Search markets and search results: The case of Bing

Bing and Google customize their results to target people with different geographic locations and languages but, despite the importance of search engines for web users and webometric research, the extent and nature of these differences are unknown. This study compares the results of seventeen random queries submitted automatically to Bing for thirteen different English geographic search markets at monthly intervals. Search market choice alters a small majority of the top 10 results but less than a third of the complete sets of results. Variation in the top 10 results over a month was about the same as variation between search markets but variation over time was greater for the complete results sets. Most worryingly for users, there were almost no ubiquitous authoritative results: only one URL was always returned in the top 10 for all search markets and points in time, and Wikipedia was almost completely absent from the most common top 10 results. Most importantly for webometrics, results from at least three different search markets should be combined to give more reliable and comprehensive results, even for queries that return fewer than the maximum number of URLs.     

Health answer quality evaluation by librarians,nurses, and users in social Q&A

Health information consumers and patients increasingly take an active role in seeking health information online and in sharing their health problems and concerns in online support groups and social media venues. However, they may risk being influenced by unreliable and misleading information in such environments, as no intermediaries monitor the quality of this information. This study focuses on evaluating the quality of health information exchanged in one of the social media venues, by investigating how librarians, nurses, and users assessed the quality of health answers in Yahoo! Answers, a social question-and-answering (Q&A) service. Through statistical analysis differences among the three participant groups, how the background characteristics influenced their assessments, and the relationships between characteristics of the content of answers and quality evaluation criteria were each considered in detail. Librarians and nurses shared similar ratings of answer quality, but had differences in their level of medical knowledge and the types of services they offer, resulting in minor differences across criteria. Users perceived the quality of health answers in social Q&A to be higher than librarians and nurses for almost all criteria. Depending on the sources of information presented in health answers, librarians, nurses, and users gave different quality assessments. Implications exist for research into and practice of evaluating the quality of health information, which need to address both search and domain expertise along with the sharing of socioemotional values preferred by users.     

The Cynefin framework: A tool for analyzing qualitative data in information science?

Interpreting qualitative research data and presenting it in ways that enable potential beneficiaries of the research to use it readily and appropriately is increasingly important in the context of the research impact agenda. One way of doing uses the Cynefin framework. Cynefin, which is rooted in knowledge management and complexity science, has been used in a range of contexts to support decision-making and strategy development in dynamic and challenging situations. However, it has not been widely used as a data analysis technique or in the information science discipline. An exploratory evaluation uses it to interpret the rich, nuanced qualitative data from a three-year research project that engaged people worldwide to explore issues and practical strategies for managing electronic records, a significant information management challenge. The evaluation demonstrates that the Cynefin framework provides a strategic lens through which to view electronic records management (ERM). Cynefin prompts new questions to be asked, leading to new insights and a deeper understanding of the ERM challenge. Most significantly, it provides a new construct for re-perceiving the challenge in a holistic way and offers a strategic approach to taking action for change. This evaluation suggests that it is an appropriate and effective framework for use in qualitative research on challenging information management problems, with the potential to support the transfer of research into practice.     

Addressing below proficient information literacy skills: Evaluating the efficacy of an evidence-based educational intervention

Over the course of three years, an educational intervention was developed to teach information literacy (IL) skills, change perceptions of IL, and to recalibrate self views of the abilities of first year college students who demonstrate below proficient information literacy skills. The intervention is a modular workshop designed around the three-step analyze, search, evaluate (ASE) model of information literacy, which is easy to remember, easy to adapt to multiple instructional situations, and can provide a foundation for building information literacy skills. Summative evaluation of the intervention demonstrates that students who attend the workshop see an increase in skills and awareness of information literacy as a skill set. Increases in skills, however, were not sufficient to move participants into the proficient range. While workshop participants were able to reassess preworkshop skills, skills gained in the workshop did not result in recalibrated self-views of ability. Like the development of skills, the recalibration of self-assessments may require multiple exposures to information literacy instruction.     

Impacts of government website information on social sciences and humanities in China: A citation analysis

The purpose of this research is to investigate the current state and trend of government website information cited by social science and humanities (SS&H) journal articles in China. The Chinese Social Science Citation Index (CSSCI) was used as the benchmark and the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) journals as the reference samples. It analyzed 204,019 web citations (N = 5,063,237) found in 925,506 articles that were published in CSSCI journals during the 1998–2009 period. The findings unveil that web citations accounted for only 4.03% of the total number of citations (N = 5,063,237), and that citations of Chinese government websites constituted 6.6% of the total number of web citations (N = 204,019). The study disclosed detailed information regarding citations derived from ministries and commissions directly under the State Council websites (N = 69), government online media (N = 7), government website citation subjects (N = 21), and various types of government website information (N = 5). Although government website information has limited influence on SS&H, their impact is currently growing rapidly. In comparison with international research community, influence of government web information on Chinese social science is higher, while its influence on humanities is lower. Essentially, Chinese scholars put emphasis on citing information from authoritative central government websites or highly visible state-owned media information as supporting evidences in their articles. In general, the citation of information from Chinese government website tends to hot social issues of society. Finally, it is necessary to promote the visibility of local government websites, to develop policies and guidelines to encourage the disclosure and the diversity of data, so that there will be more citation balances between social and technological topics.     

E-government discourses: An inductive analysis

This article offers a new perspective on e-government by documenting the categories of e-government discourses, and evaluating them within a public value framework. Understanding e-government discourses is significant, since these discourses represent contested visions of e-government, and one can derive a feel for public sentiment about e-government from the discourses used in the media. The findings are accumulated through an inductive analysis of 85 newspaper articles, published during the year of 2010, in three top-selling, ideologically different, nationally circulating Turkish newspapers. In these 85 articles, 98 discourses presented by 90 policy actors are found. Five positive and four negative discourse categories and their relationships emerged from the analysis of the data. The results show that, government reform efforts shaped by the New Public Management movement and Turkey's harmonization efforts with the global political system in general, and with the European Union in particular, are influential in the presentation of e-government projects to the Turkish public through newspapers.     

Television performance in Indonesia: steering between civil society,state and market

This article looks at the television landscape in Indonesia that has undergone a major transformation in recent decades. As one of the ‘Asian Tigers,’ Indonesia introduced commercial television in two waves between 1989 and 2002 as a complement to the traditional state broadcaster, TVRI. During the Reformasi movement, commercial TV stations contributed to the emerging civil society in the period 1998–2000 by supporting the movement for democratic reform that led to the resignation of President Suharto. An assessment of the current Indonesian television scene shows that most commercial TV stations, after a short coalition with civil society, went ‘back to business’ again in the context of a relatively young but highly competitive Indonesian market.     

Increasing process orientation with business process management: Critical practices’

This paper studies the role of business process management in creating a higher business process orientation. The purpose is to analyze previously suggested practices to identify those that are critical at a certain business process orientation maturity level and those that are not. A case study is used to identify the critical success factors. Then a statistical analysis of a sample of 324 companies is undertaken to operationalize the success factors in the form of critical practices. Organizations following these critical practices at a certain level will reach higher process orientation sooner.     

Evaluating the performance of calculus classes using operational research tools

This paper compares the efficiency of calculus classes. Two kinds of classes are evaluated: the traditional ones and others that use computational methods in teaching. This experiment was performed at Fluminense Federal University, Niterói, Brazil, from 1998 to 2000. The emphasis of this paper is on the quantitative evaluation using two operational research tools: multicriteria decision aid methods (mainly using the MACBETH approach) and data envelopment analysis. The evaluating variables are the level at which students enter the university and the performance of the students after studying calculus.