The preconstructed vocabulary: a Procrustean bed

The mechanization of bibliographic services has imposed a change from the retrospective to the prospective approach to vocabulary development. This results in vocabularies rigidly structured to serve a variety of purposes which are not always mutually compatible. The user suffers from the inflexibility of the basic framework, the dearth of cross-references, and the overspecificity of many subject headings.Computer technology and our knowledge of its application have advanced to the point that we should begin to reclaim some of the bibliographic conveniences which no longer have to be sacrificed.     

Searching for patterns in the MeSH vocabulary

NLM revises its MeSH vocabulary annually to reflect changes in biomedical literature and the health sciences community. This study tested two hypotheses about NLM's MeSH vocabulary. The first is that new terms are added to MeSH when their broader terms have an increased number of postings. One examination compared the number of postings for the broader terms of new and existing terms in the current MEDLINE file; the other compared them over time. No significant statistical difference was found in either case. A second hypothesis--that there is a relationship between the patterns of MEDLINE indexing and searching and the organization of the MeSH tree structure--was tested by comparing the distribution of searched terms in the MeSH trees with the distribution of all terms. It was found that certain trees are searched more often than could be predicted by the overall term distribution, while others are searched less frequently than expected. In summary, (1) new terms cannot be predicted by the increase in postings of existing terms, and (2) searchers' and indexers' use of the terms' tree structure does not correlate with the terms' distribution in the MeSH trees.     

Acquisitions for distance education: An Australian experience

This article explores the changing patterns of library service for distance students in Australia, focusing in particular on the experience of one institution, the University of New England. The authors identify the main phases of development in acquisitions policy and practice, resulting from educational and economic changes as well as professional initiatives. They draw on research findings to highlight the problems associated with a distance education program that is based solely on the library resources of the enrolling institution. The article concludes by discussing the shift that is now occurring from a locally based service centered on one institution to a cooperative system of support involving various libraries.     

Being in the archive: affect and scholarly distance

Working in the archives of living writers provides exciting possibilities for extended interpersonal research as well as ethical challenges. This article explores the author’s experience of working in Helen Garner’s restricted archives and negotiating the demands of scholarly objectivity with an increasingly felt empathic engagement. The author traces a chronological path through the archives relating to Garner’s three substantial works of non-fiction: The First Stone (1995), Joe Cinque’s Consolation (2004) and This House of Grief (2014). She draws attention to some of the ways in which distance and objectivity can be influenced not only by contact with a living writer but also by the space in which the archive is encountered. With a deliberate focus on the lived experience of researching, rather than a scholarly examination of archival theory, the author offers a case study of how the interaction of archives and living subject can shape research and publication.     

A controlled vocabulary for nursing and allied health in Norway

Nursing and allied health libraries at educational institutions in Norway have generally indexed their book collections with uncontrolled terms. With the reorganization of higher education in 1994, the majority of these libraries joined BIBSYS, which is a joint library system for higher education and research in Norway. This has led to chaos when searching the joint catalogue for literature on nursing and related fields. A term such as 'behaviour problems' may have up to five synonyms. In an attempt to improve the quality of searching the health literature, BIBSYS appointed a working group in the Spring of 1999 to find a suitable controlled vocabulary for this subject area, and to see how this vocabulary could be integrated into BIBSYS. The group presented its recommendations in October 1999. The report has been well received by the BIBSYS Board and by user groups. There are no Norwegian vocabularies that are suitable for use in nursing and allied health, therefore it will be necessary to translate and combine existing thesauri. The group has looked at the Nordic Multilingual Thesaurus on Health Promotion, the Swedish Spriline Thesaurus, MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) and CINAHL Subject Heading List. Other relevant thesauri are AMED/CATS Thesaurus, Bioethics Thesaurus (Bioethicsline) and the RCN thesaurus. The group recommends the development of a Norwegian thesaurus based on a translation of parts of MeSH and CINAHL Subject Heading List.     

Bridging the distance: bibliographic instruction for remote library users

Electronic information resources are proliferating, library collections are increasingly accessible via the Internet, and the number of end users who access library resources remotely is on the rise. Changes in user behavior drives a corresponding change in the way instructional programs must be delivered to meet the needs of remote library users. This paper discusses some technologies currently available for remote instruction, assesses their use, and offers views on future trends.     

The Find-It! Illinois controlled vocabulary: Improving access to government information through the Jessica subject tree

The need to improve information access on the Web has resulted in Illinois’ implementation of lexicographer Dr. Jessica Milstead’s subject tree for the Find-It! Illinois Program. In 1999, when the Illinois State Library joined four other states in implementing a state Government Information Locator Service (GILS) project, developing a controlled vocabulary became an essential component for maximizing retrieval of government information. Furthermore, application of library cataloging tools such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) is insufficient for online retrieval. An analysis of the structure and content of Dr. Milstead’s subject tree reveals the importance of new tools for improving online access methods. Illinois’ implementation of Dr. Milstead’s subject tree exposed the interest for nationwide application. The Illinois subject tree has been named the “Jessica Tree” to convey its expanded utility. The national adoption of a controlled vocabulary for retrieving state government information online will require collaboration among all states, so that the vision of a Find-It! America can be actualized.     

Information skills for distance learning

In spring 1997, the Education Services department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) Health Sciences Library (HSL) developed six Web-based tutorials designed to teach information skills. This paper describes how the modules were created.     

State of the library and information science blogosphere after social networks boom: A metric approach

A metric analysis of blogs on library and information science (LIS) between November 2006 and June 2009 indexed on the Libworm search engine characterizes the community's behavior quantitatively. An analysis of 1108 personal and corporate blogs with a total of 275,103 posts is used to calculate survival rate, production (number of posts published), and visibility via such indicators as links received, Technorati authority, and Google's PagePank. Over the study period, there was a 52% decrease in the number of active blogs. Despite the drop in production over this period, the average number of posts per blog remained constant (14 per month). The most representative blogs in the discipline are identified. The emergence of such platforms as Facebook and Twitter seems to have meant that both personal and corporate blogs have lost some of their prominence.     

现代远程教育与档案工作

目前,远程开放教育已逐渐成为各级各类学校的一种重要的教育手段,成为终身教育和学习化社会的重要组成部分.档案工作作为学校工作的重要组成部分,在现代远程开放教育模式的构建过程中应如何发展?发挥什么样的作用?本文想就现代远程教育与档案工作的关系,结合北京电大的实际谈一谈看法.     

Rethinking library service to distance education students: analyzing the embedded librarian model

Since fall 2009, reference librarians at The George Washington University's Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library have been embedded in online classes through Blackboard within the School of Nursing and School of Medicine and Health Sciences. The authors sought to determine the types of questions asked of the librarian, with the goal of informing future interactions with distance education classes to help develop a standard "protocol" for working with this population of students. Eighty-two questions were categorized and qualitatively analyzed. The findings have prompted librarians to explore tools such as Elluminate Live!, a tool that allows librarians to provide synchronous instruction within the Blackboard environment.     

Practitioners as professors: Experiential learning in the distance digital liberal arts classroom

ABSTRACT

Archives and digital collections have traditionally supported undergraduate research experiences or existed in the syllabus as neat, packaged projects or assignments. Now these artifacts are taking center stage in the digital liberal arts classroom. Librarians and archivists are also realizing new opportunities to teach undergraduates their professional tools and methodologies, and they are forging new ground in the classroom teaching students how to curate and create digital scholarly projects. This case study reveals the experiences of two information professionals who cotaught a distance digital liberal arts seminar. It seeks to expand the pedagogy of the digital liberal arts and explore its viability via distance education.     

Web-based distance continuing education: a new way of thinking for students and instructors

As people have more difficulty taking time away from work to attend conferences and workshops, the idea of offering courses via the Web has become more desirable. Addressing a need voiced by Medical Library Association membership, the authors developed a Web-based continuing-education course on the subject of the librarian's role in evidence-based medicine. The aim of the course was to provide medical librarians with a well-constructed, content-rich learning experience available to them at their convenience via the Web. This paper includes a discussion of the considerations that need to be taken into account when developing Web-based courses, the issues that arise when the information delivery changes from face-to-face to online, the changing role of the instructor, and the pros and cons of offering Web-based versus traditional courses. The results of the beta test and future plans for the course are also discussed.     

The relationships between distance factors and international collaborative research outcomes: A bibliometric examination

Increasingly, scholars have been conducting team-based research with multinational collaborators to carry out internationally relevant studies, generate global impact, and promote academic exchanges. In this paper, we examine how four types of distance, i.e., geographic, political, cultural, and economic, relate to the output of international research collaborations. We analyze a bibliometric data set derived from four leading marketing journals spanning the 2001–2016 time frame. Among other insights, our results show that in the context of international collaborative research efforts, co-authors from countries with wider economic distances and narrower political distances have published fewer articles and received fewer citations compared to those from countries with narrower economic distances and wider political distances.     

The initiation of distance learning at Thomas Jefferson University: the library as integral partner

In 1998 Thomas Jefferson University offered its first entirely online course. Librarians and library staff were integral in the development, support, evaluation, and refinement of this course. While staff members may have taken non-traditional roles in this effort, their roles generally fell within the broad guidelines of assisting University faculty with information and knowledge management. The development and support of distance course offerings will continue to be a focus at Scott Memorial Library.     

Delivering distance training to rural health care professionals

This article reports on a project that delivers distance training to rural health care professionals. Traveling to provide training on information-seeking skills to rural health professionals is time consuming and costly. In addition to face-to-face training, the University of South Alabama Biomedical Library's SAMNet project seeks to deliver multimedia training to rural health care professionals. The project uses information technology to package training courses combining PowerPoint slides and video instructions. This article describes the rationale, training module design and development, and the information technology and software used in the project. Multimedia packaged distance training courses provide a practical alternative to on-site training for rural health care professionals. It enables librarians to provide training without traveling long distance, thus saving time and money. Additionally, rural health care professionals may access the modules at a time convenient to them and proceed at a pace suitable to their learning style.     

图书馆与现代远程教育

本文从图书馆介入远程教育的重点、教育资源的提供、教育辅助功能和信息服务、网络远程教育和电子图书馆等方面对图书馆与现代远程教育的关系试作分析,认为图书馆应当充分发挥自身优势参与现代远程教育,为迎接知识经济和学习化社会的到来做出贡献。     

Adobe Reader 8.0在作者远程校对中的应用

介绍一种利用免费的Adobe Reader 8.0软件实施远程校对的方法,可以替代纸质校样校对,其操作较其他方法更为简便,对于作者则无费用及操作方面的困扰.