Towards a probabilistic model for supporting collaborative information access

In information retrieval research, models and systems traditionally assume that a single person is querying and reviewing the results. However, several empirical studies of professional practice identified collaboration during IR as everyday work patterns in order to solve a shared information need and to benefit from the diverse expertise and experience of the team members. Moreover, most IR systems that are employed in professional work routines are designed for individual use and prototype collaborative systems are too limited to support use in todays work practice. To bridge this gap, this papers develops and formalizes a decision theoretic approach towards supporting a team of people that explicitly set out together to resolve a shared information need. We develop a formal cost model for collaborative IR that considers the trade-off between estimated relevance of a document as well as estimated document redundancy. From this cost model, we use a decision theoretic approach to derive the notion of activity suggestions, that is, a formal optimum criterion that describes optimum collaboration strategies in IR as the solution of an integer linear program. Those collaboration strategies are suggested to team members with the aim to facilitate the collaborative performance of information retrieval tasks. We demonstrate the application of our model by means of search result division in two collaborative search tasks. In the conducted experiments, we study the effects of different domain knowledge and resulting relevance assessments of team members in four different conditions. The gathered results indicate that our approach can improve the retrieval effectiveness of teams in recall-oriented tasks.     

Facilitating access to consumer health information: a collaborative approach employing applied research

Responsibility for the provision of consumer health information typically lies within the public library domain or the health sciences library arena. In many communities, both types of libraries provide support for consumer health information services, often with varying levels of expertise. Public library employees may or may not be trained in the use of health and biomedical information resources. Conversely, health sciences library staff may or may not be familiar with information needs of the lay public within their community. To offset these potential differences, a model was developed to assess the health information needs of community members and to provide training for public library staff regarding use of relevant electronic consumer health information resources.     

The undergraduate that could: Crafting a collaborative student training program

Since the mid-nineteenth century, student worker programs have been an integral component of academic libraries, and the evolution of the profession has put more students, even undergraduates, into positions with greater responsibility, raising questions about the level of expertise of which undergraduate students are capable. The authors address these questions through the lens of the collaborative redevelopment of two distinct library student worker programs at a small liberal arts college. Included is a discussion of successes and challenges, as well as a consideration of the benefits of a “cross-library” support system in developing such a program.     

Social science research in Canada and government information policy: The statistics Canada example

This research on government information policy's effects on use and users of government information considered social scientists' use of information from Canada's central statistical agency, Statistics Canada. Using a triangulated methodology, the investigation focused on Canadian mid-1980s federal cost-recovery and restraint initiatives which applied to government information. The case study revealed Statistics Canada's response to the initiatives. Bibliometric research objectively documented policy effects on use of statistics sources, examining Canadian social science journal articles in five disciplines. Textual examination revealed use of Canadian and foreign governmental and nongovernmental statistics sources over the years surrounding policy implementation. An author survey supplemented bibliometric findings. Higher prices and increased electronic data dissemination by Statistics Canada were confirmed, however bibliometric analysis indicated no significant change over time in use of statistics sources. Survey respondents expressed unhappiness with the price increases, but did not change sources used. Many (in 1995) still used paper products rather than electronic ones, a finding which provides baseline data but which does not reflect the more recent explosion in Internet use.     

Support for information technology in science: The federal role

The Federal government has supported information technology in science through mechanisms such as funding R&D in information technology, funding for purchase of information technology equipment, tax credits for purchase and donation of equipment, and funding of database development. Today government is faced with increased budget constraints at the same time that investments in information technology are more critical for scientific research. For example, potential difficulties in extending the limits of existing technology may require increased support so that scientists can have access to state-of-the-art computer and telecommunications technologies. Policymakers are faced with a need to examine various alternatives for supplying scientists with the access to data and information technology necessary for their research. In addition to problems arising from budget austerity, a number of other issues exist. These include the policy of increased reliance on the private sector, the impact of international competition in information technology, the need for access to and dissemination of domestic and foreign scientific and technical information, and the need for coordinated national policies for both scientific and technical information and information technology development.This article outlines some of the issues that could arise in a debate on the appropriate role of government in the area of information technology in science.     

From retrieval to robotics: The national science foundation's support of information research

This article describes how the National Science Foundation's support of information research has evolved from NSF's original mission of improving the dissemination of scientific and technical information to its present interest in information robotics and intelligent systems. The pattern of grant support, since a major reorganization of the information science division in 1978, is analyzed in terms of the institutions, the investigators, and the disciplines that have been major grant recipients.     

Library and information science research in China: An international perspective

This study is to quantitatively analyze the research activity in the area of Chinese Library and Information Science (LIS) from 1975 to 2004 based on Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI). Results show that there are increases in both the number of papers and the quality of publishing channels. It was higher than the world average for Chinese research effort in LIS area. About 79% of the total LIS papers in China were from universities. The web of science (WOS) journals are representative for the Chinese LIS publications in general. The quantity and quality of papers from Hong Kong were higher than that from Mainland China. About half of the papers from China were completed through either international or domestical collaborations. The major collaborators were from Europe and North America and the higher quality of collaborations were from Oceania and North America.     

Mixed methods research in library and information science: A methodological review

Mixed methods research is gaining prominence in the library and information science (LIS) discipline. However, according to previous analyses, few LIS studies utilized mixed methods research, and the researchers did not recognize or describe them as such. The present methodological review assesses the current state of mixed methods research in LIS. Eighty-four articles published between 2017 and 2018 and indexed in two core LIS databases, match the common definition of mixed methods. Out of those, 65 articles self-identified as mixed methods were analyzed focusing on reporting and conduct, specifically, the integration of quantitative and qualitative components. Review results suggest that more efforts are needed to raise awareness about using and reporting mixed methods research in LIS. This review provides guidance for future work and contributes to the discussion on how we can further improve methodological rigor, research training, and reproducibility in LIS.     

知识管理的情报学视角与管理学视角的对比分析

文章分别从情报学角度和管理学角度对知识管理的概念、内涵等进行了阐述,并作了初步对比分析。     

The science studies abstracts journal of the RAS institute of scientific information for social sciences as a source of scientific information

This paper reviews the key thematic foci of the Science Studies abstracts journal published by the INION RAS, the structure of abstract information, and the timeliness of publications. Suggestions on how to further improve abstracting in the short-term are made.     

Developing the tasks-toward-transparency (T3) model for research transparency in open science using the lifecycle as a grounding framework

An increasingly data-intensive research environment has highlighted the need for greater research transparency to facilitate integrity and trust in open science and in the conduct of research more widely. The initial findings of faculty researchers' behaviors and practices toward research transparency, using the research data lifecycle as a grounding framework are reported. Four focus group sessions were conducted with faculty researchers in different disciplines, including natural sciences, social sciences, engineering, and different transparency practices were captured using the researchers' own language. Four generic transparency components were identified: action verb, object, task, and stage in the research lifecycle. The inter-relationships between specific transparency components were visualized using network visualizations. The network visualizations suggest that the lifecycle stages of Process/Visualize/Analyze and Publish/Preserve/Archive are key points for transparency, where ‘data’ play a critical role demonstrated by the multiple node-edge relationships. Based on the findings, a conceptual model, termed the Tasks-Toward-Transparency (T3) Model, was developed. This model may inform researcher practices and support research stakeholders whose role is to articulate and deliver transparency advocacy, policy, training programs, and services.     

Communication of research to practice in library and information science: Closing the gap

A widely held concern in library and information science (LIS) is that the relationship between research and practice, and particularly the communication of research to practice, is flawed. Through critical analysis of the literature, the authors examine the nature of the gap between research and practice, strategies to reduce the gap, and research on the effectiveness of the strategies. Eleven types of gap are identified: knowledge, culture, motivation, relevance, immediacy, publication, reading, terminology, activity, education, and temporal. Strategies proposed in the literature emphasize ways to increase practitioner research activity and to close the publications gap. Only one of the proposed strategies, inclusion of research reports in practitioner publications, is supported by research. The authors propose further research to evaluate this and other strategies based on recognition of a wider range of channels for communication of research to practice and the role of intermediaries between researchers and practitioners.     

信息构建(IA)——情报学研究的新热点

本文引入了国外情报学研究的一个新热点 :信息构建问题。信息构建的核心是信息组织与提供 ,作者介绍了信息构建的起源、定义和翻译等基本问题 ,介绍了有关该问题的国内外研究现状 ,并对目前研究状况作了分析和总结。文章还针对信息构建理论在情报学研究中的意义与其对情报学发展的影响提出了自己的见解。