Beyond codes of ethics: how library and information professionals navigate ethical dilemmas in a complex and dynamic information environment

This paper reports on a research project that investigated how library and information (LIS) professionals experience ethical dilemmas, with particular reference to the impact of new technologies, sources used to assist ethical decision-making, and the contribution case studies can make to ethical understanding and decision-making. Data was collected through interviews in Britain, Ireland and Australia with LIS professionals, educators, and representatives of professional bodies. The findings identify the main types of dilemma raised and discuss cases indicative of each type. They suggest that new technologies do not appear to change ethical principles but, when experienced in the workplace, substantially change the factors the professional has to evaluate. They also suggest that relevant codes of ethics are satisfactory on traditional library issues of access and confidentiality, but do not address the ethical challenges of current and potential digital environments. Professional associations appear more familiar with codes of ethics than practitioners although practitioners show high levels of ethical awareness, suggesting associations need to communicate more with their members and provide tools that are more useful in the workplace. Case studies are seen as a good way to educate and engage practitioners because of the complexity, conflicts and dynamism they can present.     

Communication and information needs of earth science engineers

The paper attempts to define the information needs of earth science engineers: mining, engineering geology, soil and rock mechanics. The approach was to investigate these needs in relation to the environment in which the engineer lives and works, his organisation, team and leadership, and partly to his own traits. The roles of engineers as researchers, linkers and practitioners are defined. The information needs and sources are related to the career stages of engineers, their duties and responsibilities. In conclusions, recommendations for a viable information retrieval system are briefly discussed.The methodology of the work was based on questionnaires, interviews, visits to organisations, study of correspondence and diary, analysis of citations and evaluation of two abstracts journals which exist in the field. The SPSS computer package was used for analysis of the results of questionnaires.     

“Privacy by Design” implementation: Information system engineers’ perspective

In privacy information security literature, Privacy by Design (PbD) is recognized as a positive protection paradigm capable of providing higher privacy protection throughout information products’ entire lifetime. It is becoming the dominant privacy protection pattern. Considered to be a promising development tendency towards the information industry, it is garnering interest among researchers and professionals. However, PbD still lacks specific implementation instructions, and it is not popularized among information system engineers. Weighing the pros and cons leads to information system engineers’ uncertainty regarding PbD adoption, since existing research on the linkage between PbD implementation and information system engineers’ individual factors is inconclusive. Through the lenses of information system engineers, this study aims to advance implementation of PbD by exploring the influence factors of individual and organizational contexts. Real data from 253 practitioners in China’s IT industry were used to understand the antecedent of PbD implementation and interaction effects among different dimensions of engineers’ adopting behaviors. The findings have demonstrated that appropriate incentive mechanism is a critical factor in PbD implementation by promoting engineer’s social influence regarding PbD usage and further affecting both their intentions about adopting PbD and implementing action. This study reveals, for the first time, the role of incentive mechanism in advancing PbD implementation from the information system engineer perspective, and contributes to a deeper understanding of the determinants of PbD adoption by providing a holistic theoretical lens. The findings provide theoretical guidance to IT organizations with guidelines on PbD implementation for higher privacy information protection performance of products.     

Novel mechanisms of scalability of financial services in an emerging market context: Insights from Indonesian Fintech Ecosystem

Global Fintech phenomenon is driven by new technological innovations that attempt to unbundle and deconstruct conventional business models in the financial services sector. Existing research on platforms focus on platform leadership, governance, generativity and modularity, as well as their impact on agility and innovation. However, there are limited empirical studies, to explore the role of platform operators in providing scalable financial service delivery to a broader population. This study aims to enhance the understanding of an emerging Fintech landscape in Indonesia which is characterized by heterogeneous, dynamic and evolving network of organizations and the innovative mechanisms by which the scalability of financial services could be enhanced. Our study suggests that the mechanisms of platformization, decentralization, localization and democratization by Fintech platform operators positively impact the scalability of financial service delivery. This study has significant implications for policy makers especially in emerging markets who are seeking to scale, facilitate and govern the Fintech revolution, and for Fintech practitioners in the design of technology-enabled delivery of financial services.     

Emergency management in the changing world of social media: Framing the research agenda with the stakeholders through engaged scholarship

The use of social media and Web 2.0 platforms is proliferating and affecting different formal and highly structured organisations including public safety agencies. Much of the research in the area has focussed on public use of social media during an emergency as well as how emergency agencies benefit from the data and information generated by this process. However, there is little understanding of “what are the operational implications of this public use on emergency management agencies and how does social media either positively or negatively impact these operations”? In order to progress research into this topic, we chose an engaged scholarship framework to shape a research agenda with the active participation of stakeholders. Hence, we conducted a series of workshops primarily involving over 100 public safety practitioners working in the area of disasters and emergency management who work in public safety agencies, humanitarian organisations, volunteering online platforms and volunteer groups in addition to 20 academics working on this area of enquiry. The findings highlight six different challenges that emergency responding organisations currently face in relation to social media use. We conceptualise these challenges as creating six operational tension zones for organisations. We discuss these tensions and their implications for future research and practice.     

高校保险教学改革探讨

保险是近几年随着经济发展而兴起的金融行业。对于异军突起且在快速扩张中的保险行业,高级保险专业人才的短缺成为一个重要的限制因素。如何突破这一瓶颈,高校在高级保险专业人才培养中责无旁贷,这不仅是人才数量的增长．更关键的是如何培养出保险业真正需要的人才．笔者根据在德国安联保险公司精算部门的多年工作经验．结合在国内高校保险专业的授课经验,提出一些具体的实务型教学的改进措施。     

Information retrieval in the workplace: A comparison of professional search practices

Legal researchers, recruitment professionals, healthcare information professionals, and patent analysts all undertake work tasks where search forms a core part of their duties. In these instances, the search task is often complex and time-consuming and requires specialist expertise to identify relevant documents and insights within large domain-specific repositories and collections. Several studies have been made investigating the search practices of professionals such as these, but few have attempted to directly compare their professional practices and so it remains unclear to what extent insights and approaches from one domain can be applied to another. In this paper we describe the results of a survey of a purposive sample of 108 legal researchers, 64 recruitment professionals and 107 healthcare information professionals. Their responses are compared with results from a previous survey of 81 patent analysts. The survey investigated their search practices and preferences, the types of functionality they value, and their requirements for future information retrieval systems. The results reveal that these professions share many fundamental needs and face similar challenges. In particular a continuing preference to formulate queries as Boolean expressions, the need to manage, organise and re-use search strategies and results and an ambivalence toward the use of relevance ranking. The results stress the importance of recall and coverage for the healthcare and patent professionals, while precision and recency were more important to the legal and recruitment professionals. The results also highlight the need to ensure that search systems give confidence to the professional searcher and so trust, explainability and accountability remains a significant challenge when developing such systems. The findings suggest that translational research between the different areas could benefit professionals across domains.     

Information use and needs in manufacturing organizations: Organizational factors in information behaviour

In this paper assumptions about the nature of complex organizations are examined in relation to the design of information systems. Models of organizational structure which have been used in relation to information need are discussed in the light of recent findings of a research project which has investigated the information use and needs of managers in manufacturing companies. Qualitative and quantitative data are presented and discussed. The findings do not support some of the current assumptions about information in complex organizations and the implications of this are discussed.     

我国食品安全物流环节透明度实证研究*——基于全国31个省151家食品物流企业的采样调查研究

食品安全物流环节缺乏关注,透明度状况有待研究。本文利用网络层次分析－模糊综合评价法构建食品安全物流环节信息透明度的评价模型,对全国各省、市、自治区范围内的151家食品物流企业进行数据采集,展开实证研究,量化当前食品安全物流环节信息透明情况。研究发现当前我国食品安全物流环节信息透明度整体水平较好,但在披露运输人员具备的食品安全知识状况信息、运输设备信息等方面仍需完善。最后本文针对食品安全物流环节的不足之处提出相应的提升策略。     

Social media and entrepreneurship research: A literature review

The rise of social media has led to changes in how entrepreneurs carry out their day-to-day activities. Studies on social media and entrepreneurship are relatively new and fragmented in their focus, however there is increasing interest from academia and practitioners for further research and investigation within this area. This study systematically reviews research carried out in the domain of social media and entrepreneurship. A total of 160 papers, published between 2002 and 2018 were synthesised to identify critical theories and research methods used in the domain. Based on the extent review, an integrative framework was developed to identify relationships amongst elucidated constructs. While most papers investigated the factors that drive social media adoption and use by entrepreneurs, it was found that the use of social media by entrepreneurs had transcended marketing and it is now used in business networking, information search and crowdfunding for their business. This has led to significant impact with improved firm performance and innovation enhancement being the essential outcomes. The literature review and framework further understanding of social media and entrepreneurship research, providing a useful basis for future studies and informs practice in this area.     

Knowledge sharing via social media in software development: a systematic literature review

Effective knowledge exchange among software developers is crucial for the competitive performance of their organizations. Today, the constant pressure on businesses to continually innovate and the increasing capability of information technologies to facilitate broader and more distributed communication are driving organizations to leverage social media tools to improve performance. These tools, which have changed the way we share knowledge, enable people to connect, communicate, and collaborate. Research on knowledge sharing via social media is still in its early phases, with a comprehensive overview of the literature yet to be completed. Thus, using a systematic literature review approach, this study aims to map the current literature on the topic in relation to software development. Furthermore, this study highlights the findings of former research and identifies gaps in the literature. The study offers several insights for researchers and practitioners and proposes a future research agenda to strengthen knowledge in the field.     

金融集聚对区域民营经济成长的空间效应研究

本文在分析金融集聚影响区域内部和周边区域民营经济成长的作用机理的基础上，运用空间面板杜宾模型以中国省域样本进行实证分析发现：(1) 考察期内中国省域金融集聚度大致由东部向中、西部地区递减。(2)东部地区金融集聚度较高，对区域内民营经济成长有一定促进作用，且其“涓流效应”可带动周边区域民营经济成长；中、西部地区金融集聚度较低，不能促进区域内民营经济成长，且其“极化效应”可能阻碍周边区域民营经济成长。(3)东、中部地区民营企业已经开始注重技术研发，而西部地区民营企业还停留在规模扩张阶段。     

An investigation into turn-away among information technology professionals in Brazil

Two important problems have been observed fairly frequently among information technology (IT) professionals, namely turn-over – where the IT professional moves to another company but still remains in the IT sector – and turn-away, in which the IT professional abandons the area in order to occupy a position in a different area, either in the same company or in another, sometimes assuming a managerial function. Few research papers were found with respect to the latter phenomenon. Based on that, the main thrust of this work is to understand how and why IT professionals in Brazil abandon their area, identifying typical characteristics in their career transition. Thus, from a literature review about career development and the analysis of the data collected, eight research hypotheses were developed in order to be analyzed by the researchers. A multiple case study method with several units of analysis was applied in two large companies in Brazil. In-depth interviews were conducted with IT professionals who had migrated to other areas within their organizations, they being considered the unit of analysis. The results accrued from this research reveal that IT professionals in Brazil need to have more growth opportunities than either their companies have been able to offer them or it is possible to offer within the technical arena.     

Assessing end-use relevance of public sector research organisations

Measuring the effective impact of research and its relevance to society is a difficult undertaking but one that the public sector is keen to embrace. Identifying end-users of research and capturing their views of research relevance are challenging tasks and not something that has been extensively reported. The evaluation of end-use relevance demands a shift in organisational mindset and performance indicators away from readily quantifiable outputs towards a consideration of more qualitative end-user outcomes that are less amenable to measurement, requiring both a greater tolerance of ambiguity and a willingness to learn from the evaluation process.     

近20年国内外国家公园游憩研究综述

国家公园游憩研究对保护国家公园生态系统和满足国民游憩需求具有重要意义,是近20年来资源经济学和游憩生态学的研究热点。对2000—2019年间国内外国家公园游憩研究现状及成果进行了系统性总结和梳理,研究发现:①国内外国家公园游憩研究受到广泛关注,相关研究成果主要集中在国家公园游憩的功能分区、业态发展、设施建设、评价、主体、环境影响及管理等7个方面,形成了“一个基础、四大主题、两种手段”的研究内容框架。②国家公园游憩研究方法以定量研究为主、定性研究为辅,基于国家公园大数据和GIS空间分析技术的定性与定量相结合研究需今后重点关注。③欧美学者研究起步早,构建了较为完善的国家公园游憩理论体系与管理框架;比较而言,国内研究仍处于探索阶段,中国学者在国家公园游憩领域进行了较多的本土化尝试,为国际上相关研究提供了中国案例,但理论建构研究相对不足。基于文献梳理与评述,提出未来中国国家公园游憩研究需进一步深入的方向：加强基础理论研究、完善游憩评价技术方法、开展多学科视角的游憩主体研究、深化游憩管理研究,希冀对中国国家公园相关研究及体制试点建设有所启示。     

Managing web repositories in emerging economies: Case studies of browsing web directories

Over the past decade, worldwide Internet usage has grown tremendously, with the most rapid growth in some emerging economies such as Latin America and the Middle East, where people speaking different languages actively seek information on the web. Global search engines may not adequately address local users’ needs while regional web portals may lack rich web content. Different from search engines, web directories organize sites and pages into intuitive hierarchical structures to facilitate browsing. However, high-quality web directories in users’ native languages often do not exist and their development requires much domain knowledge not readily available. In this research, we proposed a novel semi-automatic approach to facilitate web repository management. We applied the approach to developing web directories in the business and health-care domains for the Spanish-speaking and Arabic-speaking communities respectively. The two directories contain respectively 4735 and 5107 unique sites and pages with a maximum depth of 5 levels. Results of experiments involving 37 native speakers show that these directories outperformed existing benchmark directories in terms of browsing effectiveness and efficiency, providing strong implications for information professionals and multinational enterprise managers.     

A user-centered approach to evaluating human interaction with Web search engines: an exploratory study

A growing body of studies is developing approaches to evaluating human interaction with Web search engines, including the usability and effectiveness of Web search tools. This study explores a user-centered approach to the evaluation of the Web search engine Inquirus – a Web meta-search tool developed by researchers from the NEC Research Institute. The goal of the study reported in this paper was to develop a user-centered approach to the evaluation including: (1) effectiveness: based on the impact of users' interactions on their information problem and information seeking stage, and (2) usability: including screen layout and system capabilities for users. Twenty-two volunteers searched Inquirus on their own personal information topics. Data analyzed included: (1) user pre- and post-search questionnaires and (2) Inquirus search transaction logs. Key findings include: (1) Inquirus was rated highly by users on various usability measures, (2) all users experienced some level of shift/change in their information problem, information seeking, and personal knowledge due to their Inquirus interaction, (3) different users experienced different levels of change/shift, and (4) the search measure precision did not correlate with other user-based measures. Some users experienced major changes/shifts in various user-based variables, such as information problem or information seeking stage with a search of low precision and vice versa. Implications for the development of user-centered approaches to the evaluation of Web and information retrieval (IR) systems and further research are discussed.     

If you Build it,They Won’t Come: What Motivates Employees to Create and Share Tagged Content: A Theoretical Model and Empirical Validation

The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors influencing employees’ knowledge-sharing behavior on social tagging supported systems. Using the strong theoretical background of the well-known technology acceptance model (TAM), this paper proposes and empirically validates a model that fits the social and technical nature of social tagging tools within the public sector. The analyses in this paper were based on data collected from a large survey of more than 480 respondents working for two public organizations in the United States. The findings demonstrate a significant impact of the role of social presence in encouraging employees to create and share content. Further, there is a strong relationship between the benefits employees receive from using tagging tools and their creation and sharing of tagged content. Specifically, the following factors showed a significant impact on employees’ creation and sharing behavior, specifically their attitudes towards and intentions to create and share tags: perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, social presence, and pro-sharing norms. For researchers, the paper offers an opportunity to further study knowledge-sharing behavior regarding social media technologies. The findings should motivate practitioners to inject these tools with a social aspect so that employees are encouraged to share content.