Female farmers and the social construction of access to agricultural information

This article examines the ways in which the transfer of information about farming practice is gendered, and how the gendering of access to agricultural information affects the social realities of farming women. The research focuses on a sample of Ontario female farmers who were interviewed extensively about their farming practices, including the ways in which they sought and found information to help them further their farming knowledge. It was found that female farmers utilized both formal and informal channels of information, but that these channels were not readily nor easily accessible to female farmers. Attempts to extract needed information resulted in the manifestation of issues regarding social and professional legitimacy. Female farmers must, therefore, devise alternate strategies and networks for information gathering. The study demonstrates that information acquisition in farming is a socially mediated process which reflects the socially constructed gender relations of agriculture itself.     

社会化网络环境下数字信息资源的开放存取

介绍了社会化网络的内涵与特点及其对数字信息资源开放存取的影响,构建了基于社会化网络的数字信息资源开放存取的结构框架。     

The Minitel and France's legacy of democratic information access

Although the Minitel is a relic in the world of online information technology, there is more to this outdated machine than the history of its failure. The Minitel grew out of a French tradition of information transfer and was uniquely suited to serve its target population. Competition provided by the Internet is stiff, but the Minitel staved it off through the turn of the millennium. Indeed, the French cannot be blamed for keeping hold of their Minitels as long as possible, as the Minitel came to be not only the homegrown purveyor of democratic access to information, but also a symbol of national pride. Now, as France moves with the rest of the world to embrace the Internet, it is not without a certain sense of déjà vu.     

Equitable access: Information seeking behavior,information needs,and necessary library accommodations for transgender patrons

This study highlights the unique accommodations integral to welcoming transgender library patrons. Research shows transgender people have unique needs which differ from lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) individuals, and experience substantial barriers to obtaining quality library service. Most studies in the past exploring the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender library users focused exclusively on LGBQ users. This study surveyed adult transgender individuals (n = 102) with an online questionnaire. The majority of participants were white, designated female at birth, and under 40 years old. Survey respondents needed libraries to make accommodations for them to feel safe (p < 0.001). The top 5 accommodations needed were recent transgender literature, gender identity or expression as part of library nondiscrimination policy, gender neutral, single-stall bathrooms where a key did not need to be requested, recent LGBQ literature), and an established remote process for name change.     

The therapeutic partnership: legal and ethical aspects of consumer health information

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政府信息资源描述的规范性研究

论文在对GILS和DC两种信息资源描述格式进行对比分析的基础上，提出了政府信息资源描述规范性研究的基本立足点，并对政府信息资源描述的规范架构进行了初步探讨。     

The hospital library: access to information for rural health professionals

This article examines some recent literature about the low physician-population ratios in rural areas. In an attempt to discover those factors which seem to preclude successful health care delivery in rural areas, it discusses a definition of the city as the place where the maximum lines of communication converge. A new concept, the "invisible city," is proposed, and the health care community in the United States is seen as an example. The library of the rural hospital, then, is defined as the location of the rural health professional's primary entrance into his own invisible city by means of professional communication through the biomedical literature.     

The Web impact of open access social science research

For a long time, Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) journal citations have been widely used for research performance monitoring of the sciences. For the social sciences, however, the Social Sciences Citation Index® (SSCI®) can sometimes be insufficient. Broader types of publications (e.g., books and non-ISI journals) and informal scholarly indicators may also be needed. This article investigates whether the Web can help to fill this gap. The authors analyzed 1530 citations from Google™ to 492 research articles from 44 open access social science journals. The articles were published in 2001 in the fields of education, psychology, sociology, and economics. About 19% of the Web citations represented formal impact equivalent to journal citations, and 11% were more informal indicators of impact. The average was about 3 formal and 2 informal impact citations per article. Although the proportions of formal and informal online impact were similar in sociology, psychology, and education, economics showed six times more formal impact than informal impact. The results suggest that new types of citation information and informal scholarly indictors could be extracted from the Web for the social sciences. Since these form only a small proportion of the Web citations, however, Web citation counts should first be processed to remove irrelevant citations. This can be a time-consuming process unless automated.     

The health periodicals database: full-text access to consumer and technical health information

The HEALTH PERIODICALS DATABASE, produced by the Information Access Company, is a unique online file which provides full-text access to both general interest health-related literature and key technical resources in the medical field. Available on DIALOG and CompuServe, the database is described as a useful tool for information on the health, fitness, and nutrition industries. Special features of the database are reviewed and comparisons are made with resources of similar scope.     

Developing and sustaining a sense of place: The role of social information

This exploration of the role of information in helping people to develop and sustain feelings of belonging, or a sense of place, is based on a study that investigated the reasons for the high population turnover in the Northern Territory of Australia. The Northern Territory along with Darwin, its capital, has a number of unusual characteristics including geographical isolation. A key component of the theoretical framework for the research focuses on social information, which has similarities to the more commonly termed everyday life information. The specific concern is with the kind of information that helps people connect to a community and is clearly linked with social networking. The sample for the major empirical component for the article was recruited at Darwin's Mindil Beach Market. In telephone phone interviews with those who had agreed to participate, participants discussed how they learned about Darwin and the Northern Territory, and their views of Darwin as a place to live. Interpersonal contacts, including at the Market and at special events, were most often mentioned in relation to information, confirming literature findings on the importance of family and friends as an information source. Other sources were newspapers and physical markers around the City of Darwin. The conclusion is that the processes of social networking, which work well for some residents, could be enhanced through the use of information grounds, a concept widely discussed in the library and information science literature. Obvious information grounds in Darwin, where the usual processes could be enhanced by the distribution of information by formal information providers, include Mindil Beach Market and the special events for which Darwin is renowned.     

Providing access to local government information: The nature of public library activity

This article focuses on the problems associated with providing access to local government information. The research on which it is based is from a 1986 survey conducted by the author of 265 public libraries in six library systems in northern Illinois, the largest comparative study of public library providers of local government information conducted to date. Fifty-five active providers of local government information (those that received requests for this information at least every two weeks) were identified: the findings are based on telephone and group interviews with key staff of those libraries. The article examines a variety of methods that might be used to increase access to local government information. It analyzes the nature of requests received and the types of responses given by these libraries. It examines the major problems associated with providing access to local government information and discusses the reasons given by librarians for providing access to local government information sources. The article concludes that a serious local government information gap exists and that librarians who seek to over-come it must articulate a role that addresses the serious barriers that must be overcome before a library can provide meaningful access to local government information.     

Implicit theories of communicative competence: The semantics of social behavior

Observers evaluating the competence of communicators use both observed behaviors and traits inferred from these behaviors in their evaluation. In order to understand the process by which these evaluations are made, the manner in which the beliefs about trait/behavior relationships that underlie this process must be understood. Based on analysis of judgments of prototypical “communicators” of different skill levels and of actual people, trait/behavior relationships are, with one exception, similar across competence level and communicative situation.     

The impact of electronic access to government information: what users and documents specialists think

This article discusses the results of a survey designed to assess the current state of electronic access to government information from both the specialist and the user viewpoint. The first survey, designed to determine the government documents staffs' level of commitment to and opinions of electronic access to government information, was distributed in electronic format to subscribers of GOVDOC-L, a listserv for specialists dealing with government documents. The second survey, designed to provide insight into the user's point of view, was conducted at the University of Illinois Documents Library. This article synthesizes earlier studies and articles on the topic to show that while the consensus is that electronic access represents a positive, beneficial move toward providing access to government information to a wider audience, there is also an acknowledgment that there are many inherent problems that have not been addressed adequately.     

Use of social networks and information seeking behavior of students during political crises in Pakistan: A case study

This study was undertaken to investigate the use of social networks and political activism on the Internet by the students of three universities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi during the political crises for the last one year and the emergency imposed by the Government of Pakistan on November 3, 2007. The findings conclude that Internet use by the students promoted democracy, freedom of expression and greater awareness about their rights during the political crises in Pakistan.

The survey method of research was used to collect data. The sample consisted of 420 students studying at the Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad, Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi, and International Islamic University Islamabad, Pakistan. The questionnaire was sent to the students by email. The survey was administered through SurveyMonkey website. The response rate was 72.23%.

The paper is a useful source of information about how the social networking tools have been influencing and changing communication channels in Pakistan.     

The dangers of unlimited access: Fiction,the Internet and the social construction of childhood

At the beginning of the twentieth century, librarians, teachers, and parents wrote about the dangers to children of unlimited access to what was termed “sensational literature.” At the beginning of the next century, they struggled to deal with the dangers to children of unlimited access to the Internet. Although separated by a hundred years, they appear to be making much the same argument about the much the same issue, that of the public library providing unlimited access to minors to what some view as inappropriate or dangerous materials. However, a closer analysis of the discourse in the professional media regarding these two controversies, one that investigates the mechanisms underlying the changes in attitudes and practice, reveals that any similarities are primarily cosmetic.Such an analysis reveals that different issues were addressed and debated utilizing different social constructions of childhood and different social constructions of the public library and public librarians held by society as a whole and by librarians at the turn of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.     

网络环境中信息检索的特点及发展趋势

本文论述了网络环境下信息检索的特点和网络环境中信息检索的实践，比较了网络环境中的信息检索和传统的信息检索的异同，提出了网络环境中信息检索的新的发展趋势。     

State Data Centers: improving access to census information

"The U.S. Bureau of the Census created the State Data Center program in 1978 to improve public access to census information. This article discusses the background, structure, and services of that program; the role of libraries in the program; and future directions in State Data Center/library relationships. The appendix lists contact person names, as well as addresses and telephone numbers for State Data Center lead agencies."