Reconstructed visions: The philosophies that shaped part of the Scottish national collections

The shifting location of one institution within a knowledge-space that is itself dynamic is examined through a brief case-study of one of the constituent museums which, in 1985, became a part of the then newly established National Museums of Scotland. Through examination of the declared intentions of successive directors over the 151 year history of the institution successively known as the Industrial Museum of Scotland, the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, the Royal Scottish Museum, and the Royal Museum of Scotland, it attempts to reveal changes in that institution's perception of its own role, its corporate vision, and its sense of place within the social, intellectual and political landscape.     

Fusing research into practice: The role of research methods education

A survey was conducted among library and information science (LIS) practitioners to examine the effect of the research methods course on LIS practitioners' work. Findings suggest the research methods course is a valuable component of the master's in library and information science (MLIS) program. Taking the research methods course increases LIS practitioners' research interest and assists them by helping them critically evaluate published literature and apply it at work, provide better assistance to library patrons, produce valid and reliable data to facilitate decision making, identify problems at work and design and implement studies to solve them, and write grants and for publication. Suggestions are made to improve the research methods curriculum and enhance the educational experience for LIS practitioners.     

“If it is too inconvenient I'm not going after it:” Convenience as a critical factor in information-seeking behaviors

In today's fast-paced world, anecdotal evidence suggests that information tends to inundate people, and users of information systems want to find information quickly and conveniently. Empirical evidence for convenience as a critical factor is explored in the data from two multi-year, user study projects funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The theoretical framework for this understanding is founded in the concepts of bounded rationality and rational choice theory, with Savolainen's (2006) concept of time as a context in information seeking, as well as gratification theory, informing the emphasis on the seekers' time horizons. Convenience is a situational criterion in peoples' choices and actions during all stages of the information-seeking process. The concept of convenience can include their choice of an information source, their satisfaction with the source and its ease of use, and their time horizon in information seeking. The centrality of convenience is especially prevalent among the younger subjects (“millennials”) in both studies, but also holds across all demographic categories—age, gender, academic role, or user or non-user of virtual reference services. These two studies further indicate that convenience is a factor for making choices in a variety of situations, including both academic information seeking and everyday-life information seeking, although it plays different roles in different situations.     

Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring System (WEMS): A solution to support compliance of Multilateral Environmental Agreements

Given the rising number of international environmental agreements, it is increasingly difficult for many developing countries to meet the basic commitments of compliance to Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs). One major reason for non-compliance is an unforced restriction on enforcement information flow to the national environmental governance repository either due to policy regulations or, technological hindrance. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of a global information technology framework for MEAs that will help in enhancing the flow of information from a grassroot level to a national repository and then serving to various international agencies involved in monitoring of enforcement and compliance to MEAs. The paper defines the current challenges in global and national-level environmental information gathering and analysis and then, explains the technological and policy framework model adopted in the Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring System (WEMS). The paper then argues that the WEMS model will be able to overcome the existing challenges hindering the information flow in a government framework.     

Can the internet reduce corruption? A cross-country study based on dynamic panel data models

This study attempts to estimate the effects of internet adoption on reducing corruption by using a panel consisting of 70 countries covering the period from 1998 to 2005. The results of Granger causality tests reveal that, while causality running from internet adoption to corruption reduction can be established, the causality between internet adoption and corruption is bi-directional. To deal with the problem of endogeneity, the dynamic panel data (DPD) models are employed. The estimation results show that the effects of internet adoption on corruption reduction are statistically significant but not too substantial. Our findings suggest that the internet has shown a capacity for reducing corruption, but its potential has yet to be fully realized.     

The myth of informatization in rural areas: The case of China's Sichuan province

As one of the nation's informatization strategies, the Chinese government has set up an ambitious goal to connect all the villages via broadband by the end of 2020. Lacking an explicit and systematic universal service policy, the Chinese government initially designated the major telecommunications carriers to carry out the task, which is commonly referred as “telephone service in every village project”. So far, the project is going well and all the planned deadlines are met. In addition to connections, government and business entities are developing various information services to bring timely and useful economic, educational and agricultural information to those rural residents.The primary research question of this paper is to look at whether this government-led model is sustainable in the future. The study is conducted in Sichuan, a typical western province where the divide between the urban and rural area is very prominent while, surprisingly, the agricultural informatization service in that region has gained national attention. The study shows that the lack of vision, coherent strategy and a sustainable model are the issues that need to be addressed.     

The mediating role of mental imagery in mobile advertising

The future of communication and advertising is mobile. There is, however, little empirical evidence as to exactly how mobile advertising works. This research examines the role of mental imagery elicited by mobile advertising and its mediating effect on trust in the advertising message (ad trust) and purchase intention. Using a 2 × 2 factorial experimental design, we examined the influence of the type of message – SMS vs. MMS – and type of content – informational vs. transformational – on the three dimensions of mental imagery: vividness, quantity and elaboration. Results show a greater impact of MMS mobile ads and transformational ads on vividness and elaboration, while SMS mobile ads have a greater impact on the quantity dimension. The study also suggests that ad trust can be improved by enhancing the mental imagery elicited by mobile ads. Vivid and elaborate mental imagery mediates the effect of the type of ad on ad trust and exerts a positive influence on purchase intention. These findings have important implications for mobile advertisers since overcoming trust issues remains a major obstacle in the adoption of this medium. In addition, practical aspects of mobile ads’ conception and design are discussed and directions for future research are suggested.     

Innovations and communication through innovative users: An exploratory mechanism of social networking website

The study focuses on which users to target and why and how to inspire their participation by applying combination of von Hippel's lead user and user innovation toolkits with Rogers’ innovation diffusion theories. After an investigation of a social networking website, this study finds that individuals with large number of hits are highly active users of new functions. Moreover, they are likely to use toolkits to customize their personal uses and respond to others’ problems. Therefore, they garner appreciation from others in return, achieve higher ranks in the top hit parade, and obtain better-expected benefits from the website's incentive compensation. This study also evaluates the toolkits’ efficacy in the Web 2.0 context and finds that they are not equivalents. This research offers insights useful for web service providers to target innovative users and create an environment using web toolkits to induce user-generated innovation and achieve better effect of innovation communication.     

Email overload: Exploring the moderating role of the perception of email as a ‘business critical’ tool

The management of email remains a major challenge for organisations. In this article, we explore the extent of the perceptions of email as a business critical tool within an organisation and how the level of such perceptions may moderate the level of email overload experienced by individuals within the organisation. Data from a sample of 1100 employees of a multinational technology firm are analysed using multivariate techniques. The results suggest that without a clearly stated code of email practice within an organisation, there are likely to be large variations in what is perceived as ‘business-critical’ email and, as a result, a substantial amount of email generated within the organisation may not be ‘business-critical’, potentially increasing the level of ‘email-overload’ experienced by individuals within the organisation.