Thursday, October 26, 2006

New issue of Information Research: an international electronic journal

The new issue of Information Research, which is edited by Professor Tom Wilson, is now available.

http://InformationR.net/ir/12-1/infres121.html

Tharanga.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Free text books online

www.freeloadpress.com, http://www.freetechbooks.com & www.textbookrevolution.org along with many other publishers offer free text books online. Many of these books can be downloaded.

Tharanga.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Use of electronic journals in Sri Lankan University Libraries

Recently, I did a study in order to understand how University libraries in Sri Lanka are adapting to the rapid expansion of electronic journals. Standard survey methods were used to identify the progress and the problems of electronic journals usage. The population of the study covered all University main libraries and their faculty libraries in Sri Lanka. Questionnaires and follow-up interviews were used as the primary data collection instruments. Out of thirty one (31) libraries, twenty (20) libraries responded and sixty per cent (60%) of them had started in making use of electronic journals. Although, forty per cent (40%) of libraries do not use electronic journals, they have planned to use them in near future. Survey revealed that free electronic journals are the most popular source among the libraries. Some of them have provided access to online electronic journals via their library websites. Most libraries have faced financial and technological constraints. Lack of human resources was also identified as a palisade the libraries encounter. To encounter with new inventions of the ICT in libraries, attitudes of the librarians are most important. Sixty percent (60%) of librarians strongly agreed that the electronic journals are of much importance in libraries.

Tharanga.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

WWW is ever growing

According to the October 2006 survey by Netcraft, now there are more than 97 million sites, an increase of 1.08 million from last month.

For more information: http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_survey.html

Tharanga.

'Sri Lanka Library Friends e-Group'

This is a virtual meeting place (an e-mail discussion group) for library professionals and LIS students from Sri Lanka. Let's get connected!

We can discuss common issues and publish notices (workshops/vacancies/disposals of books and more).

Subscribe now and receive/post email messages that could be viewed by all members.

Membership is open to all.

Pls. find more details at http://asia.groups.yahoo.com/group/library_friends/ or,
request information from ruwan@lib.mrt.ac.lk (Ruwan Gamage, Group Moderator/Asst. Librarian, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.)

Tharanga.

Google Literacy Project

Dear Colleagues,

Google Literacy Project is available now. It is a combination of Google Book Search, Google Scholar, Google Video, Google Maps, Google Groups and Blogger.

The Literacy Project's aim is to give literacy organizations worldwide more channels and resources. In Google Books, there is a facility to retrieve only the freely accessible full text books.

URL: http://www.google.com/literacy/

Tharanga.