Academic librarians' support of autistic college students: A quasi-experimental study

The role of academic libraries and librarians in support of autistic students has been studied on a limited basis with no confirmation on how to best convey knowledge of support services most effectively. A quasi-experimental research protocol with three academic library sites and related professional development treatments enabled comparison on the impact of online training alone, online coaching combined with coaching, and existing autism support programs. Academic librarians' knowledge and attitudes, along with measures of the library's physical environment were calculated pre and post training. Results showed that coaching, combined with online instruction, is the most effective professional development strategy for increasing knowledge of academic library patrons on the autism spectrum; librarians are enthusiastic to learn more about services taking place in other academic libraries, and small changes in the library environment can be impactful.     

从数据库收录医学期刊的数量和质量变化看近年我国医学研究的发展

以<中国科技期刊引证报告>中医学期刊的数量和平均影响因子作为评价指标,研究我国近年医学研究的发展状况.结果表明:我国医学科学研究近年来总体呈现稳定快速发展的态势.在医学各分支中,临床医学研究领域最为活跃,发展最为迅速.在临床各学科中,内、外、妇、儿仍将是主流学科.     

Qualitative and quantitative factors concerning scientific information in agricultural research: A case study of South Eastern Nigeria

The aim of the study is to measure the effects of information resources and services of a regional information resources centre (NR CRI Library, Umudike), on the work of agricultural scientists within South Eastern Nigeria. The adequacy and relevance of resources and services were also examined.One hundred and forty-one copies of a structured, self-administered questionnaire were sent to 140 scientists and one Head Librarian. Ninety-nine (70%) were retrieved and analysed. Data were also generated from intervies and a randomly selected sample, from documentary sources and observations. Analysis focused on library use, resources, services, effects of use on performance, relevance and adequacy of resources and services. Simple analytical tools such as graphs, charts and tables were used to elucidate library use, operations, benefits, effects of use on performance, relevance and adequacy of resources and services.Results showed that research objective (20%) was the most common reason why scientists sought information and that information “effectively improved” the work of 73% of scientists. It also showed that among six other technical determinants that are essential for agricultural research, the importance attributed to the contribution of information to the success of research varied between groups of scientists. This trend was also observed in the amount of work achieved by scientists with the use information. The highest (20·4%) showed respondents who accepted that 31–40% of their research work was achieved with the use of information. The     

计算机联机编目查重问题探究

作者阐述了中文图书计算机联机编目查重的含义、重要性和途径,指出了查重应注意的问题及对策,介绍了提高图书编目查重准确率的几种常用方法。     

Faculty and librarian collaborations: A case study and proposal for online learning environments

To design a new distance education course with an emphasis on student group work, a collaborative effort among the University of Missouri St. Louis Libraries and faculty was established. The collaborative process resulted in a more individualized service experience for library users, and the problems of course construction, using the Blackboard course management system, were shared and solved with new efficiency. The goals of the institution and individuals involved were initially successful and have expanded into a larger effort of developing new resources and collaborative efforts throughout the campus. New methods, new technologies, and new roles and responsibilities for faculty and librarians are described. As librarians assume online “course librarian” positions, significant responsibilities can be shifted to their support, and new resources can be made available to students with considerable ease—particularly via library electronic resources, databases, and electronic communication.     

Growth behavior of publications and patents: A comparative study on selected Asian economies

This study attempts to model the growth behavior of the number of publications and patents of South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Malaysia. Three competing growth functions, namely, simple logistic growth function, bi-logistic growth function and logistic function within a dynamic carrying capacity were considered. The findings provide insight to the diffusion process of science and technology, often measured by the number of publications and patents, respectively. The function that provides the best fit to the observed data was opted for explaining the diffusion process. The function with the best fit is the bi-logistic growth function for the number of publications as well as the number of patents of South Korea and Taiwan, the logistic growth function within a dynamic carrying capacity (LGDCC) for the number of publications and the bi-logistic growth function for the number of patents of Japan, and the LGDCC for the number of publications and simple growth function for the number of patents of Malaysia. The results suggest a dynamic self-propagating growth for the science and technology, and thereby a transition from science and technology-push to market-pull growth for South Korea and Taiwan. While a similar transition was observed for the technology of Japan, the growth in science had entered a maturity stage. On the other hand, the growth potential in science is dynamic for Malaysia, but its technological advancement is relatively lower and static compared to the other economies.     

Harnessing the online resources: A case study of ScienceDirect in India

E-mail-alerting system of online databases is a new trend catching up fast with researchers. Results of auto-run set queries are informed through e-mails as ‘alerts’ to the registered user. Even though e-mail-alerting systems are quite popular amongst Internet users, their inherent advantages remain unexplored in the Indian scenario. An effort to explore all such features available in the ScienceDirect online database has been made in this paper. The process of registration for activating e-mail alerts, customizing a home page, selecting favorite journals, search alerts, journal issue alerts, citation alerts and search history are briefed with screen shot examples. The study emphasizes the fact that librarians and information Science professionals should take lead roles in unveiling all such possible features available in various online databases. They should also make efforts at informing the user community of the utility of such features in a bid to enhance the research output.     

Harnessing the online resources: A case study of ScienceDirect in India

E-mail-alerting system of online databases is a new trend catching up fast with researchers. Results of auto-run set queries are informed through e-mails as ‘alerts’ to the registered user. Even though e-mail-alerting systems are quite popular amongst Internet users, their inherent advantages remain unexplored in the Indian scenario. An effort to explore all such features available in the ScienceDirect online database has been made in this paper. The process of registration for activating e-mail alerts, customizing a home page, selecting favorite journals, search alerts, journal issue alerts, citation alerts and search history are briefed with screen shot examples. The study emphasizes the fact that librarians and information Science professionals should take lead roles in unveiling all such possible features available in various online databases. They should also make efforts at informing the user community of the utility of such features in a bid to enhance the research output.     

Avoiding misleading information: A study of complementary medicine online information for cancer patients

Health misinformation can severely affect human behaviour, especially in controversial areas such as that of complementary medicine. A cross-sectional observational study was conducted on 16 web pages to identify different kinds of falsehoods, to estimate the risk of running into deceptive information, and to observe the differences among experts' and one layperson's assessments. Almost all analyzed claims were unfounded. Unexpectedly, the experts agreed more often on considering analyzed scientific statements to be correct rather than incorrect. However, half of the time, the experts did not agree, so that the correctness of some claims remained undefined. A statistically significant risk of running into unfounded information and incorrect or undefined claims was found. There was a low agreement between the expert and layperson evaluation. The results of this study can help consumer health librarians to interpret cues of potentially misleading information about controversial issues and thereby improve their information and communication services.     

The attributes of research on end-user online searching behavior: A retrospective review and analysis

A total of 163 studies examining end-user behaviors (as reported in 175 individual articles) were selected and analyzed for their research attributes. From the earliest identified study to those conducted before the end of 2000, recurring themes emerged, as did characteristics unique to particular studies. The majority of researchers employed nonexperimental quantitative data collection methods. However, a select group of qualitative studies and a few experimental investigations also were identified. Research designs combining multiple methodologies were the norm. The variables prevalent across studies were broadly classified into a typology under end-user traits, system attributes, organizational setting, task and request characteristics, performance outcomes and obstacles, and results measures. The specific behaviors that researchers concentrated upon most often were the end-users' searching techniques, relevance judgments about information they found, satisfaction with search results, and prior knowledge brought to bear on online searching assignments. Also examined were trends in publishing, geographic locations of field sites, databases selected for searching activities, and the characteristics of searcher cohorts.     

A model of integrated information-analytic system for basic research support in earth sciences

The paper considers the design of integrated information-analytic systems by using a mathematical model of grouping of the related scientific-research institutes and choosing a group center, i.e., an Internet portal. The modeling accounts for thematic similarity of targeted tasks and cost issues. The Electronic Earth project launched by the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) is aimed at the development of a system of thematic Internet portals centered around the portal of the All-Russian Institute of Scientific and Technical Information (VINITI) of the Russian Academy Of Sciences and constructed on the basis of computer modeling.     

以豆瓣网和中国国家图书馆为案例的网上书目推荐系统研究

现有网上书目推荐系统根据应用服务理念的不同可以分为Web2．0型和传统型,根据其使用的过滤技术可以分为非个性化推荐、基于产品属性的推荐、基于相关用户的推荐和基于用户知识结构的推荐。书目推荐的开展应当遵循针对性、可行性、时效性这三个原则。本文通过对豆瓣网和中国国家图书馆的网上书目推荐服务的调查,从有用性、易用性、满意度、可找到性、普及性和可靠性六个方面对它们进行了比较,概括了传统型网上书目推荐系统的优势和改进意见。     

Biomedical innovation at the laboratory, clinical and commercial interface: A new method for mapping research projects, publications and patents in the field of microarrays

Using the example of microarrays, one of the constitutive technologies of post-genomic biomedicine, this paper introduces a method for analyzing publications, patents and research grants as proxies for “triple-helix interfaces” between university, industry and government activities. Our method creates bridges that allow one to move seamlessly between publication, patent and research project databases that use different fields and formats, and contain different information. These links do not require pre-defined categories in order to search for correspondences between sub-topics or research areas in the three databases. Finally, our results are not restricted to quantitative information but, rather, allow one to carry out qualitative investigations of the content of research activities. Our approach draws on a combination of text-mining and network analysis/mapping software packages.     

Collaborating for public access to scholarly publications: A case study of the partnership between the US Department of Energy and CHORUS

• The success of the CHORUS and DOE relationship is the result of nearly two decades of interactions between the DOE and a group of scientific publishers.
• The relationship between CHORUS and the US federal agencies required understanding of different motivations, operations, and philosophies.
• Although achieving public access was simple in principle, it required considerable effort to develop systems that satisfied all parties.
• Publishers had been working with federal agencies to achieve open access before the 2013 White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, but this helped to create a path for a more fruitful relationship.

     

Attitudes and practices of Canadian academic librarians regarding library and online privacy: A national study

Libraries have always been places where individuals feel free to explore new ideas and seek out information in the pursuit of creative and intellectual growth. Fear of exposure or surveillance could threaten an individual's inclination to search for and access information. Understandably then, privacy is understood to be a core professional responsibility of librarians. This study builds on a national report and a qualitative study, completed in the United States, which explored librarians' attitudes on privacy. Adding a Canadian voice to the literature, this study examines survey results from academic librarians in Canada on their perceptions and attitudes related to library practices and online privacy behaviors. Overall, Canadian academic librarians believe that protecting patron privacy and educating patrons about issues related to online privacy is important. However, many Canadian academic librarians doubt that libraries are doing all they can to protect patron privacy. Academic librarians stand to gain knowledge and understanding of peer attitudes toward online privacy, as well as how patron privacy is being advocated for and protected on university campuses across Canada. The results will guide future library policies and programming aimed at creating an environment where privacy rights are protected and patrons can make informed choices about their online actions.     

The role of ICT in information seeking and use amongst research officers in research institutes in Nigeria: The nigerian institute for oceanography & marine research institute experience

Information Communication Technology (ICT) is on the lips of every nation of earth because it brings innovation into information seeking and knowledge acquisition. It is on this premise that this study is embarked upon to identify the roles ICT plays in information seeking and use amongst research officers in Research Institutes in Nigeria. The paper case studies the Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research, Lagos using questionnaires, interviews, personal observation and examining relevant records. One hundred and seventy two research officers of the institute were sampled upon. The study examines awareness, use, exposure to ICT; role of ICT and improvements on ICT tools among other things. Results show that ICT plays an immense role in information sourcing, generation, processing, storage/retrieval, dissemination and even entertainment. Also, it shows that for ICT to be used optimally and maximally, there is need to have steady/regular power supply, workable/stable infrastructure and provision of more ICT tools and centres. Recommendations were made to the Federal Government of Nigeria to provide reliable sources of electricity and infrastructure or adapt the technology to local conditions and requirements (e.g. current/planned infrastructure). Manufacturers of ICT tools are urged to use non-radioactive materials in the manufacture of the tools. Other stakeholders should check for security and provide for more African sites.     

Recruitment and diversity: A research study of bilingualism and library services

Recruitment theory considers the relative importance of a range of factors (i.e., individuals, experiences, and other factors) in the decisions of those who select a profession, a professional specialty, and a specific employer. This study of the recruitment of bilingual librarians is based on a survey of the membership of REFORMA (The National Association to Promote Library Services to the Spanish Speaking). The data reflect the factors that influenced the career decision making of current library and information professionals who are, in the main, bilingual and Hispanic, as well as the factors influencing potential retention decisions. The research results indicate the importance of factors, such as entering a service profession and the desire to serve the Spanish-speaking community, in particular. As is the case with the prior (and limited) recruitment research in the profession, this article provides insights in terms of recruitment strategies for bilingual librarians who serve this segment of the population. While the research relates to a growing segment of the U.S. population, with its demographic complexity and range of information needs, implications, which are applicable to other language groups, bilingual circumstances, and other countries, are considered, as well.     

Government publications in New Zealand libraries and the University of Oregon: A comparison

The kind and size of a library determines the need to collect and the method of controlling government publications. New Zealand libraries tend to handle these publications like any other book with the exception of official records and statistics. As a rule, public, rather than academic libraries, are the designated depositories. In comparing the concept of New Zealand libraries to that of the University of Oregon Library concerning government publications, I found that New Zealand libraries collect and store official and statistical publications and give them partial use; most government publications are integrated into the general collection (use is not known), and few libraries have separate government publication sections with special librarians governing the collection. On the other hand the University of Oregon collects all types of government publications for optimum use; many have been integrated into the general collection (use is not known); and a separate documents section is open to the public with several librarian specialists in attendance. Government publications in the general collection are not, as a rule, recognized as government publications by the public, but those publications are readily accessible. Many government publications at the University of Oregon Library are housed in the general collection, but since 1974 publications of the United States, Canada and many international organizations are shelved in the Documents Section. Use of the various classification schemes has proved successful; however, changes and improvements should be considered frequently to make the government publications collection the best able to serve the public.