Public Libraries in the Sultanate of Oman and their role in enhancing the knowledge awareness according to the sustainable development goals

This study aims to find out the role of the public libraries in the Sultanate of Oman in achieving knowledge awareness as one of Oman’s Sustainable Development Goals. To achieve the study’s main objective, several questions regarding the public libraries’ role were proposed. To answer these questions, the study adopted a descriptive analytical-qualitative method. Twelve public libraries were covered in this study. Moreover, two qualitative tools were used: interviews with representatives from the public libraries and analyzing the contents of these libraries’ programs. The study found that public libraries’ awareness about sustainable development is medium, as some have no idea about the topic. The study also revealed that the public library focuses on sustainable development as educational aspects by providing databases and facilitating access. Moreover, besides the technical aspects, most public libraries provide the services of public computers and the internet. In addition, some of these public libraries had played a role in disseminating health awareness for society through providing First Aid training courses. However, the public libraries’ role in enhancing society’s awareness of the available job opportunities was very week. In addition, public libraries in Oman have a critical role in preserving Oman’s Documentary Heritage and provide its accessibility as most of the public libraries have a huge number of these documents. The most important recommendation of the study is that the Omani libraries’ authority should focus on developing the awareness of the specialists of the public library about sustainable development and the role of public libraries in achieving it.

GAINESIS: Generative Artificial Intelligence NEtlists SynthesIS

A significant problem in the field of hardware security consists of hardware trojan (HT) viruses. The insertion of HTs into a circuit can be applied for each phase of the circuit chain of production. HTs degrade the infected circuit, destroy it or leak encrypted data. Nowadays, efforts are being made to address HTs through machine learning (ML) techniques, mainly for the gate-level netlist (GLN) phase, but there are some restrictions. Specifically, the number and variety of normal and infected circuits that exist through the free public libraries, such as Trust-HUB, are based on the few samples of benchmarks that have been created from circuits large in size. Thus, it is difficult, based on these data, to develop robust ML-based models against HTs. In this paper, we propose a new deep learning (DL) tool named Generative Artificial Intelligence Netlists SynthesIS (GAINESIS). GAINESIS is based on the Wasserstein Conditional Generative Adversarial Network (WCGAN) algorithm and area–power analysis features from the GLN phase and synthesizes new normal and infected circuit samples for this phase. Based on our GAINESIS tool, we synthesized new data sets, different in size, and developed and compared seven ML classifiers. The results demonstrate that our new generated data sets significantly enhance the performance of ML classifiers compared with the initial data set of Trust-HUB.

Democratic librarianship in the Nordic model

The purpose of this research is to examine the evolving democratic librarianship and its robust connection to the Nordic societal model. Through an analysis of libraries in Oslo, Tromsø, Stockholm, Aarhus and Helsinki, as well as recent changes in library laws, we have analysed contemporary democratic librarianship in the Nordic countries through four essential factors: (1) citizens in democratic activities within libraries, (2) library managerial decisions, (3) activities of political parties within public libraries and (4) library laws. Through the analysis, we show that this robust and unique ecosystem is supported by (1) discussions at book clubs and shared readings events connected to common societal concerns, (2) criteria of library directors and managers, such as neutrality, freedom of speech and clauses of the Library Act, (3) perception of politicians regarding public libraries as the centre of the democratic community and (4) the Library Acts critically impacting democratic librarianship.

Analysis and Research on Digital Reading Platform of Multimedia Library by Big Data Computing in Internet Era

Digital reading promotion service is a service way for libraries to provide readers with a series of digital resources, enjoy the service functions, and share the experience of using them in various digital reading platforms, which is to meet the reading interests and reading needs of more readers, and is also the focus of the current library work. In the era of new media, the characteristics of digital reading are subtly changing the readers’ needs for reading environment, reading content, and reading style. Libraries should keep pace with the development of the times and provide readers with diversified, intelligent, and targeted digital reading platforms. The digital reading platform should continuously improve the digital reading service functions, broaden the service scope and dissemination channels, and finally realize the diversification, interest, and intelligence of digital reading service. This paper takes the digital reading platform of libraries in the region as the research theme and carries out research work on libraries. The province is divided into three regions according to the geographical map: southeastern region, central region, and northwestern region. The digital reading platforms of 14 prefecture-level public libraries and 58 libraries of higher education institutions in each region were accessed. Firstly, we check the construction of digital resources within the library websites, secondly, we count the opening of digital reading platform functions, and finally, we check the opening of digital reading platforms. Through the research, it is found that there are problems of unbalanced distribution of digital reading resources in regional libraries; unattractive design of readers’ interface and inadequate reading service functions; lack of continuous training of readers’ guidance; insufficient publicity and promotion; low efficiency of staff in responding to consultation; and low degree of platform openness and weak awareness of sharing. Finally, the problems found in the research are summarized, and the solution measures for the regional digital reading platform are proposed. Libraries in the digital era should give priority to systems that can manage all library resources comprehensively and effectively, adapt to more flexible library workflows, and enable libraries to provide better services to users.

Fostering Civic Engagement in Smart Cities

Smart cities are modern concepts that aim to provide better living conditions to their citizens by creating a sustainable environment. Citizens are the key partners behind the development of a smart city. They have to be aware about the civic duties and responsibilities towards the community. In this chapter, the authors analyze the concept of smart cities and what are the issues and challenges in India for developing a smart city. The authors also examine various civic engagement initiatives by the government of India. The objective of this chapter is to find the role played by public libraries in creating smarter communities and how they will help in promoting civic engagement activities.

Public Libraries as Enablers of Sustainable Development

Stakeholders of development are engaging in the United Nations' call for global sustainable development. Consequently, this chapter examines how public libraries as development agents are enabling or powering sustainable development through the three dimensions of economic, social, and environmental sustainability. Based on these three factors of sustainable development, objectives were raised to guide the study. The study, which is a conceptual review of literature, employed three major databases in library and information science (Emerald Insights, Taylor & Francis Online, and Library & Information Science Source) to search for literature complimented by Google Scholar. Results of the search were filtered by year (2011 to 2021), language (English), and source types (peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers, short communications, and reports). The study therefore showed strong nexus between public libraries and the dimensions of sustainable development, which are economic, social, and environmental sustainability.

The Importance of Rural Library Services Based on Social Inclusion in Indonesia

Libraries provide services for anyone, regardless of their social or economic interests, so that they have a non-discriminatory nature in providing good services in the library. Rural library into the container provision of reading materials as a source of education and community empowerment. Facing COVID-19 is not easy. It becomes a challenge for community to stay active and productive. Social inclusion has been introduced in many public libraries in Indonesia. Through this social inclusion, the library wants to further improve the welfare of community, especially in the rural areas. This chapter discusses the conceptualization of information for development which accommodates the concepts of advancement of literacy and development information for the community. The purpose of this service is to be able to provide services to rural communities so that it is easier to access information.