Focus groups for allied health professionals and professions allied to technical services in the NHS--marketing opportunities, lessons learnt and recommendations

Background: Worcestershire Health Libraries provides services to all NHS and social care staff in Worcestershire. Despite intensive marketing, statistics showed low usage of the library service for professions allied to technical services and allied health professionals. Objectives: To discover why there was low usage of the library services using qualitative techniques and to use focus groups as a marketing opportunity. This article also aims to outline the processes involved in delivering focus groups, the results gained, and the actions taken in response to the results. Methods: Focus groups were conducted in two departments, Pathology and Occupational Therapy. The Biochemistry department (part of Pathology) had two focus groups. An additional focus group was conducted for all the Pathology education leads. Occupational Therapy had two meetings, one for hospital based staff, and the other for community staff. Results: Issues centred on registration, inductions, time, library ambience, multi‐disciplinary service and resources. The findings raised marketing opportunities and the process identified potential candidates for the role of team knowledge officer, to act as library champions within departments. It also identified areas in which the library service was not meeting user needs and expectations, and helped focus service development. Conclusions: Focus groups allowed an opportunity to speak to non‐users face to face and to discover, and where appropriate challenge both their, and library staff’s pre‐conceived ideas about the service. The information revealed gave an opportunity to market services based on user needs.     

A Methodical Approach to Legal Research: The Legal Research Plan,an Essential Tool for Today's Law Student and New Attorney

This article lays out an approach to teaching legal research through an examination of historical and contemporary approaches to legal research and research instruction. It discusses creating a research plan and reviews the most commonly used legal research texts. It concludes with sample research assignments and assessment tools.     

智能时代传播学受众与效果研究:理论、方法与展望--与香港城市大学祝建华教授、斯坦福大学杰佛瑞·汉考克教授对谈

人工智能技术的兴盛,不论在理论发展或是研究方法层面,都给传播学科的受众与效果研究带来了新契机。本文立足于国际前沿和本土研究的视角,通过与祝建华教授和杰佛瑞·汉考克教授的学术对谈,探讨了智能时代受众研究和媒介效果研究的前沿动向和理论思考,分析了数据时代传播研究方法的变迁,同时展望了传播学研究的未来发展趋势,并针对中国情境下的受众与效果研究如何更好地走向国际化,给出了相应建议。技术与数据为用户研究增添了新的细节,微观和中观层面的理论聚焦依然重要,多元方法、计算技能和数据伦理需要重视,理论化和普适化是中国传播学者尚需提升的能力。     

Social support within an on-line cancer community: an assessment of emotional support,perceptions of advantages and disadvantages,and motives for using the community from a communication perspective

This study investigated an on-line cancer support community emphasizing communication concerns important to the community administrators. The researcher conducted an on-line survey of participants (N v = v 103) focused on their on-line communication activities and social support. The results indicate a modest negative correlation between emotional support received on-line and perceived stress, differences in emotional support scores based on perceptions of disadvantages of on-line support groups, and different motives for using the community between people with cancer and family members. The study also describes suggestions based on the results that were made to community administrators and which could be used by other on-line support communities.     

Evaluation, Research and Communities of Practice: Program Evaluation in Museums

Museums present different contexts for learning, particularly when compared with places such as schooos, universities and libraries. They have been described as free-choice learning environments visited by a broad range of people. Museums have the opportunity to shape identities—through access to objects, knowledge and information visitors see themselves and their culture reflected in ways that encourage new connections, meaning making and learning. However, across the world museums are finding themselves competing with other leisure and learning experiences in an increasingly global world. The long history of audience research in the cultural sector demonstrates the interest museums have had in their visitors over time. This paper outlines the development of audience research in museums, the context within which it operates, and describes the processes of audience research through a series of case studies drawn from the work of the Australian Museum Audience Research Centre. It is argued that the shift in museums from mission-led program development to balancing content and audience needs through a transaction approach requires a broader research-focused agenda. While traditional ways of conducting evaluations are necessary and useful, to remain viable audience research needs to be more strategic, working across the sector in new ways and utilising new methods. How programs impact on users and facilitate learning about a wide range of key issues that museums are concerned with is a leadership role that audience research can take across both the cultural sector and other free-choice learning contexts. To achieve this, a communities of practice approach is suggested as a potential framework for audience research in the contemporary museum.     

The application and value of information sources in clinical practice: an examination of the perspective of naturopaths

Background: The approach of evidence‐based medicine (EBM), providing a paradigm to validate information sources and a process for critiquing their value, is an important platform for guiding practice. Researchers have explored the application and value of information sources in clinical practice with regard to a range of health professions; however, naturopathic practice has been overlooked. Objectives: An exploratory study of naturopaths’ perspectives of the application and value of information sources has been undertaken. Methods: Semi‐structured interviews with 12 naturopaths in current clinical practice, concerning the information sources used in clinical practice and their perceptions of these sources. Results: Thematic analysis identified differences in the application of the variety of information sources used, depending upon the perceived validity. Internet databases were viewed as highly valid. Textbooks, formal education and interpersonal interactions were judged based upon a variety of factors, whilst validation of general internet sites and manufacturers information was required prior to use. Conclusions: The findings of this study will provide preliminary aid to those responsible for supporting naturopaths’ information use and access. In particular, it may assist publishers, medical librarians and professional associations in developing strategies to expand the clinically useful information sources available to naturopaths.     

Functional fragmentation in city hall and Twitter communication during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Atlanta,San Francisco,and Washington,DC

The organization of city government into specialized departments allows cities to accomplish an array of service delivery tasks. Government reformers argue this fragmentation creates coordination challenges when problems spillover the lines of specialized agencies. Functional fragmentation also poses coordination challenges for government communication with the public through social media. The global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and COVID-19 disease provide an opportunity to investigate the consequences of functional fragmentation in city government for social media communication about public health and pandemic response. A comparative case analysis of three cities using data from city agency Twitter accounts and key informant interviews demonstrates the consequences of fragmentation for internal coordination, as well as public outreach. The experiences of Atlanta, San Francisco, and Washington, DC in the early days of the pandemic provide pragmatic insights for city officials and illustrate the theoretical importance of giving attention to whole of government approaches to city social media communication.     

Critical Moments: Chance,Choice, and Change in Scholarly Publishing

Dr. Katherine Skinner is the Executive Director of the Educopia Institute. Founded in 2006, the Educopia Institute is a nonprofit educational organization that hosts inter-institutional, collaborative programs for the production, dissemination, and preservation of digital scholarship. She is the founding program director for the MetaArchive Cooperative that launched in 2004. That community-owned and community-governed digital preservation network now has more than 50 member institutions in four countries. Dr. Skinner also directs the Library Publishing Coalition project, a two-year initiative to create a new organization to support library publishing and scholarly communications activities in conjunction with more than 50 academic libraries.     

美国图书馆史学界的“哈里斯—戴恩论战”：缘起、过程与影响

1972年美国图书馆史学家迈克尔·哈里斯发表《历史视角下的美国公共图书馆目标:一种修正式解读》,从社会阶层论视角爬梳美国公共图书馆的起源及其领袖人物的图书馆目标,认为公共图书馆是社会精英阶层用以管理和控制社会的工具,批评传统进步主义图书馆史学家对相关问题的理想化认识。以菲莉丝·戴恩为代表的进步主义图书馆史学家认为公共图书馆是民主和人道主义的产物。戴恩批评哈里斯的修正式观点因缺乏扎实论据而失于偏颇。双方展开了1970年代美国图书馆史研究中的“哈里斯-戴恩论战”,引发学界对公共图书馆的起源和目标的深刻反思,对图书馆史研究的方法论和发展产生了深远影响。     

虚拟知识社区信息粘性的测算、成因与演化:一个研究框架

[目的/意义]当前虚拟知识社区已成为人们交流信息和获取知识的重要渠道,尽管技术发展有效促进了知识和信息的传播效率,但是虚拟知识社区中的信息粘性现象仍然较为普遍。传统的信息扩散模型如Bass模型和传染病模型虽然在一定程度上可以模拟信息在虚拟知识社区中的传播过程,但是其难以解释产生信息粘性现象的内在原因。[方法/过程]本文将基于信息粘性理论提出一个研究框架,针对虚拟知识社区中用户生产的信息(回答和文章),研究内容包括信息粘性的程度测算,信息粘性的成因识别和信息粘性的演化形态分析,以期发现虚拟知识社区中产生信息粘性现象背后的原理,为提升虚拟知识社区中信息传播效率提供理论支撑。[结果/结论]通过探究虚拟知识社区中信息粘性的影响因素及其动态演化可以对信息传播的不均衡现象展开理论解释,完善现有信息传播理论模型研究的不足。     

Unspeakable PrEP: a qualitative study of sexual communication,problematic integration,and uncertainty management among men who have sex with men in Taiwan

ABSTRACT

This study explored how men who have sex with men (MSM) communicated their use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) on smartphone applications. Informed by the theory of problematic integration and uncertainty management, we asked if revealing ‘HIV negative, on PrEP’ status on smartphone applications might increase one's uncertainty in communicating about safe sex with others. We conducted interviews with 31 Taiwanese MSM currently taking PrEP who participated in a national demonstration project. We identified three types of PrEP-related uncertainty: condition, information, and stigma uncertainty. Applied implications of our findings indicate the importance of the feasibility of medical infrastructure in implementing PrEP, the complication in translating scientific and medical jargon into everyday language, and dynamics of negotiating stigmas associated with HIV and AIDS in the context of HIV prevention.     

Women & Gender in Central and Eastern Europe,Russia, and Eurasia: A Comprehensive Bibliography. 2 vols

ABSTRACT

This article describes how The Search Engine for Online Historical Directories provides enhanced access for genealogical researchers to valuable family information contained in difficult-to-browse directories that have been made available online by institutions that have not provided sophisticated search tools.     

Experiments and Experiences in Liaison Activities: Lessons from New Librarians in Integrating Technology,Face-to-Face,and Follow-Up

As is the case in many university libraries, Albertsons Library at Boise State University, has hired many new librarians to replace retiring librarians. These newer librarians, typically with less than 3 years’ academic library experience, are actively engaged in meeting the opportunities and challenges of subject liaison responsibilities using innovative Web-based tools. This article addresses liaison experiences with faculty-directed blogs, personalized faculty research pages, a wiki-based liaison manual, and the use of LibraryThing as a collection development tool. An overview of these efforts confirms that new technologies are only as good as the face-to-face communication and the follow-up that accompany their implementation. Much of the content in this article was presented at the 2007 and 2008 Acquisitions Institute conferences at Timberline Lodge at Mt. Hood, Oregon.     

2001-2010年国内情报学研究回顾与展望——基于知识图谱的当代学科发展动向研究

文章基于CSSCI数据库,利用Netdraw、Citespace和VOSviewer,分别来构建2001-2010年中国情报学研究主题演变(含热点、前沿)、知识来源谱系、机构合作网络的可视化知识图谱,对近十年我国情报学的研究热点、研究前沿领域、知识基础、研究机构间合作情况进行了归纳和分析。     

Issue competition and presidential debates in multiparty systems: evidence from the 2002, 2007, and 2012 Korean presidential elections

Which issues do political parties emphasize in campaigns? Selecting the issues to emphasize in campaigns is treated with the same importance as policy positioning. Nevertheless, little attention has been paid to understanding parties’ strategies of issue competition in presidential elections under multiparty systems. By analyzing statements of presidential candidates in the 2002, 2007, and 2012 Korean presidential debates, we find that presidential candidates use their issue emphasis strategies differently in presidential elections according to party size and ideological relationships with other parties. Specifically, a small party’s candidates have been more likely than mainstream parties’ candidates to pursue their issue ownership advantage. In addition, a mainstream party’s candidates have emphasized the issues of a small party more than those of his own party when the two parties have had a similar ideological foundation, whereas, when there were no such ideological similarities, a mainstream party’s candidate has only focused on issues of the mainstream party. Our results imply that the political communication used by political parties and candidates is conditioned not only by political contexts such as electoral systems or party systems but also by the size and ideology of parties.     

Implementation of Web 2.0 services in academic, medical and research libraries: a scoping review

Background: Academic, medical and research libraries frequently implement Web 2.0 services for users. Several reports notwithstanding, characteristics and effectiveness of services are unclear. Objectives: To find out: the Web 2.0 services implemented by medical, academic and research libraries; study designs, measures and types of data used in included articles to evaluate effectiveness; whether the identified body of literature is amenable to a systematic review of results. Methods: Scoping review mapping the literature on the topic. Searches were performed in 19 databases. Inclusion criteria: research articles in English, Italian, German, French and Spanish (publication date ≥2006) about Web 2.0 services for final users implemented by academic, medical and research libraries. Reviewers’ agreement was measured by Cohen’s kappa. From a data set of 6461 articles, 255 (4%) were coded and analysed. Results: Conferencing/chat/instant messaging, blogging, podcasts, social networking, wikis and aggregators were frequently examined. Services were mainly targeted at general academic users of English‐speaking countries. Conclusions: Data prohibit a reliable estimate of the relative frequency of implemented Web 2.0 services. Case studies were the prevalent design. Most articles evaluated different outcomes using diverse assessment methodologies. A systematic review is recommended to assess the effectiveness of such services.     

The role of trust in e-Government effectiveness,operational effectiveness and user satisfaction: Lessons from Saudi Arabia in e-G2B

Electronic government (e-Government) systems are becoming an essential strategic tool in the delivery of e-Government-to-Business services (e-G2B). The purpose of this research is to explore direct and indirect effects of trust in online services on the satisfaction of the e-Government service users and other perceptions such as e-G2B system effectiveness and the operational effectiveness of organizations. Based on a sample of e-G2B service users from Saudi Arabia, our preliminary findings suggest that the effects of trust on user satisfaction are mediated by e-G2B system effectiveness measures (e.g., System Quality, Service Quality, and Information Quality) and by operational effectiveness. In addition, we find that operational effectiveness and information quality are the most important drivers of user satisfaction. In contrast to previous research, our results show a negative relationship between trust in online services and service quality and suggest that this finding may have important implications for theory and practice.     

The negative effects of citing with a national orientation in terms of recognition: National and international citations in natural-sciences papers from Germany,the Netherlands,and the UK

Nations can be distinguished in terms of whether domestic or international research is cited. We analyzed the research output in the natural sciences of three leading European research economies (Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK) and ask where their researchers look for the knowledge that underpins their most highly-cited papers. Is one internationally oriented or is citation limited to national resources? Do the citation patterns reflect a growing differentiation between the domestic and international research enterprise? To evaluate change over time, we include natural-sciences papers published in the countries from three publication years: 2004, 2009, and 2014. The results show that articles co-authored by researchers from Germany or the Netherlands are less likely to be among the globally most highly-cited articles if they also cite “domestic” research (i.e. research authored by authors from the same country). To put this another way, less well-cited research is more likely to stand on domestic shoulders and research that becomes more highly-cited is more likely to stand on international shoulders. A possible reason for the results is that researchers “over-cite” the papers from their own country – lacking the focus on quality in citing. However, these differences between domestic and international shoulders are not visible for the UK.