Leadership Qualities: Librarianship in Digital Era
This paper finds out the ways of traditional leadership in the LIS field. It also attempts to cover the new challenges that are cropping up in the recent years. In due course it tried to find out the qualities of leadership that helps to suit the need of digital librarianship. It attempts to present a framework to achieve goal and mission i.e. the ultimate user centered LIS universe under the dynamic leadership of the digital librarian.
Digital Librarians and the Challenges of Open Access to Knowledge: The Michael Okpara University of Agriculture (MOUAU) Library Experience
Introduction The development of Internet technology has provided academic and research institutions with a very high level of visibility on the web. As a result, teaching, learning and research is widely improved in the global society today. The intellectual call for knowledge and information dissemination by countless organizations and educational meetings has given birth to a terminology called open access. This initiative is aimed at bringing the knowledge society to a state of free access to all kinds of information and learning material using the Internet and ICT tools. The library plays an important role in sustaining the open access initiative (Das, 2008). Librarians who ensure the organization and dissemination of full-text content of knowledge materials to online communities are the digital librarians. This paper therefore examines the state of open access in MOUAU, discussing the challenges confronting the managers (digital librarians). Literature Review Digital Library and Open Access to Knowledge According to Shiri (2003), the Digital Library Federation defines digital library as: "Organizations that provide the resources, including the specialized staff, to select, structure, offer intellectual access to, interpret, distribute, preserve the integrity of, and ensure the persistence over time of collections of digital works so that they are readily available for use by a defined community or set of communities". Digital libraries are an emerging concept in Nigeria, even though today's libraries in the developed countries are routinely providing information and services in digital form. Borgman (1999) agrees with the view of Digital Library Federation (1998) which states that digital libraries have unique characteristics that differ from traditional libraries and their approaches to information provision. From a traditional librarian's point of view, digital libraries present a transformative model of a large-scale, user-centric organization that is moving towards an integrated form with various components. However, the main purpose of digital libraries remains consistent with that of traditional libraries in that the purpose of digital libraries is to organize, distribute, and preserve information resources just as it is for traditional libraries. Lynch (1994) says that, "digital Libraries provide users with coherent success to a very large, organized repository of information and knowledge." According to Trivedi (2010), the purpose of a digital library includes: * To expedite the systematic development of procedures to collect, store, and organize information in digital form. * To promote efficient delivery of information economically to all users. * To encourage co-operative efforts in research resource, computing, and communication networks. * To strengthen communication and collaboration between and among educational institutions. * To take leadership role in the generation and dissemination of knowledge Digital libraries promise new societal benefits. One is elimination of the time and space constraints of traditional "bricks-and-mortar libraries". Unlike libraries that occupy buildings accessible only to those who walk through their doors, digital libraries reside on inter-networked data storage and computing systems that can be accessed by people located anywhere in the world. When the full potential of a digital library is realized for a particular community, people shall be able to access all human knowledge hosted in that digital database from any location. Digital libraries that are accessible over the Internet provide opportunities to advance knowledge and to dramatically improve the quality of life. On the other hand, open access to knowledge is a key contributor in providing universal access to information and knowledge. The issue of open access is recently gathering global encouragement and support. …
Pharmacokinetics of Mivacurium Isomers and Their Metabolites in Healthy Volunteers after Intravenous Bolus Administration
Background Previous studies report the pharmacokinetics of mivacurium isomers after an infusion using venous blood sampling. Although the extent of the mivacurium arterial‐venous gradient is not known, the sampling site is likely to influence mivacurium pharmacokinetic parameters because the drug is rapidly metabolized as it traverses the circulation. The objectives of this study were (1) to determine the pharmacokinetics of mivacurium isomers in healthy persons after intravenous bolus administration using intensive arterial blood sampling, and (2) to characterize the formation and elimination of mivacurium metabolites in human plasma. Methods Eight persons classified as American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status 1 or 2 who were scheduled to undergo elective surgery under balanced anesthesia received 0.15 mg/kg mivacurium chloride as an intravenous bolus. Arterial blood samples were collected every 10 s during the first 2 min and at frequent intervals for 4 h thereafter. Plasma concentrations of mivacurium isomers and their metabolites were determined by two stereoselective high‐performance liquid chromatographic methods coupled with fluorometric detection and noncompartmental pharmacokinetic parameters. Results Mean elimination half‐lives of the trans‐trans, cis‐trans, and cis‐cis isomers were 2.4, 2, and 28.5 min, respectively, with corresponding mean plasma clearances of 29.2, 45.7, and 6.7 ml [center dot] min‐1 [center dot] kg‐1. The volumes of distribution at steady state of the trans‐trans, cis‐trans, and cis‐cis isomers were 0.047, 0.054, and 0.189 l/kg, respectively. Plasma concentrations of monoester and alcohol metabolites peaked 25 s (median) after mivacurium injection, with half‐lives in the range of 90 min, except for the cis alcohol metabolite, which was only negligibly and transiently formed. Conclusions Substantial hydrolysis of mivacurium isomers by cholinesterases was confirmed by the rapid appearance of mivacurium metabolites in plasma. The intensive arterial sampling proved to be critical for the trans‐trans and cis‐trans isomers because the area under the curve between 0 and 2 min accounted for 75% and 86% of the total, respectively.