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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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Alhouti, Dakhil. "Marketing electronic information resources in Kuwaiti higher education libraries." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2014. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/5192/.
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McFarland, Charles, David Lee, and Marion Slack. "Reliance on Electronic Drug Information Resources: Pharmacy Students, Residents and Faculty." The University of Arizona, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/614141.
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Class of 2015 AbstractObjectives: To assess how likely pharmacy students, faculty, residents and pharmacists will rely on an electronic device when presented with a specific drug name to research and to identify which electronic devices these four particular groups are most likely to use on a daily basis by including students enrolled in the first, second, or third year didactic coursework attending a four-year Doctor of Pharmacy program; faculty members and residents who were associated with a public research university located in the southwestern United States of America; and the pharmacy professional working in a research hospital type setting. Methods: Questionnaires were administered following three different scenarios. The first involved distributing the questionnaire during regularly scheduled classes to the first-year, second-year, and third-year professional pharmacy students. The second involved distributing questionnaires to the faculty and residents to their respective mailboxes and then collecting them at a later date. And the third scenario involved the project advisor distributing the questionnaires to his colleagues at the University of Arizona Medical Center (UAMC), now known as Banner – University Medical Center (Tucson), and then collecting them at a later date. Results: A total of 262 pharmacy students, 12 faculty, and 17 residents and other pharmacists participated in this study. Almost half of the first-year (44%) students do not work while in pharmacy school, 18% for the second-year students, and 9% for the third-year students whereby those who did work while in pharmacy school obtained more exposure to the various drug names currently available versus those who did not work. When comparing each group, having more experience typically resulted in less reliance on an electronic device. The first-year students, having the least experience, relied on an electronic device the most for the USA (3.1), pulled (3.3), and foreign (3.6) drug categories versus the residents and the working professional group (2.4, 2.4, and 3.0, respectively). The p-values for the USA, pulled, and foreign drug categories were all less than 0.001 (p < 0.001) which equates to all three groups being clinically significant. However with the fictitious drug category, the p-value was not clinically significant (p > 0.05). When analyzing the seven drugs currently marketed in the United States (USA), each group (P1, P2, P3, faculty, residents and pharmacists) knew the most about Cialis (2.5, 1.7, 1.2, 1.2, and 0.8) and Nexium (1.5, 1.1, 1.0, 0.5, and 0.3), respectively, versus the five newer drugs. The p-values for these two drugs showed clinical significance (p < 0.001). Conclusions: With the number of new drugs constantly being introduced to the global market, the pharmacist must typically rely heavily on his or her electronic device to provide optimal patient care, but with experience gained comes less reliance on these electronic devices. Both men, women, and the various groups surveyed had similar levels of confidence when reaching for their electronic device. Repeated use of these electronic devices can potentially increase the pharmacist's knowledge about a particular new drug whereby one day, it becomes common knowledge about the drug being dispensed (e.g. Cialis and Nexium). These electronic devices are now included as one of the more common tools found inside the typical pharmacy nowadays alongside the counting tray and spatula. Unfortunately these electronic devices do have their own personal limitations and the pharmacist must still use his or her own clinical judgement.
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Maya, Zukiswa. "The use of electronic information resources in the university of Fort Hare Library Services." Thesis, University of Fort Hare, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10353/6303.
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The study seeks to explore the use of electronic information resource in the University of Fort Hare (UFH) Library. The objectives of the study are to determine factors that influence acquisitions of electronic information resources at UFH library, to find out the user’s responses to electronic information resources in the library and identify the challenges faced by UFH library regarding the usage of electronic information resources. The literature review was conducted through an acquisition of electronic information resources in academic libraries, collection development policies of academic libraries in South Africa and application of electronic information resources within South Africa and globally. The study is based on Diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory. The study adopted qualitative and quantitative approaches, and the non-probability sampling-Quota sampling was used for students and purposive sampling technique for librarians and academics. The data was collected with self-administered questionnaires and document analysis. The study found that academics were not fully involved in the acquisition of the library electronic information resources; therefore, there is a lack of communication about the acquisition of electronic resources. The study further reveals that there is usage of electronic information resources; however, there are library users who prefers to use search engines such as google, yahoo etc. It was also identified that there are two important barriers that hinder the use of electronic information resources, i.e. physical and personal barriers. The study recommends that University of Fort Hare library should consider including e resources in the collection development policy. It is also recommended that the library online training/tutorials must be installed on the library website to increase the usage of e-resources. In order to stay relevant and visible, librarians should embrace new opportunities and go beyond the comfort zone of traditional librarian principles.
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Graf, Erik. "Human information processing based information retrieval." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2011. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/5188/.
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This work focused on the investigation of the question how the concept of relevance in Information Retrieval can be validated. The work is motivated by the consistent difficulties of defining the meaning of the concept, and by advances in the field of cognitive science. Analytical and empirical investigations are carried out with the aim of devising a principled approach to the validation of the concept. The foundation for this work was set by interpreting relevance as a phenomenon occurring within the context of two systems: An IR system and the cognitive processing system of the user. In light of the cognitive interpretation of relevance, an analysis of the learnt lessons in cognitive science with regard to the validation of cognitive phenomena was conducted. It identified that construct validity constitutes the dominant approach to the validation of constructs in cognitive science. Construct validity constitutes a proposal for the conduction of validation in scenarios, where no direct observation of a phenomenon is possible. With regard to the limitations on direct observation of a construct (i.e. a postulated theoretic concept), it bases validation on the evaluation of its relations to other constructs. Based on the interpretation of relevance as a product of cognitive processing it was concluded, that the limitations with regard to direct observation apply to its investigation. The evaluation of its applicability to an IR context, focused on the exploration of the nomological network methodology. A nomological network constitutes an analytically constructed set of constructs and their relations. The construction of such a network forms the basis for establishing construct validity through investigation of the relations between constructs. An analysis focused on contemporary insights to the nomological network methodology identified two important aspects with regard to its application in IR. The first aspect is given by a choice of context and the identification of a pool of candidate constructs for the inclusion in the network. The second consists of identifying criteria for the selection of a set of constructs from the candidate pool. The identification of the pertinent constructs for the network was based on a review of the principles of cognitive exploration, and an analysis of the state of the art in text based discourse processing and reasoning. On that basis, a listing of known sub-processes contributing to the pertinent cognitive processing was presented. Based on the identification of a large number of potential candidates, the next step consisted of the inference of criteria for the selection of an initial set of constructs for the network. The investigation of these criteria focused on the consideration of pragmatic and meta-theoretical aspects. Based on a survey of experimental means in cognitive science and IR, five pragmatic criteria for the selection of constructs were presented. Consideration of meta-theoretically motivated criteria required to investigate what the specific challenges with regard to the validation of highly abstract constructs are. This question was explored based on the underlying considerations of the Information Processing paradigm and Newell’s (1994) cognitive bands. This led to the identification of a set of three meta-theoretical criteria for the selection of constructs. Based on the criteria and the demarcated candidate pool, an IR focused nomological network was defined. The network consists of the constructs of relevance and type and grade of word relatedness. A necessary prerequisite for making inferences based on a nomological network consists of the availability of validated measurement instruments for the constructs. To that cause, two validation studies targeting the measurement of the type and grade of relations between words were conducted. The clarification of the question of the validity of the measurement instruments enabled the application of the nomological network. A first step of the application consisted of testing if the constructs in the network are related to each other. Based on the alignment of measurements of relevance and the word related constructs it was concluded to be true. The relation between the constructs was characterized by varying the word related constructs over a large parameter space and observing the effect of this variation on relevance. Three hypotheses relating to different aspects of the relations between the word related constructs and relevance. It was concluded, that the conclusive confirmation of the hypotheses requires an extension of the experimental means underlying the study. Based on converging observations from the empirical investigation of the three hypotheses it was concluded, that semantic and associative relations distinctly differ with regard to their impact on relevance estimation.
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CHANG, HSI ALEX. "AN ARCHITECTURE FOR ELECTRONIC MESSAGING IN ORGANIZATIONS: A DISTRIBUTED PROBLEM-SOLVING PERSPECTIVE." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/184129.
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This dissertation provides a foundation for electronic information management in organizations. It focuses on the relationships among communication, control, and information flows of the organization. The main thesis addresses the question of how electronic mail messages may be managed according to their contents, ensuring at the same time, the preservation of organizational and social relationships. A taxonomy for the management of unstructured electronic information relevance based on the treatment of information is derived from current research. Among the three paradigms, the information processing, the information distribution, and the information sharing paradigms, the inadequacy of the first two is recognized, and the treatment of information in its active mode is proposed. This taxonomy can be used to quickly differentiate one research from another and evaluate its adequacy. Three concepts, four cornerstones, and an architecture constitute our framework of information relevance management. The cornerstones are knowledge of the organization, knowledge of the individual, information construction, and information interpretation. Through knowledge of the organization and the individual, the machine production systems are able to distribute and manage information according to the logic of human production systems. The other two cornerstones together improve the unity of interpretation among the organizational members. The physical architecture can adapt a number of applications, each of which, may not only have different knowledge presentations and inference mothods, but also may co-exist in the system simultaneously. An integrated knowledge-based electronic messaging system, the AI-MAIL system, is built, tested, and evaluated through a case study to demonstrate the feasibility of the architecture and its applicability to the real-world environment. The three operating levels, interorganizational, intraorganizational, and individual, are illustrated through a study of the U.S. Army. From three large scale field studies, the existing AUTODIN I system, a backbone of the Army's communications, is analyzed and evaluated to illustrate the applicability and benefits of the three operating levels. This dissertation contributes to the field of Management Information Systems by offering a methodology, a taxonomy, a new paradigm, a framework, and a system for information management and a method of adaptive organizational design. In addition, it points toward future research directions. Among them are research to deal with ethical issues, organizational research, knowledge engineering, multi-processor configuration, and internal protocols for applications.
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AlHamadani, Baydaa. "Retrieving information from compressed XML documents according to vague queries." Thesis, University of Huddersfield, 2011. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/11179/.
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XML has become the standard way for representing and transforming data over the World Wide Web. The problem with XML documents is that they have a very high ratio of redundancy, which makes these documents demanding large storage capacity and high network band-width for transmission. Because of their extensive use, XML documents could be retrieved according to vague queries by naive users with poor background in writing XPath query. The aim of this thesis is to present the design of a system named “XML Compressing and Vague Querying (XCVQ)” which has the ability of compressing the XML document and retrieving the required information from the compressed version with less decompression required according to vague queries. XCVQ first compressed the XML document by separating its data into containers and then compress these containers using the GZip compressor. The compressed file could be retrieved if a vague query is submitted without the need to decompress the whole file. For the purpose of processing the vague queries, XCVQ decomposes the query according to the relevant documents and then a second decomposition stage is made according to the relevant containers. Only the required information is decompressed and submitted to the user. To the best of our knowledge, XCVQ is the first XML compressor that has the ability to process vague queries. The average compression ratio of the designed compressor is around 78% which may be considered competitive compared to other queriable XML compressors. Based on several experiments, the query processor part had the ability to answer different kinds of vague queries ranging from simple exact match queries to complex ones that require retrieving information from several compressed XML documents.
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Barge, Hezekiah Davis Mark S. Schwent John T. "Field level information collaboration during complex humanitarian emergencies and peace operations /." Monterey, Calif. : Springfield, Va. : Naval Postgraduate School ; Available from National Technical Information Service, 2003. http://library.nps.navy.mil/uhtbin/hyperion-image/03Jun%5FBarge.pdf.
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Thesis (M.S. in Information Technology Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2003.Thesis advisor(s): Alex Bordetsky, Glenn Cook. Includes bibliographical references (p. 163-165). Also available online.
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Schwent, John T., and Hezekiah Jr Barge. "Field level information collaboration during complex humanitarian emergencies and peace operations." Thesis, Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10945/1031.
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Approved for public release; distribution is unlimitedMultinational humanitarian and military efforts such as those seen in Somalia, Kosovo and Afghanistan are known as Complex Humanitarian Emergencies. These types of emergencies are complex and difficult to operate in because they contain political, military and humanitarian considerations. The various actors responding to a CHE can be divided into two distinct groups - military and civilian. Each of these groups needs the other to effectively respond to the crisis. Thus communication, collaboration and coordination are critical. Technology can play a significant role to enable information sharing between the various participants during CHEs. This thesis documents the continued development of a collaborative, Information Technology-based, operation support system designed to facilitate information sharing at the field/tactical level during CHE and Peace Operations. The operational support system was designed in the context of a Tactical Humanitarian Relief Habitat and will undergo a technical evaluation in a simulated CHE/Peace Operations environment. The end state of our research will result in recommendations for continued development of a habitat designed for utilization in the Civil Military Operations enter of a CHE or Peace Operation.
Major, United States Marine Corps
Captain, United States Marine Corps
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Sikhosana, Regina Balengane. "Managing electronic resources at selected tertiary institutions in the Western Cape, South Africa." Thesis, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11838/2727.
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Thesis (MTech (Business Information Systems))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2016.The aim of this research study is to explore the management of electronic resources used in libraries. Three tertiary institutions were used as case studies. The unit of analysis was the three libraries, with library employees (14) working and managing electronic resources being the unit of observation. Non-random, purposive sampling techniques were used. The finding of this study suggests that the participants do not use the Aleph integrated library system (ILS) optimally to manage electronic resources. Library employees do not keep up with current and new emerging technology trends in the library and academic environment. There is a lack of training, as well as understanding, of business processes and workflows. This is emphasised by a lack of knowledge of library system environments and, finally, the high cost of implementing the library systems. Electronic resource management (ERM) systems emerged in the early 2000s, and it became clear that traditional integrated library systems did not have sufficient capacity to provide efficient processing for meeting the changing needs and challenges of libraries at tertiary institutions. Libraries find it challenging to manage the wide range of licensed electronic resources, collaborating, cooperating and sharing resources with different libraries. The increasing number of electronic resource demands from users for remote or off campus access makes it difficult for libraries to manage electronic resources. As a result of this inability to manage the electronic resources, libraries are not effectively and efficiently using appropriate electronic resource systems to meet their business requirements.
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Taylor, Todd M. "Internet influence on sports information gathering." Virtual Press, 2006. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1347737.
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The Internet is changing the way people obtain their information, growing at a faster rate than any previous media outlet. Experts fully expect this growth to continue. The power of the Internet as a new media source has led to research concerning its effect on traditional media (newspaper, television, radio, and magazines) for certain tasks. However, research has yet to focus solely on sports information gathering, which has been identified as the number one reason men between eighteen and thirty-four years of age access the Internet. The purpose of this study was to examine where students get their sports information, to determine whether gathering sports information through the Internet leads to a decrease in gathering sports information through traditional media.Department of Journalism
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Ausman, Eman. "The digital design document strategies, principles and processes /." Menomonie, WI : University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2006. http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/thesis/2006/2006ausmane.pdf.
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Sustar, Helena. "Older people as equal partners in the creative design of digital devices." Thesis, City University London, 2011. http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/1305/.
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This thesis describes research which explores the importance and feasibility of involving older people as equal partners in the creative design of digital devices for an ageing population. In exploring this topic, I have carried out two preliminary studies, a pilot study and a major empirical study. Firstly, I invited three groups of people, including very old people, active older people and postgraduate students, to evaluate a mock-‐up model of an interactive device intended for older people that was designed using a standard design process. The results of this study suggested that products without an adequate contribution from older people would not always meet their needs. Secondly, I carried out observations of very old people, active older people, and young designers to identify factors that influence the way in which both older people and young designers can be involved in the creative design process. These factors included experiences with technology, processes and approaches currently applied with older people and designers, factors that stimulate or inhibit creativity, and practical constraints such as health issues. The results of these observations fed into the design of a pilot study, where I tested the content of a creative design process and a procedure for analysing data for the main empirical study. The main study involved three creative workshops where the same creative methods were employed with different sets of people: young designers, mixed groups (with older people and designers) and older people only. The results show that older people are able to participate in a creative design process; however, certain practical constraints have to be taken into account. Also, older people perform better when they work together with designers. Finally, the mixed groups with older people, who have relevant life experiences, and designers, who are familiar with the newest technology, may be more suitable for designing appropriate products for the older population.
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Lekeas, George K. "Regulating competence-based access to agent societies." Thesis, City University London, 2011. http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/1144/.
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Advances in ubiquitous computing have resulted in changes to the way we access and use everyday applications, e.g. reading mail and booking tickets. At the same time, users interact with these applications in a variety of ways, each with different characteristics, e.g., different degrees of bandwidth, different payment schemes supported and so on. These are highly dynamic interactions, as some of the applications might become unavailable (either temporarily or permanently) or their behaviour may change. As the user has to deal with a large number of proactive and dynamic applications every day, he will need a personal assistant that possesses similar characteristics. The agent paradigm meets this requirement, since it exhibits the necessary features. As a result, the user will provide its personal agent assistant with a goal, e.g. I need a smartphone which costs less than three hundred pounds, and the agent will have to use a number of applications offering information on smartphones so that it finds the requested one. This, in turn, raises a number of issues regarding the organisation and the degrees of access to these services as well as the correctness of their descriptions. In this work, we propose the organisation of applications around the concept of artificial agent societies, to which access would be possible only by a positive evaluation of an agent's application. The agent will provide the Authority Agent with the role it is applying for and its competencies in the context of a protocol, i.e., the messages that it can utter/understand. The Authority Agent will then check to see if the applicant agent is a competent user of the protocols; if yes, entry is granted. Assuming that access is granted, the next issue is to decide on the protocol(s) that agent receives. As providing the full protocol will cause security and overload problems, we only need to provide the part required for the agent to play its role. We show how this can be done and how we can repair certain protocols so that they are indeed enactable once this role decomposition is performed.
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Fisk, Barbara Susan. "The use of computerised personnel information systems by human resource specialists in the public sector." Thesis, City University London, 1993. http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/7416/.
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This thesis examines the development of human resource management in three UK public sectors local government, the health service and higher education. The focus of the study is the problem of the lack of use of computerised personnel information systems by personnel specialists to develop the human resource management function. The literature of strategic management, human resource management and the fit between them are reviewed together with the history and the development of personnel systems in the UK. Senior personnel practitioners and their organisations in the three sectors were evaluated with respect to the stage of development of organisational planning and the contribution made by personnel practitioners using questionnaires, and in-depth interviews. The backgrounds and management styles of the practitioners were examined in order to evaluate their perceptions of: human resource management, computer systems and organisational planning. The degree to which practitioners made use of their computerised information systems for administrative and strategic purposes and the problems they perceived were evaluated in order to judge their degree of evolution from 'traditional personnel practice' to 'human resource management'. The research findings indicated that, although there were are number of significant differences between the three sectors studied, these had little effect when considering the broad issues embedded in the six hypotheses. The evaluation of these hypotheses indicated that the practitioners were making substantial use of their systems for administrative but not for strategic purposes. The number of perceived forces discouraging use and development of computerised personnel information systems was found to outnumber the perceived encouraging forces and were aggregated into a forcefield diagram. Furthermore it was shown that most practitioners had not yet evolved into proactive human resource managers. Suggestions for 'best practice' with respect to choice, use and development of CPIS are provided.
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Pfeil, Ulrike. "Studying online support communities : investigating network patterns and characteristics of social support." Thesis, City University London, 2011. http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/1159/.
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People’s activities on the internet have expanded from mainly retrieving information to communicating with each other in virtual settings. Thus, research investigating social interactions in online communities is becoming more and more important. However, the multi-faceted approaches of existing studies for the analysis of online communities make it difficult to combine the findings into a comprehensive understanding. This shows the need for holistic investigations of online communities. This thesis provides such a holistic approach by investigating a combination of different aspects of a selected online support community for older people. MOSuC (Model of Online Support Communities), a model describing the key aspects of online support communities was developed based on existing theories of computer-mediated communication (CMC) as well as theoretical perspectives on social support. Five studies were conducted, each addressing one of the different aspects of the case study community: (i) the message content, (ii) the conversations structure, (iii) the social network of related community members, (iv) the roles that online community members take on, and (vi) the taget population’s needs concerning the exchange of social support in online communities. The findings of these individual studies were then combined in context of MOSuC in order to provide a holistic description of the community. As a result, this thesis provides detailed insight into the characteristics of the case study community as well as the interplay and dependencies between different aspects of the community. Based on the integration of multiple studies, the thesis sheds light on two main issues: the characteristics of the individual aspects of the community as well as how these aspects are related to and affect each other. In addition to the findings of the studies, the thesis also contributes MOSuC, which serves both as a theoretical framework of the aspects of online support communities, as well as a practical tool for integrating the individual studies. In addition, the application, modification and integration of multiple methods in this thesis provide a novel methodological way for an integrative analysis of online support communities.
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Ferreira, Cornél. "A data warehouse structure design methodology to support the efficient and effective analysis of online resource usage data." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1016072.
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The use of electronic services results in the generation of vast amounts of Online Resource Usage (ORU) data. ORU data typically consists of user login, printing and executed process information. The structure of this type of data restricts the ability of decision makers to effectively and efficiently analyse ORU data. A data warehouse (DW) structure is required which satisfies an organisation’s information requirements. In order to design a DW structure a methodology is needed to provide a design template according to acknowledged practices. The aim of this research was to primarily propose a methodology specifically for the design of a DW structure to support the efficient and effective analysis of ORU data. A variety of relevant DW structure design methodologies were investigated and a number of limitations were identified. These methodologies do not provide methodological support for metadata documentation, physical design and implementation. The most comprehensive methodology identified in the investigation was modified and the Adapted Triple-Driven DW Structure Design Methodology (ATDM) was proposed. The ATDM was successfully applied to the information and communication technology services (ICTS) department of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University as the case study for this research. The proposed ATDM consists of different phases which include a requirements analysis phase that was adapted from the identified comprehensive methodology. A physical design and an implementation phase were included in the ATDM. The ATDM was successfully applied to the ICTS case study as a proof of concept. The application of the ATDM to ICTS resulted in the generation and documentation of semantic and technical metadata which describes the DW structure derived from the application of the ATDM at a logical and physical level respectively. The implementation phase was applied using the Microsoft SQL Server integrated tool to obtain an implemented DW structure for ICTS that is described by technical metadata at an implementation level. This research has shown that the ATDM can be successfully applied to obtain an effective and efficient DW structure for analysing ORU data. The ATDM provides guidelines to develop a DW structure for ORU data and future research includes the generalisation of the ATDM to accommodate various domains and different data types.
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Abubaker, Azza A. "Factors influence reading from screen of Arabic textbook for learning by children aged 9 to 13." Thesis, University of Huddersfield, 2014. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/19509/.
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The problem with e-texts are related to the way texts are displayed on a screen, with multiple and different aspects that affect legibility, making readers prefer to read a paper format rather than e-resources. This research describes the factors that affect the legibility of online texts aimed at obtaining a better understanding of the usability of electronic Arabic texts for learning purposes within the field of electronic reading; mainly reading Arabic texts for students aged 9 to 13. This study sets out three particular aims: (1) building a reading strategy for Arabic schoolbook in both formats electronic and paper format based on users’ cognitive and behavioural processes; (2) defining the influence of three typographical variables that affect reading Arabic texts on a screen (font size, font-type and line length); and (3) studying the efficiency of reading Arabic texts and the related factors impacting the efficiency of reading and comprehension. Based on the nature of the research questions and objectives, positivism and phenomenology are adopted as the underlying philosophy for this research. The empirical research was divided into three phases; the first phase focused on collecting data about using the internet among students in primary schools by means of a questionnaire. This has helped in the selection of samples and determined the extent of the students’ reluctance to read from a screen. The second phase was to investigate the reading process of school book in two formats [ paper and electronic format] to build reading model based on users’ cognitive and behavioural processes. The third phase was to examine the factors that affect negatively the usability of electronic texts by examining three issues: font size [10, 14, 16 and 18], font type [Arabic traditional, Arial, Times New Roman, Simplified Arabic, and Courier New], and line length [single column and double columns]. Observation was applied as a tool to collect the data. The study has made a significant contribution to the understanding of electronic reading of Arabic language. This contribution addressed five aspects: (1) Two models of reading process for schoolbook using Arabic language were built according to users’ interaction with the school textbook in two formats ( electronic and paper). These models will not only help define the interaction amongst users and e-books, but will also help designers to understand user behaviour of e-books and thereby to establish the most appropriate functions/features when building an e-book interface. (2) Identify the optimal font size for reading an Arabic script from screen by children aged 9 to 13. (3) Based on collecting data from experiments (2) and (3) and comparing this date with other researches that have done in the same field, new model explains the interaction between three topographical variables [font size, font type and line length] and their relationships with independent variables were provided. (4) Test a new display technique to improve the legibility of reading Arabic online texts by using colour to increase the ability to focus vision when moving from one line to another so as to improve the screen display. And (5) according to quantitative and qualitative several of the rules were recommended for designers and educators to follow when designing and presenting Arabic text on screen. On the other hand, some recommendations for future research have been derived from this thesis, such as the following. (1) Investigating the effect of the colour factor on improving the legibility of Arabic texts on screen for children, e.g. using different colours to distinguish between dots and vowels. (2) Exploring and developing an e-reading model based on all the factors recorded in the empirical studies in the reading field which will lead to building a theory on e- reading. (3) Investigating the influence of a variable effect reading process and the variables that have a positive or negative impact on it. (4) Applying a model that used colour to increase the ability to focus using different age-range and type of information such as journals or books.
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Yusoff, Hashimah Mohd. "The use of electronic information resources among the users of Penang Public Library Corporation." School of Communication & Information, Nanyang Technological University, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/105641.
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Public libraries place importance on information technology for the delivery of quality services. One aspect of quality services is knowing the usage in the electronic information resources (EIRs) among the users. This study was carried out to investigate the use of the EIRs at the Penang Public Library Corporation (PPLC). The findings revealed that EIRs services provided by PPLC are being regularly used by the users. It was noted that the younger group relied more on the EIRs. The most preferred EIRs were Internet (51.9%) and OPAC (43.2%). The preference of Internet was higher among school students with 25% users and college students with 17.2% users, whereas preference of OPAC was higher among the professional group with 30% users. It was determined also that most of the users who used Internet were for information searching. For OPAC, they seemed more likely to use title search in searching library materials and they learned to use the OPAC by themselves. The usage of other EIRs were less popular with Electronic Journals (19.1%), Online databases (16.0%) and CD-ROMs (7.4%). It is recommended that PPLC must strive aggressively to promote the less popular EIRs that are provided but seldom used by the library users. PPLC also needs to improve its training programme in order to help users to enhance the use of EIRs.
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Al-Abbasi, Mustafa M. "Academics' knowledge and use of electronic information resources (EIR) at the University of Bahrain." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2007. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/7898.
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Electronic Information Resources (EIR) can be seen as invaluable teaching and research tools, which complement print-based resources and enhance the learning and research processes in any academic institution. The aims of this research were to investigate, analyse and discuss the use of and needs for EIR and existing training in promoting and enhancing the quality of teaching and research activities amongst academic staff at the University of Bahrain. Extensive quantitative, qualitative and theoretical methods were used to identify and analyse academic staff EIR skills, knowledge and awareness. The population of the study is made up of all the full-time faculty members working at the University of Bahrain. A total of 593 questionnaires were distributed and 466 completed ones were returned, giving an overall response rate of 78.5%, and these were used for the purpose of the study. The result of the study revealed that printed resources are the sources of information most used for teaching and research. The colleges of Law, Art and Education had the lowest percentages of usage of EIR compared with other colleges. Work overload, lack of awareness, low skill levels, slow servers, ineffective communication systems, language barriers and a preference for print resources were among the primary constraints that affected academic staff uptake and use of electronic resources in teaching and research. One-to-one training was the preferred training method for those academics wishing to enhance their EIR skills. It was recommended that there is a need for greater promotion from the upper level decision-makers at the university if they wish to see greater use of electronic resources in teaching and research. Strategic conceptual models designed to provide solutions to the current problems and to help in setting policies and decisions for the effective use of EIR in teaching and research are given.
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Ashcroft, Linda Susan. "The development of electronic resources in libraries : effective marketing and communication." Thesis, Liverpool John Moores University, 2012. http://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/6166/.
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This submission addresses the change to the electronic environment in libraries. It presents eight selected research papers which cumulatively contribute to knowledge regarding the management issues arising from this change. The specific elements of the research programme focused primarily on changes in academic libraries and secondly in public libraries. The implications of changes in different countries were investigated. The research programme evolved over time, as its applicability and relevance extended to other players in the developing library electronic resources field. The need for effective communication and marketing regarding electronic resources was identified as key, and it became increasingly evident that libraries needed to adopt marketing techniques appropriate to the changing environment and different to those techniques traditionally used. The linked elements of the research programme involve managing changing user needs in line with a changing user base, which includes remote users, and the requirements for changing staff skills. Further elements include work in a virtual environment alongside a physical environment and collaboration and consortia working. The central aim of the research programme was to identify solutions for best practice, and funding was obtained for many of the research elements. Originality is demonstrated by investigation into an emerging area, using library websites at the time of their development and applying an experimental research technique. Research methods from different research paradigms - positivist and interpretivist - were employed. Quantitative data was obtained to establish hard facts. Qualitative approaches enabled the acquisition of multiple perspectives and understanding of social constructions of meaning and knowledge, such as respondents' attitudes, feelings and perceptions. The extent and modes of discussion with respondents facilitated triangulation of methods that resulted in multiple views for synthesis so as to clarify understanding. All of the research was underpinned by an on-going literature review, which was vital in order to assess both what existed and current developments. The research methods used were applied in a sequence of eight stages as the electronic environment in libraries developed. The research aimed to provide a fully rounded picture, investigating the issues arising from the introduction of electronic resources in libraries, and it achieved this by considering developments over a period of time just in excess of the past decade. The papers present findings that can be applied by players in the field of electronic resource provision. Foremost amongst these was the requirements for educating library users, often in a remote environment, in the use of the new electronic resources, which were derived and the vital importance of operating different marketing and communication techniques, which was demonstrated.
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Ziebro, Monique C. "Information-seeking and perceptions of expertise in an electronic network of practice." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2013. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/57598/.
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This study assesses information-seeking and perceptions of expertise in Electronic Networks of Practice (ENoPs). ENoPs are a particular type of online community focused on sharing information related to a specific work-related profession (Wasko and Faraj, 2005). To date, there has been little empirical work on the dynamics of information exchange in ENoPs (Whelan, 2007). The little we do know is based on face-to-face communities, which cannot be generalized to online interactions due to changes in size, purpose, and method of communication. Understanding the type and perceived value of information is an important line of theoretical inquiry because it has the potential to identify the specific informational needs these communities fulfil and the types of people most likely to fulfil them. This research was conducted in an ENoP focusing on the exchange of information related to the practice of engineering. The community studied, Eng- Tips, is a thriving network focusing on the practice of engineering that has produced over 150,000 posts, and is comprised of engineers from twenty-one different specialties. Interactions take place solely through the use of virtually mediated technology, and focus primarily on practice-related issues. The format of interaction is typically based on a query and a stream of ensuing replies. Data were collected through metrics and a coding procedure that allowed me to identify the most common queries in the ENoP. My data revealed queries in the ENoP tended to focus on obtaining solutions, meta-knowledge, or validation. The high emphasis on validation was similar to that found in face-to-face friendship networks, and was contrary to Cross et al.’s (2001) anticipated results, most likely due to the presence of anonymity. I also found that experience of interacting with multiple specialties (i.e. interactional expertise) was positively associated with perceived expertise. Finally, I discovered that replies, giving out nominations, and frequently logins were positively associated with the number of expert nominations one received in the community. This research makes contributions to both theory and practice. I contribute to theory on information-seeking by extending Cross et al.’s (2001) research to the online environment, and articulating the type of informational benefits sought in the ENoP. I contribute to theory on expertise by exploring the characteristics associated with perceived expertise, and exploring the reasons why interactional expertise may be particularly valued in ENoPs. My work in this area reveals that—in the context of the ENoP studied—a ‘common practice’ is highly fragmented and loosely knit, further distinguishing this entity as a unique organizational form. My findings in this area call into question the validity of a practice-based approach for examining these entities, and for these reasons, I suggest they may be better conceptualized as Electronic Networks of Discourse. Practical ramifications focus on describing the type of information members want to obtain from their involvement in the community, which may benefit members, organizations, and managers of the ENoP.
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Laak, Marin. "Kirjandusajaloo mittelineaarsed mudelid : teksti ja konteksti probleeme digitaalses keskkonnas /." Tartu : Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus, 2006. http://dspace.utlib.ee/dspace/bitstream/10062/632/5/laakmarin.pdf.
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Wallner, Gerald L. "Developing a proactive framework for e-discovery compliance." [Denver, Colo.] : Regis University, 2008. http://165.236.235.140/lib/GWallner2008.pdf.
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Xu, Dongjie. "Harmonious screen interface design principles from Chinese calligraphy." Thesis, University of Central Lancashire, 2010. http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/1521/.
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Harmony is a major theme in Chinese culture. It is reflected in many forms, e.g. painting and garden design. However, calligraphy gives a straight forward insight into harmony in two dimensions. The main hypothesis was that the principles for building a harmonious calligraphic character could be converted from holistic to deductive and computable ones. These could then be applied to the design of harmonious screen interfaces, which would give visual pleasure. The first aim was to investigate and discover the quantifiable features of harmony in Chinese regular script calligraphy. Calligraphy has been associated in China with harmony and elegance for over 1500 years. There are features that are commonly accepted to establish harmony which can be quantified. However, the principles of Chinese calligraphy are embedded within Chinese culture. Direct translation does not convey the meaning. An extensive study was made of the literature on Chinese calligraphy and a practical exploration of characters was made. This resulted in a small number of principles which were needed to be satisfied for the character to appear harmonious. These were tested on several groups of participants. These principles were then converted into a mathematical form for Chinese regular script calligraphy, and for application to harmonious screen interface design. The mathematical forms were then tested on both Chinese regular script calligraphy and also on interface designs with groups of participants. Finally, an application for comparing harmony in Chinese calligraphic characters and interface designs was created. The “Harmony” application can be used to calculate how a Chinese calligraphic character or an interface design satisfies the principles of harmony and it can give an indication of how harmonious they are.
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Zhang, Hua (Jackie). "A study of the design and implementation computer-based management information system for China International Futures Co., Ltd. in Beijing, China." Online version, 1998. http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/thesis/1998/1998zhangh.pdf.
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George, David. "Examining the application of modular and contextualised ontology in query expansions for information retrieval." Thesis, University of Central Lancashire, 2010. http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/1865/.
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This research considers the ongoing challenge of semantics-based search from the perspective of how to exploit Semantic Web languages for search in the current Web environment. The purpose of the PhD was to use ontology-based query expansion (OQE) to improve search effectiveness by increasing search precision, i.e. retrieving relevant documents in the topmost ranked positions in a returned document list. Query experiments have required a novel search tool that can combine Semantic Web technologies in an otherwise traditional IR process using a Web document collection.
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Grammenis, Efstratios, and Antonios Mourikis. "Migrating from integrated library systems to library services platforms : An exploratory qualitative study for the implications on academic libraries’ workflows." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för informatik (IK), 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-76971.
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The present master thesis is an exploratory qualitative study in academic libraries regarding the transition from the integrated library systems to the next generation integrated library systems or library services platforms and the potential implications in their internal workflows. Nowadays, libraries all over the world are facing up with a number of challenges in terms of acquiring, describing and making available to the public all the resources, both printed and electronic, they manage. In particular, the academic libraries have more reasons to wish to fulfill their users’ needs since the majority of them use the library sources more and more for scientific research and educational purposes.In this study we attempt to explore the phenomenon in the globe using the available literature and to identify the implications in libraries’ workflows and the possible future developments. Moreover, through observation and semi-structured interviews we try to identify the current developments in the Greek context regarding the adoption of next ILS and possible implications in their workflows. Finally, we attempt a comparison between the Greek situation and the international one.
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Fan, Pingzhi. "Code design and analysis for multiple access communications." Thesis, University of Hull, 1994. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:5864.
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This thesis explores various coding aspects of multiple access communications, mainly for spread spectrum multiaccess(SSMA) communications and collaborative coding multiaccess(CCMA) communications. Both the SSMA and CCMA techniques permit efficient simultaneous transmission by several users sharing a common channel, without subdivision in time or frequency. The general principle behind these two multiaccess schemes is that one can find sets of signals (codes) which can be combined together to form a composite signal; on reception, the individual signals in the set can each be recovered from the composite signal. For the CCMA scheme, the isolation between users is based on the code structure; for the SSMA scheme, on the other hand, the isolation between users is based on the autocorrelation functions(ACFs) and crosscorrelation functions (CCFs) of the code sequences. It is clear that, in either case, the code design is the key to the system design. For the CCMA system with a multiaccess binary adder channel, a class of superimposed codes is analyzed. It is proved that every constant weight code of weight w and maximal correlation λ corresponds to a subclass of disjunctive codes of order T < w/λ. Results related to the decomposition of the disjunctive codes in the noiseless and noisy cases are derived. Decoding algorithms for both the noiseless and the noisy cases are proposed. For the CCMA system operating over a multiaccess Q-ary adder channel, a class of cyclic uniquely decodable codes is proposed and analyzed by employing cyclic codes with symbols from an arbitrary finite integer rings. A very low complexity decoding procedure is presented. For a synchronous SSMA system, a new approach employing orthogonal complementary sets is presented; the properties of such orthogonal complementary sets are studied in detail. Recursive formulas for constructing orthogonal complementary sets are given. Methods for synthesizing new orthogonal complementary sets from known ones with the same dimensions are also discussed. For an asynchronous SSMA system, several new spreading codes are presented and studied: 1. A new class of polyphase codes with two-valued periodic ACF and CCF properties is derived. It is proved that, for a given prime length L > 3, the out-of-phase ACFs and CCFs of the codes are constant and equal to √L. In addition, all codes of the same length are mutually orthogonal. 2. Maximal length sequences (m-sequences) over Gaussian integers, suitable for use with QAM modulation, are considered. Two sub-classes of m-sequences with quasi-perfect periodic autocorrelations are obtained. The CCFs between the decimated m-sequences are studied. By applying a simple operation, it is shown that some m-sequences over rational and Gaussian integers can be transformed into perfect sequences with impulsive ACFs. 3. Frank codes and Chu codes have perfect periodic ACFs and optimum periodic CCFs. In addition, it is shown that they also have very favourable nonperiodic ACFs; some new results concerning the behaviour of the nonperiodic ACFs are derived. Further, it is proved that the sets of combined Frank/Chu codes, which contain a larger number of codes than either of the two constituent sets, also have very good periodic CCFs. Based on Frank codes and Chu codes, two interesting classes of real-valued codes with good correlation properties are defined. It is shown that these codes have periodic complementary properties and good periodic and nonperiodic ACF/CCFs. Finally, a hybrid CCMA/SSMA coding scheme is proposed. This new hybrid coding scheme provides a very flexible and powerful multiple accessing capability and allows simple and efficient decoding. Given an SSMA system with K users and a CCMA system with N users, where at most T users are active at any time, then the hybrid system will have K . N users with at most T.K users active at any time. The hybrid CCMA/SSMA coding scheme is superior to the individual CCMA system or SSMA system in terms of information rate, number of users, decoding complexity and external interference rejection capability.
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Almquist, Arne J. "The Adoption and Use of Electronic Information Resources by a Non-Traditional User Group: Automotive Service Technicians." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2006. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc5301/.
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The growing complexity of machines has led to a concomitant increase in the amount and complexity of the information needed by those charged with servicing them. This, in turn, has led to a need for more robust methods for storing and distributing information and for a workforce more sophisticated in its use of information resources. As a result, the service trades have "professionalized," adopting more rigorous academic standards and developing ongoing certification programs. The current paper deals with the acceptance of advanced electronic information technology by skilled service personnel, specifically, automotive service technicians. The theoretical basis of the study is Davis' technology acceptance model. The purpose of the study is to determine the effects of three external factors on the operation of the model: age, work experience, and education/certification level. The research design is in two parts, beginning with an onsite observation and interviews to establish the environment. During the second part of the research process a survey was administered to a sample of automotive service technicians. Results indicated significant inverse relationships between age and acceptance and between experience and acceptance. A significant positive relationship was shown between education, particularly certification, and acceptance.
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Windell, Anna Catharina. "The impact of disruptive technologies on designated organisations within the IT industry in South Africa." Diss., Pretoria : [s.n.], 2008. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-08112008-075731.
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Kwatsha, Ntombizandile. "Factors affecting the implementation of an electronic document and records management system." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/5152.
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Thesis (MPhil (Information Science))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The past decade has seen a huge increase in the implementation and use of Electronic document and records management systems (EDRMS) in many public spheres. The South African government, in this case the Presidency, has now also adopted this system to comply with current legislation requiring government institutions to replace paper with electronic media as the preferred way of conducting their official business. In general, and as is evident from the available literature, it seems that Government organisations have been lagging behind in this regard. The failure to reap the expected benefits from this step by government institutions such as the Presidency forms the basis for this investigation, which examines the failures and successes in the implementation of an EDRMS and the factors affecting this process. The study used triangulation approach in order to arrive at a more reliable conclusion. Literature research has been used as a main data collection method for this study. It also serves as a basis for the approaches to subject matter that have been adopted. Data was also collected by conducting semi –structured interviews with government institutions, including the subject of this research, that have implemented EDRMS. The critical factors that have had an effect on the implementation of EDRMS were found to be of a strategic, social and technical nature. The study also found similarities in the factors affecting EDRMS implementation within government and identifies the need for further research focusing on how these factors differ between various types of organisations.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die afgelope dekade was daar ‘n ontsaglike toename in die instelling en toepassing van elektroniese dokument- en rekordbestuurstelsels (EDRMS) op talle openbare terreine. Die Suid-Afrikaanse regering, in hierdie geval die kantoor van die Staatspresident, het nou ook hierdie stelsel aangeneem om te voldoen aan huidige wetgewing wat staatsinstellings verplig om papier te vervang met elektroniese media as die aanbevole manier om hulle amptelike besigheid te bedryf. Oor die algemeen, en soos dit ook blyk uit die beskikbare bronne, lyk dit egter asof regeringsinstansies agter geraak het wat dit betref. Die feit dat die verwagte voordele van hierdie stap nie deur staatsinstansies soos die Presidensie benut is nie, vorm die grondslag vir hierdie ondersoek, wat die prestasies en weiering wat gepaard gaan met die instelling van `n EDRMS en die faktore wat hierdie proses affekteer van nader beskou. Navorsing van die literatuur is gebruik as die belangrikse datainsamelingmetode vir hierdie ondersoek. Dit dien ook as die basis vir die manier waarop die onderwerpmateriaal benader is. Data is ook ingesamel van staatsinstansies wat `n EDRMS ingestel het, soos die instansie wat hier bestudeer word. Die kritiese faktore wat ‘n invloed gehad het op die instel van `n EDRMS het geblyk van `n strategiese, sosiale en tegnies aard te wees. Die ondersoek het ook ooreenkomste gevind in die faktore wat die instel van `n EDRMS in die regering affekteer en indentifiseer ook die behoefte aan verdere navorsing wat gerig is op hoe hierdie faktore van organisasie tot organisasie verskil.
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Eriksson-Backa, Kristina. "In sickness and in health [electronic resource] : how information and knowledge are related to health behavior /." Åbo : Åbo Akademis Förlag, 2003. http://bibbild.abo.fi/ediss/2003/ErikssonKristina.pdf.
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Chastan, Mariah M. "Mapping electronic resources to identify regional stakeholders for the Master of Science Degree in Applied Psychology." Menomonie, WI : University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2005. http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/thesis/2005/2005chastanm.pdf.
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Takaoka, Haruyoshi. "Business-to-consumer electronic commerce in Japan." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2004. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/2707.
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The purpose of the project was to examine the current situation of B2C e-commerce in Japan, consumers' online purchasing behavior, and attributes affecting online purchases. Since many companies are interested in starting or have started B2C e-commerce businesses, this study would aid companies in developing marketing strategies that would grow their businesses and build loyalty among consumers.
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Breedt, Morné. "Integrating biometric authentication into multiple applications." Pretoria : [s.n.], 2005. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-08282007-135540.
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Van, Dam Brooke. "The distinctive nature of making news online : a study of news production at latimes.com and salon.com." Thesis, City University London, 2010. http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/1183/.
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This thesis provides an inside, in-depth look at how journalists at latimes.com and salon.com came together to create content for their websites over a six month period. It vividly unveils the process of newsmaking by journalists working for organisations whose output is the world wide web. It uses mixed method case studies of two US-based news websites, latimes.com and salon.com, to show how both parentage and net native sites construct a news story. The case studies include direct observation, in-depth interviews and content analysis to deconstruct the process of covering the 2008 Presidential election. The thesis works around Brian McNair‘s cultural chaos paradigm (2006) which explains the emergent nature of news online and the lack of control by any environmental factors that seek to affect its outcome. The thesis begins by outlining the four crucial changes which occur online that are redefining major tenets of journalism both practically and theoretically. It goes on to explain not only how online news has become a destination for many around the world but also why these two online news websites have found a niche for themselves on the Web. The findings of this research outline not only how the newsmaking process exists in these two environments but also how they are creating a new type of convotelling journalism. The 2008 US Presidential election is used as a story to show the unstructured and chaotic network that now exists in how news is gathered, produced, and disseminated online. It goes on to explain the multitude of changing relationships journalists are grappling with as this convotelling newsmaking process occurs. The contrast between the net native and parentage website is dissected to show just how the two sites vary even though their goal is similar. The research concludes making an argument for a hybrid model of journalism being done online that is distinctive in nature.
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Scott, Saffron L. "Living in the shadow of suicide : the narrative of an online internet memorial site created by a survivor of bereavement by suicide : a biographical study." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2012. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/373187/.
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Online memorials are an Internet phenomena of the 21st century which have been identified as a growing contemporary mourning practice mediated by online computer networks. Online memorials offer a logical discursive platform for a unique form of personalised yet communal virtual memorialising which is mirroring the needs of a fractured and geographically divided society and affords twenty four hour access to all those who use the internet. Online memorials have also been identified as a virtual location where stigma, disenfranchisement and loss of voice in bereavement can be publically noted and challenged. Current research surrounding the use of online memorials has identified that little is known about the creation and use of private memorial sites as they are problematical for researchers to access. This study aimed to address this gap in the research by exploring the creation and use of an online memorial which is both private and relating to a death by suicide which is often considered a socially stigmatised bereavement. The study used auto/biographical research methods utilising a single case study design to explore the narratives of a naturally occurring online memorial alongside an asynchronous email interview with the memorial author. Thematic analysis of the data provided insights into the motivating factors, creation and use of this example of an online memorial. The research also offered insights into the life of the deceased and that of a survivor of bereavement by suicide and in so doing has explored the distinctions between the life lived, the life experienced and the life as told through a form of cultural memorial expression increasingly prevalent in current society. The study also offers consideration of the potential for therapeutic benefit from creating and using online memorials as a mourning activity which could influence Occupational Therapy practice and in so doing identified areas that would benefit from greater research attention to explore further the use/therapeutic use of online memorials.
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Hassan, Basri B. "Using electronic information resources : a study of end-user training needs and methods in selected public university libraries in Malaysia." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2002. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/6974.
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This research investigated the library end-users' perceptions of their training needs in relation to using the electronic information resources in selected public universities in Malaysia. It also investigated the training methods preferred by end-users in learning how to use electronic information resources. The subjects of the study were university students and academic staff from three selected public universities in Malaysia. They comprised 433 students and 223 academic staff. This study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods. The main data was gathered through self-administered questionnaires, while the supplementary data was gathered through face-to-face semi-structured interviews. Opinions from the librarians responsible for end-user training at the three university libraries were also sought through face-to-face semi-structured interviews. Comparisons were made between the two groups of end-users, namely, students and academic staff in areas related to the problems of the study. Appropriate non-parametric statistical techniques such as cross-tabulation, chisquare test, Mann-Whitney U test and Spearman correlation test were applied in analysing the data measured at both nominal and ordinal scales. Among the major findings were: (1) a statistically significant differences were found between students and academic staff in terms of knowledge and ability in using electronic information resources. Many academic staff were more knowledgable and able to use electronic information resources than students. However, concerning knowledge in using certain IT facilities, many more students than academic staff knew how to use them; and (2) both students and academic staff preferred one-to-one training methods as their first choice. With regard to the second choice of training method, students preferred computerassisted instruction (CAI), while academic staff preferred library workshops with hands-on training. Recommendations based on the research findings were made.
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Makri, Stephann. "A study of lawyers' information behaviour leading to the development of two methods for evaluating electronic resources." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2009. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1444325/.
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In this thesis we examine the information behaviour displayed by a broad cross-section of academic and practicing lawyers and feed our findings into the development of the Information Behaviour (IB) methods - two novel methods for evaluating the functionality and usability of electronic resources. We captured lawyers' information behaviour by conducting naturalistic observations, where we asked participants to think aloud whilst using existing resources to 'find information required for their work.' Lawyers' information behaviours closely matched those observed in other disciplines by Ellis and others, serving to validate Ellis's existing model in the legal domain. Our findings also extend Ellis's model to include behaviours pertinent to legal information-seeking, broaden the scope of the model to cover information use (in addition to information-seeking) behaviours and enhance the potential analytical detail of the model through the identification of a range of behavioural 'subtypes' and levels at which behaviours can operate. The identified behaviours were used as the basis for developing two methods for evaluating electronic resources - the IB functionality method (which mainly involves examining whether and how information behaviours are currently, or might in future be, supported by an electronic resource) and the IB usability method (which involves setting users behaviour-focused tasks, asking them to think aloud whilst performing the tasks, and identifying usability issues from the think- aloud data). Finally the IB methods were themselves evaluated by stakeholders working for LexisNexis Butterworths - a large electronic legal resource development firm. Stakeholders were recorded using the methods and focus group and questionnaire data was collected, with the aim of ascertaining how usable, useful and learnable they considered the methods to be and how likely they would be to use them in future. Overall, findings were positive regarding both methods and useful suggestions for improving the methods were made.
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Dolo-Ndlwana, Nomambulu. "Use and value of library's electronic resources by academics and postgraduate students at Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT)." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10336.
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Includes bibliographical references.As libraries are in the transition of moving from print to electronic resources, the purpose of the study was to investigate the use and value of library's e-resources by academics and postgraduates at Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). There is evidence from previous studies that today's users have their information needs met via a number of options. They need not physically come to the library; they can stay at home or at their offices to access e-resources. The study focused on the use and value of the library's e-resources in two departments (Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering and Mechanical Engineering) in the Faculty of Engineering. The main aim was to determine whether academics and postgraduates use e-resources, the purpose for which they used e-resources in the process of teaching, learning and research, the extent to which they were aware of the e-resources, the value they regarded as the benefit from using e-resources and the problems they encountered in their use of e-resources. The study population consisted of 251 academics and postgraduates. A questionnaire was used as data collection instrument. The questionnaire was distributed to 82 academics, 135 MTech and 34 DTech students. The results of the study are based on the data from 60 returned questionnaires from academics and postgraduates. The study found that the majority of the respondents used e-resources, but a few respondents did not use e-resources because they were not aware of them. Respondents who used e-resources used them for a variety of purposes, including gathering information for a specific topic; doing literature reviews, getting answers to specific questions, and gaining general information. The study also encountered respondents who had problems when using e-resources. These problems included internet connections, slow downloading of articles; time constraints and the need for training in the use of e-resources. The majority of respondents from the study thought that they benefited from using the library's e-resources.
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Kim, Sanghee. "User modelling for knowledge sharing in e-mail communication." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2002. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/45959/.
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This thesis addresses the problem of sharing and transferring knowledge within knowledge-intensive organisations from a user modelling perspective with the purpose of improving individual and group performance. It explores the idea of creating organisational environments from which any of the users involved can benefit by being aware of each other such that sharing expertise between those who are knowledge providers and those who are knowledge seekers can be maximised. In order to encourage individuals to share such valuable expertise, it also explores the idea of keeping a balance between ensuring the availability of information and the increase in user workloads due to the need to handle unwanted information. In an attempt to demonstrate the ideas mentioned above, this research examines the application of user modelling techniques to the development of communication-based task learning systems based on e-mail communication. The design rationale for using e-mail is that personally held expertise is often explicated through e-mail exchanges since it provides a good source for extracting user knowledge. The provision of an automatic message categorisation system that combines knowledge acquired from both statistical and symbolic text learning techniques is one of the three themes of this work. The creation of a new user model that captures the different levels of expertise reflected in exchanged e-mail messages, and makes use of them in linking knowledge providers and knowledge seekers is the second. The design of a new information distribution method to reduce both information overload and underload is the third.
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Papakonstantinou, Athanasios. "Mechanism design for eliciting costly observations in next generation citizen sensor networks." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2010. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/143535/.
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Citizen sensor networks are open information systems in which members of the public act as information providers. The information distributed in such networks ranges from observations of events (e.g. noise measurements or monitoring of environmental parameters) to probabilistic estimates (e.g. projected traffic reports or weather forecasts). However, due to rapid advances in technology such as high speed mobile internet and sophisticated portable devices (from smart-phones to hand-held game consoles), it is expected that citizen sensor networks will evolve. This evolution will be driven by an increase in the number of information providers, since, in the future, it will be much easier to gather and communicate information at a large scale, which in turn, will trigger a transition to more commercial applications. Given this projected evolution, one key difference between future citizen sensor networks and conventional present ones is the emergence of self-interested behaviour, which can manifest in two main ways. First, information providers may choose to commit insufficient resources when producing their observations, and second, they may opt to misreport them. Both aspects of this self-interested behaviour are ignored in current citizen sensor networks. However, as their applications are broadened and commercial applications expand, information providers are likely to demand some kind of payment (e.g. real or virtual currency) for the information they provide. Naturally, those interested in buying this information, will also require guarantees of its quality. It is these issues that we deal with in this thesis through the introduction of a series of novel two-stage mechanisms, based on strictly proper scoring rules. We focus on strictly proper scoring rules, as they have been used in the past as a method of eliciting truthful reporting of predictions in various forecasting scenarios (most notably in weather forecasting). By using payments that are based on such scoring rules, our mechanisms effectively address the issue of selfish behaviour by motivating information providers in a citizen sensor network to, first, invest the resources required by the information buyer in the generation of their observations, and second, to report them truthfully. To begin with, we introduce a mechanism that allows the centre (acting as an information buyer) to select a single agent that can provide a costly observation at a minimum cost. This is the first time a mechanism has been derived for a setting in which the centre has no knowledge of the actual costs involved in the generation of the agents' observations. Building on this, we then make two further contributions to the state of the art, with the introduction of two extensions of this mechanism. First, we extend the mechanism so that it can be applied in a citizen sensor network where the information providers do not have the same resources available for the generation of their observations. These different capabilities are reflected in the quality of the provided observations. Hence, the centre must select multiple agents by eliciting their costs and the maximum precisions of their observations and then ask them to produce these observations. Second, we consider a setting where the information buyer cannot gain any knowledge of the actual outcome beyond what it receives through the agents' reports. Now, because the centre is not able to evaluate the providers' reported observations through external means, it has to rely solely on the reports it receives. It does this by fusing the reports together into one observation which then uses as a means to assess the reports of each of the providers. For the initial mechanism and each of the two extensions, we prove their economic properties (i.e. incentive compatibility and individual rationality) and then present empirical results comparing a number of specific scoring rules, which includes the quadratic, spherical, logarithmic and a parametric family of scoring rules. These results show that although the logarithmic scoring rule minimises the mean and variance of an agent's payment, using it may result in unbounded payments if an agent provides an observation of poor quality. Conversely, the payments of the parametric family exhibit finite bounds and are similar to those of the logarithmic rule for specific values of the parameter. Thus, we show that the parametric scoring rule is the best candidate in our setting. We empirically evaluate both extended mechanisms in the same way, and for the first extension, we show that the mechanism describes a family of possible ways to perform the agent selection, and that there is one that dominates all others. Finally, we compare both extensions with the peer prediction mechanism introduced by \cite{trustsr1} and show that in all three mechanisms the total expected payment is the same, while for both our mechanisms the variance in the total payment is significantly lower.
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Hopes, David. "Being objective : communities of practice and the use of cultural artefacts in digital learning environments." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2014. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/5344/.
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Over the past decade there has been a dramatic increase in the volume of digital content created from museum, library and archive collections but research on how this material is actually used, particularly in digital learning environments, has fallen far behind the rate of supply. In order to address this gap, this thesis examines how communities of practice (CoPs) involved in the supply and use of digital artefacts in the Higher Education sector in the UK interact with content and what factors affect this process. It focuses on a case study involving the digitisation of Shakespeare collections used in postgraduate research, and the testing of use in a range of different learning environments. This produced a number of significant findings with implications for the HE and cultural sectors. Firstly, similar patterns of artefact use were found across all users suggesting there are generic ways in which everyone interacts with digital artefacts. However, distinct forms of use did emerge which correspond with membership of particular communities of practice. Secondly, members of a CoP appear to share a particular learning style and this is influenced by the learning environment. Finally, the research indicates that a mixed method for analysing and measuring use, piloted and tested in the case study, is possible.
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Zibani, Patiswa. "Marketing of electronic resources as a tool for information service delivery and access at the University of Zululand." Thesis, University of Zululand, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10530/1723.
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A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters in Information Science in the Department of Library and Information Studies at the University Of Zululand, 2018This study investigates the marketing of electronic resources as a tool for information delivery and access at the University of Zululand (UNIZULU). A high degree of adaptable, well designed marketing ethos in the way the UNIZULU library delivers its e-resources offerings is examined. In that regard, the techniques and tools employed for marketing e-resources at the UNIZULU library are explored. The study also assesses access, usage, delivery channels and user awareness towards e- resources. The targeted sample totaled 100 Masters and Doctoral students who were on campus and who used the library services constantly, and six information librarians. Of these 100, only 71 responded, representing a 71% response rate. The study was largely a quantitative research and adopted a survey research design and used two forms of data collection techniques - structured questionnaires and interviews. The findings of the study revealed that postgraduate students were aware of e-resources provided by the library. There was a continuous and fair use of e-resources by the targeted group. The study also revealed that the respondents were aware of the strategies used by the UNIZULU library to market the e-resources. However, the study also revealed challenges. UNIZULU library did not have a well-documented, formal marketing plan. Issues of bandwidth and infrastructure that enhance ease of access and use of e-resources were also revealed. In order to enhance the role of marketing library resources, specifically e-resources, the study recommended that UNIZULU library needs to develop and adopt an e-resources marketing plan that will lay out innovative ways to promote usage and access to the resources. It was also recommended that it should establish key elements that will formalize the plan. It is also recommended that UNIZULU library must develop appropriate strategies to market e-resources to part-time students to create awareness of its support offering at the students’ point of need. It was also recommended that UNIZULU library should invest in training the librarians that are involved in the marketing of e-resources.
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Eidson, Lisa Ayrdrie Kathleen. "Barriers to e-learning job training government employee experiences in an online wilderness management course /." Diss., [Missoula, Mont.] : The University of Montana, 2009. http://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-01222010-102048.
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Li, Fu Min. "Collecting web data for social science research." Thesis, University of Macau, 2018. http://umaclib3.umac.mo/record=b3953492.
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Hider, Philip Martin. "User redefinition of search goals through interaction with an information retrieval system." Thesis, City, University of London, 2004. http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/19506/.
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Search goals of users of information retrieval systems have commonly been assumed to be static and well-formed. However, a significant amount of goal redefinition is detected in the studies described. A pilot study examined user behaviour at a library OPAC, showing that search results would quite frequently induce users to reconsider and revise their search goals, sometimes following up with a new search based on this revision (labeled "strong" goal redefinition). The main analysis employed transaction logs from the OCLC FirstSearch service, investigating what factors, if any, might affect the amount of goal redefinition that takes place during a search session. To this end, ten hypotheses were proposed and considered. Within each search session, logged queries were coded according to their conceptual differences or similarities, in order for indices of strong goal redefinition to be constructed: a chronological content analysis was thus performed on the transaction logs. The indices of redefinition for search sessions on different FirstSearch databases were compared. It was found that different databases induced goal redefinition to different extents. Further analysis showed that the metadata displayed by a database appeared to affect the amount of goal redefinition, and that the presence of abstracts in results was a positive factor, as was the presence of descriptors and identifiers, perhaps because of the former's hyperlinking nature on the FirstSearch interface. On the other hand, no evidence was found to indicate that abstract length has much of an effect on goal redefinition, nor hit rate or levels of precision and recall. Of the two indices of redefinition that were produced, the "refined" index showed signs of greater precision. Implications of the findings are discussed. It is suggested that goal redefinition should be considered a positive result of system feedback, and that systems should readily allow users to follow up on redefined goals. Abstracts and summaries of documents should be presented to the user as frequently as possible, and hyperlinks from key terms in the metadata should also be created to assist evolving searches. The importance of how system feedback is encountered by the user is emphasized in a new model of information retrieval, which embraces the nonconscious as part of the "cognitive viewpoint," allowing for nonconscious information wants to enter into a user's consciousness through cues encountered during the scanning of search results, triggering a redefinition of search goal. This thesis paves the way for a considerable amount of potentially important research, including: further testing and development of the index of goal redefinition; deeper transaction log analyses, perhaps using screen recorders, examining semantic content and contextualizing at the level of the query; and further identification and analysis of the factors affecting goal redefinition, across different types of information retrieval system.
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Wang, Yin. "Blood vessel segmentation and shape analysis for quantification of coronary artery stenosis in CT angiography." Thesis, City University London, 2011. http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/1186/.
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This thesis presents an automated framework for quantitative vascular shape analysis of the coronary arteries, which constitutes an important and fundamental component of an automated image-based diagnostic system. Firstly, an automated vessel segmentation algorithm is developed to extract the coronary arteries based on the framework of active contours. Both global and local intensity statistics are utilised in the energy functional calculation, which allows for dealing with non-uniform brightness conditions, while evolving the contour towards to the desired boundaries without being trapped in local minima. To suppress kissing vessel artifacts, a slice-by-slice correction scheme, based on multiple regions competition, is proposed to identify and track the kissing vessels throughout the transaxial images of the CTA data. Based on the resulting segmentation, we then present a dedicated algorithm to estimate the geometric parameters of the extracted arteries, with focus on vessel bifurcations. In particular, the centreline and associated reference surface of the coronary arteries, in the vicinity of arterial bifurcations, are determined by registering an elliptical cross sectional tube to the desired constituent branch. The registration problem is solved by a hybrid optimisation method, combining local greedy search and dynamic programming, which ensures the global optimality of the solution and permits the incorporation of any hard constraints posed to the tube model within a natural and direct framework. In contrast with conventional volume domain methods, this technique works directly on the mesh domain, thus alleviating the need for image upsampling. The performance of the proposed framework, in terms of efficiency and accuracy, is demonstrated on both synthetic and clinical image data. Experimental results have shown that our techniques are capable of extracting the major branches of the coronary arteries and estimating the related geometric parameters (i.e., the centreline and the reference surface) with a high degree of agreement to those obtained through manual delineation. Particularly, all of the major branches of coronary arteries are successfully detected by the proposed technique, with a voxel-wise error at 0.73 voxels to the manually delineated ground truth data. Through the application of the slice-by-slice correction scheme, the false positive metric, for those coronary segments affected by kissing vessel artifacts, reduces from 294% to 22.5%. In terms of the capability of the presented framework in defining the location of centrelines across vessel bifurcations, the mean square errors (MSE) of the resulting centreline, with respect to the ground truth data, is reduced by an average of 62.3%, when compared with initial estimation obtained using a topological thinning based algorithm.
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Davies, Karen. "Clinical information needs of doctors in the UK." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2008. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/8089.
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The aim of this study was to determine the information-seeking behaviour, needs and preferences of doctors, specifically with reference to Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) in the UK. This is particularly relevant during the current IT and resource development currently being undertaken in the NHS. Mixed methods research techniques were utilised to gather and analyse the data collected to meet the aims and objectives of this study. Three data collection methods have been utilised. The first utilised Clinical Librarians to count the information needs (questions) of doctors (Clinical Librarians Logs). The second data collection method gathered clinical questions from clinical librarians (specialists), medical librarians (generalists) and from websites hosting clinical questions (such as http://www.attract.wales.nhs.uk). These were analysed using the taxonomy developed by Ely et al. 2000. Finally an online questionnaire was used to gather data on doctors' awareness and use of electronic EBM resources. The major finding is that research undertaken on the information needs in the healthcare sector in the USA cannot be readily utilised in the NHS. This research utilised a unique data collection technique, the Clinical Librarian as a data collector. This enabled the quantification of doctors unperceived information needs. This research identified that doctors in the UK asked roughly one question for every four patients seen. Despite the advances and ease of use of electronic resources, the preferred information source was colleagues. Time continues to be the major barrier for accessinge lectronici nformation to aid clinical decision making.