The “Lituanistika” database as a research infrastructure for Lithuanian studies

Abstract

Data are compiled as e-objects that encompass both the descriptive data as well as the metadata on the structure of the e-objects. A full text is added to the e-object if there is a licence agreement with the publishers. LDB stores the texts that have been additionally evaluated by experts before their inclusion in LDB. A special sub-system to mine and visualise the information on citation has been constructed, using the pattern of the Thomson Reuters database, and implemented in the LDB. The reason is that data on the social sciences and humanities, and specifically, research on Lithuanian studies, is not included in the database mentioned above. LDB is supplied with new methods of data mining in the virtual library, dissemination of information using open access protocols and modern WEB technologies. The LDB data compiled over the last nine years is popular with researchers and students in Lithuania and abroad. As a result, LDB is considered to be one of the best research infrastructures for social sciences and humanities involving both librarians and information providers. The Research Council of Lithuania has been creating an international peer-reviewed research database, ‘Lituanistika’ (LDB), since 2006. The creation of the LDB is one of the national strategic priorities set out in the Law of the Education and Research (2009). The LDB helps to accumulate and preserve the best results of research on the history and status of the state of Lithuania, its society, culture, nation and language. By January 2014, LDB contained 34,247 bibliographic records, 19,059 of them with links to full text documents that are openly accessible. The best librarians from Lithuania’s thirteen universities undertake a global search for texts on Lithuanian studies. They also archive the digital versions of these texts, provided by their publishers, and make links between bibliographic data and full texts. Moreover, they derive information on citation from the text and make it public. It has to be emphasized that LDB is the only database that provides information on citation in Lithuania. The well-known products of the Ex Libris company are used for LDB data cataloguing and providing new services. Such products as the Aleph integrated library system, the Primo modern discovery and delivery system and the SFX scholarly linking service. Fedora, an open source repository software, enables long-term access to the data.