The utilitarian and hedonic outcomes of music information-seeking in everyday life

This qualitative study focuses on what contributes to making a music information-seeking experience satisfying in the context of everyday life. Data were collected through in-depth interviews conducted with 15 younger adults (18 to 29 years old). The analysis revealed that satisfaction could depend on both hedonic (i.e., experiencing pleasure) and utilitarian outcomes. It was found that two types of utilitarian outcomes contributed to satisfaction: (1) the acquisition of music, and (2) the acquisition of information about music. Information about music was gathered to (1) enrich the listening experience, (2) increase one's music knowledge, and/or (3) optimize future acquisition. This study contributes to a better understanding of music information-seeking behavior in recreational contexts. It also has implications for music information retrieval systems design: results suggest that these systems should be engaging, include a wealth of extra-musical information, allow users to navigate among music items, and encourage serendipitous encountering of music.     

Electronic resources at the University of Sharjah medical library: an investigation of students' information-seeking behavior

Electronic information is becoming prevalent worldwide, and its use is growing exponentially as more and more users are recognizing the potential that it offers in terms of access and delivery. However, with the introduction of new tools for e-information searching and retrieval, users have to readjust their information-seeking behavior to cope with the corresponding changes. The University of Sharjah library is steadily increasing its investment in e-resources to offer ubiquitous access to the growing body of literature in areas that interest the community it serves. This study reports the findings of a survey conducted to investigate the information-seeking behavior of medical students at the medical library. Results showed evidence of use of e-resources, but they did not explicitly establish that some of the major problems mentioned by participants did hinder the information searches of the respondents. An extensive literature review sets the background for the study.     

Library tools at the nurses' station: exploring information-seeking behaviors and needs of nurses in a war veterans nursing home

Objectives:Analyze the information-seeking practices and identify the information and education needs of nurses in a war veterans nursing home. Develop an online toolkit for use at the nurses'' stations to meet nurses'' health information needs.Methods:Investigators employed mixed methods to determine the health information needs of the participating nurses at the skilled nursing facility using an online questionnaire and in-person observations. Resulting data was compared to determine how nurses'' self-reported data corresponded with investigator observations.Results:Twenty-seven out of a total of thirty-five nurses responded to the online questionnaire. The study principal investigator also observed a total of twelve nurses working across all shifts. The online questionnaire asked nurses to identify when they need health information for an acute clinical scenario. Nurses self-reported feeling most confident in assessing falls and pain, followed by medication adherence and skin integrity. Issues most frequently encountered during observation of nurses were falls, interventions surrounding cognitive ability or dementia, and use of antibiotics. Nurses reported and were observed to consult colleagues most frequently, followed by drug handbooks and relying on nursing experience.Conclusion:Nurses in skilled nursing facilities will benefit from ready online access to current drug handbooks as well as information resources surrounding commonly encountered clinical issues and stated needs. An outcome of this project is an online toolkit site using a LibGuide created specifically for this purpose. Researchers purchased laptop computers that were installed at each of the nurses'' stations to provide ready access to the toolkit site.     

Educational workshop improved information-seeking skills,knowledge, attitudes and the search outcome of hospital clinicians: a randomised controlled trial

A double-blind randomised controlled trial was conducted on a group of Hong Kong hospital clinicians. The objective was to test if a three-hour educational workshop (with supervised hands-on practice) is more effective (than no training) to improve clinical question formulation, information-seeking skills, knowledge, attitudes, and search outcomes. The design was a post-test-only control group; recruitment by stratified randomization (by profession), blocked at 800. End-user training was more effective than no training in improving clinical question formulation, in raising awareness, knowledge, confidence and use of databases, but had made no impact on preference for secondary databases. It changed the attitude of clinicians to become more positive towards the use of electronic information services (EIS). Participants had higher search performance and outcomes (satisfaction with information obtained (NNT = 3), EIS satisfaction (NNT = 3) and success in problem solving (NNT = 4)). The workshop improved knowledge and skills in evidence-based searching, but this effect gradually eroded with time. Search logs confirmed that follow-up is required if effects are to be sustained. Longer effects on search behaviours appear to be positive. A randomised controlled trial is valuable in identifying cause-and-effect relations and to quantify the magnitude of the effects for management decision-making.     

The life span of a print textbook: An investigation in the utility of aging textbook collections in academic libraries

Abstract

This paper will use circulation data to explore usage trends for physical textbooks in an academic library over a sustained period of time. Conclusions will be drawn from the analysis to determine the usefulness of aging physical textbook collections in academic libraries and inform recommendations for efficient models of lending and management.     

Identification of potential young talented individuals in the natural and life sciences: A bibliometric approach

Identification of young talented individuals based on bibliometric data is not an easy task. Citation-based data usually need too long to accrue. In this study, we propose a method for the identification of potential young talented individuals which is not citation-based. Since potential talent is defined in this study in terms of early publication performance, three different indicators and their combinations were used: We not only used (1) the number of papers in high-impact journals, but also (2) the total number of papers, and (3) the number of papers as a corresponding author. An older cohort including potential talents with their first publication between 1999 and 2003 was used to find the most suitable indicator combination. Two additional indicators were used for the validation step: (1) The citation impact on the level of individual papers and (2) the number of papers that are linked to grants. The best performing indicator combination was applied to the time period 2007–2011 for identifying young potentially talented individuals who published their first paper within this time period. We produced a set of 46,200 potentially talented individuals that can be downloaded free of charge.     

Different mysteries,different lore: An examination of inherited referencing behaviors in academic mentoring

Library and information science (LIS) dissertations cite a wide variety of literature, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of the field. A review of 76 LIS dissertations was undertaken to determine whether the disciplinary background of the dissertation adviser influences the citing behaviors of the dissertation author. Of the 76 dissertations, 38 were advised by individuals with a disciplinary background in LIS and 38 were advised by individuals with a disciplinary background outside of LIS. The Library of Congress subclass for each citation was determined according the venue of publication. The most cited authors overall and by each group were determined, as well as the percentage of citations to LIS literature over time. LIS-advised dissertations were found to have cited a wide variety of literature. The percentage of citations in LIS-advised dissertations to LIS literature has declined from a peak of 59% to 21%. Citations to the most-cited authors in each group were largely exclusive to the LIS-advised dissertations, and nonLIS-advised dissertations generally do not appear to cite the same bodies of academic literature.     

Attaining information literacy: An investigation of the relationship between skill level,self-estimates of skill,and library anxiety

Competency theory predicts a miscalibration between students' self-assessments of their information literacy skills and their actual skill level. This study investigates whether such a disparity is evident among incoming freshmen who test as non-proficient on a standardized test of information literacy. In addition, this study analyzes Information Literacy Test scores and library anxiety test scores to provide preliminary data on whether library anxiety is related to information literacy skill attainment. Findings reveal that the relationship between information literacy skills and self-assessments predicted by competency theory are evident in the domain of information literacy. This study did not find an association between information literacy skill scores and total library anxiety scores. However, a significant negative correlation between information literacy scores and the subscale “knowledge of the library” indicates that as information literacy scores rise, anxiety scores related to a lack of knowledge of the library fall. The findings suggest that traditional information literacy instruction may not be effective with non-proficient students, who are unlikely to see themselves as needing or benefiting from such instruction.     

Understanding everyday life information seeking behavior in the context of coping with daily hassles: A grounded theory study of female students

Studying everyday life information seeking (ELIS) in a variety of contexts contributes to its conceptual development. The primary goal of this study was to understand ELIS in the context of female university students' coping with daily hassles. To identify the dimensions and determinants of ELIS, and to fill this current gap in the literature, a grounded theory study was conducted using Flick's stages of episodic interviewing with 21 Iranian female first-year university students. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and analyzed through open, axial and selective coding. The findings showed that ELIS in coping with daily hassles is a multidimensional phenomenon that is affected by individuals' characteristics and sociocultural norms and values. Three main categories emerged as determinants of ELIS, namely normative status of the daily hassles, normative status of the information resources, and the individual's characteristics. Two main categories emerged as dimensions of ELIS which were type and strategy of action. Results of this study can contribute to the conceptual development of ELIS and may indicate how and in what circumstances ELIS dimensions emerge. The findings can also be used as a basis for developing information and intervention services in the context of coping with daily hassles.     

Preventive Conservation: People,Objects, Place and Time in the Philippines

ABSTRACT

Preventive conservation, with its origins grounded in the material fabric of cultural material, is in a period of transformation, with numerous practitioners, in and outside of the field of conservation, considering its broader and holistic objectives. The conventional tools for the assertion of preventive conservation principles, namely the assessment and management of risks to cultural material from the ‘ten agents of deterioration’, have a central focus on the primacy of physical materials and degradation, with less clear relationships with people, place, and time in their modelling. With a case study focus on collections in the Philippines, this paper argues for a practice of preventive conservation that incorporates a balanced assessment and broader thinking around the contexts of objects, people, place, and time. The case studies of ecclesiastical Church collections, and museum environments in the Philippines, demonstrate how the interdependency of objects, people, place and time forms a holistic and conceptual preventive conservation framework. Through a cyclic renegotiation of these four parameters, this paper speculates on the gaps and opportunities for an inclusive view of preventive conservation that is current and more sustainable.     

The information-seeking behavior of pastoral clergy: A study of the interaction of their work worlds and work roles

This study asked whether the information-seeking behavior of pastoral clergy was governed by the interaction of their work worlds and work roles. It was proposed that the pastor operates in a closed system when world and role are significantly dependent upon each other and in an open system of information-seeking when world and role are less dependent upon each other. The study was grounded in the sense-making theory of information seeking developed by Dervin and colleagues, and in a combining of social network theory and role theory. The investigator employed a mailed survey with a large stratified random sample of 378 pastoral clergy from six religious groups and structured interviews with 20 practicing clergy and qualitative techniques to analyze the content.Findings indicate that pastoral clergy tended to use different types of sources in different roles and that certain combinations of pastoral worlds and pastoral roles influenced whether the information-seeking behavior would be open or closed. The theological world contributed to a closed pattern in all three roles, while the denominational and congregational worlds helped produce this effect in only the administrative role.     

Muralism and the People: Culture,Popular Citizenship,and Government in Post-Revolutionary Mexico

This paper examines the history of Mexican muralism within the governmental development of a national cultural infrastructure after the Revolution of 1910. Treating mural art as a technical apparatus of popular communication, the paper argues for a more complex understanding of cultural communication through analysis of the institutional apparatuses of heritage as discursive sites of popular citizenship. In addition, this paper theorizes and historicizes Mexican state formation through the insights of Michel Foucault's essay on \ldblquote Governmentality\rdblquote for the purpose of providing a more nuanced theory of the relationship between culture, power, and the people     

Urbanizing folklore,Folkloricizing the urban: cultural communication between the urban poor and popular music in Dhaka

This article explores how a particular kind of popular music of Dhaka city called ‘urban folk’ and the cultural identity of the rural migrants have been producing each other in an ongoing process of cultural communication. Following a discussion on the historical background of urban migration and its depiction in the prevailing pop music culture, this article uses the concepts of ‘cultural hybridity’ by Homi K. Bhabha and ‘political society’ by Partha Chatterjee to argue how the fluid structure of this hybrid form of music and its unconventional mobility between the folk and the pop have been in close association with the urban poor's formation of political society in contemporary Dhaka.