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1
Leung, Yuet Ha. "Information literacy skills : Hong Kong primary teachers' perceptions of the role of the teacher librarian." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2018. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/51333/.
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The thesis reviewed the changes to the role of teacher librarians and the implications of this for primary teachers. The study sought to explore the teachers’ views about information literacy skills, who should teach them and the role of the teacher librarian. This study took a mix-methods approach, i.e. quantitative and qualitative research, in which self-report data were collected through a questionnaire to classroom teachers followed by individual face to face interview with six questionnaire respondents. The findings of the study were that teachers associate information literacy skills with information technology skills. Though they said they understand information literacy skills, their understanding of information literacy skills was discrete and not systematic compared with the definition of information literacy skills in the literature. They agreed that information literacy skills were important and they have the responsibility to teach student such skills. They agreed that they have further professional development needs in terms of information literacy skills. Teachers who started teaching before 1998 reported some changes in teaching and learning made by the presence of the teacher librarian. They agreed with the provision of the teacher librarian post though they were not aware of the legislated role of the teacher librarian. They thought that awareness of the role of the teacher librarian and information literacy skills and the ability to develop students’ information literacy skills would help them utilize the skills of the teacher librarian. The findings have highlighted the implications for teacher education to train teacher information literacy skills, raise teachers’ awareness of the role of the teacher librarian especially in Cooperative Planning and Teaching with teachers to equip student information literacy skills. For serving teachers, piloting the role of the teacher librarian, Cooperative Planning and Teaching and flexible library timetable are necessary to facilitate implementation of the legislated role of the teacher librarian.
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Dove, G. "CoDesign with data." Thesis, City University London, 2015. http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/14902/.
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Design is a process of changing current situations into preferred ones, through conversations with design materials, and an understanding of the present practice of the designed artefact’s future users. Domain-relevant data, such as those generated by personal and autonomous computing systems, are an increasingly important design material presenting new ways to explore current practice. Examples of these data include that being generated by people using smartphones, health and fitness monitors, smart energy meters and social media; or that from official statistics made publicly available via Open Data initiatives. This thesis details research developing CoDesign With Data, a novel approach to collaborative early-stage design workshops in which working with domain-relevant data is the key distinguishing feature. During a CoDesign With Data workshop participants are given the tools and techniques to help them seek insight from data, gain an understanding of the context these data might come from, and to inspire creative design ideas. These tools and techniques build on an understanding of research into information visualization and applied creativity. The activities in which they are used build on the experiences reported from other approaches to creativity in collaborative requirements gathering and design workshops. The aim of this research is to support design innovation that results in new products or services appropriate to the contexts in which they will be used. To investigate the primary research question, and evaluate the tools and techniques being developed, two design experiments and three case studies were undertaken. In each study, examples of tools, in the form of workshop materials and information visualization interfaces, and techniques, in the form of workshop activities, are presented, and simple takeaways for design practice are offered. Finally, the knowledge and understanding gained during this research is presented as a series of guidelines and recommendations, and a description of the current state-of-the-art CoDesign With Data workshop.
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Lekhawatthanapong, Thattaporn. "Establishing statutory ground for the public interest defence under international copyright law." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2018. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50736/.
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Maintaining a fair balance between individuals’ interests and the public interest is arguably believed to be the most effective approach in serving the ultimate objective of copyright: to promote social, economic and cultural development for the benefit of both rightsholders and the public at large. Through this balanced approach, creativity can be maximised and thrive better than by tilting towards one or the other. In copyright law, such balance is reflected by the way in which the short-term grant of exclusive rights respects the long-term public interest represented by limitations and exceptions to copyright. Despite an unclear and non-uniform definition and scope, the importance of the public interest has been implicitly and explicitly recognised through disparate forms of safeguards in different jurisdictions. However, the last few decades have seen a rapid development of information technologies which, in turn, has contributed to an unparalleled legislative drive at international level towards overprotecting the interests of rightsholders. This has then left the public interest under-protected and now constitutes an imbalance of copyright. This thesis therefore examines legislative intervention into the international copyright regime in an attempt to ensure that the public interest is uniformly and mandatorily safeguarded at international level. In particular, it strives to establish an overarching public interest defence capable of protecting certain aspects of public values embedded in copyright works. In achieving this, the thesis examines the scope of the defence, what it should entail, and what aspects are to be taken into account in the course of formulating and giving effect to the defence. The substantive chapters investigate the public policy grounds, the right to freedom of expression and the international three-step test, i.e. the roles they play in shaping the latitude and operations of the defence, respectively. Finally, the thesis also evaluates different ways in which the defence can be incorporated into the international copyright regime in order to effectively counterbalance the rightsholder-centric tendency and restore the balance of copyright.
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Van, Renterghem A. M. S. "The written rune : alphabets and rune-rows in medieval manuscripts from the Continent and the British Isles." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2018. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49713/.
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This thesis aims to create a fundamental historical and geographical framework for the study of runes written in medieval manuscripts. It does so by examining the transmission of Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian rune-rows and runic alphabets within the wider context of contemporary medieval scholarship. The focal points of this study are the questions of the origin of the phenomenon, and how it developed between the eighth and the twelfth centuries, as evidenced by manuscripts currently held by continental and English libraries. In order to contextualise this study, a brief introduction is dedicated to the concept of runic manuscripts and to an overview of the scholarship which has been carried out on this material thus far. The observations from this discussion are then used to define the limitations of this work. Finally, a number of the issues currently faced by scholars with regard to defining the field of manuscript runology are examined, and the comparison with its epigraphical counterpart is made. The study includes thirty-nine manuscripts with alphabets or rune-rows; these are listed and described in a catalogue which comprises the main body of the thesis. Each manuscript receives a description of its history and contents, an analysis of the runic material it contains, and an examination of the immediate and wider contexts in which the runes appear. The information gathered in the catalogue is collectively analysed in the final chapter, which focuses on determining the origin and development of the phenomenon of runes in manuscripts. The examination of origin uses commonalities between the contexts of the runes to achieve insight into the medieval perception of manuscript runes, and to construct a possible point of origin. The development section then follows the evolution of the tradition and compares and contrasts its execution on the Continent and in the British Isles. Finally, these results are used to indicate the place of written runes within medieval learning, and to construct a general framework which can be used to build upon for future research.
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Pinfield, Stephen. "Towards open access : managerial, technical, economic and cultural aspects of improving access to research outputs from the perspective of a library and information services provider in a research university." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2011. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/12090/.
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For academic research to release its value, it has to be communicated. It is essential, if research is to flourish, that the various forms of research communication, including journal articles and similar research outputs, are as easily and widely available as possible. The publications in this submission, produced between 1998 and 2010, all discuss major aspects (managerial, technical, economic and cultural) of improving access to research outputs in order to support research activity in higher education institutions. The later works focus in particular on the issue of ‘open access’ (OA) publishing and dissemination. The publications investigate the why and how of OA. Firstly, they examine the potential benefits (and dis-benefits) of OA for the research community and other stakeholders. Secondly, they discuss how OA systems and services might operate in practice. The earlier works on OA focus on repositories, particularly institutional repositories. Some of the later publications bring into consideration OA journals and their (potential) ongoing relationship with repositories. The publications are written from the perspective of a library and information services provider in a research university. They report on ground-breaking action-based research-and-development work: setting up innovative demonstrator systems, developing new business processes, and designing novel organisational policies. Possible future scenarios are modelled and analysed. It is shown that these activities have made a significant impact on wider professional practice, as well as contributing to the research literature, as OA has became more mainstream. Major themes discussed include managerial challenges associated with implementing OA services; technical issues relating to the development of systems and standards; economic factors covering costs, funding streams and business models; and cultural issues, including disciplinary differences. These are examined in relation to different stakeholder groups at institutional, national and system-wide levels. Other key themes include intellectual property rights and quality assurance. A clearer picture of possible research-communication futures incorporating OA is developed.
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Malik, Sumaira. "The role of online support communities for people experiencing infertility." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2010. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/13067/.
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People faced with infertility will often experience a strong need for psychosocial support and guidance; a need which is not always adequately met by existing sources of support. The growth in access to the Internet over recent years has opened up new opportunities for people affected by infertility to seek support, advice, and information through the means of an online support community. These online communities can potentially play an important role in addressing the support and information needs of people experiencing infertility; by improving their ability to access peer and professional support. Additionally, online communities may offer a more welcoming and comfortable environment in which these individual's can share their infertility experiences and concerns. This thesis adopted a triangulated approach to research the potential role of online communities in helping people cope with the challenges of infertility. An initial qualitative study was conducted with 95 people accessing online infertility support communities to explore their motives, perceptions, and experiences of online support seeking. Responses revealed that participants especially valued the unique characteristics of computer-mediated communication (e.g. anonymity, asynchrony etc), which appeared to facilitate their ability to access and seek support. In addition, there were a number of psychosocial benefits associated with the online support communities, which appeared to aid the participant's ability to cope with their infertility experiences. Key benefits included reduced feelings of isolation and loneliness, improvements in marital relationships and access to a unique and valuable source of emotional and informational support. This study was followed by a content analysis of the therapeutic and self help mechanisms used in 3,500 messages posted to a popular UK online infertility support community. Results from this stage suggested that the key functions of the online support community were to exchange support and empathy and provide a forum for individuals to share their personal experiences related to infertility. Results also revealed that on the whole communication within the online support community was extremely positive and constructive, offering group members the opportunity to utilise many of the therapeutic and self-help mechanisms that are known to be beneficial to people using face-to-face support networks. The issues and questions raised in these initial studies were further examined in a larger scale survey with 295 users of online infertility support communities. This study quantitatively examined the use and experience of online infertility support communities and how this relates to psychosocial well-being. Results revealed that the majority of participants considered there to be a range of important benefits from accessing online communities. However the study also identified a number of potential disadvantages to accessing online infertility support communities, which appeared to have an impact on the experiences and psychosocial wellbeing of infertile individuals. The theoretical, methodological and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
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Alanazi, Sultan. "Improving end-system recommender systems using cross-platform personal information." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2017. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44864/.
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Today, the web is constantly growing, expanding global information space and more and more data is being processed and sourced online. The amount of electronically accessible and available online information is overwhelming. Increasingly, recommendation systems, which engage in some form of automated personalisation, are hugely prevalent on the web and have been extensively studied in the research literature. Several issues still remain unsolved including high sparsity situation and cold starts (how to recommend content to users who have had little or no prior interaction with the system). Recent work has demonstrated a potential solution in the form of cross-domain user modeling. This thesis will explore the design, implementation and testing of a cross-domain approach using social media data to model rich and effective user preferences and provide empirical evidence of the effectiveness of the approach based on direct real-world user feedback, deconstructing a cross-system news recommendation service where user models are generated via social media data. This will be accomplished by identifying the availability of a source domain from which to draw resources for recommendations and the availability of user profiles that capture a wide range of user interests from different domains. This thesis also demonstrates the viability of generating user models from social media data and evidences that the automated cross-domain approach can be superior to explicit filtering using self-declared preferences and can be further augmented when placing the user with the ability to maintain control over such models. The reasons for these results are qualitatively examined in order to understand why such effects occur, indicating that different models are capturing widely different areas within a user's preference space.
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Pinkney, Alexander J. "Improving typography and minimising computation for documents with scalable layouts." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2015. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28872/.
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Since the 1980s, two paradigms have dominated the representation of formatted electronic documents: flowable and fixed. Flowable formats, such as HTML, EPUB, or those used by word processors, allow documents to scale to any arbitrary page size, but typographical compromises must be made since the layout is computed in real time, and is re-computed each time the document is displayed. Conversely, fixed formats such as SVG or PDF are afforded the potential for arbitrarily complex typography, but are constrained to the fixed layout that is set at the time of creation. With the recent surge in popularity of low-powered portable reading devices -- from tablets to e-readers to mobile phones -- there is an expectation that documents should scale to any size, maintain their high-quality typography, and not provide unnecessary strain on an already overloaded battery. This thesis defines a novel paradigm for electronic document representation -- the Malleable Document -- whereby documents are partially typeset at the time of creation, leaving enough flexibility that their content can be flowed to arbitrary page sizes with minimal computation. One tradeoff encountered is that of increased file size, and this is addressed with a bespoke, computationally-light compression scheme. A sample implementation is presented that transforms documents from a source format into Malleable Document format, alongside a lightweight display engine that enables the documents to be viewed and resized on a wide range of devices, mobile and otherwise. Reviews of the technical aspects and a user study to evaluate the quality of the system's rendering and layout show that the Malleable Document paradigm is a promising alternative to both fixed and flowable formats, and builds upon the best of both approaches.
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Hupfeld, Annika. "Designing the social life of books and e-books." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2017. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/43528/.
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E-books have seen a significant proliferation over recent years. In the UK, about a third of the population today owns an e-reader with about half either owning an e-reader or tablet. Nevertheless, only about 4% of readers have moved to reading e-books only. These numbers suggest that, while e-books have caught on among a large number of users, they seem to complement rather than replace books. In light of the significance of books to past and contemporary cultures and societies it is little surprising that the emergence of e-reading technologies has sparked a plethora of writing on the topic, particularly in journalism and the humanities. With a common focus on the relative merits of books and e-books, and ultimately, their respective futures (some writers go as far as either mourning or celebrating the death of the book), the debate largely suffers from a technological determinist stance, neglecting the role of social practice as a driving force in technology adoption and use. Regardless, the sheer volume of the discourse suggests that something important is at stake in the move from analogue to digital reading technologies and that books continue to be valued as physical artefacts in the digital age, if not with more fervour than ever. What is surprising then is the lack of empirical research aiming to understand how books and e-books are used and valued in everyday life. Existing work in the area is almost exclusively concerned with practices of reading, with a particular emphasis on reading in academic and professional environments, thereby not only disregarding the social and material nature of reading, but also the rich life of the book beyond its role as a reading technology. The aim of this thesis then is to provide an understanding of the practices and values surrounding books and e-books in everyday life. Based on this understanding, it further aims to explore alternatives to the current e-reading ecosystem through designs that are sensitive to some of the broader values people associate with books and e-books. To do so, it takes a situated approach to studying books and e-books as they are used over the course of their lifecycle inside and outside the home. Through a combination of a series of in-depth interviews, guided ‘home tours’, and participant diaries ‘context-rich’ data on people’s uses of, and orientations towards, books and e-books are gathered. Subsequently, design responses are iteratively developed before being returned to readers for analysis. The contribution of this thesis is fourfold: (1) an account of the socially and materially situated practices associated with books and e-books inside and outside the home, (2) an explication of the distinct, yet complementary, values reflected in and driving book and e-books use, (3) an explication of the ways in which developing a sense of self and connecting with others are actualized through the use of books and e-books, and (3) the development and in situ analysis of a design exemplar in support of these goals.
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Brettle, A. "Exploring the roles, effectiveness and impact of health information professionals within evidence based practice." Thesis, University of Salford, 2009. http://usir.salford.ac.uk/12960/.
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This is the thesis (critical appraisal) component of a PhD by Published Works. The overall submission was a portfolio of ten published papers supported by a critical appraisal focusing on two key areas: an exploration of the roles that Health Information Professionals (HIPs) can play within evidence based practice (EBP) and an exploration of the effectiveness and impact of the traditional supportive role played by HIPs within EBP. The published papers are listed and referenced within this document but not contained within it. The majority are available elsewhere within the University of Salford Institutional Repository. Drawing on a model developed from the library literature, the thesis highlights a wide range of supportive and active roles that HIPs can potentially play within EBP. This model is informed and illuminated by the studies within the portfolio that demonstrate how the author has fulfilled a wide range of these roles in practice, and identified a new role within systematic reviews in health and social care. This demonstrates that HIPs can transfer their skills outside their traditional library and information practice domain, thus extending their role and offering a range of professional opportunities. Using a varied range of research methodologies, the thesis also explores the effectiveness and impact of the contribution made by HIPs when using traditional skills to support EBP. Two models are used to illustrate the outcomes to which HIPs contribute. These include improving search skills and providing evidence which can, over the longer term, contribute to policy making and patient care. At present the weight of the evidence presented to support these links is weak. Methodological issues and future research that needs to be addressed to improve the strength of the evidence base are therefore highlighted and discussed.
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Zhang, Min. "An investigation of query-by-drawing image search on mobile devices." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2016. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46936/.
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The rapid growth of touchscreen mobile devices has opened up many new opportunities for exploring Content-based Image Retrieval (CBIR) techniques, e.g., it has enabled the development of intuitive and natural user interfaces to facilitate the Query-by-Drawing (QbD) image search paradigm. Although ubiquitous mobile computing holds the promise of drastically changing the ways users search for images from large image repositories, there is yet no comprehensive and systematic study that examines the factors that influence the usability, user behaviours and task performance of a QbD image search mobile application (App). No guidelines and principles exist for designing fundamental user interface components such as the colour picker and little is known how its different designs affect system usability and task performance. Little research exists that examines how different user interface designs affect the ways users draw the queries and how users go about the search process for different types of tasks. The questions of whether or not it is possible or how well users can perform QbD image search by drawing from memory of previously-seen images are unexplored. An understanding of these questions is very important and useful in the development of effective and user-friendly systems for a QbD image search App on touchscreen mobile devices. This PhD project attempts to answer these questions and more by examining the factors that influence the usability and task performance of a QbD painting search mobile application. Starting with a comprehensive literature review and current mobile App review of various related fields, we first designed and implemented a Client-Server painting search mobile App based on an existing CBIR algorithm as the research platform for collecting empirical data; we then conducted a focus group study from whose findings we re-designed the user interfaces of our QbD App. An online survey about art preference was carried out, and we designed four comprehensive user studies and recruited a total of 123 participants to take part in the experiments. Both qualitative and quantitative measures are collected and analysed to discover the various factors that influence the usability and task performance of the interface designs of a QbD image search mobile App and the memory drawing over time. Finally, we made recommendations and suggestions on the design and implementation of various interface components of the QbD image search mobile App based on our findings. This thesis presents the following contributions summarised as: 1) We build a flexible platform that can be used for research in drawing-related fields, such as a new QbD technique or interface tests and psychological study. 2)We present a comprehensive and systematic review of the methods and techniques related to the investigation of QbD image search mobile App. 3) We propose a new way of categorising colour picker: ‘1D-1D-1D’, ‘1D-2D’, and ‘3D’ colour picker. 4) The rationales of choosing stimuli are proposed and a real-world painting database is built. 5) We also develop a variety of novel methodologies for experimental design, data collection and data analysis, and we formulated a new protocol for assessing drawing accuracy and search result. 6) We propose some colour picker design guidelines through a series of experiments and the analysis of comprehensive experimental data. 7) Although indeed memory decays over time, we found the participants are able to draw from the memory of a painting with simple compositional structure (6-7 colour blobs), even for the paintings viewed a month ago. And finally, 8) the experiments also provide valuable insights into how general users draw and modify a query, and judge the result relevance for different tasks on mobile phones, as well as search pattern and memorisation strategy, which also extend a scientific understanding of using current Query-by-Drawing techniques for real world image search.
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Williams, Helen Sarah. "Scotland's regional print economy in the nineteenth century." Thesis, Edinburgh Napier University, 2018. http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1255509.
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Printing has been one of Scotland's most significant industries since it was introduced over 500 years ago but remained for much of the period, a local industry. The Scottish publishing and printing industries in the nineteenth century left many documentary traces, but most research has concentrated on large urban centres such as Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, with regional centres of print production all but ignored. In the nineteenth century, these local print economies served the business, administrative, political and leisure needs of an increasingly urbanised Scotland. My research is focused on the operation of the support structures and networks which developed among operative printers in Scotland's regional print centres from around 1830 to the end of the nineteenth century. As a case study I have selected the Royal Burgh of Dumfries, the most important market town in south-west Scotland, which was also a stop on the route between central Scotland and the industrial centres of Lancashire, and further south to London. A local printing industry developed during the eighteenth century, and by 1830 Dumfries was the home of a range of businesses in the printing and allied trades. The examination of the local print economy investigates the businesses and organisations engaged in print production and distribution in the local area, the technologies which were in use, and the material record of the town. The individual 'print trade lives' are considered in some detail, looking at the range and variety of career patterns in the industry. The options for a larger study of print networks based on trade records are also considered. Sources for the study include local and regional trade society records, business records, trade journals and other publications, and contemporary (mainly local) newspapers. It also draws on technological manuals and other secondary material in Edinburgh Napier University's Edward Clark Collection.
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Tolley-Stokes, Rebecca. "Annotated Bibliography." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2011. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/5760.
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Thompkins, Joyce Hollmon. "An annotated bibliography of the Coretta Scott King Award Books from 1970-1990." DigitalCommons@Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center, 1993. http://digitalcommons.auctr.edu/dissertations/1104.
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Dean, Caroline Elizabeth. "Statistics for electronic resources." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14704.
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Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-74).Electronic resources represent a large portion of many libraries' information resources in the current climate of hybrid libraries where print and electronic formats coexist. Since the dramatic uptake of electronic resources in libraries during the 1990's the topic of usage statistics has been on librarians' lips. The expectations that librarians had of being able to compare resources based on usage statistics were soon dashed as it became apparent that electronic resource providers were not measuring usage uniformly. Given the initial disappointments that librarians had in terms of electronic resource usage statistics the author set out to find the reasons why librarians were keeping statistics for electronic resources, which statistics they were keeping for electronic resources, and what were the issues and concerns with regard to statistics for electronic resources. To get an international answer to these questions a literature review was undertaken. The South African point of view was sought through an e-mail survey that was sent out to the 23 South African academic libraries that form the South African National Library and Information Consortium (SANLiC). A 65% response rate was recorded. The international and South African answers to the three questions were very similar. The study found that the reasons why librarians keep electronic resources statistics were to "assess the value of different online products/services"; to "make better-informed purchasing decisions"; to "plan infrastructure and allocation of resources"; and to "support internal marketing and promotion of library services". The study also found that the statistics that librarians were keeping are: sessions, searches, documents downloaded, turnaways, location of use, number of electronic resources, expenditure and virtual visits. The number of virtual visits was kept by international libraries but no South African libraries reported keeping this information. The concerns that were raised by both international and South African libraries were found to be about: the continued lack of standardisation; the time-consuming nature of data collection; the reliability of the usage data; the fact that the data need to be looked at in context; the management of the data; and how to count electronic resources. Clear definitions of the latter are essential. A concern raised in South Africa but not in the international literature is that there exists a lack of understanding amongst some South African librarians of the basic concepts of electronic resources usage statistics. The author concludes with a suggestion that the CHELSA Measures for Quality be implemented so that librarians can see that the collection of usage data for electronic resources has some purpose. Once this is in place one or more training events under the auspices of SANLiC should be organised in order to train librarians in the best practice of electronic resource usage statistics.
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Wallace, Rick L. "Internet Resources for Health Professionals." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 1999. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/8806.
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Wallace, Rick L., Emily C. Weyant, and Nakia J. Woodward. "Using Checklists to Rethink Library Resources and Services Training." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2017. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/8677.
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This article presents the use of the Checklist as a tool to tailor and enhance library resource instruction and the faculty response. A checklist was developed that covered the information resources of the library and the information skills needed by pharmacy faculty. Librarians learned the value of using a checklist. Better relationships were developed with the college of pharmacy faculty. Weaknesses in the library’s training of pharmacy faculty were discovered and remedied. Checklists are used in medicine to obtain quality. Checklists can be used in medical librarianship for the same purpose.
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Adebonojo, Leslie G., Kathy Campbell, and Mark Ellis. "Automatic Assessment of Library Resources Utilizing LibGuides." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2010. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/6319.
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Wallace, Rick L., and Nakia J. Carter. "Spanning Gaps in Information Services and Resources to Medical Residents." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2008. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/8751.
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Objective: To determine if the library resources being utilized most frequently by medical residents correlate to the cost of the resource and the clinical value of the resource. To determine the quality of medical library services provided to residents.
Methods: A survey analysis was conducted of 217 medical residents from the 2005/06 East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine class in surgery, family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, psychiatry, pediatrics, and pathology with a return rate of 48.4%. Quantitative analysis was performed with the SPSS (v. 14.0 for Windows) software program. The results were expressed in percents in graphical or tabular form. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequencies, mean, median, and mode), and inferential statistics (Mann-Whitney U test and chi-square test.)
Results: The most frequently used resources by residents were Google, PubMed, UptoDate, and free web resources. The resources that were rated with the highest clinical value and rated by at least 25% of the respondents were online journals, InfoRetriever, MDConsult, and the Cochrane databases. When clinical value, frequency of use, and cost were combined, the highest ranking resources were Google, free web resources, PubMed, and Up-ToDate.
Conclusions: As suspected, medical residents heavily use the web for information. Although online journals are expensive, residents highly rate their clinical value. Medical librarians need to frequently measure the resource use patterns of their different patron groups to plan for training and to make wise purchase decisions.
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Wallace, Rick L., Nakia J. Woodward, and Emily C. Weyant. "Using Checklists to Re-Think Library Resources and Services Training." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2016. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/8700.
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Sergiadis, Ashley D. R. "Using Websites to Study Library Resources, Services, and Organizations." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2020. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/6424.
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Libraries rely on websites to inform patrons of their resources, services, and organizations. Consequently, these websites are a rich source of research data to discover library trends, whether it is determining which databases are most commonly offered or which departments have the most employees. Content from library websites not only allow researchers to explore these types of questions, but they also indicate how libraries communicate information to patrons.
Come to this session to learn when and how to conduct a content analysis of library websites. It will begin with an overview of the types of research questions that can be explored using this method, including examples from research projects within the library and information science literature. Then, the presenter will delve into the process of conducting a content analysis of library websites, breaking down the general steps and providing helpful tips along the way. These steps will be demonstrated with an example of a study conducted by the presenter that used information from library websites to determine which academic library departments (collections/technology, research/instruction, etc.) manage institutional repositories. Lastly, the session will conclude with an activity that will walk attendees through thinking of a research question and how to design a content analysis for that question.
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Wallace, Rick L., and Nakia J. Woodward. "Using Checklists to Train Users to Use the Mosaic of Library Resources and Services." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2016. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/8705.
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Objectives: The purpose of this study was to create a checklist that could be used in the training of a college of pharmacy faculty so that there were no gaps in their information literacy; to implement the checklist; and to measure the users response to the intervention.
Methods: A checklist was developed that covered the information resources of the library and the information skills needed by pharmacy faculty. All faculty were required to meet with a librarian during the academic year and cover everything on the checklist in one or multiple sessions. Faculty were surveyed as to their responses to the training.
Results: Librarians learned the value of using a checklist. Better relationships were developed with the college of pharmacy faculty. Weaknesses in the libraries training of pharmacy faculty were discovered and remedied. Conclusions: Checklists are used in medicine to obtain quality. Checklists can be used in medical librarianship for the same purpose.
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Alexander, Gwendolyn. "Business as usual: Factors influencing collection development and management of business information resources in borderlands public libraries." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/280196.
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The purpose of this research is to define grounded theoretical models about factors that influence collection development and collection management of business information resources in public libraries. The study is based on data collected from a multi-site case study of public libraries along the U.S.-Mexico border where there is a critical need for information on starting and expanding small businesses. A framework of structuration theory and cultural hegemony theory informs an analysis of the data. This paper relates to the relevant literature and sets forth implications for research, practice, and further discussion. The three main categories identified from coding the data are library location, modes of production and distribution of business information resources, and the degree of external stakeholder pressure on library business collections. Three model statements defined and supported by the data are: (1) the attributes of funding, librarian qualifications, access to information and communication technologies, size and qualities of the business community, and client expectations that influence business collection development are related to library location in metropolitan or rural areas; (2) new practices in the production of content, formats, and modes of distribution of business materials are more problematic for small libraries due to limited information and communication technology (ICT) devices and insufficient professional training; and (3) external influences and initiatives, such as federal, state, and foundation programs, have more of an impact on business collection development in small libraries than in large libraries. The various properties of these factors are discussed with a focus on how daily routine, tacit awareness, and expectations draw on structural rules and resources to produce and reproduce, or change, library systems and their business collections. The consequences of location in metropolitan or rural areas are identified, and mitigating strategies are suggested. External influences and new modes of production and distribution of business information are implicated in supporting the cultural hegemony of globalization by encouraging the introduction and use of ICTs in public libraries; however, use of ICTs to expand the business collection is dependent upon librarian interest and abilities as well as competing demands for scarce resources.
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Walden, Rachel R., Nakia J. Woodward, and Rick L. Wallace. "Reevaluating Point-of-Care Resources: Community Engagement in Difficult Collection Choices." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2016. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/8702.
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Objectives: The objective of this study was to better understand the needs of users of an academic health sciences library.
Methods: A focus group was conducted using structured interviews. The groups interviewed consisted of three students each from Medicine, Pharmacy, and PhysicalTherapy. Interviewees were probed as to their experience with the library facility and the information training they received in their professional schools. Another focus group was conducted with six participants. Two faculty members each from Medicine, Pharmacy, and Physical Therapy were interviewed. Faculty were asked about the information training they provided students. The data was analyzed for trends using qualitative software.
Results: Better relationships were developed between library users and staff. Staff enjoyed learning the focus group methodology and thought it was a valuable tool. New insights were gained for current and future library operations.
Conclusions: A focus group is an excellent research tool for assessing the information needs of users, the degree to which the library is filling those needs, and learning of new needs
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Walsh, John Barry. "The Effects Of Targeted, Connectivism-Based Information Literacy Instruction On Latino Students Information Literacy Skills And Library Usage Behavior." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/312502.
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The United States is experiencing a socio-demographic shift in population and education. Latinos are the fastest growing segment of the population on the national level and in higher education. The Latino student population growth rate and Latino college completion rate are not reciprocal. While Latino students are the fastest growing demographic group in higher education, they continue to have the lowest persistence and retention rates. Latino students are more at risk for dropping out of college than any other ethnic group. Latinos decreasing persistence rates have caused an academic achievement gap in higher education (Long, 2011). Literature has correlated the gap with Latinos limited IL competency and low library usage (Long, 2011).This quasi-experimental research examined the effects of a targeted information literacy (IL) instructional method on Latino community college students IL skills and library usage. The study also introduced the idea of using a connectivism based targeted instruction to influence Latinos IL skills and library usage. The intent of the study was to investigate the development of information literacy instruction (ILI) which targets Latino students and uses the principles of connectivism. Connectivism posits that students' learn by connecting to information along their personal learning networks (Siemens, 2005). Connectivism helps position the library within Latino students' personal learning networks. This positioning may increase their library usage and by extension their IL skills. Specifically, this quantitative study assessed the effect of the instruction on IL skills and library usage behavior of Latino community college students. A pretest/posttest control group design was used for this study. A sample of 92 Latino male and female students completed the pretest and posttest. They were recruited from a diverse population of community college students who were registered for Introductory English classes. Data was collected through instrumentation that included an Information Literacy Rubric, an Information Literacy Skills Test, a Library Usage Survey/Demographic Identification Form, and a Citation Analysis Form. Though two of the hypotheses were not supported, the data collected allowed the researcher to accomplish two of the purposes of this study, to design and assess a targeted ILI that increases Latino students' IL skills and library usage, and to advance the research that grounds the emerging learning theory of connectivism. The more connections students made to information sources the higher their overall IL skill score were. This data suggests that as students make connections to information resources they are learning IL skills and the more sources they connect to, the more they learn. Though TI did not emerge as the more effective method, it is effective at increasing library usage and IL skills in Latino community college students'. The results of this study may lead to a better understanding of how students acquire IL skills. Instruction has become increasingly important in librarianship and recently has even eclipsed traditional reference service. (Grassian & Kaplowitz, xix, 2009). More and more academic libraries are being held accountable for their contribution to student learning. The findings of this study provide evidence that the instructional efforts of the library are influencing student learning outcomes.
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Singh, Manpreet. "Use of e-resources in the Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana : A Study." Arihant Prakashan p. Ltd., New Delhi, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/252872.
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E-Resources in Guru Nanak Dev Engg. College.Library is a repository of resources. Adequate electronics resources facilities empower and enrich the higher education system in meeting the best academic needs. Users are use e-resources in the library or any where. The silicon age that led the computer revolution has significant changed in the libraries. The present paper examine the existing of various e-resources in GNE College, Ludhiana and its uses by students.
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Weyant, Emily C., Nakia J. Woodward, Rachel R. Walden, and Rick L. Wallace. "Reflections on a Decade of Promoting Consumer Health Resources at Remote Area Medical Clinics." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2019. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/8675.
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Librarians at the East Tennessee State University (ETSU) Quillen College of Medicine Library have provided consumer health outreach services to rural and underserved populations at Remote Area Medical (RAM) clinics since 2009. These outreach services heavily depend upon and promote consumer health websites and National Library of Medicine (NLM) resources in order to reach the largest number of people at the lowest possible cost. This article will provide a brief overview of RAM clinics in Wise, VA, and Gray, TN, served by ETSU librarians for years. Additionally, this article will discuss the evolution of ETSU QCoM librarian outreach initiatives relating to these clinics over the past decade. This article includes a list of online consumer health resources used to support these initiatives as well as a list of most commonly addressed consumer health topics.
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Lenhart, Laura R. "Pluralism and Context: Intellectual Property and the Social Understandings of Intellectual Goods." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/321314.
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Intellectual property affects an increasingly large range of social life. Despite the breadth of goods and activities affected by intellectual property schemas, policy-makers, legislators, jurists and even many social theorists have a narrow understanding of the basis for instituting intellectual property rights and understanding their limits: most see intellectual property rights only as a means to create more intellectual goods in society. My dissertation argues that our intellectual property schemas and policies need to be more sensitive to the diversity of values involved in the social meanings of different intellectual goods and activities. Contrary to those who claim that "information wants to be free," I defend a property-based approach to the protection and regulation of intellectual goods. I argue that intellectual property schemas need to do a better job responding to the diversity of value that characterizes intellectual activities and goods. Finally, I argue that context is an important tool for marking out which values are to be promoted in different circumstances and communities.
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Boland, Daniel. "Engaging with music retrieval." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2015. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/6727/.
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Music collections available to listeners have grown at a dramatic pace, now spanning tens of millions of tracks. Interacting with a music retrieval system can thus be overwhelming, with users offered ‘too-much-choice’. The level of engagement required for such retrieval interactions can be inappropriate, such as in mobile or multitasking contexts. Music recommender systems are widely employed to address this issue, however tend toward the opposite extreme of disempowering users and suffer from issues of subjectivity and confounds, such as the equalisation of tracks. This challenge and the styles of retrieval interaction involved are characterised in terms of user engagement in music retrieval, and the relationships between existing conceptualisations of user engagement is explored. Using listening histories and work from music psychology, a set of engagement-stratified profiles of listening behaviour are developed. A dataset comprising the playlists of thousands of users is used to contribute a user-centric approach to feature selection. The challenge of designing music retrieval for different levels of user engagement is first explored with a proof of concept, low engagement music retrieval system enabling users to casually retrieve music by tapping its rhythm as a query. The design methodology is then generalised with an engagement-dependent system, allowing users to denote their level of engagement and thus the specificity of their music queries. The engagement-dependent retrieval interaction is then explored as a component in a commercial music system. This thesis contributes the engagement-stratified profiles and metrics of listening behaviour, a corresponding design methodology for interaction, and presents a set of research and commercial applications for music retrieval.
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Gogela, Zingisa Zeroa. "The knowledge audit : from information management to knowledge management : a case study of a provincial library service." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/50501.
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Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2005.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: There is a strong pressure for organizations to attaining, maintaining and improving knowledge standards for sustained competitive strategic advantage. This assignment examines the status of knowledge and knowledge management (KM) practices at the Provincial Library Services (PLIS). I approached the topic by collecting data relevant to the management of information and knowledge and benefits of the KM activities using the following methods: A review of literature and research: - addressing the paucity of literature and research that is both current and directly relevant to libraries was one of the motivating factors behind the study; analysis of key documents and information systems; a questionnaire was distributed to the PUS personnel; informal interviews and observations. The results seem to indicate that PLIS has a knowledge infrastructure and a technology infrastructure. This is apparent in its knowledge programmes, e-mail system, web page, library management system (PROLIB), and limited access to the Internet. Staff has some fairly basic knowledge and information needs that must be addressed. Few knowledge contents should be established. The baseline information provides a foundation for more coordination; recognition of the importance and enhancement of its KM related activities. KM activities should focus on individual capabilities. Recommendations are articulated in terms of a proposed KM strategy. It became evident that success of knowledge management depends on an environment, which is conducive to conversion of individual knowledge to organizational knowledge, the value to which employees place on knowledge and their attitude towards KM. Moreover, indicators of success and evidence of effectiveness should take the measuring criteria beyond a checklist of policies and strategies, procedures and processes, systems, activities but professional competence, commitment, benchmarking and adoption of best practices for attainment of KM goals. Important to note, is the reality that a KM activity for PLIS has to take broader transformation imperatives into account.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Daar word sterk druk geplaas op organisasies om kennis te bekom, te behou en te verbeter vir volgehoue mededingende strategiese voorsprong. Hierdie werstuk ondersoek die status van kennis en kennisbestuur- (Knowledge Management, KM) praktyke van die Provinsiale Biblioteekdiens. Ek het die- onderwerp benader deur data te versamel wat relevant is tot die bestuur van inligting en kennis sowel as die voordele van KM aktiwiteite deur die volgende metodes te gebruik: 'n Oorsig van literatuur en navorsing: - een van die faktore wat die studie gemotiveer het is om die beperkte beskikbare literatuur en navorsing wat op datum sowel as relevant tot biblioteke is aan te spreek; 'n ontleding van die kern dokumente en inligtingsisteme; 'n vraelys wat versprei is onder die personeel van die Provinsiale Biblioteekdiens; informele onderhoude en waarnemings. Die resultate dui daarop dat die Provinsiale Biblioteekdiens 'n kennis en tegnologiese infrastruktuur het. Dit blyk uit die kennisprogram, die e-pos sisteem, die Webtuiste, die biblioteekbestuursisteem (Prolib), en beperkte toegang tot die Internet. Personeel het basiese kennis en inligtingsbehoeftes wat aangespreek moet word. Kennisinhoude moet daargestel word. Die basislyn inligting voorsien 'n grondslag vir meer koôrdinasie; besef van die belangrikheid en die verbetering van die KM verwante aktiwiteite. KM aktiwiteite moet fokus op individuele vermoëns. Aanbevelings word uitgedruk in terme van 'n voorgestelde KM strategie. Dit het duidelik geword dat die sukses van kennisbestuur afhang van 'n omgewing wat bevorderlik is vir die omskakeling van kennis van die individu na organisatoriese kennis, die waarde wat personeel heg aan kennis en hulle houding teenoor kennis bestuur. Aanwysings van sukses en bewys van effektiwiteit moet meetbare kriteria verder neem as 'n lys van beleide en strategieë, prosedures en prosesse, sisteme en aktiwiteite maar moet professionele vermoëns toewyding "benchmarking" en gebruik van die beste praktyke vir die bereiking van KM doelwitte toepas. Dit is belangrik om te let op die realiteit dat 'n KM aktiwiteit van die Provinsiale Biblioteekdiens wyer transformerende imperatiewe in ag moet neem.
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Dillingham, Iain. "Exploring the geographic uncertainty associated with crowdsourced crisis information : a geovisualisation approach." Thesis, City, University of London, 2013. http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/17897/.
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New information and communications technologies, such as mobile phones and social media, have presented the humanitarian community with a dilemma: how should humanitarian organisations integrate information from crisis-affected communities into their decision-making processes whilst guarding against inaccurate information from untrustworthy sources? Advocates of crisis mapping claim that, under certain circumstances, crowdsourcing can increase the accuracy of crisis information. However, whilst previous research has studied the geography of crisis information, the motivations of people who create crisis map mashups, and the motivations of people who crowdsource crisis information, the geography of, and the uncertainty associated with, crowdsourced crisis information has been ignored. As such, the current research is motivated by the desire to explore the geographic uncertainty associated with, and to contribute a better understanding of, crowdsourced crisis information. The current research contributes to the fields of GISc (Geographic Information Science) and crisis informatics; crisis mapping; and geovisualisation specifically and information visualisation more generally. These contributions can be summarised as an approach to, and an understanding of, the geographic uncertainty associated with crowdsourced crisis information; three geovisualisation software prototypes that can be used to identify meaningful patterns in crisis information; and the design, analysis, and evaluation model, which situates the activities associated with designing a software artefact-and using it to undertake analysis-within an evaluative framework. The approach to the geographic uncertainty associated with crowdsourced crisis information synthesised techniques from GISc, geovisualisation, and natural language processing. By following this approach, it was found that location descriptions from the Haiti crisis map did not 'fit' an existing conceptual model, and, consequently, that there is a need for new or enhanced georeferencing methods that attempt to estimate the uncertainty associated with free-text location descriptions from sources of crowdsourced crisis information.
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Walden, Rachel R., Nakia J. Woodward, and Rick L. Wallace. "Reevaluating Point-of-Care Resources: Community Engagement in Difficult Collection Choices." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2019. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/8676.
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Rising collection costs sometimes necessitate tough decisions regarding cancellation of popular products. In 2015–2016, the East Tennessee State University Medical Library subscribed to UpToDate and DynaMed Plus, both clinical point-of-care products, with the understanding that one product would be canceled at the fiscal year end. The librarian team undertook a year-long community engagement campaign to inform library users about the pending product cancellation decision. Ultimately, DynaMed Plus was selected and UpToDate was cancelled. The campaign generated user engagement with the decision making, along with perceived benefits including increased awareness of the library's budget constraints, increased discussion of scholarly publishing, and greater faculty/student knowledge of evaluating evidence-based products.
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Clamon, Travis, Ashley Sergiadis, and Jennifer Young. "Not Enough Cooks in the Kitchen: Balancing Quality and Speed in Services." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2018. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/1489.
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Do you find it hard to envision the future when you are struggling to keep up with the present? A reality in many libraries is high demand but limited resources. In this session, participants will develop a menu of current services offered in their position or department. After group discussions on criteria for evaluating services and shortening workflows, participants will eliminate one service and/or shorten its prep time in order to add a forward thinking service.
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Klungthanaboon, Wachiraporn. "Stakeholders' perspectives of institutional repositories in National Research Universities in Thailand." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2015. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/6450/.
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Unrestricted accessible scholarly resources are increasingly considered essential to knowledge creation and socio-economic development. In order to facilitate this, university libraries at National Research Universities (NRUs) in Thailand have established institutional repositories (IRs). The development of the Open Access publishing movement also provides opportunities and challenges to NRUs’ IRs and scholarly community. Like others, the IR projects in Thailand have experienced low awareness and content contribution from stakeholders. Accordingly, this study aims to optimize the established IR projects in NRUs in Thailand by exploring the stakeholders’ research publishing behaviour, and the perception, participation, and utilisation of IRs. This study advances the understanding of IRs in NRUs in Thailand from the perspectives of multiple stakeholder groups. This inductive qualitative study employs Constructivist Grounded Theory as a research methodology. Theoretical sampling, convenient sampling, and purposive sampling were used to recruit key participants in Thai scholarly communication at three NRUs. An in-depth semi-structured interview method was used to collect data and Charmaz’s Grounded Theory Method of Open coding and Focused coding was used to analyse it. The analysis resulted in the generation of the 4Cs (/foresee/) Model for the Development of University-based IRs. It composes of “Communication” “Collaboration”, “Copyright understanding”, “Control” and “Local academic culture”. This innovative model provides an explanatory framework identifying the factors for the availability and accessibility of full-text digital research publications in Thai university-based IRs. Moreover, the 3Rs – Rethinking, Redefining, and Re-collaborating- are recommended as key activities to be considered when confronting the difficulties in the development of IRs. In addition, this study also proposes the “2PSC model for operational excellence – Policies, Procedure, Services, and Competencies” as a practical and effective mechanism for managing IRs. Further, the study offers theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions to the understanding of IRs in NRUs in Thailand from the perspectives of multiple stakeholder groups.
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Hansen, Jennifer. "What Resources Do School Librarians Use When Developing New Programming: A Qualitative Inquiry." DigitalCommons@USU, 2018. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/7114.
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For this qualitative analysis, I analyzed observational and interview data from two middle school librarians setting up new active learning programs. I focused my research by analyzing the preliminary data gathered in field notes from observations at the different library sites to determine what programming resources the librarians were using. A secondary consideration was drawn from preliminary evidence, which indicated the librarians turned to many on and offline information resources, including the social curating site Pinterest. After gathering initial data from observations, I gathered additional data from two interviews: the first interview focused on where the librarians find information and the second interview focused on Pinterest. The data suggests networking within the school community is an essential feature of middle school libraries and should be considered when developing programs as a way to strengthen the librarian’s relationship with the school community, enabling the librarian to leverage other teachers’ knowledge. Also, the curating resources available through Pinterest provide a platform for finding ideas suitable for adapting to a specific library.
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Steinrud, Jonna. "Hur hittar jag rätt information? : En undersökning om användarens dynamiska kunskapsläge." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för ABM, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-311596.
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This thesis strives to explore the PhD students’ information behavior (information needs, information search strat-egies and information management) to see how information literacy (use of information services and resources as well asinformation accessibility and intermediation) can evolve through increased access to information, resources and ideas. The theoretical foundation of the study is Carol C. Kuhlthau’s model of the information search process (ISP-model). Two different surveys were used, first a participant observation and then interviews, with a user group consisting of six postgraduates. The postgraduates were all from different disciplines within the same collage, in the middle of their dissertation and highly motivated by regular information seeking sessions. The study shows that postgraduate students’ knowledge of information behavior and information literacy is inadequate, something that graduate students are largely aware of and wish to change. In conclusion, PhD students need support to maintain, adapt and expand their knowledge. The study indicates that there are many areas where postgraduates’ information literacy can be developed and that there is much to be gained by enhancing the knowledge transfer between information specialists (librarians) and users. This thesis is a two years’ Master’s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.
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McHugh, Andrew. "An ontology for risk management of digital collections." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2016. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/7757/.
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Maintaining accessibility to and understanding of digital information over time is a complex challenge that often requires contributions and interventions from a variety of individuals and organizations. The processes of preservation planning and evaluation are fundamentally implicit and share similar complexity. Both demand comprehensive knowledge and understanding of every aspect of to-be-preserved content and the contexts within which preservation is undertaken. Consequently, means are required for the identification, documentation and association of those properties of data, representation and management mechanisms that in combination lend value, facilitate interaction and influence the preservation process. These properties may be almost limitless in terms of diversity, but are integral to the establishment of classes of risk exposure, and the planning and deployment of appropriate preservation strategies. We explore several research objectives within the course of this thesis. Our main objective is the conception of an ontology for risk management of digital collections. Incorporated within this are our aims to survey the contexts within which preservation has been undertaken successfully, the development of an appropriate methodology for risk management, the evaluation of existing preservation evaluation approaches and metrics, the structuring of best practice knowledge and lastly the demonstration of a range of tools that utilise our findings. We describe a mixed methodology that uses interview and survey, extensive content analysis, practical case study and iterative software and ontology development. We build on a robust foundation, the development of the Digital Repository Audit Method Based on Risk Assessment. We summarise the extent of the challenge facing the digital preservation community (and by extension users and creators of digital materials from many disciplines and operational contexts) and present the case for a comprehensive and extensible knowledge base of best practice. These challenges are manifested in the scale of data growth, the increasing complexity and the increasing onus on communities with no formal training to offer assurances of data management and sustainability. These collectively imply a challenge that demands an intuitive and adaptable means of evaluating digital preservation efforts. The need for individuals and organisations to validate the legitimacy of their own efforts is particularly prioritised. We introduce our approach, based on risk management. Risk is an expression of the likelihood of a negative outcome, and an expression of the impact of such an occurrence. We describe how risk management may be considered synonymous with preservation activity, a persistent effort to negate the dangers posed to information availability, usability and sustainability. Risk can be characterised according to associated goals, activities, responsibilities and policies in terms of both their manifestation and mitigation. They have the capacity to be deconstructed into their atomic units and responsibility for their resolution delegated appropriately. We continue to describe how the manifestation of risks typically spans an entire organisational environment, and as the focus of our analysis risk safeguards against omissions that may occur when pursuing functional, departmental or role-based assessment. We discuss the importance of relating risk-factors, through the risks themselves or associated system elements. To do so will yield the preservation best-practice knowledge base that is conspicuously lacking within the international digital preservation community. We present as research outcomes an encapsulation of preservation practice (and explicitly defined best practice) as a series of case studies, in turn distilled into atomic, related information elements. We conduct our analyses in the formal evaluation of memory institutions in the UK, US and continental Europe. Furthermore we showcase a series of applications that use the fruits of this research as their intellectual foundation. Finally we document our results in a range of technical reports and conference and journal articles. We present evidence of preservation approaches and infrastructures from a series of case studies conducted in a range of international preservation environments. We then aggregate this into a linked data structure entitled PORRO, an ontology relating preservation repository, object and risk characteristics, intended to support preservation decision making and evaluation. The methodology leading to this ontology is outlined, and lessons are exposed by revisiting legacy studies and exposing the resource and associated applications to evaluation by the digital preservation community.
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Tekfi, Chaffai. "Design of a computer information system for the Algerian National Archives." Thesis, City, University of London, 1990. http://books.google.com/books?id=uCPhAAAAMAAJ.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--City University (London, England), 1990."DX-95400." eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 412-428).
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Michail, Antonios. "An investigation of the relationship between value chain activities and generic strategies in small and medium-sized enterprises in UK manufacturing." Thesis, University of Central Lancashire, 2011. http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/3873/.
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In this study an in depth investigation of successful competitive strategies for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is undertaken. The overall aim of this study is to analyse the strategic orientation of UK Manufacturing SMEs. In the process, it will test Porter’s (1980, 1985) theoretical framework of generic strategies and thus evaluate firms’ preferred strategic synthesis. It will, therefore, test the efficacy of the value chain and develop any specific pattern that relates to a combination strategy. The investigation of the above objectives is undertaken utilising a mixed research methodology with the purpose of examining the applicability of existing competitive strategy frameworks (phase 1) and testing a new theoretical framework that incorporates additional dimensions of strategy (phase 2). During phase 1, Porter’s framework is employed to investigate SMEs’ strategic orientation as a means to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. A semi-structured questionnaire is employed and the analysis is carried out by means of factor and cluster analysis to identify strategic variables currently employed by SMEs. During phase 2, the theoretical framework is operationalised to bridge the gap within the literature and existing empirical research. Its purpose is to identify forms of successful competitive strategies of UK MSMEs as they are formulated and implemented in firms’ value chain activities. The data was collected through a number of semi-structured interviews and the analysis was based on data categorisation. The findings indicate that Porter’s (1980) single generic strategies are not the best option for UK MSMEs for gaining competitive advantage and that the
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Lyons, Reneé C. "Creating Cross-Curricular Resources: A Book Talk for The Revival of Banned Dances: A Worldwide Study." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2013. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/2392.
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Konstantelos, Leonidas. "Digital art in digital libraries : a study of user-oriented information retrieval." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2009. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1333/.
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This thesis presents an empirical investigation of the problems of including pictorial digital art in the context of Digital Libraries (DLs). The rational for this work is that digital art material is a significant source of learning and research, provided that it is systematically collected and maintained in structured electronic repositories. The thesis addresses a fundamental question: How to provide description and retrieval services, which are based on the needs of digital art user communities? This raises three research issues. One is the need to combine DL collections into meaningful and functional content. The second is the importance of a user-oriented approach to designing and developing Digital Libraries. The third is the requirement for continuing access to digital art as a record of modern culture. These questions are explored through a needs assessment targeted to Arts & Humanities scholars, digital artists and representatives of the DL community. A data collection methodology is developed, based on the principles of Social Informatics and a case study of evaluation efforts in extant projects. The results from this process demonstrate that the scholarly value of digital art can be established by aggregating material from various repositories into a unified dataset. The results also identify specific documentation and retrieval issues deriving from inclusion of digital art in a DL environment that necessitate further investigation. To this end, a review of sixteen digital art online resources is conducted which reveals ad-hoc collection strategies and metadata deficiencies. The work presents a prototype Digital Library for enhancing the educational outcome of digital art. The application is used as an implementation platform for material aggregation and augmented documentation through the Media Art Notation System (MANS). The summative evaluation findings confirm that the suggested solutions are highly rated by the targeted audiences. The thesis makes a contribution to academic knowledge in situating the representation of digital art within modern society. By critically examining the unique requirements of this material using the resources of social theory, the thesis represents a contemporary and pragmatic perspective on digital media art. In a well-structured Digital Library, the scholarly potential of digital art is much greater than the currently employed ad-hoc context. This work offers a sustained reflection and a roadmap for selecting and consistently applying a strategy that aims to continually improve the quality of digital art provision.
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Fulton, Bruce. "Social Gatekeeping, the Serendipitous Tie and Discovery: Authors Connecting Readers to Books through Social Media Outreach." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/301549.
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In 2011, over 1.5 million new book titles were published in the United States, a 400% increase in just five years compared to 2006. In the same time period, the market share for eBooks increased dramatically and now comprises 20% or more of sales from many of the biggest publishing companies. This hyper-abundance of titles in an increasingly heterogeneous market place has made it difficult for consumers to connect to books they might want to read. This is the discovery problem. It is compounded by the continuing decline of traditional gatekeepers and sources of discovery such as mass media reviews and advertising, as well as the decline of traditional bookstores where people often find books through browse. Authors and publishers therefore have turned to social media to spread the word about their titles. Social gatekeeping, an extension of traditional gatekeeping theory, is proposed as the framework for understanding how author participation in social networks initiates a flow of the diffusion of information over the web and other computer mediated communication channels, and through individuals and social networks to potential readers. Serendipitous browse and discovery is a key strategy for readers to find titles of interest, and the serendipitous tie is proposed as a social mechanism through which individuals discover new titles and bring it back to their social networks to share. To explore these concepts, a random sample of new eBook titles published during the first week of April, 2012 was generated and analyzed in three phases. The first phase of research classified books and authors according to facets such as traditional or self-published, use of social media and other factors. The second phase used multiple regression to establish an association between the use of social media by authors and a title's sales and presence on the Web. The third phase reviewed selected titles for new approaches to social media use and evidence of the serendipitous tie. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that author web presence predicts discoverability and sales.
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Blom, Fredrik. "Information Overload and the Growing Infosphere : A Comparison of the Opinions and Experiences of Information Specialists and General Academics on the Topic of Information Overload." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för ABM, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-158252.
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Information overload is a popular term intimately associated with the information society in which we are now thought to live. This two-year master’s thesis explores perceptions and experiences of this phenomenon through a quantitative study of two groups of academics; on the one hand, academically active information specialists, and on the other, active academics in general. The theoretical framework for this study is based on Orrin E. Klapp’s notion of ‘meaning lag’ and Luciano Floridi’s concept of ‘infosphere’, to provide a context for discussing how and why information overload might develop. The relationship between information overload and ‘information literacy’ is another important point explored as part of this discussion. An international, web-based survey directed at information specialists as well as general academics reveals that information overload is a very common experience for people active in academic settings. A number of statistics are presented regarding how, when and where information overload is usually experienced, as well as the more general information habits and perceptions of the information environment that these groups display. After comparing the two examined groups, the thesis concludes that there are, in fact, no major differences in how these groups perceive and experience information overload and their surrounding information environment. Having an academic interest and specialty in information science is thus not indicative of being able to avoid or even think very differently about information overload. Finally, some relevant research directions are proposed.Information overload, eller informationsöverflöd, är ett populärt sätt att beskriva en av följderna av det informationssamhälle i vilket vi nu anses leva. Denna uppsats utforskar vilka uppfattningar och erfarenheter som finns av detta fenomen utifrån en kvantitativ studie av två olika grupper av akademiker; å ena sidan akademiskt aktiva informationsspecialister, och å andra sidan, aktiva akademiker i allmänhet. Det teoretiska ramverket för denna studie baserar sig på Orrin E. Klapps begrepp ‘meaning lag’ samt Luciano Floridis tanke om en ‘infosfär’. Dessa skapar tillsammans en kontext för att kunna diskutera hur och varför informationsöverflöd drabbar oss. Relationen mellan informationsöverflöd och informationskompetens är en annan viktig beståndsdel som utforskas i denna diskussion. En internationell, nätbaserad enkätundersökning som författaren utfört bland de relevanta grupperna visar att upplevelsen av informationsöverflöd som ett problem är mycket vanlig i den akademiska världen. Statistik presenteras som åskådliggör hur, när och var de nämnda grupperna upplever ett informationsöverflöd, samt deras informationsvanor och uppfattningar om sin informationsomgivning överlag. Dessa två grupper jämförs löpande i uppsatsen, men resultaten visar på att det trots allt inte existerar några särskilt anmärkningsvärda skillnader dem emellan. De har båda ungefär samma syn på informationsöverflöd och sin informationsomgivning. Slutsatsen blir att en akademisk kunskap om och intresse för informationsvetenskap inte nödvändigtvis innebär att den som besitter detta lyckas undvika eller ens ser annorlunda på fenomenet informationsöverflöd. Uppsatsen avslutas med en diskussion om ett antal relevanta aspekter av informationsöverflöd som framtida forskning med fördel skulle kunna utforska.
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Lee, Jamie Ann. "A Queer/ed Archival Methodology: Theorizing Practice through Radical Interrogations of the Archival Body." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/556236.
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This project uses the body as a framework to understand and re-imagine the archives (here referring to the professionally managed repository). It argues that the archives as a body of knowledge, like the human body, does not and cannot fit into normative stable categories. Tracing the shift in archival paradigms from modern to postmodern, I employ the posthuman to argue for a concomitant shift in understanding of the archival body, which I conceive of as comprising both human and non-human corpora of knowledge and knowledge-making practices. These corpora are simultaneously becoming and unbecoming as multiply-situated identities, technologies, representations, and timescapes. Using temporality as a key element in analyzing archival productions, I consider how this body might sediment. This research, written from my insider perspective as an archivist, implements a transdisciplinary approach that draws from the disciplines of archival and queer studies as well as from somatechnics, embodiment and affect studies, and decolonizing methodologies to advocate for a proposed Queer/ed Archival Methodology, Q/M, that is designed to trouble the concepts of archival theory and production. It also employed on-site observation and interviews at the Transgender Archives in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, observation and narrative analysis of recordings held by the Arizona Queer Archives and the Arizona LGBTQ Storytelling Project, and online interviews with the developer of the Skeivt Arkiv, Norway's first state-sanctioned queer archives. Three overarching questions guided the research: 1) How can archives simultaneously hold normative and non-normative stories, materials and practices together as both complementary and also contradictory without subordinating or otherwise invalidating either and so that each can still be considered worthy of archival attention? 2) How might a Q/M be a radical intervention into normative archival practices and structures and to what ends? 3) What might it mean and look like for a queer/ed archives to be a radically open space? For whom? As we encounter multiply-situated subjects in the postmodern approach and follow traces in order to interrogate the force and function of respectability politics within the archival body, the modern and anthropocentric Cartesian statement 'Je pense, donc je suis' (I think, therefore I am) can no longer support the human and records as the central theme of archival endeavors. The posthuman approach offers many possibilities. Through the understanding that human bodies are relational and contingent in complex ways to non-human bodies and each to bodies of knowledges, human and non-human bodies come together in complex relations and assemblages within the archives. Archival productions can thus represent new and emerging thoughts on lived experiences as these are situated in various structures and systems. The Q/M offers a way of thinking and acting with, about, through, among, and at times in spite of traditional as well as emerging archival practices and processes in order to facilitate new, imaginative, irrational, and unpredictable re-configurations of bodies and archives and the many histories and records therein. Its flexible foundation in the theories employed in the research support Q/M's seven key approaches: 1) Participatory Ethos, 2) Connectivity, 3) Storytelling, 4) Intervention, 5) Re-framing, 6) Re-imagining, and 7) Flexibility & Dynamism.
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Parrott, Deborah Johns, Joanna Anderson, and Renee Lyons. "Power Up the Connection: Multimedia Resources to Engage All Readers." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2015. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/392.
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Attendees will learn free, specific multimedia resources to entice children to read as well as to improve fluency in vocabulary and comprehension. The majority of young readers are captivated by mobile devices and the Internet. Why not use this to our advantage in reading instruction. Join us to discover games, websites, and apps that engage children and improve phonemic awareness, spelling, vocabulary development, and comprehension.
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Cleland, William A. "Best Practices in Digital Asset Management for Electronic Texts in Academic Research Libraries." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1182789000.
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Williams, Patricia A. "An investigation into the use of the internet for medical informatics." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2001. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1031.
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The rapid evolution and popularity of the Internet technologies, and the World Wide Web, have resulted in unrestricted worldwide access to medical and health information. This has provided the medical profession with the ability to access up to date research more immediately than by traditional means, and has created the potential for advanced information collation. Also the availability of medical literature, previously difficult to obtain for the general public, is having an effect that is both a benefit and a burden to the medical profession. Whilst benefits exist in the use of the Internet in General Practice for clinical support, communication and education, there are also barriers to its inclusion in daily clinical practice. These include the issues of security, access availability, quality, time, research experience and Internet navigation familiarity. Questions remain as to whether or not the Internet can be used in General Practice efficiently, in order to provide a significant advantage over traditional information dissemination methods. This issue is also relevant for other primary health care providers such as pharmacists. In Australia, there has been a relatively slow adoption of both the technology and the use of the Internet for acquiring clinical and medical information. This thesis investigates the current issues surrounding the use of the Internet in general practice and pharmacy in Western Australia. The underlying assumption that the Internet is a useful tool for such information retrieval is examined in terms of useability and usefulness in clinical practice. Further the attitudes to the use of the Internet technology as an effective medium of information delivery were sought.
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Lyall-Wilson, Jennifer Rae. "Automatic Concept-Based Query Expansion Using Term Relational Pathways Built from a Collection-Specific Association Thesaurus." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/306773.
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The dissertation research explores an approach to automatic concept-based query expansion to improve search engine performance. It uses a network-based approach for identifying the concept represented by the user's query and is founded on the idea that a collection-specific association thesaurus can be used to create a reasonable representation of all the concepts within the document collection as well as the relationships these concepts have to one another. Because the representation is generated using data from the association thesaurus, a mapping will exist between the representation of the concepts and the terms used to describe these concepts. The research applies to search engines designed for use in an individual website with content focused on a specific conceptual domain. Therefore, both the document collection and the subject content must be well-bounded, which affords the ability to make use of techniques not currently feasible for general purpose search engine used on the entire web.
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Jacinto, Irlanda Esteli. "Cultural Competence in the Archive: A Case Study of the University of Houston Hip Hop Collection." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/311355.
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Hip hop is a counter cultural movement that emerged in the 1970s in the South Bronx; it has since grown to be a global movement. It is a counter culture that emerges in the post-segregated, post-industrial, and globalized world. Since 2002, archival collections that document hip hop have manifested within academic institutions. Placing hip hop in academic institutions that have historically served as manifestations of hegemony can lead to codification and commodification. This case study examines the University of Houston Hip Hop Collection and explains the establishment of the archive using the cultural competence framework. It concludes that staff at the University of Houston is culturally competent. The case study suggests that building culturally competent archivists can be tool to ensuring representation within an archive of all facets of society.
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Hwang, Kyu Won. "A selected annotated bibliography of the resources on the perceptions and attitudes in relation to people who stutter : covering the period from 1990 to the present day submitted to the School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Library and Information Studies /." ResearchArchive@Victoria e-Thesis, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10063/1280.
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