In this study, we conducted an in-depth analysis spanning 53 years, from 1969 to 2021, focusing on the field of literacy studies within the context of libraries. Our exploration involved a dataset of 4,986 articles retrieved from the Scopus database. Our primary objective was to visualize knowledge by identifying and exploring prominent trends and hotspots in literacy studies. To achieve this, we adopted a comprehensive approach. The methodology employed in this study combined traditional approaches with contemporary tools. The dataset was analyzed using the R software for conventional methodologies, while MATLAB was utilized for cutting-edge techniques. The multifaceted approach allowed us to uncover patterns of continuous growth, identify key contributors, and employ the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model to recognize emerging and significant topics. The study revealed a consistent pattern of continuous growth in the field of literacy studies, indicating the acquisition of new knowledge over time. Key contributors, including productive authors, influential journals, and active countries, were identified. The application of the LDA model enabled us to recognize newly emerged, developed, and important topics. The significance of this research lies in its contribution to understanding the dynamic landscape of literacy studies within library contexts, offering valuable insights for future research and practical applications in the field.

Purpose In the absence of a working model for describing, managing and archiving the human library resources, this study aims to attempt a practical approach that will provide all the necessary information to the library users, library professionals and researchers. Design/methodology/approach Initially, different metadata standards, archival projects and attributes of the human books were reviewed to identify appropriate metadata standards that accurately describe the resources of the human library. A free and open-source software; DSpace was considered for implementing newly defined metadata schema in this study. Thereafter, a set of new subject entries was incorporated to standardize the contents of the human library. Findings This study finds that the widely used metadata schema – Dublin Core (DC) is not appropriate to describe the contents of the human book. It shows that selected metadata elements from the types – person and event of schema.org can be used for describing, organizing and archiving the resources of the human library. It further highlights that existing subject entries are not sufficient to standardize the contents of these types of resources. Research limitations/implications Two metadata fields in DSpace are strongly recommended by the DSpace community to consider in the input-forms.xml file, that is why the study could not completely omit DC metadata elements in describing human books. Originality/value The study provides a roadmap to the library professionals on the inclusion of new metadata schemas in describing the uniquely featured resources of the library.

In an academic set up the 'library' plays a pivotal role. It stores, analyses, interpret and disseminate information among the users to fulfil their information needs. It has been observed that recent technological advancement has revolutionised library services to a great extent. Now libraries are providing both physical as well as web-enabled library services to their users. In this context, library websites act as a major gateway in providing web-enabled library services. The sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the physical mode of library services. However, to support the ongoing teaching and learning process, libraries need to continue their services despite the lockdown. Therefore, the present study seeks to find out whether academic libraries are ready and adequately equipped to perform basic services during this critical juncture. The present study was directed towards exploring the readiness among the academic libraries by assessing their websites based on selected evaluation criteria. Hence, in this study top, 100 NIRF ranked institutes websites were examined by adopting 30-point evaluation criteria. These criteria were selected from the extant literature. These criteria were grouped into 04 categories i.e., basic website information, resource discovery, availability of resources and reference services. The readiness index of each library was calculated based on the availability and non-availability of the said criteria. The findings of the study reveal that 64 per cent of the libraries have failed to secure their score of 50 per cent on predefined criteria. It was also found that the preparedness index is independent of NIRF ranking. Overall findings of the study make it clear that academic libraries need to improve and up to date their web-based services to play a proactive role in the present and post-pandemic situation.

In this paper, we present a conceptual searching framework based on ontology to help users in query formation and make subject searching more effective in online public access catalogue (OPAC). The study proposes an ontology-based GUI through which users can visualize subject headings and interact with the GUI through a semantic-based process while searching. This model represents the library of Congress subject headings (LCSHs) in an ontological form which exposes the hierarchy of the subject headings as well as all stated relations among them. It facilitates context-based searching by replacing the keyword-based search and help users to formulate their query in such a format that, it will be more responsive for information retrieval.

This paper is aimed at presenting the results of a survey conducted to determine the usage patterns of OPAC among the library users of higher educational institutions in the state of Odisha.An attempt has been made here to assess usage pattern in terms of awareness, the frequency of use, the purpose of use, search pattern, success in locating items and problems faced while using OPAC.Total 380 questionnaires were selected for the study out of the 393 filled questionnaires received.The data received from the respondents is analyzed using simple percentage approach.The findings of the study revealed that OPAC usage rate is quite low among the library users of Odisha.However, the users who use OPAC most frequently conduct title and author searches.The majority of the respondents indicated that they were moderately successful in locating documents through OPAC.It is also found that most of the users are unaware of the all the facility available in the OPAC and encounter problem while searching.Some of the problems observed from the study includes:difficulty in query formation, maximum time search failure, no scope for spelling correction, inadequate instruction in the OPAC software, OPAC not functioning properly and lack of proper guidance from the library staff.Hence, the study suggested that improvement of OPAC functionality is the urgent need for the effective and proper utilization of OPAC.

The paper examines the significance of Ranganathan’s canons of cataloguing in the context of online catalogue and also investigates the extent to which these canons of cataloguing matches or fails with the principles of the new cataloguing code- Resource Description and Access (RDA).