Calling all students!!!

'Dissertations into Practice' is a new regular feature in the Health Information and Libraries Journal, which aims to encourage students to write for publication. The idea is that students will write an extended abstract of their health-related dissertations, outlining the methods used and commenting on the implications for practice. Co-written with their dissertation or workplace supervisor, this feature will provide a safe environment for students to see their writing in print, possibly for the first time, while ensuring that invaluable research reaches a wider audience than might otherwise be the case.     

A ‘powerful,creative history’: the reticence of women architects to donate their professional records to archival repositories

The article reports the findings from research investigating the impact of international standards for records management. This is a significant issue for the recordkeeping community given the significant resourcing devoted to the development of international standards. Previous attempts to measure impact have met with little success, so this research approached the problem area from a new angle, namely the indirect influence of standards on practice via their use in education and training. Data was collected from a global survey of educators and trainers. Findings demonstrate that the standards are being used extensively at undergraduate and postgraduate level as well as in vocational training. However, a number of barriers to use are identified. The research provides a strong foundation for further investigation of impact and use of the international standards.     

Health care librarians and information literacy: an investigation

Until relatively recently, the concept of information literacy, and teaching the skills to enable it, was mainly a concern of academic libraries. Now, it is also seen to be of high importance within the context of health care libraries. Health care libraries and librarians can provide crucial support towards the implementation of evidence‐based practice in patient care through both information literacy skills training and by conducting mediated searches on behalf of health care practitioners. This article reports the findings from an investigation conducted by Charlotte Kelham as part of her MA in Librarianship from the University of Sheffield. Her dissertation investigated how health care librarians understand the concept of information literacy, the implications of this for their role and their perceptions around how their role is valued. Charlotte graduated from Sheffield in 2013 and is currently job hunting. AM     

《学位论文写作》教学与文献检索

结合《学位论文写作》教学,引导学生充分利用本校数字化学士学位论文资源、熟悉中文信息资源的检索利用,利用所学网络专业资源过滤方法直接参与重点学科导航数据库建设,达到增强大学生文献检索能力的目的。     

图书馆学情报学博士学位论文研究方法调查分析——以中国科学院国家科学图书馆为例

对中国科学院国家科学图书馆2000-2009年的图书馆学情报学博士学位论文进行调查,研究分析图书馆学情报学博士学位论文在研究方法上的使用情况、共性特征及存在问题。发现其中调查、实验等常规研究方法占据主导地位,研究方法突出实践性与实证性,并兼具社会科学与自然科学特征,还反映了学术共同体的研究范式。当然也存在研究方法层次界定不清、思维和基础方法与博士学位论文研究方法相混淆等问题。     

Collaboration in information and library science doctoral education

Coauthorship is increasing across all areas of scholarship. Despite this trend, dissertations as sole-authored monographs are still revered as the cornerstone of doctoral education. As students learn the norms and communicative behaviors of their field during their doctoral education, do they also learn collaborative behaviors? This study investigated this issue through triangulation of 30 interviews, 215 questionnaires, and bibliometric analyses of 97 CVs in the field of library and information science (LIS). The findings demonstrate that collaboration occurs in about half of advisee/advisor relationships and is primarily understood as research dissemination outside the dissertation. Respondents reported that the dissertation was not and should not be considered a collaborative product. The discussion also includes a commentary about grant funding and the implications for this on models of academic scholarship and research production.     

eBook management in NHS libraries in the North of England: perceptions and practice

In this article, Katie Nicholas presents the findings of a very topical piece of research into the use of eBooks in health libraries, which she completed for a Masters dissertation. Katie graduated with an MA in Library and Information Management (Distinction) from Manchester Metropolitan University in July 2017. She would like to acknowledge the support of her supervisor, Rachel Delbridge, in helping her to gain a Distinction in her dissertation. In the article, she points out that the use of eBooks in the NHS is low compared to other sectors and she presents the findings from her research, which help to explain this. She outlines the development of an electronic tool to help library and information staff make sense of the complexity around eBooks and makes further very practical recommendations for practitioners. A. M     

Understanding the Relationship Between the Librarian and the Academic

This article presents the findings of a small study that examined the relationship between academic librarians and their academic colleagues in a number of institutions in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. There is an abundance of literature outlining how librarians should collaborate with their academic colleagues but less emphasis on what librarians are doing in practice. This research explores the collaborative aspect of this relationship with a focus on information literacy training. Research findings look at factors which encourage and inhibit collaboration and challenges librarians face in achieving successful collaboration.     

Documenting Communities of Practice: Making the Case for Archival Ethnography*

This paper seeks to present a new direction for archival research: ethnographic fieldwork. The author argues that this set of qualitative methods presents new opportunities for researchers to study phenomena in archival settings. Using the author's research on competing definitions of value in the world of film preservation as a case study, this article gives readers unversed in ethnography and grounded theory a primer which may be used as a starting point for considering how to apply such qualitative methods to the design of new research agendas and to solve questions specific to the archival domain. This paper is a revised version of the methodological chapter of the author's dissertation:The Imperative to Preserve: Competing Definitions of Value in the World of Film Preservation, PhD dissertation (Los Angeles: UCLA, 2001).     

The impact of orphan drug policies in treating rare diseases

This paper is based on Shalini Weerasooriya's Masters dissertation in Public Health at the University of Sheffield. A literature review was conducted to understand the role that orphan drug policies have played in the development of new treatments for rare diseases. The impacts of the policies were categorised as ‘tangible’ or ‘intangible’ and further synthesis identified 10 main themes such as incentives for investment, criteria for eligibility and assessment of drug applications and further guidance to industry during the drug development cycle. The review concludes that whilst policies have contributed positively towards improving the research and development of orphan drugs it has not exhausted its uses and must now shift its focus to facilitating greater accessibility and affordability of the treatments and that stakeholders are essential to the success of this process. Implications for practice are identified, for example the need to further update and refine the policy with changing demographics and advancing technologies and, in particular, greater collaboration and involvement through, for example, evidence based training programmes is recommended. It is concluded that focus must shift to address the gap between having available drugs and being able to access and afford them. F.J.     

Empowering international nursing students to become effective library users

This article summarises the research conducted for a dissertation which addressed the needs of students and academic staff of the Bachelor of Nursing International programme at St. Angela's College, Ireland. Aoife Murray completed an MSc Econ Information and Library Studies in 2015 from Aberystwyth University via distance learning. She gained a distinction for her work and has co‐written the article with Hugh Preston, her dissertation supervisor. Aoife highlights the recommendations she made as a result of her research and the programme put in place to deliver those recommendations. She also reports on some early evaluations of the new programme. AM     

我国知识管理研究生教育的统计分析与启示

选取2012年全国高校及科研院所公布的"硕士、博士研究生招生专业目录"作为研究对象,围绕图书情报学、管理学两大学科领域,利用Excel软件统计开设"知识管理"相关研究方向的科研机构及其研究生专业信息,发现知识管理研究重点集中在图书馆学、情报学、管理科学与工程、技术经济及管理、工商管理(企业管理)这5大专业中,并从基金资助、学位论文和研究方法3个角度对不同学科下知识管理的研究生教育进行比较分析。最后,从明确知识管理培养目标、完善知识管理课程体系、设置知识管理二级学科、编写知识管理权威教材和借鉴知识管理海外教育5个方面,探讨对我国知识管理研究生教育良性发展的一些启示。     

Embodied moments: revisiting the field and writing vulnerably

In this essay, I revisit past dissertation fieldwork to interrogate the presence and absence of my pregnancy in performances and textual accounts. I return to time spent in the former Yugoslavia working with the Swedish organization Kvinna till Kvinna (Woman to Woman) and their local partner organizations. Through a series of brief flashbacks, I work through ongoing moments of tension surrounding reflexive research, emerging subjectivities, and vulnerable writing. This essay contributes to conversations on how feminist ethnographers locate themselves within the field in relation to participants and on reflexivity as an evolving practice that expands across temporal and spatial boundaries.     

Broadcasters’ attitudes toward public responsibility: An Ohio case study

Certainly one key to a licensee's response to community needs is the perception by top station executives of their station's role in the community. The following article is an adaptation of some research findings of a dissertation conducted under the supervision of Professor Walter B. Emery at Ohio State University in 1971. The author, now an assistant professor in the department of speech and dramatic art at the University of Iowa, received a research grant from the National Association of Broadcasters to help conduct the study.     

高校文献检索课科研专题实习的探索

提出一种文献检索课实践教学新模式，即面向实际科研项目的“科研实习”，强化了实践教学环节，增强实践教学的有效性，力求在提高学生的信息获取能力、信息利用能力方面取得实质性突破。     

面向研究所科研一线的信息素养教育实践探索

[目的/意义] 总结中科院文献情报中心面向科研一线开展的信息素养教育实践，为科研信息素养教育提供最佳实践案例。[方法/过程] 从服务网络、内容体系、师资队伍、服务平台、服务形式、宣传渠道等方面总结面向研究所科研一线的信息素养教育实践探索。基于疫情与后疫情时期的探索实践，并通过问卷调研分析专家意见，提出科研一线信息素养教育发展新策略。[结果/结论] 未来要形成实时沟通需求的长效化机制，并通过有效激励、开放合作和探索众筹等措施，促进科研一线信息素养教育进一步创新发展。     

Doctoral Dissertations at a Distance

Abstract

The model suggests that librarians can assume the role of co-supervisor to ensure that the literature review of a doctoral dissertation is comprehensive and relevant. Librarians can also assist research students, make sure their supervisors are kept abreast of new information resources in their research disciplines, and act as a mentor to both student and staff member in library matters. The model was developed in recognition of the special support needs of off campus research students who are disadvantaged by isolation, time and distance. It is anticipated that adoption of the model will lead to increased rates of completion, higher standards of research, an improvement in information and literacy skills of research students and supervisors, and reduced isolation for off campus researchers.     

A methodological framework for studying visual information practices

Visual information dominates our modern information landscape and plays a critical role in the production of knowledge. However, research in information studies has not fully considered how people engage with visual information, in the form of images, visualization software and instruments, as well as audiovisual media, at the level of visual information in practice. This gap is addressed by first outlining the methodological challenges visual information practices pose to research, then reviewing recent information practices research projects that consider visual information, and concluding by offering a methodological framework drawn from the author's dissertation research for studying visual information practices, with suggestions provided for researchers who are interested in conducting research in this area.     

面向研究所科研一线的信息素养教育实践探索

[目的/意义]总结中科院文献情报中心面向科研一线开展的信息素养教育实践,为科研信息素养教育提供最佳实践案例。[方法/过程]从服务网络、内容体系、师资队伍、服务平台、服务形式、宣传渠道等方面总结面向研究所科研一线的信息素养教育实践探索。基于疫情与后疫情时期的探索实践,并通过问卷调研分析专家意见,提出科研一线信息素养教育发展新策略。[结果/结论]未来要形成实时沟通需求的长效化机制,并通过有效激励、开放合作和探索众筹等措施,促进科研一线信息素养教育进一步创新发展。     

The FCC: Its powers,functions and personnel

Broadcasting figured prominently in the key senatorial race of 1956 which determined the control of the United State Senate. This became the subject of investigation by Professor Tucker for his doctoral dissertation. The following article was based upon his research findings, especially edited for the Journal.