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Paolo Traniello (1938-2023)

Editorial Board — 2024-01-15

In ricordo di Paolo Traniello

The convergence of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Skills: a necessary space for Digital Education and Education 4.0

Miguel-Ángel Marzal — 2024-01-15

An analysis study of the state of the art on the convergence process first, then confluence, final symbiosis between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Digital Competences (CD) for Digital Education and 4.0 is presented, following a descriptive and diachronic method to be able to analyze from different points of view the complexity, problems and opportunities that this process implies, trying to present, in each of the phases of study of this phenomenon, the models, experiences and lines of research that illustrate the educational impact of this symbiosis . The study proceeds to analyze:

1) first, the characteristics of AI and the drivers that have led to its impact on Education (Educational Artificial Intelligence),

2) the challenges that this impact on Education has brought about,

3) and the initiatives of political, social, and educational agents to assimilating the effects of AI in educational innovation.

4) Then the analysis stops at the definition, characters, properties and initiatives of the DC in Education. Analyzed in pairs, a detailed analysis is made of the symbiosis process that can promote Education 4.0: the changes in the behavior of the agents in the educational process, the tools and good practices that lead to an effective use of this symbiosis, the progress of intelligent technologies in Education, the enunciation of own educational objectives, which are generating new educational models and also the proposal of new evaluation systems.

Conceptual model for universal bibliographic control

Sandra Gisela Martin — 2024-01-15

A proposal is presented for a conceptual model of universal bibliographic control based on general systems theory (GST) and considered as a global system with a decentralized, distributed, collaborative, interconnected and linked model structure. The CBU is reflected on based on the four principles of relevant knowledge proposed by Morin (1999): context, global, multidimensional and complex; and nine dimensions of analysis are proposed: theoretical/conceptual framework, political, legislative, librarian, collaborative, normative, technological, relational, services.

The reconciliation of SBN authority records with Wikidata. Progresses and perspectives after a decade of work (2013-2023)

Camillo Carlo Pellizzari di San Girolamo — 2024-01-15

The article retraces diachronically the history of the reconciliation of Opac SBN’s authority records with Wikidata, from the perspective of the editing activity on Wikidata; the article deals with the creation of the property used in Wikidata to connect to Opac SBN’s name authority file (P396), the progressive growth of the number of values of P396 in Wikidata (compared with the identifiers of other European authority files), the reconciliation strategies that have been adopted and the main difficulties which have slowed down this process, and finally the relevant novelties brought firstly by the adoption of the new Opac SBN and secondly by the recent decisions taken by ICCU in order to promote a greater data openness.

The evolution of authority work in SBN. From origins to Alphabetica and future prospects

Valentina Atturo — 2024-01-15

The article focuses on the main innovations and lines of action by ICCU on the authority headings in the SBN Opac, which open new perspectives on data integration. This work gives an account of the qualitative review activities carried out by the Working Group for the management and maintenance of the Authority File of SBN, the updates of SBN’s authority headings rules among with their recent opening the Opac, the creation of redirects for merged headings, the implementation of LOD and API, and the innovations brought by the Alphabetica portal. These novelties will be followed closely by further advances that will be characterizing Index 3.

Subject indexing of normative acts

Ignazio Pirronitto — 2024-01-15

Subject indexing can be related to normative acts in the development of semantic metadataction aimed at not-book resources. The survey demonstrates how the indexing process by subject can be applied to this special type of resources, so as to facilitate their management in a knowledge organization. The study attempts to apply the Italian system of subject indexing in each of its steps, and practical examples are suggested on how to provide semantic access points that enable the search for regulatory acts by subject. A specific in-depth study is devoted to bringing out all the semantic aspects that can be considered with regards to the subject of a norm and how this can be declined in order to bring out firstly, what the “aboutness” of the resource is, secondly, what the “isness” of a normative act is, and finally, what is required to create strings of subject built based on the “ofness” of the resource.

Hachette v. Internet Archive

Fabio Mercanti — 2023-12-10

In June 2020, some major publishers - Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons, Penguin Random House - sued the Internet Archive for copyright infringement. The case is about the activity of the Open Library and of the National Emergency Library managed by Internet Archive. These offered digitisation and lend of printed books owned by the libraries, some of which were protected by copyright. This activity was carried out on the basis of Controlled Digital Lending, a theory not provided by US copyright law. In its March 2023 ruling, the Court agreed with the plaintiffs. In the first part of the article, the activities of the Open Library and the National Emergency Library are briefly reconstructed and the development of the litigation is put into context. The second part is dedicated to Controlled Digital Lending: the implementation process is defined, the position of its theorists is explored and the legal framework on which it is based, is reconstructed. The third part presents the main reasons for the prosecution and the Court's decision. Finally, some reflections are proposed.

Digital curation and long-term digital preservation in libraries

Valdo Pasqui — 2024-01-15

For over twenty years public institutions and foundations committed in cultural heritage curation and preservation worked up methodologies, strategies and techniques for long-term digital preservation of digital resources. Thanks to a relevant number of initiatives and services carried on by international institutions and specialized agencies, public and private libraries reached a high level of awareness in this field which requires continuous adaptation due to the constant evolution of publishing industry and the rapid emergence of Open Science.

After a quick review of digital preservation milestones, this article looks at some emerging trends and issues which characterize the constant transformation of digital preservation landscape. Dynamic generated digital contents and Open Science to fulfil findability, accessibility, interoperability and reuse (FAIR) of digital assets are engaging new challenges for existing digital preservation services. Digital curation and digital preservation are deeply merged and proceed in parallel to assure long-term usage of digital resources and data. How to select and deploy digital preservation platforms is another complex area where Cloud services can offer the opportunity to reduce the costs of technical infrastructures maintenance and management. Policy and decision making institutional levels need more awareness to draw up digital preservation strategies and to activate services to assure digital contents and data long-term access and reuse. Finally the paper suggests to promote “digital preservation by design” as a new base rule to be applied since the conception of every project and initiative in the cultural heritage, scientific and academic contexts.

Quality Assessment of Research Comparisons in the Open Research Knowledge Graph

Jennifer D'Souza — 2024-01-15

The Open Research Knowledge Graph (ORKG) is a digital library for machine-actionable scholarly knowledge, with a focus on structured research comparisons obtained through expert crowdsourcing. While the ORKG has attracted a community of more than 1,000 users, the curated data has not been subject to an in-depth quality assessment so far. Here, proposed as a first exemplary step, within a team of domain experts, we evaluate the quality of six selected ORKG Comparisons based on three criteria, namely: 1) the quality of semantic modelling, 2) the maturity of the Comparisons in terms of their completeness, syntactic representation, identifier stability, and their linkability mechanisms ensuring the interoperability and discoverability. Finally, 3) the informative usefulness of the Comparisons to expert and lay users. We have found that each criterion addresses a unique and independent aspect of quality. Backed by the observations of our quality evaluations presented in this paper, a fitting model of knowledge graph quality appears one that is indeed multidimensional as ours.

Citation metrics and strategic mutations of scientific research: narratives and evidence

Luca Guerra — 2024-01-15

Following the diffusion of the management model promoted by the New Public Management also within universities, sectors until then endowed with particular protection, such as the academic one, were progressively subjected to new controls and constraints, which gradually took the form of quantitative surveys, with a growing role of citation metrics. These evaluation processes have given rise to various important critical positions at an international level.

If it is true that, according to Goodhart's law, "when a measure becomes an objective it ceases to be a good measure”, it is even more significant to note that when a measure becomes an objective, what is measured ceases to be what it was before. The quantitative measurement of academic performance has in fact triggered forms of gaming such as to alter the very game of scientific research, its purposes and the forms of its sharing. In the article we will carry out a comparison between the forms of mutation and the narratives that accompany them to see to what extent we are legitimate today to talk about the transformation of scientific research into strategic scientific research.

The Return of the Panther. A university laboratory for the construction of an oral archive

Sara Manali — 2024-01-15

The article aims to present the activities of the Archival Laboratory at the University of Palermo, which involved the creation of an oral archive about the university movement known as "Pantera" (1989-90). Starting from some general observations about sound documents, oral sources, and sources for studying movements, the contribution reaches the broader project within which the Laboratory's activities unfold: "Limone Lunare," the archive of oral sources about political and social movements in contemporary Sicily. The article is completed with descriptions of the collected interviews.

Librarianship as Civic Engagement

Mauro Guerrini — 2023-12-10

The themes discussed in the contribution recur in the author’s theoretical reflection in recent years: definition of LIS: the discipline that reflects on the construction, organization, management and use, as well as on the languages and services to the public of the library; relationship between librarian and LIS teacher: both figures have the same identity, both insist on the same cultural and technical background; open access: the theme is fundamental as a substrate for the free sharing of research products; metadata creation: the process of recording data functional to the identification and retrieval of any type of resource; terminology: new concepts and new types of resources have imposed new terms; authority control: by assembling different data, it allows a greater identification of the resources and of the entities associated with them. The reflection ends with the importance of the international dimension of research.