Freedom of information — A progress report

Public access to government records received “a quiet introduction rather than a resounding start” in 1982 with the enactment of the Australian Freedom of Information Act. Although it was strengthened the following year through amendments, the statute, unlike its robust U.S. counterpart, is a struggling infant. Among the problems facing the Act are the need to reconcile secrecy provisions in existing laws with it, a lack of vigorous public opinion and a constant campaigning in support of freedom of information, attempts to increase fees and decrease agency compliance with requirements for the production of documents, failure of the media to support freedom of information through better use of the Act, inadequate coverage of security organizations by the Act, and efforts to defeat the purpose of the Act by injections of a need to know standard.     

The Impact of Digital Resource and Service Use on Urban Residents in New England Public Libraries—A Survey Report

Today, access to digital information is essential to patrons using public libraries, whether they have contact with computers at home, work or school or whether the public library is their only contact. In order to evaluate and ultimately enhance public library digital resources and services, it is critical for administrators, librarians and digital information architects to recognize the impact their current digital offerings have on users. This study utilizes a survey to gauge the perceptions of patrons who use digital resources and services in six urban New England public libraries as part of ongoing research into digital information access in public libraries in the United States from the perspective of users.     

The Accuracy of Self-Reported Internet Use—A Validation Study Using Client Log Data

The vast majority of empirical research on online communication, or media use in general, relies on self-report measures instead of behavioral data. Previous research has shown that the accuracy of these self-report measures can be quite low, and both over- and underreporting of media use are commonplace. This study compares self-reports of Internet use with client log files from a large household sample. Results show that the accuracy of self-reported frequency and duration of Internet use is quite low, and that survey data are only moderately correlated with log file data. Moreover, there are systematic patterns of misreporting, especially overreporting, rather than random deviations from the log files. Self-reports for specific content such as social network sites or video platforms seem to be more accurate and less consistently biased than self-reports of generic frequency or duration of Internet use. The article closes by demonstrating the consequences of biased self-reports and discussing possible solutions to the problem.     

What's the Use of Use? : Return on Investment Strategies for Consortial DDA Programs

Column Editor's Note. This column focuses on formal collaboration and networking among libraries through consortia. It offers in-depth examinations of issues facing modern library consortia including (but not limited to) e-resource licensing, ebooks, next generation integrated library systems, shared print archiving, shared digital repositories, governance and other relevant topics. Contributions are accepted for this column and must be submitted to George Machovec (george@coalliance.org). Contact the column editor for suggested topics, deadlines and formatting.

ConnectNY has been involved in consortial e-book projects since 2010. Based upon the experience of these group e-book projects, we will explore different methods for assuming the shared cost of group e-book programs and then describe ways in which DDA programs may promote a positive Return on Investment (ROI) for groups as compared to individual institutions. We will argue that while use is a factor that can be taken into account when distributing cost amongst members, a budget-based percentage approach will allow consortia to effectively initiate and manage such projects over time.     

Librarians’ Use of Images on LibGuides and Other Social Media Platforms

This study compared the use of librarians’ profile images across Web platforms designed for librarian-patron communication. The primary focus was LibGuides profiles at a peer group of Association of Research Libraries institutions. Librarians are currently using a variety of options, including professional head shots, casual head shots, other photos, alternate images, avatars, and no image. Where possible, results were also analyzed by gender. For a smaller selection of libraries, LibGuides photos were compared with Facebook photos to see if different images were used for a professional versus a personal social media setting. This research was done in December 2010 and duplicated in May 2012 to track changes over time. The later study also reviews profile images for the smaller selection of libraries in LinkedIn and ALA Connect. The findings provide a baseline for further comparative research, could also inform individual librarians’ image choices based on patterns among their peers, and gives the profession a starting point for discussions about the types of images librarians use.     

One tool to rule? – A field experimental longitudinal study on the costs and benefits of mobile device usage in public agencies

With the rising number of mobile technologies used in work- and private-life domains, opportunities, and challenges of mobile device usage in daily lives arise. Against this background, we strive to investigate how corporately provided mobile devices, i.e., tablets, affect work-life conflict and innovation behavior of public sector employees over time. We analyze employees in German public agencies due to their high intrinsic motivation goals alongside strict working schedules, regulations, and payments in contrast to the employees of the private sector. Our research pursues a sequential explorative multi-method approach of conducting a field experiment with qualitative and quantitative data. Twenty employees were divided into two equal groups: 1.) employees with tablets, 2.) employees without tablets. After analyzing the interviews and survey data using methods from grounded theory, we found that a) digital competences can create a bottleneck for employees' innovation behavior, b) corporately provided mobile devices (COPE) decrease employees work-life conflict despite increasing their workload, and c) COPE-IT can support innovation behavior of employees in public agencies, assisting them in keeping up their efficient work when work demands are high. All these effects can be mediated by the development of employee's ownership towards their COPE-IT.     

The myth of global science collaboration—Collaboration patterns in epistemic communities

Scientific collaboration is often perceived as a joint global process that involves researchers worldwide, regardless of their place of work and residence. Globalization of science, in this respect, implies that collaboration among scientists takes place along the lines of common topics and irrespective of the spatial distances between the collaborators. The networks of collaborators, termed ‘epistemic communities’, should thus have a space-independent structure. This paper shows that such a notion of globalized scientific collaboration is not supported by empirical data. It introduces a novel approach of analyzing distance-dependent probabilities of collaboration. The results of the analysis of six distinct scientific fields reveal that intra-country collaboration is about 10–50 times more likely to occur than international collaboration. Moreover, strong dependencies exist between collaboration activity (measured in co-authorships) and spatial distance when confined to national borders. However, the fact that distance becomes irrelevant once collaboration is taken to the international scale suggests a globalized science system that is strongly influenced by the gravity of local science clusters. The similarity of the probability functions of the six science fields analyzed suggests a universal mode of spatial governance that is independent from the mode of knowledge creation in science.     

Do graphical abstracts on a publisher's official website have an effect on articles' usage and citations? A propensity score matching analysis

This study aimed to examine whether a graphical abstract (GA) on a publisher's official website affected an article's usage and citations. Articles published in Molecules during 2016 (n = 1389) and 2017 (n = 1804) were selected as the data sets. Propensity score matching analysis was conducted to examine the data sets. The results showed that articles with GAs had significantly greater text abstract usage than those without GAs. There were no significant differences between the two groups (articles with/without GAs) on the usage of the full text as well as citations, both in the data set of 2016 and the data set of 2017. Our study concluded that a GA played a role in attracting attention with ‘the first impressions’ to gain more clicks of text abstract for an article, however, it took no advantage in receiving more usage of full text and citations of the article.     

Tweeting the Viewer—Use of Twitter in a Talk Show Context

Twitter is currently one of the most popular outlets of so-called social media, Internet services that allow their users to communicate and share content in a variety of ways. As with the Internet itself, Twitter has been heralded to hold interesting possibilities within the context of journalism—potentially bringing journalists and their respective audiences closer to each other through supposedly common Twitter practices like @ messages and retweeting. This article presents a large-scale empirical study on Twitter use in the journalistic context. The aim is to assess patterns of journalist-audience interaction on Twitter. Specifically, the article outlines a structural analysis of Twitter use pertaining to the first season of the current events talk show Hübinette, which aired on Swedish public service television during the fall of 2011. Employing state-of-the-art approaches for data collection and analysis, the article shows that while traditional patterns of journalist-reader relationships are most common, some users are employing the Twitter platform in somewhat unforeseen ways.     

Images of Injury: Graphic News Visuals’ Effects on Attitudes toward the Use of Unmanned Drones

In this study, sanitized coverage of the United States’ use of military drone strikes in foreign countries is pitted against more graphic news images in an experimental setting to determine effects on attitudes toward the use of U.S. military drones. In addition, multiple news exposures are tested to determine whether individuals can become emotionally inured to such coverage, even when images are more graphic. Key results find those who viewed graphic news visuals did not show evidence of desensitization after repeated viewing and expressed higher levels of concern regarding drone use but not reduced support for U.S. drone policy.     

Why do people use information kiosks? A validation of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology

The importance of information kiosk development and implementation in the context of E-Government policies has been discussed in previous research. While many governments are today making considerable investments to implement information kiosks, previous research suggests that citizens may not use information kiosks in spite of their availability. However, the successful implementation of information kiosks depends significantly on whether or not citizens are willing to adopt the new information technology (IT). Therefore, based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), this study investigates the determinants of use behavior regarding information kiosks and the moderating effects of age and gender differences on the relationships between the determinants and behavioral intention/use behavior. Data collected from 244 respondents in Taiwan were tested against the research model using structural equation modeling techniques. The results partially support the applicability of the UTAUT in the context of information kiosks. The findings of this research provide several prominent implications for the research and practice of information kiosk development and implementation.     

Two societies: Duality,contradictions…and integration: A progress report on South Africa

This paper examines the extent to which the South African Library and Information Science (LIS) agenda maps to the national agenda for the reconstruction and development of the country, which is geared to the elimination of poverty and inequality. The nation has been described as comprising two societies: the one modern and well developed, the other characterised by masses of people living in dire poverty. The mandate of LIS in South Africa includes supporting and stimulating the technological and information development of all communities and providing effective LIS education to meet this goal. The government has embraced the concept of the Information Society, emphasising the link between economic growth and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and has pointed to the need for information literacy education. We present a critique of the fit between LIS policies and practices (including the curriculum) and the needs of an emerging democracy and its development goals, challenged by the duality of globalisation and marginalisation.     

“The Gerbner violence profile”—an analysis of the CBS report

The Cultural Indicators Research Team is composed of George Gerbner, Larry Gross, Michael F. Eleey, Marilyn Jackson‐Beeck, Suzanne Jeffries‐Fox and Nancy Signorielli. (Readers are reminded that all four parts of this extended discussion are best read together, as constant reference is made to remarks in previous articles in the series.)     

Contextualizing Nonprofits’ Use of Links on Twitter During the West African Ebola Virus Epidemic

This study investigates how nonprofit organizations use hyperlinks embedded in tweets for strategic communication during global health crises. Within the 1,494 links included in tweets about Ebola, organizations shared owned and earned media, including news stories directly or indirectly referencing their work and positive mentions from others on social media. Links allowed organizations to raise awareness about Ebola in West Africa, promote their work, and highlight endorsements from news media and influential users. Raising awareness and building trust are key steps in becoming credible sources during highly uncertain crises.