relevant and significant positive willingness to pay was found, and was seen to be greater amongst users who were most sure of their valuations, whilst payments remained stable in the certainty range of non-users. The results highlight the key role played by libraries as local public goods, even during a pandemic and therefore, their function as a basic cultural service as well as of drivers of inclusion and urban change.

Characteristics of LIS research articles affecting their citation impact

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Ahead of Print.
The paper analyzes the citation impact of Library and Information Science (LIS) research articles published in 31 leading international LIS journals in 2015. The main research question is: to what degree do authors’ disciplinary composition in association with topic, methodology, and type of contribution affect their citation impact? The impact is analyzed in terms of the number of citations received and their authority, using outlier normalization and subfield normalization. Quantitative content analysis is used to analyze article characteristics including topic, methodology, type of contribution, and the disciplinary composition of their author teams. The citations received by the articles are traced from 2015 to May 2021. Citing document authority is measured by the citations they had received up to May 2021. The overall finding was that authors’ disciplinary composition is significantly associated with citation scores. The differences in citation scores between disciplinary compositions appeared typically within information retrieval and scientific communication. In both topics LIS and computer science jointly received significantly higher citation scores than many disciplines like LIS alone or humanities in information retrieval; or natural sciences, medicine, or social sciences alone in scientific communication. The paper is original in reporting a joint analysis of content characteristics, authorship composition, and impact.

The evolution and development landscape of scholarly communication based on the analysis of published articles

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Ahead of Print.
This paper aims to unveil the comprehensive research landscape and gain insights into the evolving trend of primary research content within the scholarly communication domain. Leveraging various literature visualization tools, the study delves into the key research themes and their progression in scholarly communication from articles retrieved in Web of Science spanning the years 1996–2021. Moreover, the investigation delves into the historical roots and seminal works in the field. Notably, recent years have witnessed a remarkable focus from scholars on information dissemination, scientific assessment, emerging evaluation frameworks rooted in modern social media, open access, and social networking. The identified classic works indicate that scientific comprehension, citation behavior, communication, and online collaboration have garnered sustained research interest within the scholarly communication realm. In summary, the prevailing research content has transitioned from a closed, publication-centric model to an open network characterized by globalization and diversity. Concurrently, the transformation of scholarly communication is advancing toward digitalization, openness, socialization, networking, and enhanced accessibility.

A study on copyright issues of different controlled digital lending (CDL) modes

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Ahead of Print.
In the recent years, CDL has been heatedly talked about, CDL should be treated objectively and rationally. Getting knowledge of CDL modes and their copyright issues is critical for sustainable development of CDL. Rather than CDL becomes a transient phenomenon as a result of many copyright hurdles. The paper will explore CDL modes by combing CDL practices and programs from research papers and official website documents of different library organizations. Then, based on legal frameworks of CDL in the US, Canada and the UK which are summarized, copyright issues of CDL modes are analyzed from perspectives of implementing institution, service resources, and usage mode. Finally, some copyright recommendations for sustainable development of CDL are proposed. We believe that library institutions can use CDL to advance their crucial mission for the public’s interest through making sense of different CDL modes and their copyright issues and implementing some proposals about copyright processing.

A study on copyright issues of different controlled digital lending (CDL) modes

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Ahead of Print.
In the recent years, CDL has been heatedly talked about, CDL should be treated objectively and rationally. Getting knowledge of CDL modes and their copyright issues is critical for sustainable development of CDL. Rather than CDL becomes a transient phenomenon as a result of many copyright hurdles. The paper will explore CDL modes by combing CDL practices and programs from research papers and official website documents of different library organizations. Then, based on legal frameworks of CDL in the US, Canada and the UK which are summarized, copyright issues of CDL modes are analyzed from perspectives of implementing institution, service resources, and usage mode. Finally, some copyright recommendations for sustainable development of CDL are proposed. We believe that library institutions can use CDL to advance their crucial mission for the public’s interest through making sense of different CDL modes and their copyright issues and implementing some proposals about copyright processing.