Showing papers in "Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology in 2004"
497 citations
TL;DR: A consistent and detailed link typology and terminology is developed and a novel diagram notation is proposed to fully appreciate and investigate link structures between Web nodes in webometric analyses.
Abstract: In this article, we define webometrics within the framework of informetric studies and bibliometrics, as belonging to library and information science, and as associated with cybermetrics as a generic subfield. We develop a consistent and detailed link typology and terminology and make explicit the distinction among different Web node levels when using the proposed conceptual framework. As a consequence, we propose a novel diagram notation to fully appreciate and investigate link structures between Web nodes in webometric analyses. We warn against taking the analogy between citation analyses and link analyses too far.
388 citations
TL;DR: The tactics of medical students searching a factual database in microbiology were examined; the most common approach was the specification of a concept, followed by the addition of one or more concepts, gradually narrowing the retrieved set before it was displayed.
Abstract: A search tactic is a set of search moves that are temporally and semantically related. The current study examined the tactics of medical students searching a factual database in microbiology. The students answered problems and searched the database on three occasions over a 9-month period. Their search moves were analyzed in terms of the changes in search terms used from one cycle to the next, using two different analysis methods.Common patterns were found in the students' search tactics; the most common approach was the specification of a concept, followed by the addition of one or more concepts, gradually narrowing the retrieved set before it was displayed. It was also found that the search tactics changed over time as the students' domain knowledge changed. These results have important implications for designers in developing systems that will support users' preferred ways of formulating searches. In addition, the research methods used (the coding scheme and the two data analysis methods--zero-order state transition matrices and maximal repeating patterns [MRP] analysis) are discussed in terms of their validity in future studies of search tactics.
366 citations
TL;DR: A new, nonlinear model of information-seeking behavior is offered, which contrasts with earlier stage models of information behavior and represents a potential cornerstone for a shift toward a new perspective for understanding user information behavior.
Abstract: This paper offers a new, nonlinear model of information-seeking behavior, which contrasts with earlier stage models of information behavior and represents a potential cornerstone for a shift toward a new perspective for understanding user information behavior. The model is based on the findings of a study on interdisciplinary information-seeking behavior. The study followed a naturalistic inquiry approach using interviews of 45 academics. The interview results were inductively analyzed and an alternative framework for understanding information-seeking behavior was developed. This model illustrates three core processes and three levels of contextual interaction, each composed of several individual activities and attributes. These interact dynamically through time in a nonlinear manner. The behavioral patterns are analogous to an artist's palette, in which activities remain available throughout the course of information-seeking. In viewing the processes in this way, neither start nor finish points are fixed, and each process may be repeated or lead to any other until either the query or context determine that information-seeking can end. The interactivity and shifts described by the model show information-seeking to be nonlinear, dynamic, holistic, and flowing. The paper offers four main implications of the model as it applies to existing theory and models, requirements for future research, and the development of information literacy curricula. Central to these implications is the creation of a new nonlinear perspective from which user information-seeking can be interpreted.
356 citations
TL;DR: It is concluded that successful introduction to the QBPL-as per its mission, programming, and staff-can lead immigrants to a synergistic information ground that can help in meeting broad psychological, social, and practical needs.
Abstract: We elaborate on Pettigrew's (1998, 1999) theory of information grounds while using an outcome evaluation approach enriched by its focus on context to explore the use of need-based services by immigrants in New York City. Immigrants have substantial information and practical needs for help with adjusting to life in a new country. Because of differences in language, culture, and other factors such as access, new immigrants are a difficult population to study. As a result, little research has examined their predilections from an information behavior perspective. We report findings from a qualitative study of how literacy and coping skills programs are used by and benefit the immigrant customers of the Queens Borough Public Library (QBPL). From our interviews and observation of 45 program users, staff, and other stakeholders, we derived a grand context (in Pettigrew's terms) woven from three subcontexts: the immigrants of Queens, New York; the QBPL, its service model, and activities for immigrants; and professional contributions of QBPL staff. Our findings are discussed along two dimensions: (a) building blocks toward information literacy, and (b) personal gains achieved by immigrants for themselves and their families. We conclude that successful introduction to the QBPL-as per its mission, programming, and staff-can lead immigrants to a synergistic information ground that can help in meeting broad psychological, social, and practical needs.
316 citations
TL;DR: This report presents open and closed text mining algorithms that are built within the discovery framework established by Swanson and Smalheiser and successfully generate ranked term lists where the key terms representing novel relationships between topics are ranked high.
Abstract: Hypothesis generation, a crucial initial step for making scientific discoveries, relies on prior knowledge, experience, and intuition. Chance connections made between seemingly distinct subareas sometimes turn out to be fruitful. The goal in text mining is to assist in this process by automatically discovering a small set of interesting hypotheses from a suitable text collection. In this report, we present open and closed text mining algorithms that are built within the discovery framework established by Swanson and Smalheiser. Our algorithms represent topics using metadata profiles. When applied to MEDLINE, these are MeSH based profiles. We present experiments that demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithms. Specifically, our algorithms successfully generate ranked term lists where the key terms representing novel relationships between topics are ranked high.
297 citations
TL;DR: To explore issues of user interface design and experience, including culturally preferred design elements, a study was conducted analyzing sites in Germany, Japan, and the United States, finding significant modal differences.
Abstract: To explore issues of user interface design and experience, including culturally preferred design elements, a study was conducted analyzing sites in Germany, Japan, and the United States (30 municipal sites in each country). Design elements considered are use of symbols and graphics, color preferences, site features (links, maps, search functions, and page layout), language, and content. Significant modal differences were found in each of the listed categories. Outcomes from the study are used to discuss future research directions in the areas of experience design and localization.
274 citations
TL;DR: A collaboratively engineered general-purpose knowledge management (KM) ontology that can be used by practitioners, researchers, and educators is described that evolved from a Delphi-like process involving a diverse panel of over 30 KM practitioners and researchers.
Abstract: This article describes a collaboratively engineered general-purpose knowledge management (KM) ontology that can be used by practitioners, researchers, and educators. The ontology is formally characterized in terms of nearly one hundred definitions and axioms that evolved from a Delphi-like process involving a diverse panel of over 30 KM practitioners and researchers. The ontology identifies and relates knowledge manipulation activities that an entity (e.g., an organization) can perform to operate on knowledge resources. It introduces a taxonomy for these resources, which indicates classes of knowledge that may be stored, embedded, and/or represented in an entity. It recognizes factors that influence the conduct of KM both within and across KM episodes. The Delphi panelists judge the ontology favorably overall: its ability to unify KM concepts, its comprehensiveness, and utility. Moreover, various implications of the ontology for the KM field are examined as indicators of its utility for practitioners, educators, and researchers.
238 citations
TL;DR: A graph model is developed that provides a generic data representation and can support different recommendation methods and showed that combining product content information and historical customer transaction information achieved more accurate predictions and relevant recommendations than using only collaborative information.
Abstract: Information overload on the Web has created enormous challenges to customers selecting products for online purchases and to online businesses attempting to identify customers' preferences efficiently. Various recommender systems employing different data representations and recommendation methods are currently used to address these challenges. In this research, we developed a graph model that provides a generic data representation and can support different recommendation methods. To demonstrate its usefulness and flexibility, we developed three recommendation methods: direct retrieval, association mining, and high-degree association retrieval. We used a data set from an online bookstore as our research test-bed. Evaluation results showed that combining product content information and historical customer transaction information achieved more accurate predictions and relevant recommendations than using only collaborative information. However, comparisons among different methods showed that high-degree association retrieval did not perform significantly better than the association mining method or the direct retrieval method in our test-bed.
236 citations
TL;DR: This paper introduces, classifies, and surveys Arabic morphological analysis techniques, and summarizes and organize the information available in the literature in an attempt to motivate researchers to look into these techniques and try to develop more advanced ones.
Abstract: After several decades of heavy research activity on English stemmers, Arabic morphological analysis techniques have become a popular area of research. The Arabic language is one of the Semitic languages; it exhibits a very systematic but complex morphological structure based on root-pattern schemes. As a consequence, survey of such techniques proves to be more necessary. The aim of this paper is to summarize and organize the information available in the literature in an attempt to motivate researchers to look into these techniques and try to develop more advanced ones. This paper introduces, classifies, and surveys Arabic morphological analysis techniques. Furthermore, conclusions, open areas, and future directions are provided at the end.
231 citations
TL;DR: There is an opportunity for health information providers to play a role in mediating at this uncertainty stage to connect health information seekers with reliable information.
Abstract: As health information seekers pursue their "right to know" when investigating medical options, the question of reliable health information resources becomes paramount. Previous research has not addressed widely the connection between women as the health information seeker and quality health information, nor has women's awareness of specific health and medical resources been adequately evaluated. A study with a convenience sample of 119 women assessed the process of seeking health information (women's health information needs, the search strategies they employed for filling the information need, and the use of the health information found), and their awareness of specific health and medical information resources. Our survey instrument was based on Kuhlthau's Information Search Process (ISP) model. Results appeared to address the uncertainty stage of the ISP model, as there were conflicting responses regarding the facility of locating information, the usefulness of the information found, and whether or not the subjects' health questions were answered. The study also identified a low awareness by our respondents of specific health and medical information resources. There is an opportunity for health information providers to play a role in mediating at this uncertainty stage to connect health information seekers with reliable information.
TL;DR: This case study demonstrated the importance of a multidimensional approach to collaborative information retrieval and uncovered several reasons for design engineers to engage in CIR, such as when they are new to the organization or the team, when the information lends itself to various interpretations, or when most of the needed information is not documented.
Abstract: While most research in the area of human-information behavior has focused on a single dimension--either the psychological or the social--this case study demonstrated the importance of a multidimensional approach. The Cognitive Work Analysis framework guided this field study of one event of collaborative information retrieval (CIR) carried out by design engineers at Microsoft, including observations and interviews. Various dimensions explained the motives for this CIR event and the challenges the participants encountered: the cognitive dimension, the specific task and decision, the organization of the teamwork, and the organizational culture. Even though it is difficult at times to separate one dimension from another, and all are interdependent, the analysis uncovered several reasons for design engineers to engage in CIR, such as when they are new to the organization or the team, when the information lends itself to various interpretations, or when most of the needed information is not documented. Similar multidimensional studies will enhance our understanding of human-information behavior.
TL;DR: Results show cocitation to be a powerful predictor of intercitation in the journal articles, while being an editor or co-author is an important predictor in the book.
Abstract: Many authors have posited a social component in citation, the consensus being that the citers and citees often have interpersonal as well as intellectual ties. Evidence for this belief has been rather meager, however, in part because social networks researchers have lacked bibliometric data (e.g., pairwise citation counts from online databases), and citation analysts have lacked sociometric data (e.g., pairwise measures of acquaintanceship). In 1997 Nazer extensively measured personal relationships and communication behaviors in what we call "Globenet," an international group of 16 researchers from seven disciplines that was established in 1993 to study human development. Since Globenet's membership is known, it was possible during 2002 to obtain citation records for all members in databases of the Institute for Scientific Information. This permitted examination of how members cited each other (intercited) in journal articles over the past three decades and in a 1999 book to which they all contributed. It was also possible to explore links between the intercitation data and the social and communication data. Using network-analytic techniques, we look at the growth of intercitation over time, the extent to which it follows disciplinary or inter-disciplinary lines, whether it covaries with degrees of acquaintanceship, whether it reflects Globenet's organizational structure, whether it is associated with particular in-group communication patterns, and whether it is related to the cocitation of Globenet members. Results show cocitation to be a powerful predictor of intercitation in the journal articles, while being an editor or co-author is an important predictor in the book. Intellectualties based on shared content did better as predictors than content-neutral socialties like friendship. However, interciters in Globenet communicated more than did noninterciters.
TL;DR: The home provided a distinct information use environment beyond physical setting alone in which the subjects used the Web for diverse purposes and interests, and the relationships among home environment, Web context, and interaction situation were identified.
Abstract: As more people gain at-home access to the Internet, information seeking on the Web has become embedded in everyday life. The objective of this study was to characterize the home as an information use environment and to identify a range of information seeking and Web-search behaviors at home. Twelve Northern California residents were recruited, and the data were collected through semi-structured at-home interviews based on a self-reported Search Activities Diary that subjects kept over a 3-5 day period. The data were analyzed on four levels: home environment, information seeking goals, information retrieval interaction, and search query. Findings indicated that the home, indeed, provided a distinct information use environment beyond physical setting alone in which the subjects used the Web for diverse purposes and interests. Based on the findings, the relationships among home environment, Web context, and interaction situation were identified with respect to user goals and information-seeking behaviors.
TL;DR: This study chronicles the use of acknowledgments in 20th century chemistry by analyzing and classifying over 2,000 specimens covering a 100-year period to show that acknowledgment has gradually established itself as a constitutive element of academic writing.
Abstract: We chronicle the use of acknowledgments in 20th century chemistry by analyzing and classifying over 2,000 specimens covering a 100-year period. Our results show that acknowledgment has gradually established itself as a constitutive element of academic writing--one that provides a revealing insight into the structural nature of subauthorship collaboration in science. Complementary data on rates of coauthorship are also presented to highlight the growing importance of teamwork and the increasing division of labor in contemporary chemistry. The results of this study are compared with the findings of a parallel study of collaboration in both the social sciences and the humanities.
TL;DR: This article reports the experience in contrasting different fitness function designs on GP-based learning using a very large Web corpus and indicates that the design of fitness functions is instrumental in performance improvement.
Abstract: Genetic-based evolutionary learning algorithms, such as genetic algorithms (GAs) and genetic programming (GP), have been applied to information retrieval (IR) since the 1980s. Recently, GP has been applied to a new IR task-discovery of ranking functions for Web search-and has achieved very promising results. However, in our prior research, only one fitness function has been used for GP-based learning. It is unclear how other fitness functions may affect ranking function discovery for Web search, especially since it is well known that choosing a proper fitness function is very important for the effectiveness and efficiency of evolutionary algorithms. In this article, we report our experience in contrasting different fitness function designs on GP-based learning using a very large Web corpus. Our results indicate that the design of fitness functions is instrumental in performance improvement. We also give recommendations on the design of fitness functions for genetic-based information retrieval experiments.
TL;DR: It is concluded that interoperability of KOS is an unavoidable issue and process in today's networked environment and there have been and will be many multilingual products and services, with many involving various structured systems.
Abstract: This report analyzes the methodologies used in establishing interoperability among knowledge organization systems (KOS) such as controlled vocabularies and classification schemes that present the organized interpretation of knowledge structures. The development and trends of KOS are discussed with reference to the online era and the Internet era. Selected current projects and activities addressing KOS interoperability issues are reviewed in terms of the languages and structures involved. The methodological analysis encompasses both conventional and new methods that have proven to be widely accepted, including derivation/modeling, translation/adaptation, satellite and leaf node linking, direct mapping, co-occurrence mapping, switching, linking through a temporary union list, and linking through a thesaurus server protocol. Methods used in link storage and management, as well as common issues regarding mapping and methodological options, are also presented. It is concluded that interoperability of KOS is an unavoidable issue and process in today's networked environment. There have been and will be many multilingual products and services, with many involving various structured systems. Results from recent efforts are encouraging.
TL;DR: The conclusion is that "biotechnology" has historically generated a model for theorizing about university-industry relations that cannot easily be generalized to other sectors and disciplines.
Abstract: Via the Internet, information scientists can obtain cost-free access to large databases in the "hidden" or "deep Web." These databases are often structured far more than the Internet domains themselves. The patent database of the U.S. Patent and Trade Office is used in this study to examine the science base of patents in terms of the literature references in these patents. University-based patents at the global level are compared with results when using the national economy of the Netherlands as a system of reference. Methods for accessing the online databases and for the visualization of the results are specified. The conclusion is that "biotechnology" has historically generated a model for theorizing about university-industry relations that cannot easily be generalized to other sectors and disciplines.
TL;DR: Age, income, and self-reported understanding of genetics are shown to be predictors of whether someone goes to medical professionals for advice, rather than to the Internet or public library, which raises questions about the apparent tendency of the public to regard the Internet as the best source of information on complex topics like genetics, for which it may be ill-suited.
Abstract: The diffusion of the Internet has radically expanded the readily available sources for information of all types. Information that was once obtained second-hand from friends and acquaintances--the traditional "two-step flow"--is now found easily through the Internet. The authors make use of survey data to explore this thesis in regards to information sources about genetic testing and the influence of the Internet on the information seeking behaviors of the public. A telephone survey of a random sample of 882 adults asked them about their knowledge of, concerns about, and interest in genetic testing. Respondents were most likely to first turn to the Internet for information about cancer genetics, second to public libraries, and third to medical doctors. Overall, doctors were the most likely source to be consulted when second and third choices are considered. Age, income, and self-reported understanding of genetics are shown to be predictors of whether someone goes to medical professionals for advice, rather than to the Internet or public library. The results raise questions about the apparent tendency of the public to regard the Internet as the best source of information on complex topics like genetics, for which it may be ill-suited.
TL;DR: No wonder you activities are, reading will be always needed, not only to fulfil the duties that you need to finish in deadline time, but also to encourage your mind and thoughts.
Abstract: No wonder you activities are, reading will be always needed. It is not only to fulfil the duties that you need to finish in deadline time. Reading will encourage your mind and thoughts. Of course, reading will greatly develop your experiences about everything. Reading mapping scientific frontiers the quest for knowledge visualization is also a way as one of the collective books that gives many advantages. The advantages are not only for you, but for the other peoples with those meaningful benefits.
TL;DR: A collaboratively engineered general-purpose knowledge management (KM) ontology that can be used by practitioners, researchers, and educators is described that evolved from a Delphi-like process involving a diverse panel of over 30 KM practitioners and researchers.
Abstract: This article describes a collaboratively engineered general-purpose knowledge management (KM) ontology that can be used by practitioners, researchers, and educators. The ontology is formally characterized in terms of nearly one hundred definitions and axioms that evolved from a Delphi-like process involving a diverse panel of over 30 KM practitioners and researchers. The ontology identifies and relates knowledge manipulation activities that an entity (e.g., an organization) can perform to operate on knowledge resources. It introduces a taxonomy for these resources, which indicates classes of knowledge that may be stored, embedded, andsor represented in an entity. It recognizes factors that influence the conduct of KM both within and across KM episodes. The Delphi panelists judge the ontology favorably overall: its ability to unify KM concepts, its comprehensiveness, and utility. Moreover, various implications of the ontology for the KM field are examined as indicators of its utility for practitioners, educators, and researchers. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
TL;DR: The results confirm that richer (or enhanced) models are required to evaluate the broad context of World Wide Web usage as an information resource and contribute to the testing and validation of metrics for use of the Web as a information resource in a specific domain.
Abstract: In this study, we attempt to evaluate the performance of the World Wide Web as an information resource in the domain of international travel. The theoretical framework underpinning our approach recognizes the contribution of models of information seeking behavior and of information systems in explaining World Wide Web usage as an information resource. Specifically, a model integrating the construct of uncertainty in information seeking and the task-technology fit model is presented. To test the integrated model, 217 travelers participated in a questionnaire-based empirical study. Our results confirm that richer (or enhanced) models are required to evaluate the broad context of World Wide Web (the Web) usage as an information resource. Use of the Web for travel tasks, for uncertainty reduction, as an information resource, and for mediation all have a significant impact on users' perception of performance, explaining 46% of the variance. Additionally, our study contributes to the testing and validation of metrics for use of the Web as an information resource in a specific domain.
TL;DR: Popper's model of the communication process between an individual and new information is explored and elaborated from the perspective of Pask's Conversation Theory, and the implications are discussed in relation to the development of what Cole has termed "enabling" information retrieval systems.
Abstract: This report explores the intellectual processes entailed during information seeking, as information needs are generated and information is sought and evaluated for relevance. It focuses on the details of cognitive processing, reviewing a number of models. In particular, Popper's model of the communication process between an individual and new information is explored and elaborated from the perspective of Pask's Conversation Theory. The implications of this theory are discussed in relation to the development of what Cole has termed "enabling" information retrieval systems.
TL;DR: This article identifies some specific types of discursive positioning and shows how participants in a clinical care setting position themselves and one another in ways that justify different forms of information seeking and giving.
Abstract: Studies of everyday life information seeking have begun to attend to incidental forms of information behavior, and this more inclusive understanding of information seeking within broader social practices invites a constructionist analytical paradigm. Positioning theory is a constructionist framework that has proven useful for studying the ways in which interactional practices contribute to information seeking. Positions can construct individuals or groups of people in ways that have real effects on their information seeking. This article identifies some specific types of discursive positioning and shows how participants in a clinical care setting position themselves and one another in ways that justify different forms of information seeking and giving. Examples are drawn from an ongoing study of information seeking in prenatal midwifery encounters. The data consist of audio recordings of nine prenatal midwifery visits and of 18 follow-up interviews, one with each participating midwife and pregnant woman. The midwifery model of care is based on a relationship in which the midwife provides the pregnant woman with information and support necessary for making informed decisions about her care. Midwife-client interactions are therefore an ideal context for studying information seeking and giving in a clinical encounter.
TL;DR: The present quantitative confirmation sheds light on the connection between the success of the latest Web-mining techniques and the small world topology of the Web, with encouraging implications for the design of better crawling algorithms.
Abstract: Recent Web-searching and -mining tools are combining text and link analysis to improve ranking and crawling algorithms. The central assumption behind such approaches is that there is a correlation between the graph structure of the Web and the text and meaning of pages. Here I formalize and empirically evaluate two general conjectures drawing connections from link information to lexical and semantic Web content. The link-content conjecture states that a page is similar to the pages that link to it, and the link-cluster conjecture that pages about the same topic are clustered together. These conjectures are often simply assumed to hold, and Web search tools are built on such assumptions. The present quantitative confirmation sheds light on the connection between the success of the latest Web-mining techniques and the small world topology of the Web, with encouraging implications for the design of better crawling algorithms.
TL;DR: It can be surmised that general Web publications are very different from scholarly journal articles and conference papers, for which scholarly quality does associate with citation impact, and that online impact should not be used to assess the quality of small groups of scholars, even within a single discipline.
Abstract: The quality and impact of academic Web sites is ofinterest to many audiences, including the scholars who use them and Web educators who need to identify best practice. Several large-scale European Union research projects have been funded to build new indicators for online scientific activity, reflecting recognition of the importance of the Web for scholarly communication. In this paper we address the key question of whether higher rated scholars produce higher impact Web sites, using the United Kingdom as a case study and measuring scholars' quality in terms of university-wide average research ratings. Methodological issues concerning the measurement of the online impact are discussed, leading to the adoption of counts of links to a university's constituent single domain Web sites from an aggregated counting metric. The findings suggest that universities with higher rated scholars produce significantly more Web content but with a similar average online impact. Higher rated scholars therefore attract more total links from their peers, but only by being more prolific, refuting earlier suggestions. It can be surmised that general Web publications are very different from scholarly journal articles and conference papers, for which scholarly quality does associate with citation impact. This has important implications for the construction of new Web indicators, for example that online impact should not be used to assess the quality of small groups of scholars, even within a single discipline.
TL;DR: The goal of the scientometric analysis presented in this article was to investigate international and regional periodicals in the field of library and information science (LIS) by means of a citation analysis and a reader survey, which identified answers to questions like: Does reading behavior correlate with the journal impact factor?
Abstract: The goal of the scientometric analysis presented in this article was to investigate international and regional (i.e., German-language) periodicals in the field of library and information science (LIS). This was done by means of a citation analysis and a reader survey. For the citation analysis, impact factor, citing half-life, number of references per article, and the rate of self-references of a periodical were used as indicators. In addition, the leading LIS periodicals were mapped. For the 40 international periodicals, data were collected from ISI’s Social Sciences Citation Index Journal Citation Reports (JCR); the citations of the 10 German-language journals were counted manually (overall 1,494 source articles with 10,520 citations). Altogether, the empirical base of the citation analysis consisted of nearly 90,000 citations in 6,203 source articles that were published between 1997 and 2000. The expert survey investigated reading frequency, applicability of the journals to the job of the reader, publication frequency, and publication preference both for all respondents and for different groups among them (practitioners vs. scientists, librarians vs. documentalists vs. LIS scholars, public sector vs. information industry vs. other private company employees). The study was conducted in spring 2002. A total of 257 questionnaires were returned by information specialists from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Having both citation and readership data, we performed a comparative analysis of these two data sets. This enabled us to identify answers to questions like: Does reading behavior correlate with the journal impact factor? Do readers prefer journals with a short or a long half-life, or with a low or a high number of references? Is there any difference in this matter among librarians, documentalists, and LIS scholars?
TL;DR: While various methods of referral were identified in this study, most individuals were referred infrequently and followed few and consistent pathways each time they connected, and the relationship between the number and types of referrals followed an inverse-square law.
Abstract: This study reports an analysis of referral URL data by the Cornell University IP address from the American Chemical Society servers. The goal of this work is to better understand the tools used and pathways taken when scientists connect to electronic journals. While various methods of referral were identified in this study, most individuals were referred infrequently and followed few and consistent pathways each time they connected. The relationship between the number and types of referrals followed an inverse-square law. Whereas the majority of referrals came from established finding tools (library catalog, library e-journal list, and bibliographic databases), a substantial number of referrals originated from generic Web searches. Scientists are also relying on local alternatives or substitutes such as departmental or personal Web pages with lists of linked publications. The use of electronic mail as a method to refer scientists directly to online articles may be greatly underestimated. Implications for the development of redundant library services such as e-journal lists and the practice of publishers to allow linking from other resources are discussed.
TL;DR: This paper describes a procedure that, given a resource identified by its LCSH, automatically places that resource in the LCC hierarchy, and presents empirical results for the technique showing its accuracy on an independent collection of 50,000 LCSH/LCC pairs.
Abstract: This paper addresses the problem of automatically assigning a Library of Congress Classification (LCC) to a work given its set of Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). LCCs are organized in a tree: The root node of this hierarchy comprises all possible topics, and leaf nodes correspond to the most specialized topic areas defined. We describe a procedure that, given a resource identified by its LCSH, automatically places that resource in the LCC hierarchy. The procedure uses machine learning techniques and training data from a large library catalog to learn a model that maps from sets of LCSH to classifications from the LCC tree. We present empirical results for our technique showing its accuracy on an independent collection of 50,000 LCSH/LCC pairs.
TL;DR: This study compared accessibility and use of information sources among 233 Israeli computer scientists and software engineers, employed in industry and academy, using a mail questionnaire, which yielded a usable reply rate of 33%.
Abstract: Hypothesizing that workplace significantly affects information-seeking patterns, this study compared accessibility and use of information sources among 233 Israeli computer scientists and software engineers, employed in industry and academy, using a mail questionnaire, which yielded a usable reply rate of 33%. The two groups were found to differ significantly in age, education, seniority, and type of research they performed (basic vs. applied). Printed textbooks, professional journals, and oral discussions with colleagues or experts in the organization were common to both groups, topping almost all lists of accessibility and use. For most information sources, however, the two groups differed significantly and consistently. Printed professional journals as well as printed and electronic conference or meeting papers were consistently more accessible and more often used by the academy group, while the industry group reported greater access to and more frequent use of electronic textbooks and trade or promotional literature. In regard to handbooks and standards, in-house technical reports (printed), government technical reports (Internet), librarians and technical specialists (Internet), and oral discussions with supervisors, no significant differences in accessibility were found, but their use by the industry group was much higher. In both groups, accessibility was only partly related to use, and more so among the academy than the industry group.