Guide to the professional literature

Citation

(2007), "Guide to the professional literature", Online Information Review, Vol. 31 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/oir.2007.26431cae.001

Guide to the professional literature

This column is designed to alert readers to pertinent wider journal literature on digital information and research.

Analysis of the Behaviour of the Users of a Package of Electronic Journals in the Field of Chemistry

Borrego, A. and Urbano, C. in Journal of Documentation, Vol. 63, No. 2, 2007, pp. 243-258

The purpose of this research is to analyse the behaviour of the users of a package of electronic journals using the data of consumption per IP address. The paper analyses the data of consumption at the University of Barcelona of 31 electronic journals of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in 2003. Data of sessions, articles downloaded and abstracts viewed were analysed. Most of the consumption was concentrated at a few IP addresses, and most of the users made little use of the information available. There was found to be a greater dispersion of the consumption of electronic information than of information on paper. Finally, it was determined that the number of abstracts viewed is a good predictor of the number of regular users of a journal.

Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE): An End-User Oriented Institutional Repository Search Service

Pieper, M. and Summann, F. in Library Hi Tech, Vol. 24, No. 4, 2006, pp. 614-619

The purpose of this paper is to describe the activities of Bielefeld University Library in establishing OAI based repository servers and in using OAI resources for end-user-oriented search services like Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE). BASE is able to integrate external functions of Google Scholar. The search engine technology can replace or amend the search functions of a given repository software. BASE can also be embedded in external repository environments. The paper provides an overview of the functionalities of BASE and gives insight into the challenges that have to be faced when harvesting and integrating resources from multiple OAI servers.

Canute Rules the Waves? Hope for E-library Tools Facing the Challenge of the “Google Generation”

Myhill, M. in Program – Electronic Library and Information Systems, Vol. 41, No. 1, 2007, pp. 5-19

To consider the findings of a recent e-resources survey at the University of Exeter Library in the context of the dominance of web search engines in academia, balanced by the development of e-library tools such as the library OPAC, OpenURL resolvers, metasearch engines, LDAP and proxy servers, and electronic resource management modules. The survey confirmed the very high usage, ease of use, confident use and user satisfaction in web search engines as the predominant means of accessing academic information. The survey also reveals the considerable use, user confidence, and search success of Exeter’s various e-library tools. A number of variations have been detected between user groups including part-time groups, disabled users and those who do not own personal computers. The paper confirms popular conceptions about how academic users access information although it clearly identifies a vital, continuing role for e-library tools which must accordingly develop and adapt to users’ preferences.

A Comparison of Open URL Link Resolvers: The Results of a University of Connecticut Libraries Environmental Scan

Livingston, J., Sanford, D. and Bretthauer, D. in Library Collections Acquisitions & Technical Services, Vol. 30, Nos. 3-4, 2006, pp. 179-201

Open URL link resolvers are emerging technological tools designed to increase use of library collections by automating the process of locating and accessing library holdings. This study examines the system architecture and capabilities of commercially available OpenURL link resolvers to assess viable options for the University of Connecticut Libraries. Data for the study, largely experiential feedback received from libraries employing OpenURL link resolvers, were gathered through a series of evaluative activities. These included a preliminary literature review, web survey, follow-up e-mail survey, and onsite visits to libraries. Results were analyzed within the context of the University of Connecticut Libraries’ resources and needs. Analysis revealed wide variation in library experiences with and perception of product functionality and performance, as well as requisite staff and financial investments.

Current Status and Needs of Chinese E-government Users

Xiong, J.A. in The Electronic Library, Vol. 24, No. 6, 2006, pp. 747-762

This article seeks to investigate unequal access of Chinese citizens to Chinese e-government. The study promotes wide access to declassified and uncensored Chinese government information and services published on Chinese government web sites for Chinese citizens. This article reviews relevant literature and independent surveys as well as government survey reports in consecutive years. It investigates the current status and needs of the Chinese e-government users – who they are, who are not and why not, as well as what they need to use and benefit from Chinese e-government. This article finds that the current Chinese e-government is still at an immature stage and serves too few people. There is a need for Chinese e-government information and services, but the awareness and usage of e-government is very low among the Chinese people. People need all kinds of education and assistance, from general computer and internet literacy to specialized government information related education and assistance, all of which should be free or inexpensive.

Designing Web Sites for Customer Loyalty across Business Domains: A Multilevel Analysis

Mithas, S., Ramasubbu, N., Krishnan, M.S. and Fornell, C. in Journal of Management Information Systems, Vol. 23, No. 3, 2006, pp. 97-127

Web sites are important components of internet strategy for organisations. This paper develops a theoretical model for understanding the effect of web site design elements on customer loyalty to a web site. We show the relevance of the business domain of a web site to gain a contextual understanding of relative importance of web site design elements. We use a hierarchical linear modelling approach to model multilevel and cross-level interactions that have not been explicitly considered in previous research. By analysing data on more than 12,000 online customer surveys for 43 web sites in several business domains, we find that the relative importance of different web site features (e.g. content, functionality) in affecting customer loyalty to a web site varies depending on the web site’s domain. For example, we find that the relationship between web site content and customer loyalty is stronger for information-oriented web sites than for transaction-oriented web sites. However, the relationship between functionality and customer loyalty is stronger for transaction-oriented web sites than for information-oriented web sites. We also find that government web sites enjoy greater word-of-mouth effect than commercial web sites. Finally, transaction-oriented web sites tend to score higher on mean customer loyalty than do information-oriented web sites.

Diffusion and Usage Patterns of Internet Services in the European Union

Egea, J.M.O., Menendez, M.R. and Gonzalez, M.V.R. in Information Research – an International Electronic Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2, 2007, pp. 302-302

This paper offers an investigation of European citizens’ adoption and use of internet-related technologies. European citizens are classified according to their internet usage patterns. Next, the demographic and behavioural profiles of the identified groups are thoroughly examined, which clarifies citizens’ internet-related behaviour and how external variables are related to internet uses. Two-step cluster analysis has been applied, to identify the different groups of European internet users. Discriminant and Correspondence Analysis have been respectively applied to assess the internal and external validity of the identified segments. The statistical package SPSS v11.5 was employed for the empirical analyses. Four segments of European internet users have been identified: Laggards, Confused and Adverse, Advanced Users, Followers and Non-Internet Users. The behavioural and demographic profiles of the previously identified segments are examined. Next, the internal and external validity of the clusters is assessed. The identified internet user segments show clear differences with regard to country, sex, occupation, education and location. These results confirm the existence of socio-demographic entry barriers to the use of digital services. Such barriers may to the development and widening of a digital divide among European citizens.

The Effects of Electronic Access to Scientific Literature in the Consortium of Turkish University Libraries

Kirlidog, M. and Bayir, D. in The Electronic Library, Vol. 25, No. 1, 2007, pp. 102-113

The paper seeks to provide some insight into the sharp increase in scientific publications originating from Turkish academic and research institutions in the last few years. The underlying reasons – widespread access to literature through electronic databases being the most important – are also investigated. Although it is difficult to gauge national scientific productivity, the number of publications in electronic databases that index thousands of scientific journals can give some indication. Web of Science is one of these, and it is provided to the Turkish academic community along with several other databases by the national library consortium. Based on the web of Science data, a comparative analysis was performed to investigate publications originating from Turkey and other countries. The analysis revealed a sharp increase in publications from Turkish institutions in the last few years. Considering the highest publishing 30 countries out of 190, the increase between 2001 and 2003 is 53.48 per cent for Turkey, followed by 34 per cent for China and 26.87 per cent for South Korea.

Enabling Customer-Centricity Using Wikis and the Wiki Way

Wagner, C. and Majchrzak, A. in Journal of Management Information Systems Vol. 23, No. 3, 2006, pp. 17-43

Customer-centric business makes the needs and resources of individual customers the starting point for planning new products and services or improving existing ones. While customer-centricity has received recent attention in the marketing literature, technologies to enable customer-centricity have been largely ignored in research and theory development. This paper describes one enabling technology-wikis. Wiki is a web-based collaboration technology designed to allow anyone to update any information posted to a wiki-based web site. As such, wikis can be used to enable customers to not only access but also change the organisation’s web presence, creating previously unheard of opportunities for joint content development and peer production of web content. At the same time, such openness may make the organisation vulnerable to web site defacing, destruction of intellectual property, and general chaos. In this zone of tension-between opportunity and possible failure-an increasing number of organisations are experimenting with the use of wikis and the wiki way to engage customers. Three cases of organisations using wikis to foster customer-centricity are described, with each case representing an ever-increasing level of customer engagement. An examination of the three cases reveals six characteristics that affect customer engagement-community custodianship, goal alignment among contributors, value-adding processes, emerging layers of participation, critical mass of management and monitoring activity, and technologies in which features are matched to assumptions about how the community collaborates. Parallels between our findings and those evolving in studies of the open source software movement are drawn.

E-learning Model for Polish Libraries: BIBWEB

Bednarek-Michalska, B. and Wolodko, A. in The Electronic Library, Vol. 25, No. 1, 2007, pp. 80-89

This article aims to describe the important role of e-learning in Poland and to cover experiences in transferring and localising the course, know-how about how to find strategic partners and establishing a sound infrastructure for e-learning, and guidelines as to how to get and use feedback from learners to continuously improve the quality of the course. The article describes the situation in the Polish library world and the process of implementation and conducting the BIBWEB online course for librarians. It also relates to how the course improves information literacy. Libraries in Poland can considerably strengthen their role as an element of the information and knowledge society by expanding their offers regarding internet access and e-learning. The situation in Germany in 1999 was comparable with the current situation in Poland. As a reaction to this, the Bertelsmann Foundation initiated an online course offer comprising three modules: “BIBWEB – internet training for libraries” (see www.bibweb.de), which met with great acceptance in Germany. For this reason, it made sense to translate the existing successful course product and adapt it to the special requirements of libraries in Poland. The Bertelsmann Foundation and its two project partners, the Warsaw University Library and the “Elektroniczna Biblioteka” (EBIB) library information service, have jointly developed such a Polish-language online course (see www.bibweb.pl) and have offered it on the internet to the specialist target group since 2003.

Electronic Thesis Initiative: Pilot Project of McGill University, Montreal

Park, E.G. Zou, Q. and McKnight, D. in Program- – Electronic Library and Information Systems, Vol. 41, No. 1, pp. 81-91

To set up a protocol for electronic thesis and dissertation (ETD) submission for the electronic thesis initiative pilot project at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. An electronic thesis and dissertation submission protocol was implemented and tested. To test authoring tools, we had 50 students submit their theses or dissertations using one of four style sheets. Word-processed files were converted to PDF and XML formats. The pilot project team evaluated DigiTool’s effectiveness in digital conversion, capture of metadata and cataloguing, digital content harvesting, digital preservation, and integration with the student information system. All theses experienced some degree of information loss during the conversion. DigiTool is still being tested for storage, cataloguing, and dissemination capability. For full implementation, three major issues need to be addressed further: conversion; metadata; and file formats.

E-science and Its Implications for the Library Community

Hey, T. and Hey, J. in Library Hi Tech,Vol. 24, No. 4, pp. 515-528

The purpose of this article is to explain the nature of the “e-Science’ revolution in twenty-first century scientific research and its consequences for the library community. The concepts of e-Science are illustrated by a discussion of the CombeChem, eBank and SmartTea projects. The issue of open access is then discussed with reference to arXiv, PubMed Central and EPrints. The challenges these trends present to the library community are discussed in the context of the TARDis project and the University of Southampton Research Repository. Increasingly, academics will need to collaborate in multidisciplinary teams distributed across several sites in order to address the next generation of scientific problems. In addition, new high-throughput devices, high-resolution surveys and sensor networks will result in an increase in scientific data collected by several orders of magnitude. To analyze, federate and mine this data will require collaboration between scientists and computer scientists; to organize, curate and preserve this data will require collaboration between scientists and librarians. A vital part of the developing research infrastructure will be digital repositories containing both publications and data.

Examining the Role of Web Site Information in Facilitating Different Citizen-Government Relationships: A Case Study of State Chronic Wasting Disease Web Sites

Eschenfelder, K.R. and Miller, C.A. in Government Information Quarterly, Vol. 24, No. 1, 2007, pp. 64-88

This paper develops a framework to assess the text-based public information provided on programme-level government agency web sites. The framework informs the larger e-government question of how, or whether, state administrative agencies are using web sites in a transformative capacity – to change relationships between citizens and government. It focuses on assessing the degree to which text information provided on government web sites might facilitate various relationships between government agencies and citizens. The framework incorporates four views of government information obligations stemming from different assumptions about citizen-government relationships in a democracy: the private citizen view, the attentive citizen view, the deliberative citizen view, and the citizen-publisher view. Each view suggests inclusion of different types of information on government agency web sites. The framework is employed to assess state web sites containing information about chronic wasting disease, a disease affecting deer and elk in North America.

 An Exploration of the Potential of WWW Current Awareness Services for Oncology Nurses

Fourie, I. and Claasen-Veldsman, R. in The Electronic Library, Vol. 25, No. 1, 2007, pp. 36-53

The potential of current awareness services (CAS) for oncology nurses is considered with special reference to the spectrum of WWW CAS that are available, their benefits and problems, and how these can be linked to the dynamic health environments in which oncology nurses may find themselves. The intention with the article is to show the need for exploring the value of WWW CAS for dynamic professional fields such as oncology nursing, and to offer a point of departure for research on their information behaviour. The WWW CAS that were identified might be used to get oncology nurses interested in using such services, as well as in participating in research on their information behaviour. A literature study on the nature and value of CAS is combined with a cursory analysis of the literature of oncology nursing to provide insight into the professional demands that oncology nurses need to cope with, and the potential value of CAS for oncology nurses. Based on this a selection of WWW CAS suitable for oncology nurses is identified. Insight into the potential of WWW CAS for oncology nurses and the CAS that are available are combined with what can be learned from studies on information-seeking behaviour to offer some suggestions on how the need for oncology nurses to use CAS available via the WWW can be further explored. In general the suggestions to explore the use of CAS would also apply to other professional fields. It seems as if oncology nurses can benefit substantially from WWW CAS. To successfully implement such CAS, extensive research on the information-seeking behaviour, information use and information communication of oncology nurses is, however, necessary. The article could be used as an instrument to gain oncology nurses’ interest in WWW CAS, and willingness to participate in further research on their information needs and information behaviour.

Exploring the Academic Invisible Web

Lewandowski, D. and Mayr, P. in Library Hi Tech, Vol 24, No. 4, 2006, pp. 529-539

The purpose of this article is to provide a critical review of Bergman’s study on the deep web. In addition, this study brings a new concept into the discussion, the academic invisible web. The paper defines the academic invisible web as consisting of all databases and collections relevant to academia but not searchable by the general-purpose internet search engines. Indexing this part of the invisible web is central to scientific search engines. This paper provides an over-view of approaches followed thus far. Bergman’s size estimate of the invisible web is highly questionable. This paper demonstrates some major errors in the conceptual design of the Bergman paper. A new (raw) size estimate is given. This study shows that no single library alone will be able to index the academic invisible web. The study suggests a collaboration to accomplish this task.

Exploring the Willingness of Scholars to Accept Open Access: A Grounded Theory Approach

16.1 Park, J.H. and Qin, J. in Journal of Scholarly Publishing Vol. 38, No. 2, pp. 55-84

This article aims to explore what factors increase or decrease scholars’ willingness to publish and use articles in open-access journals and discusses how these factors are related to one another. Research-oriented publications on the topic of open-access journals have been few, and there is widespread concern about whether scholars will adopt this new form of scholarly communication. The growing number of open-access journals leads scholars to encounter decision-making situations in which they must choose one journal among multiple alternatives, including open access and non-open access. We conducted open-ended and semi-structured in-depth interviews with eight faculty members and six doctoral students at Syracuse University. Based on the interview transcripts, willingness factors and their relationships were identified and refined using the iterative steps of grounded theory approach proposed by Strauss and Corbin (1998). The findings show seven factors (perceived journal reputation, perceived topical relevance, perceived availability, perceived career benefit, perceived cost, perceived content quality, and perceived ease of use) and eight relationships. There were six positive and two negative relationships. The factors and relationships were then compared to the relevant literature to increase internal validity and generalisability of the study. Both theoretical and practical implications of the research are discussed. Theoretically, this study broadens the scope of relevance criteria studies, first identifies the relationship between two important scholarly communication activities, conceptually contributes to the concept of open access, and applies literature comparison methodology in a pure qualitative study to increase internal validity and generalisability.

The German Project “Co-operative Development of a Long-term Digital Information Archive” (kopal)

Altenhoner, R. in Library Hi Tech Vol. 24, No. 4, pp. 574-582

One of the unresolved problems of the global information society is ensuring the long-term accessibility of digital documents. The project kopal tackles this problem head-on: in a three-year project kopal’s objective is the practical testing and implementation of a cooperatively created and operated long-term archival system for digital resources. The system will be implemented in accordance with international standards for long-term archiving and metadata within the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) framework. The project partners, Die Deutsche Bibliothek (DD13), Göttingen State and University Library (SUB Göttingen), IBM Deutschland GmbH and the Gesellschaft für wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung mbH Göttingen (GWDG), will establish a cooperatively transferable solution for cultural heritage institutions, as well as for business and industry. The solution is based on Digital Information and Archiving System (DIAS), jointly devised by IBM and the National Library of The Netherlands in The Hague, and it will be adapted to the needs of the project with several extensions. Establishing a collaborative solution for long-term preservation is a milestone in the development of systems for the long-term availability of digital objects.

 How the Presentation of Electronic Gateway Pages Affects Research Behaviour

Finder, L., Dent, V.F. and Lyin, B. in The Electronic Library Vol. 24, No. 6, 2006, pp. 804-819

The paper aims to provide details of a study conducted at Hunter College Libraries in fall 2005, the focus of which was how presentation of initial digital resource pages (or gateway pages) on the library’s web site impacted students’ subsequent steps in the research process. A group of 16 students from English and History classes at Hunter College were recruited to participate after having had basic library instruction. They were given computer-based key tasks to perform in a proctored classroom setting, using the library’s homepage. A second group of students was recruited to participate in two small focus groups. The methodology and exercises were developed in part using guidelines from a taxonomy of user behaviour developed by librarians at Hunter College, and recommendations from usability literature by Krug, Neilsen and Rubin. Results from the computer-based key tasks exercises were bifurcated. Completion rates for computer-based key tasks using the in-house developed Hunter College Library database grid, with less than 80 per cent (37 per cent–73 per cent) students successfully completing all the tasks, was inferior compared to performance using the Serial Solutions access page and the Academic Search Premier database, both commercially-developed products, with most of the tasks successfully completed by at least 80 per cent of the students.

The Influence of Recommendations and Consumer Reviews on Evaluations of Web Sites

Kumar, N. and Benbasat, I. in Information Systems Research, Vol. 17, No. 4, 2006, pp. 425-439

Recommendations and consumer reviews are universally acknowledged as significant features of a business-to-consumer web site. However, because of the well-documented obstacles to measuring the causal impact of these artefacts, there is still a lack of empirical evidence demonstrating their influence on two important outcome variables in the shopping context: perceived usefulness and social presence. To test the existence of a causal link between information technology (IT)-enabled support for the provision of recommendations and consumer reviews on the usefulness and social presence of the web site, this study employs a novel approach to generate the experimental conditions by filtering the content of Amazon.com in real time. The results show that the provision of recommendations and consumer reviews increases both the usefulness and social presence of the web site.

Institutional Repositories in the UK: What Can the Google User Find There?

Markland, M. in Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Vol. 38, No. 4, 2006, pp. 221-228

This study investigates the efficiency of the Google search engine at retrieving items from 26 UK Institutional Repositories, covering a wide range of subject areas. One item is chosen from each repository and four searches are carried out: two keyword searches and two full title searches, each using both Google and then Google Scholar. A further search tests the retrieval of the item from the repository interface. Known information-seeking behaviour was taken into account when interpreting the results. These show that the Google and Google Scholar user would retrieve items from the repositories, particularly when the full title was known. However, some skill would be needed to evaluate the different versions of texts retrieved, and accessing the repositories through more sophisticated harvesting services might prove a better option for the scholar.

Internet Use by the Faculty Members of Kuwait University

Al-Ansari, H. in The Electronic Library Vol. 24, No. 6, pp. 791-803

This study is designed to investigate the patterns of internet use by the faculty including purposes for use, its impact on teaching and research, internet resources that they use, and the problems faced while using the internet. A questionnaire, expert-reviewed and pilot-tested, was used to collect data from the faculty from four colleges of Kuwait University: Arts, Social Sciences, Sciences, and Engineering. Half of the 491 potential participants were selected as the sample, with a response rate of 62.6 per cent. A large majority have been using the computer and internet for more than five years. They use the internet mostly for, and give importance to, e-mail, search engines, and WWW resources mainly for communication, research and publication. It has helped them to save time, find up-to-date information, and cooperate with their colleagues. Slow speed, lack of time, and lack of access from home are the major problems. Most of them are interested in improving the internet use skills through formal training.

Introducing E-journal Services: An Experience

Patra, C. in The Electronic Library Vol. 24, No. 6, 2006, pp. 820-831

This case study seeks to discuss the author’s experience of providing e-journal services to the scientists at the Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute – a centre of excellence in the field of glass and ceramics situated in Kolkata, India. It describes the developmental activities involved in providing user access to the e-journals and its impact on library operations. The author shows that providing training to the staff as well as library users and managing services of the e-journals were the most important issues. The author also shows that e-journals have added enormous resources to the collection and improved the service of the library, enhanced access to journal literature, and decreased the demand for photocopy services as well as document delivery of single articles.

Federal Science E-library Pilot: Seamless, Equitable Desktop Access for Canadian Government Researchers

Brown, B., Found, C. and McConnell, M. in The Electronic Library, Vol. 25, No. 1, 2007, pp. 8-17

This paper seeks to describe a pilot project for the Federal Science e-Library to measure the impacts on Government of Canada researchers when provided with seamless, equitable access to an expanded core of electronic journals in science, technology and medicine (STM). The Federal Science e-Library is an initiative supported by the Strategic Alliance of Federal Science and Technology Libraries to provide improved access to information at the desktop for the 22,000 Canadian federal scientists, policy analysts and decision makers. The pilot project was designed to evaluate the benefits of increased access to e-journals at the pilot sites and test network performance in connecting to a central digital repository. A total of 500 users in three Canadian government sites with limited access to electronic resources were provided with full text access to a digital repository of over 3,000 e-journals over a 12-week period. Questionnaires, teleconferences, usage statistics and e-mail correspondence were used to gather and measure researchers’ response and show impacts on their ability to do their work. Pilot groups reported significantly reduced time finding and verifying information. Time saved was redirected into critical activities such as research, laboratory activities, manuscript preparation, peer review activities and professional reading. Participants found that increased desktop access had a very positive impact on their ability to do their work.

The KB E-depot Digital Archiving Policy

Oltmans, E. and van Wijngaarden, H. in Library Hi Tech, Vol. 24, No. 4, 2006, pp. 604-613

Electronic journals dominate the field of academic literature, and it is of great importance to the international scientific community that this electronic intellectual output remains accessible in perpetuity. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the policy and ambitions of the National Library of The Netherlands (Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KB) regarding digital archiving of electronic publications. This article discusses three possible threats against permanent access, and proposes a coordinated and systematic approach to address these risks: the safe places network. This paper also includes a comprehensive overview of the e-Depot system and the KB approaches to digital preservation.

Mass Digitization of Books

Coyle, K. in Journal of Academic Librarianship, Vol. 32, No. 6, 2006, pp. 641-645

Mass digitisation of the bound volumes that we generally call ‘books’ has begun, and, thanks to the interest in Google and all that it does, it is getting widespread media attention. The Open Content Alliance (OCA), a library initiative formed after Google announced its library book digitisation project, has brought library digitisation projects into the public eye, even though libraries were experimenting with digitisation for at least a decade. What is different today from some earlier digitisation of books is not just the scale of these new initiatives, but the quality of “mass”.

Medical Education Online: A Case Study of an Open Access Journal in Health Professional Education

Solomon, D.J. in Information Research – an International Electronic Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2, 2007, pp. 301-301

The development of the web has made it possible of small groups of colleagues or even single individuals to create peer-reviewed scholarly journals. This paper discusses the development of Medical Education Online (MEO) an open access peer-reviewed journal in health professional education. MEO was first published in April 1996 partly as an experiment and partly out of frustration with existing options for publishing in health professional education. The journal a forum for disseminating information on educating physicians and other health professionals and contains a variety of material including a peer-reviewed journal. The case study discusses the process of establishing the journal, the development of the journal over time, its struggle coping with an increasing number of submissions, review procedures, journal management software, indexing and archiving issues, journal policies, and access statistics. MEO is one of many examples of successful small open access journals that operate largely on volunteer effort and are providing a useful niche in scholarly publishing.

Methodological Approaches in Web Search Research

Mansourian, Y. and Madden, A.D. in The Electronic Library Vol. 25, No. 1, 2007, pp. 90-101

This paper seeks to review the methodologies employed by researchers working in the field of information seeking on the web. It aims to present an overall picture of the research methods used in the area, in a way that will be of value to anyone seeking to design research-based studies of web searching. A review of the past 11 years of research on information seeking on the web was carried out. The paper focuses mainly on the methodological approaches adopted by researchers, but, where relevant, studies of different aspects of user interaction with web-based search tools are considered. The area is growing fast and the number of studies has been increasing steadily. A variety of research methods was employed in the studies reviewed here. However, the emphasis to date has been on quantitative rather than qualitative methods. The paper argues that a better balance is needed between these two approaches.

The Nature and Role of Feedback Text Comments in Online Marketplaces: Implications for Trust Building, Price Premiums and Seller Differentiation

Pavlou, P.A. and Dimoka, A. in Information Systems Research Vol. 17, No. 4, 2006, pp. 392-414

For online marketplaces to succeed their feedback mechanism (reputation system) must differentiate among sellers and create price premiums for trustworthy sellers as returns to their reputation. However, the literature has solely focused on numerical (positive and negative) feedback ratings, ignoring the role of feedback text comments. These text comments are proposed to convey useful reputation information about a seller’s prior transactions that cannot be fully captured with crude numerical ratings. Building on the economics and trust literatures, this study examines the rich content of feedback text comments and their role in building a buyer’s trust in a seller’s benevolence and credibility. In turn, benevolence and credibility are proposed to differentiate among sellers by influencing the price premiums that a seller receives from buyers. This paper utilizes content analysis to quantify over 10,000 publicly available feedback text comments of 420 sellers in eBay’s online auction marketplace, and to match them with primary data from 420 buyers that recently transacted with these 420 sellers. These dyadic data show that evidence of extraordinary past seller behaviour contained in the sellers’ feedback text comments creates price premiums for reputable sellers by engendering buyer’s trust in the sellers’ benevolence and credibility (controlling for the impact of numerical ratings). The addition of text comments and benevolence helps explain a greater variance in price premiums compared to the existing literature. By showing the economic value of feedback text comments through trust in a seller’s benevolence and credibility, this study helps explain the success of online marketplaces that primarily rely on the text comments (versus crude numerical ratings) to differentiate among sellers.

Online Consumer Search Depth: Theories and New Findings

Zhang, J., Fang, X. and Sheng, O.R.L. in Journal of Management Information Systems, Vol. 23, No. 3, 2006, pp. 71-95

The continuous growth of e-commerce makes it critical for firms to understand consumers’ search behaviour so that e-commerce web sites and the underlying information systems can be designed to better cater to consumers’ needs. This paper extends the classic search model to analyse online consumer search behaviour. The analytical results suggest how consumers’ search depth is influenced by a variety of factors such as search cost, individual consumer difference, and product characteristics. Evidence is provided using click-stream data of online searches and purchases of music CDs, computer hardware, and airline tickets during the period from July 2002 to December 2002 collected by an internet marketing company, ComScore Inc. Compared with the search depth reported in previous works, this study finds that consumers are searching more intensely before purchasing online. This reflects the evolution of internet users and the growth of online retail business.

Optimal Strategies for a Monopoly Intermediary in the Supply Chain of Complementary Web Services

Tang, Q. and Cheng, H. in Journal of Management Information Systems, Vol. 23, No. 3, 2006, pp. 275-307

Web services are interoperable and reusable software components that can be dynamically discovered and integrated over the internet. Developed on open standards, web services have become a promising solution to inter- and intra-organization application integration. The supply chain of web services exhibits two distinct features that are not considered in previous literature on information and physical-good supply chain: the integration of multiple web services and the cross-network externality effect between web service vendors and users. In a quest to fill in the research gap, this paper studies the optimal pricing strategies of a monopolistic intermediary in the supply chain of complementary web services. The web service intermediary (WSI) provides both technical and aggregation services, and seeks to charge optimal subscription and listing fees. Analytical results show that in a supply chain of complementary web services exhibiting cross-network effects, the optimal strategy for the WSI is to set the listing fee such that all service providers list on it. On the other hand, the optimal subscription fee depends on the intensity of the cross-network effect, consumers’ valuation of value-added services, and the characteristics of the web services under consideration.

Organizational Characteristics, Modes of Internet Adoption and Their Impact: A Singapore Perspective

Teo, T.S.H. in Journal of Global Information Management, Vol. 15, No. 2, 2007, pp. 91-117

The internet can be used for different purposes ranging from simple internet presence to using it for business transformation. This study examines two modes of internet adoption-basic and advanced. Questionnaires were sent to 566 firms in Singapore and 159 usable responses were received. Results suggested that firms operating in an advanced adoption mode invest more in internet technology, had larger firm size, proactive business strategy and significantly greater perceived internet contributions to competitive advantage than did those operating in a basic adoption nude. No significant differences were found between the two adoption modes in terms of industry sector and hierarchical level of respondents. The results provide some useful information on the relationships between adoption modes and organizational characteristics as well as the impact of adoption modes on the five dimensions of competitive advantage (namely, differentiation, cost, innovation, growth, and alliance). Implications of the results are discussed.

Organisational Critical Success Factors in Adoption of E-Banking at the Woolwich Bank

Shah, M.H. and Siddiqui, F.A. in International Journal of Information Management, Vol. 26, No. 6, 2006, pp. 442-456

The provision of e-banking is growing, but there is a lack of research related to the organisational issues involved in its adoption. This paper brings theory and practice together by synthesising the existing literature with real-life experience of a UK bank. Two questions motivated this research. First, what is the experience of organisations in adopting e-banking? Second, what are the organisational factors which are critical to the success in e-banking adoption? A case study research approach was used to investigate organisational critical success factors in e-banking adoption at The Woolwich bank. The factors found to be most critical for success in e-banking included: understanding customers, organisational flexibility, availability of resources, systems security, established brand name, having multiple integrated channels, e-channel specific marketing, systems integration, systematic change management, support from top management, and good customer services. The research concluded that banks need to implement considerable organisational changes in order to web-enable themselves. The main focus of their e-commerce strategy should be to integrate the e-banking channel with other service delivery channels to maximise benefits.

Personalized Content Recommendation and User Satisfaction: Theoretical Synthesis and Empirical Findings

Liang, T.P, Lai, H.J. and Ku, Y.C. in Journal of Management Information Systems, Vol. 23, No. 3, 2006, pp. 45-70

Personalised services are increasingly popular in the internet world. This study identifies theories related to the use of personalised content services and their effect on user satisfaction. Three major theories have been identified-information overload, uses and gratifications, and user involvement. The information overload theory implies that user satisfaction increases when the recommended content fits user interests (i.e. the recommendation accuracy increases). The uses and gratifications theory indicates that motivations for information access affect user satisfaction. The user involvement theory implies that users prefer content recommended by a process in which they have explicit involvement. In this research, a research model was proposed to integrate these theories and two experiments were conducted to examine the theoretical relationships. Our findings indicate that information overload and uses and gratifications are two major theories for explaining user satisfaction with personalised services. Personalised services can reduce information overload and, hence, increase user satisfaction, but their effects may be moderated by the motivation for information access. The effect is stronger for users whose motivation is in searching for a specific target. This implies that content recommendation would be more useful for knowledge management systems, where users are often looking for specific knowledge, rather than for general purpose web sites, whose customers often come for scanning. Explicit user involvement in the personalization process may affect a user’s perception of customisation, but has no significant effect on overall satisfaction.

Planning and Evaluation of New Academic Library Services by Means of Web-Based Conjoint Analysis

Decker, R. and Hermelbracht, A. in Journal of Academic Librarianship, Vol. 32, No. 6, 2006, pp. 558-572

New product development is an omnipresent challenge to modern libraries in the information age. Therefore, we present the design and selected results of a comprehensive research project aiming at the systematic and user-oriented planning of academic library services by means of conjoint analysis. The applicability of the analytical framework used and the expressiveness of the attainable results are demonstrated by means of two surveys complementing each other. Both surveys together are representing the opinions of more than 3,500 academic library users.

Publishing Public Performance Results on the Internet: Do Stakeholders Use the Internet to Hold Dutch Public Service Organizations to Account?

Meijer, A.J. in Government Information Quarterly, Vol. 24, No. 1, 2007, pp. 165-185

This paper analyzes the relation between publishing public performance results on the internet, stakeholder accountability, and the effectiveness and legitimacy of Dutch public service organizations. The empirical research focuses on web sites with performance results of schools and hospitals. These results are published on the internet by ’third parties’ (government organizations, associations of public service organizations, and newspapers). Publications of performance results stimulate schools and hospitals to score better on performance indicators because they feel the ’public eyes’ on them. However, the risk of a ’performance paradox’ and adverse effects is great since strategic behaviour may lead to higher scores but not improve the effectiveness of these organizations. The research provides moderate support for negative effects on the legitimacy of schools and hospitals which may be attributed to the sole use of the internet as a medium for access to information and negligence of its communicative potential.

Putting Google Scholar to the Test: A Preliminary Study

Robinson, M.L. and Wusteman, J. in Program – Electronic Library and Information Systems, Vol. 41, No. 1, 2007, pp. 71-80

To describe a small-scale quantitative evaluation of the scholarly information search engine, Google Scholar. Google Scholar’s ability to retrieve scholarly information was compared to that of three popular search engines: Ask.com, Google and Yahoo! Test queries were presented to all four search engines and the following measures were used to compare them: precision; Vaughan’s Quality of Result Ranking; relative recall; and Vaughan’s Ability to Retrieve Top Ranked Pages. Significant differences were found in the ability to retrieve top ranked pages between Ask.com and Google and between Ask.com and Google Scholar for scientific queries. No other significant differences were found between the search engines. This may be due to the relatively small sample size of eight queries. Results suggest that, for scientific queries, Google Scholar has the highest precision, relative recall and Ability to Retrieve Top Ranked Pages. However, it achieved the lowest score for these three measures for non-scientific queries. The best overall score for all four measures was achieved by Google. Vaughan’s Quality of Result Ranking found a significant correlation between Google and scientific queries.

 The Restructuring of the Portal at the Institut Pasteur Library: A Case Study

 Medawar, K. in Program – Electronic Library and Information Systems, Vol. 41, No. 1, 2007, pp. 20-34

To describe the restructuring project of the portal BioLib at the Institut Pasteur Library in Paris and to share experiences with others facing similar challenges. Provides an outline of the history and the steps followed during the initial project (2001), an evaluation of the use of the portal and the stages in restructuring the portal for its subsequent relaunch in 2006. The initial portal was not used because of lack of a friendly interface and poor content. Information is provided about the concept and functionalities of a portal, what can go wrong, and how to make it survive.

The Roles of Habit and Web Site Quality in E-commerce

Liao, C.C., Palvia, P. and Lin, H.N. in International Journal of Information Managemen, Vol. 26, No. 6, 2006, pp. 469-483

Previous research has primarily examined consumers’ perceived usefulness of web sites and trust in the web retailer as two major predictors of web site use and e-commerce adoption. While consumers’ repeated behaviour in the past (i.e. habit) may contribute to continuance behaviour, it has not been investigated. This article includes habit as a primary construct along with perceived usefulness and trust to predict and explain consumers’ continued behaviour of using a B2C web site. Additionally, included are several web quality measures as antecedents to trust and perceived usefulness. The research model is evaluated using structural equation modelling. Results show that consumers’ behavioural intentions to continue using a B2C web site are determined by all three key drivers: perceived usefulness, trust, and habit, Furthermore, not all dimensions of web quality have a significant effect on perceived usefulness and trust.

Scholarly Communities, E-research Literacy and the Academic Librarian

Genoni, P., Merrick, H. and Willson, M.A. in The Electronic Library, Vol. 24, No. 6, 2006, pp. 734-746

The paper aims to explore the way in which the internet and e-research are changing the nature of scholarly communities and the relationship between researchers and libraries; and to suggest how librarians can become more engaged with the e-research process. A survey and focus groups investigating internet use by academic staff and research students at Curtin University (Western Australia) for e-research and scholarly communication purposes. The survey questioned respondents on their formal and informal scholarly communication practices and the extent to which these have changed due to internet access. Further questions explored the extent to which respondents’ use of the library had been impacted by internet access to services. The survey and focus groups indicate that research users are positive regarding the usefulness of the internet for research purposes and for expanding their scholarly community, but their attitudes are also marked by ambivalence. In particular they report that the internet may not replace the need for some more traditional forms of scholarly communication. Respondents report making less personal use of the library, but greater use of library services.

Search Engines: A First Step to Finding Information Preliminary Findings from a Study of Observed Searches

Madden, A.D., Eaglestone, B, Ford, N.J. and Whittle, M. in Information Research – an International Electronic Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2, 2007, pp. 294-294

This is a working paper which aims to present the preliminary results of a study into the search behaviours of the general public. The paper reports on the findings of the first six months of an 18-month data collection exercise. Detailed observations were made of nine volunteers, engaged on a variety of search tasks. Some of the tasks were self-selected, others were set by the researchers. Most tasks however, were designed to enable the volunteers to search within their own areas of interest and expertise. Findings to date suggest that the best search strategy is a combination of simplicity and scrutiny. Volunteers who entered a few search terms but then carefully studied the results, appeared to be more successful than those who attempted to be prescriptive and entered a long series of terms.

A Socio-Technical Perspective of Museum Practitioners’ Image-Using Behaviours

Chen, H.L. in The Electronic Library, Vol. 25, No. 1, 2007, pp. 18-35

The purpose of this project is to study how art museum practitioners use current image-indexing practices and services to retrieve images from museum collections. The investigation examines several areas, including image needs, information-seeking strategies, information queries, search functions, display formats, and human-computer interaction. The six participating museums are in Washington, DC, and the states of California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio. The investigator interviewed 35 museum practitioners in various departments at the six museums about their image sources, search behaviors, and use of images. Wide variations and internal conflicts exist among curators, IT staff, slide librarians, registrars’ offices, educational staff, faculty, and photographers. Museum practitioners’ knowledge and expertise should inform the design and presentation of digital images of museum collections as well as the images’ relationships with the construction of digital museums.

Status of the Preservation of Digital Resources in China: Results of a Survey

Liu, J.Z. and Yang, D.L. in Program – Electronic Library and Information Systems, Vol. 41, No. 1, 2007, pp. 35-46

To obtain first-hand data on the main challenges in preserving digital resources in libraries, archives and information centres in China. The data in this paper have been acquired by e-mail questionnaire. The conclusions are based on feedback from 57 respondents, distributed in 14 provinces in China, who work in libraries, archives and information centres with rich digital collections and long-term experience in preserving digital resources. The authors consider that the long-term preservation of digital resources in China faces two critical difficulties: firstly, the pressure on preserving digital resources has not been fully recognised and so the relevant training in the management and operation of digital preservation is absent; secondly, government departments attach little importance to this field and lack uniform guidelines. Therefore, the paper suggests that relevant international conferences or workshops should be held in China, and that a working group led by the National Development and Reform Commission of China should be set up to plan the construction, sharing and maintenance of Chinese digital resources.

Students Seeking Information for Their Master’s Theses: The Effect of the Internet

Junni, P. in Information Research – an International Electronic Journal Vol. 12, No. 2, 2007, pp. 305-305

The internet has radically changed the global availability of scholarly publications. Today, a substantial part of the resources accessible for researchers and university students are offered through electronic site licenses, making the supply of easily obtainable information larger than ever. This brings forth an important question: what are the qualitative and quantitative effects of this development on the use of reference material in research and studies? To address the research question, reference lists of Masters’ theses from 1985, 1993 and 2003 were studied in three disciplines: economics, psychology and mathematics, followed by semi-structured interviews of students who had finished their thesis in 2003. The quantitative data were analysed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) with the statistical program SPSS, where the significance of the results was measured with Dunnet’s t-test.

The findings showed a substantial increase in the use of scholarly articles as references throughout the studied time periods, although the amount of other information sources had remained largely unchanged. There were also significant differences between the three disciplines in the contents of their reference lists, the amount of internet resources that students used, how they sought and obtained publications, and how they selected their sources.

A Study on the Application Method of the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) to the Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) in Korean Libraries

Cho, J. in Library Collections Acquisitions & Technical Services, Vol. 30, Nos. 3-4, 2006, pp. 202-213

The work-set algorithm to automatically convert a bibliographic database into a Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) structure has been developed and operated. However, in case the authority control is not properly performed as in Korean catalogues, it is impossible to FRBRize using only the automechanism. In such a case, a visual check must accompany the process; unfortunately, this requires extensive time and cost. Thus, in this case, it is desirable to cluster work-sets for a large-scale bibliographic database like a union catalog and to share the resulting work-sets with local libraries. To that end, this paper presents a method for extracting work-sets from the Korean union catalogue using a semi-automatic mechanism. Additionally, it proposes methods to allow local libraries to apply the FRBR to their own OPAC using work-sets that result from the union catalogue.

Untangling the Jungle of E-journal Access Issues Using CRM Software

Borchert, C.A. in Library Collections Acquisitions & Technical Services, Vol. 30, Nos. 3-4, 2006, pp. 224-237

Librarians have been struggling for years with the variety of issues arising while troubleshooting access to electronic journals. This article outlines the advantages and disadvantages of using a Customer Relations Management (CRM) software, originally designed for a call center, to communicate with patrons and track access issues. Utilizing the e-mail software used by the Reference Department at the University of South Florida, we assign incidents, correspond with patrons and staff, write internal notes, maintain transactions, and pull statistics. Hopefully, library vendors will develop software oriented to the needs of libraries to assist in managing access problems for e-journals. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Use and Outcome of Online Health Information Services: A Study among Scottish Population

Harbour, J. and Chowdhury, G.G. in Journal of Documentation, Vol. 63, No. 2, 2007, pp. 229-242

The purpose of this paper is to report on a research designed to find out how people in Scotland access and use online health information. It is based on a survey of two sets of population in Glasgow – a group of 64 users from the general public and a group of 24 postgraduate students from a university in Glasgow. Use of the internet for health information was found to be much lower in Scotland than in the previous UK studies particularly those using online surveys. It was noted that people searched online health information for themselves, family and friends. Healthy eating, exercise and alternative medicine were the most commonly sought topics. Approximately half the survey participants felt online health information influenced their treatment.

Using the Repertory Grid and Laddering Technique to Determine the User’s Evaluative Model of Search Engines

Johnson, F.C. and Crudge, S.E. in Journal of Documentation, Vol. 63, No. 2, 2007, pp. 259-280

The purpose of this research is to explore a method for the determination of users’ representations of search engines, formed during their interaction with these systems. Determines the extent to which these elicited “mental models” indicate the system aspects of importance to the user and from this their evaluative view of these tools. The repertory grid technique is used to elicit a set of constructs that define facets within the mental model of an individual. A related technique of laddering then considers each of the user’s constructs to determine the reasons for its importance within the user’s mental model. The model derived from the qualitative data comprises three hierarchical strata and conveys the interrelations between basic system description, evaluative description, and the key evaluations of ease, efficiency, effort and effectiveness. Two additional layers relating to the perceived process and the experience of emotion are also discussed.

Virtual Reference Services in China: Helping the Information-poor

 Zheng, S.H. in The Electronic Library, Vol. 24, No. 6, 2006, pp. 763-773

The purpose of this study is to explore the construction pattern and the difficulties for China to develop virtual reference services (VRS). The paper first analyzes the definition and features of the digital library, and is followed by an introduction to the development of VRS in China. Through literature search and checking web sites, some 400 documents in CNKI have been analysed on VRS from the period of January, 1990 to June, 2005, and the situation in developing VRS and problems existing in the course of doing it in China have been summarized. On the basis of connecting theory and practice on VRS, the paper provides general tactics on how to develop VRS for libraries in China. There are some problems existing for China to develop VRS, namely shortage of funds, the information poor, the digital divide, restrictions of information infrastructure, library management, shortage of technical knowledge and user training. The paper projects what may be needed for China to continue its development of VRS in the future. There is a need for appropriate infrastructures, strategies and mechanisms to be established in order to support the diffusion of VRS principles throughout China.