Shortwave news: An exploratory study

This study focuses on the news content of four major international news broadcasters: VOA, BBC, Radio Moscow and Radio Peking. The period of study was from February 1 through 5, 1979.     

Content strategy in LibGuides: An exploratory study

Since its inception in 2007, Springshare's LibGuides has become a popular content management system (CMS) with academic libraries. The challenges of managing LibGuides content through a cohesive content strategy have not been well documented. The researchers conducted a survey of academic libraries that were using the LibGuides platform in Fall 2019 to determine how institutions are managing content challenges. Of 120 respondents, only 53% of the respondents indicated that their institutions had content guidelines that LibGuides authors were expected to follow. The top three most observed elements of these content guidelines were page design (80%), content reuse policies (77%), naming conventions (73%), and navigation (3%). 15% of respondents' institutions did not review guides once they were published. Of those that reviewed guides post-publication, authors (84%) most frequently reviewed their own guides. These findings imply that LibGuides are largely cared for on an honour system. Guidelines tend towards quantifiable elements and omit more abstract concepts.     

The endorsement of evasive leaders: An exploratory study

This study explored the question: When can a politician evasively respond to a request for his commitments without losing endorsement? The results suggested that high issue involvement on the part of an audience, and high language intensity on the part of a politician provide two opportunities for evasion without losing endorsement.     

Sophomores speaking: An exploratory study of student research practices

This article describes an exploratory study of the research behaviors of sophomore students at a small liberal arts college. In light of the transitional nature of the sophomore year and the limited data available on the research practices of sophomores, the authors sought to better understand the following: Students’ topic selection, help-seeking behavior, types of sources consulted, source selection criteria, research challenges, and changes in information-seeking behavior from the first year to the sophomore year. This article describes findings from a survey and in-depth interviews, and it offers recommendations for further research.     

The information behaviors of environmental planners: An exploratory study

This paper reports the findings of a study that explored the information behavior of environmental planners in Botswana, with a view to determine how it (information behavior) can be supported by an information policy. Ten environmental planners were purposively selected and interviewed to collect the data. The study found that an information policy for environmental planners should focus on the development of information skills, standards for the organization and storage, transfer and distribution of information, and the evaluation of the information to determine its quality. The lack of a relevant environmental information policy was found to be a barrier to its use. Furthermore, the study also found that the environmental planners make use of people that they know to get easy access to information. The information is found in various organizations. With regards to the environmental experts, it is their trustworthiness and willingness to share information that facilitates the use of information. For the local communities, the experience that the people have about the environment forms an essential part of the information input in environmental planning.     

Effective training for chat reference personnel: An exploratory study

By surveying reference practitioners on their perceptions of chat reference training, this study presents effective training techniques that could enhance the professional preparation for chat reference personnel. Results indicate that the most effective training techniques involve hands-on practice among trainees and easy access to supporting materials. Librarians with different experiences and comfort levels with chat, who work in different chat reference service modes, and provide evaluation from different perspectives, have significantly different views on the effectiveness of certain training techniques.     

The accessibility of Chinese local government Web sites: An exploratory study

With the rapid development of Chinese e-government, Chinese citizens are encouraged to access e-government services as their convenience. However, the accessibility of Chinese e-government Web sites has been overlooked. This research study tries to provide an overview of the accessibility of Chinese local government Web sites. Three hundred twenty-four Chinese local government Web sites were examined to find out how accessible they are with reference to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG) published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This research found that all the surveyed Chinese e-government Web sites failed one or more W3C's accessibility measures and thus many disabled Chinese people may have substantial problems to access them. Several valuable recommendations are made based on the research findings and the China's actual conditions.     

Searching for an image conveying connotative meanings: An exploratory cross-cultural study

On the basis of the semiotics premise, this exploratory study examined cultural influences that pertain to the image search process when users have connotative needs. The study used the Semantic Differential, a quantitative tool for measuring affective reactions, as well as word-based analysis, to analyze responses to a survey questionnaire administered to twelve Korean and twelve American students. The results demonstrated that even when completing the same task, participants from different backgrounds have different tendencies in expecting and selecting a relevant image. The results supported the semiotics assertion that cultural context results in variations in interpreting the connotative messages of an image, and these variations are restricted by cultural boundaries. The study underlined the potential of using the Semantic Differential to enhance accessibility to connotative messages during the image retrieval process. Based on the findings, some suggestions for image retrieval system design were discussed. This study will broaden understanding of connotative messages in terms of image retrieval and user behaviors. The conclusions will contribute to designing a practical image retrieval system that can provide subject access to connotative messages.     

An exploratory study: Using adapted interactive research design and contributive research method

This paper describes a nuanced methodological approach that responds to the notion that knowledge is socially positioned.MethodFour researchers sought to answer: How can Contributive Research Method be employed in a workshop with participants to build knowledge, provide trustworthy data collection, and leverage the opportunity to revise open content? Using an Adapted Interactive Model of Research Design (adapted from Maxwell, 2009) for engaging in the Contributive Research Method (Puig et al., 2018), data was gathered from an online satellite event, involving 34 institutions from Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Of the 97 participants, 57 contributed data. The presentation utilized digital tools (Mentimeter, and Hypothes.is) with an online learning community to promote the wellbeing of librarians.ResultsAn Adapted Interactive Research Design (AIRD) together with a Contributive Research Method (CRM) (Puig et al., 2018) and CAST analysis (AIRD with CRM + CAST) were effective as a nuanced research design.ConclusionsContributive Research creates an opportunity to truly blend research with the scholarship of learning and teaching where it could be used in Higher Education during lectures and potentially in classrooms. Findings contribute to the body of literature on methodology and may be applicable to similar studies.     

Levels of meaning and children: An exploratory study of picture books' illustrations

This study applied Erwin Panofsky's concept of levels of meaning of works of art and Corinne Jorgensen's framework of image attributes to an exploration of the distinct levels of meaning perceived by children in illustrations of picture books. Observations, interviews, and surveys were used for data collection and content analysis and case study for data analysis. Thirty-one three- to five-year old children recruited from preschool, pubic library, and home school settings participated. Findings showed that children relied on their previous experience and familiarity with the literary source to achieve levels of meaning. The concept of levels of meaning could provide a better understanding of representing meaning for children and children's interpretation of meaning of visual information.     

Topics in dynamic research communities: An exploratory study for the field of information retrieval

Research topics and research communities are not disconnected from each other: communities and topics are interwoven and co-evolving. Yet, scientometric evaluations of topics and communities have been conducted independently and synchronically, with researchers often relying on homogeneous unit of analysis, such as authors, journals, institutions, or topics. Therefore, new methods are warranted that examine the dynamic relationship between topics and communities. This paper examines how research topics are mixed and matched in evolving research communities by using a hybrid approach which integrates both topic identification and community detection techniques. Using a data set on information retrieval (IR) publications, two layers of enriched information are constructed and contrasted: one is the communities detected through the topology of coauthorship network and the other is the topics of the communities detected through the topic model. We find evidence to support the assumption that IR communities and topics are interwoven and co-evolving, and topics can be used to understand the dynamics of community structures. We recommend the use of the hybrid approach to study the dynamic interactions of topics and communities.     

Authorship conflict in Bangladesh: an exploratory study

This study aimed to explore the causes, types, and consequences of authorship conflicts among the researchers of selected research institutions in Dhaka, Bangladesh; and to suggest ways to reduce conflicts. A sample of 100 researchers was given a semi‐structured questionnaire; 45 subjects responded. The responses were confidential and anonymous. Over two‐thirds of the respondents were aware of authorship conflicts, and one‐third had actually faced conflicts with their co‐authors. Of them, four faced conflicts with their juniors, while 13 faced conflicts with their seniors or supervisors. The primary causes of such conflicts appear to be unethical claims of authorship, violation of authorship order, and deprivation of authorship. In most cases, the victims became frustrated and had to give up, and avoided a direct clash to safeguard their job. Four respondents claimed to have been victimized for raising their voice. Conflict was never resolved in seven cases. To reduce conflicts, respondents suggested that authorship should be decided before the study begins, order of authorship must be determined according to contribution, and a standard code of authorship should be followed strictly. Authorship conflicts arise among researchers mostly due to what they regard as unethical practice of their co‐authors, supervisors, and department heads in the absence of any formal authorship policy in the institutions. A standard code of authorship, sensitization of researchers to the problem through open discussions and advocacy, and formation of a grievance redress committee are suggested to minimize such conflicts. Although the sample size was small, some of the specific recommendations will be appropriate in many other cases.     

Help between disabled and ablebodied persons: An exploratory observational study of a feedback system

Because of concern among both disabled and ablebodied individuals about the issue of helping behavior, an exploratory observational study of helping in three settings was undertaken. Previous research had examined the frequency with which the disabled are helped, but had not examined the communication accompanying that help. The present study was interested in investigating the behaviors which actually occur in regard to helping, rather than what people say they do. The settings included a sheltered workshop, a social activity group, and a university with a large population of disabled students. The results indicate that much helping behavior occurred, but little verbal communication accompanied that help. There were few requests for or offers of help. In the three settings studied, helping did not appear to be a serious problem. No negative reactions to offers of or requests for help were observed. There were some instances, however, when those apparently needing help did not receive it. On the basis of the observations reported in this study, seventeen tentative “rules” based on our findings have been generated.     

Cultural influences on seeking quality health information: An exploratory study of the Korean community

Consumer health information-seeking behavior of members of a local Korean community in Tallahassee, Florida, was explored through semi-structured interviews. Questions explored how this community assessed the quality of health information, and what cultural values influenced their understanding of its quality. Accuracy and reliability were identified as the two most valuable quality characteristics. A commercial type of webpage was considered as a negative indicator for reliability, while information described in detail or displayed reiteratively was a positive indicator. In addition to functional quality criteria, nonfunctional characteristics such as sympathy were found. Above all, findings highlighted that cultural differences limited the use of health information. Quality based selection of information is an important part of a health information seeking process. Findings can give the designers of Web-based consumer health information systems important insights into how to support evaluation of the quality of health information by consumers, and how to reduce barriers to health information seeking and use caused by cultural differences.     

Librarians and information scientists in the blogosphere: An exploratory analysis

Blogging, though a relatively new phenomenon, has already gained greatly in popularity, and blogs have become an essential information channel in the Web 2.0 information world. Research into 30 topic-oriented blogs dealing with librarianship and information science, focusing specifically on tagging and folksonomies, was conducted over a period of two months. The purpose of the analysis was to describe and classify the LIS blogosphere, with the purpose of understanding the tagging patterns of librarian and information scientist bloggers and the nature of the folksonomies they form. Findings indicate that professional LIS blogs reflect the most up-to-date interests of LIS professionals as well as bloggers' personal lives and experiences. Content analysis reveals that the tag schemes generated by users contain their own internal logic and order.     

Clinicians' satisfaction with Grateful Med: an exploratory study

End-user search software is designed to simplify online searching for the casual searcher. User-friendly features provide relatively easy online access to remote databases without the need for expert search systems. At issue is whether the simplified features of such software compromise what is potentially retrievable, and if so, whether the missing information is critical to the end user. A study was designed to address this question, particularly as applied to clinicians using a user-friendly search software package such as Grateful Med. Clinician participants compared their Grateful Med search results with a full Elhill search (as performed by an intermediary) and indicated whether references unique to either search were or were not critical to their information needs.     

Theory talk in the library science scholarly literature: An exploratory analysis

In the discipline of library and information science (LIS), a qualitative analysis of the meaningful use of theory in contemporary scholarly literature is critical to helping scholars expand their repertoire of knowledge about various theories and helping them make informed decisions about how to skillfully integrate theory in their research. This study explored how theory was presented and talked about in seven prominent library science-focused journals from 2009 to 2011. Through a process of analytic induction, categories representing a continuum of theory talk were identified and their relationships examined. Three main types of theory talk in library research are defined, ranging from minimal (theory dropping), moderate (theory conversation), to major (theory generation). The categories and their relationships generate a rich discussion about the intensity and degree to which theory is being discussed and used in a less-examined subset of library and information science research journals. This research contributes both an explanatory structure and substantive discussion regarding theory use in library science to the professional literature.     

Analyzing the role of stakeholders in the adoption of technology integration solutions in UK local government: An exploratory study

Over the last decade many governments across the world have intensified their efforts to improve efficiency of public services through Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-enabled transformation of Local Government Authorities (LGAs). Many of these efforts involve implementing new Information Systems and Technology (IS/IT) and integrating various disparate legacy systems to deliver improved services. While there is a surfeit of literature that have outlined the various organizational and technical challenges posed by Technology Integration Solutions (TIS), few studies have examined the role of stakeholders and surrounding challenges when implementing TIS in LGAs. The TIS adoption process involves several stakeholders, each with specific domain knowledge and expertise that are crucial to the success of TIS projects. In this paper, the authors use the concept of stakeholder theory to analyze the role of stakeholders during the TIS adoption process with regards to their perceptions on the factors influencing TIS adoption in LGAs and their involvement on the adoption lifecycle phases. A qualitative multiple case study approach is adopted to empirically highlight the different categories of stakeholders involved in the TIS adoption process, the dynamic nature and importance of their role, and why their domain knowledge and expertise are vital for TIS projects.