Evaluating the effectiveness of relevance feedback based on a user simulation model: effects of a user scenario on cumulated gain value

We propose a method for performing evaluation of relevance feedback based on simulating real users. The user simulation applies a model defining the user’s relevance threshold to accept individual documents as feedback in a graded relevance environment; user’s patience to browse the initial list of retrieved documents; and his/her effort in providing the feedback. We evaluate the result by using cumulated gain-based evaluation together with freezing all documents seen by the user in order to simulate the point of view of a user who is browsing the documents during the retrieval process. We demonstrate the method by performing a simulation in the laboratory setting and present the “branching” curve sets characteristic for the presented evaluation method. Both the average and topic-by-topic results indicate that if the freezing approach is adopted, giving feedback of mixed quality makes sense for various usage scenarios even though the modeled users prefer finding especially the most relevant documents.     

Priorities for publishing research: A multidisciplinary agenda

Publishing research, to be effective and useful, requires the participation of scholars and practitioners in many disciplines: literature, history, sociology, psychology, technology, economics, and education. Examples are drawn from trade and scholarly publishing. The results of such research can benefit all segments of the industry. Beth Luey is director, Scholarly Publishing Program at Arizona State University and have been editor of Publishing Research Quarterly since 1988. She is the author of several books, includingHandbook for Academic Authors.     

Leadership: Developing a research agenda for academic libraries

The number of books and journal articles on leadership is large and constantly increasing. Those writings might advance or evaluate different theories and test their application in different settings. The purpose of this article is to stimulate the amount and type of research on the topic appearing in the literature of library and information science. The research discussed is grouped around a conceptual model, one that captures managerial leadership in the information professions.     

高校图书馆馆员继续教育的需求特点及其发展趋势

文章分析了我国图书馆馆员继续教育的需求特点及其发展趋势,提出了学历教育将趋缓,学术业务性教育、服务技能性教育、专项业务技能培训将是馆员教育的重要内容和形式,并提出了相应措施,以求达到馆员的个人发展需求和图书馆事业发展需求双赢的良好局面。     

ERIC user services: Changes and evaluation for the future

Presents findings on the state of ERIC user services and evaluation efforts performed so far. Recommends changes to strengthen ERIC’s competitive edge and identifies areas of user services critical to ERIC’s strategic goals. Offers an evaluation plan to produce benchmark data for future assessment and inform ERIC’s decision on its future direction.     

发挥高校图书馆教育优势的探讨

论述了高校图书馆在辅助课堂教学、素质教育、创新教育中的优势，提出了进一步发挥这些优势的相应措施。     

The scholar's anthology: A research agenda for communication education

These five papers summarize and provide a focus for concerns about research in communication education, and identify critical areas for additional research. The authors also specify areas where educators and scholars should he implementing existing research findings in speech communication instruction.     

Research agenda for library instruction and information literacy

Editor's note: The Association for College and Research Libraries (ACRL) made the following research agenda available in the February 2003 issue of College & Research Libraries News (Vol. 64, No. 2, pp. 108–113; reprinted with permission). Although this agenda has already been published, we believe it still merits reprinting, especially within the pages of an internationally focused research journal. The questions raised in ACRL's agenda indeed do deserve investigation, and the results of those investigations should appear in the scholarly literature. We encourage anyone who addresses those questions to first examine Developing Research & Communication Skills: Guidelines for Information Literacy in the Curriculum (Philadelphia, PA: Middle States Commission on Higher Education, 2003). This important report links information literacy with assessment and demonstrates the importance of that topic to an educational accreditation body. Furthermore, that linkage adds to (and rounds out) the research agenda. Clearly, information literacy as defined in that report is a topic of interest to anyone in education—higher education or other.     

Research agenda for social and collaborative information seeking

Scholars in diverse fields of inquiry have identified the need to expand individual-based information seeking and behavior models and systems to incorporate social as well as collaborative dimensions. However, the research areas of Social Information Seeking (SIS) and Collaborative Information Seeking (CIS) have been largely disconnected from one another despite a few notable attempts to study them under one umbrella. Researchers in these communities have recently realized the value of bringing SIS and CIS together for two main reasons: often it is impossible to separate social and collaborative dimensions in a project; and by considering these two aspects of information seeking, we may be able to support human information behavior in ways not previously possible. A brief synthesis of work in the domains of SIS and CIS is presented here. Then, an integrated view is presented to consider Social and Collaborative Information Seeking (SCIS) as an intersection and extension of SIS and CIS. Benefits of this approach are discussed and the integrated view is used as the basis to present a research agenda that outlines opportunities and challenges unique to SCIS.     

Selective exposure and agenda setting: exploring the impact of partisan media exposure on agenda diversity and political participation

A deliberative democracy calls for citizens who are well informed about a diverse range of public issues and a media system that shapes the public agenda for deliberation and consensus building. However, with the current proliferation of a high-choice media environment, citizens can engage in partisan selective exposure by only consuming news that matches their own political attitudes and dispositions. This study examines two under-researched effects of partisan selective exposure: (1) the reduction in the number of societal issues that individuals consider important (i.e., nominal agenda diversity) and (2) the reduction in the variety of issues (i.e., thematic agenda diversity). A national survey was conducted in Hong Kong, a transitional democracy with a highly partisan media environment. The results showed that although reading more newspapers is positively related to nominal agenda diversity and thematic agenda diversity, citizens who receive their news only from partisan newspapers are less likely to be interested in a range of public issues and are less able to name pressing societal issues. Moreover, both nominal and thematic diversities predicted political participation, though not political discussion. The findings provide supporting evidence that partisan selective exposure can lead to a fragmented public agenda.     

Setting the agenda for environmental news: The effects of media and public characteristics

This study examined the relationship between different media agendas and public agendas in the agenda‐setting process. The local and regional media agendas for environmental news in the Lansing, Michigan, area were exactly the same. It was also found that respondents could accurately assess media issue emphasis when they were asked to do so.     

End user searching at Indiana University School of Dentistry: tailoring a program for a specific user group.

While many librarians support the concept of end user searching, they fear that large costs will be incurred with the introduction of such a program. This article describes an economical end user training program which was developed at the Indiana University School of Dentistry. End user training at IUSD is fully self-supporting and has been tailored to meet the needs of a very specialized user group.     

论读者需求与图书馆服务方式

本文分析了网络环境下图书馆用户需求的新趋势及产生的原因,得出了图书馆必须使其服务模式根据用户需求的变化而变化才能生存发展的结论,并在此基础上对现代服务模式进行了探讨。     

Technological tools for library user education: one library's experience

In today's world, library users are confronted with almost too many options for using information because of the ubiquitousness of technology. Yet, libraries can harness the power of the same technologies to help users find the information they need at the time it is needed. The tools described in this article represent a starting point for librarians looking for technologies that are easy to use, inexpensive, and have a reasonable learning curve. Technologies addressed include classroom technologies such as audience response systems and Web-based technologies, including Web tutorials and screencasting. These technologies enhance and offer flexibility and variety in many educational settings.     

COLLEAGUE: a comprehensive online medical library for the end user

COLLEAGUE, from BRS/Saunders, is an online information service intended for use by health professionals. This article describes both the databases and services available through COLLEAGUE and shows specific search examples. Special COLLEAGUE features are highlighted as well as the differences between COLLEAGUE and both BRS/AFTER DARK and the BRS Search System. In addition, the role of the librarian in end user searching and future directions for COLLEAGUE are discussed.     

The U.S. decennial census: an agenda for change.

"The results and experiences of the 1990 [U.S.] census demonstrate that the American population has grown too diverse and dynamic to be accurately counted solely by the traditional 'headcount' approach, and that fundamental changes must be implemented for a successful census in 2000. In the past, each census was more accurate than the preceding one, in part because of increased spending. However, the accuracy of the 1990 census fell below that of the 1980 census, as census costs escalated significantly. The $2.6 billion the nation spent on the 1990 census represented a 65 percent increase in constant dollars over the cost of the 1980 census. Additional cost escalation with the 2000 census is probable unless needed reforms are implemented. Although it is too early to identify the precise design needed for a more cost-effective census in 2000, the General Accounting Office believes that a number of opportunities for reform are worthy of aggressive attention."     

Entrepreneurial opportunities with toolkits for user innovation and design

Abstract

This article discusses a promising entrepreneurial opportunity: toolkits for user innovation and design. This innovative method of new product development (NDP) shifts the design task to the customer by making use of recent developments in IT, media, and production technologies. The customer, in turn, gets a product that perfectly suits his/her needs. This new approach challenges the time‐consuming and costly traditional approach of screening the market for new product needs which are then converted into novel or adapted products.

Our analysis shows that there are basically two different ways to exploit this opportunity. First, by means of high‐end toolkits, radically new products can be gathered. Second, low‐end toolkits can be used efficiently to further exploit seemingly mature markets. We argue that in particular startups might be in the best position to take advantage of these entrepreneurial opportunities. They can either enter the arena of manufacturers or they can act as new intermediaries between manufacturers and users.     

OpenAthens odyssey: challenges of implementing federated authentication for a multi-institutional user population

Background:The Texas Medical Center (TMC) is home to one of the world''s largest cohorts of faculty, students, researchers, and clinicians who rely on seamless and immediate access to digital biomedical and health resources. This group is served by the TMC Library, with a collection that includes over 380,000 ebooks and 59,000 ejournals. In 2018, the TMC Library implemented OpenAthens, a federated authentication system to replace a locally hosted instance of EZproxy.Case Presentation:The TMC Library is unique in its multi-institutional user population, which presents distinct challenges in adopting a single sign-on authentication system. Our project involved OpenAthens technical support, information technology teams from six academic institutions, and over thirty publishers. Implementation included the creation of an OpenAthens parent account, an active user directory, a resource catalog, and installation of our OpenAthens credentials at each publisher site. Because the TMC Library serves multiple institutions, OpenAthens built a custom login page and a portal to support both single sign-on and a generic username and password option. This case report discusses the reasons why OpenAthens was chosen, the preparation methods for implementation, the various challenges encountered and resolved, and recommendations for other health sciences libraries considering this system.Conclusions:The OpenAthens system provides important benefits: granular usage reports, single sign-on access, and data to negotiate reduced pricing for online resources. With prior knowledge and preparation, health sciences libraries can successfully implement OpenAthens with customizations tailored to their specific resources and user population.