Catalog Users Research Articles

Analysis of the Use of E-Purchasing with Local Catalogs on the Performance of the Central Maluku Regency Government

E-purchasing is a method of procurement of goods and services whose process resembles the online shopping system that is rife today such as lazada.com, bukalapak.com, elevenia.com, and others. E-purchasing complements the method of procurement of government goods and services which previously consisted of general auction/selection, limited auction/selection, simple auction, direct appointment, direct procurement, contest and contest. This study aims to determine the effect of efficiency, effectiveness and transparency on the performance of procurement of goods through local catalogs. The population of this study are Procurement Officials, Commitment Making Officials in the Central Maluku Kabuapten Government, and local catalog users in Central Maluku Regency, as well as Goods/Services Providers involved in local catalogs. The sample was determined by purposive sampling technique, as many as 110 respondents. The analysis method used is the Structural Equation Model (SEM). The research variables are 4 latent variables consisting of 3 independent variables each efficiency, effectiveness and transparency and 1 (one) dependent variable namely performance. The results showed that efficiency, effectiveness and transparency had a positive and significant effect on the performance of procurement of goods through local catalogs.

Integration of Distributed Streamflow Measurement Metadata for Improved Water Resource Decision-Making

Streamflow data are critical for monitoring and managing water resources, yet there are significant spatial gaps in our federal monitoring networks with biases toward large perennial rivers. In some cases, streamflow monitoring exists in these spatial gaps, but information about these monitoring locations is challenging to obtain. Here, we present a streamflow catalog for the United States Pacific Northwest that includes current and historical streamflow monitoring location information obtained from 32 organizations (other than the U.S. Geological Survey), which includes 2661 continuous streamflow gaging locations (22% are currently active) and 30,557 discrete streamflow measurements. A stakeholder advisory board with representatives from organizations that operate streamflow monitoring networks identified metadata requirements and provided feedback on the Streamflow Data Catalog user interface. Engagement with the water resources community through this effort highlighted challenges that water professionals face in collecting and managing streamflow data so that data are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). Over 60% of the streamflow monitoring locations in the Streamflow Data Catalog are not available online and are thus not findable through web search engines. Providing organizations technical assistance with standard measurement procedures, metadata collection, and web accessibility could substantially increase the availability and utility of streamflow information to water resources communities.

Experience in creating a centralized remote sensing data catalog
 from Russian satellites

Earth remote sensing data is the most important source of operational information about the natural environment for thematic GIS, these data can be used for the development of forestry, water and agriculture, in territorial planning, in ecology and nature management, etc. To ensure the effective use of the results of space activities in the Krasnoyarsk region, the FRC KSC SB RAS has organized a catalog of satellite data. The article deals with the solution of the problem of organizing a centralized remote sensing data catalog for a limited number of users from the Russian satellites Resurs-P, Kanopus-V and Meteor-M No. 2, received from the NTs OMZ JSC "Russian Space Systems". The data are centrally loaded for the needs of the subdivisions included in the FRC KSC SB RAS, according to a common request for all subdivisions. For the convenience of the end catalog users, the received data is processed and brought to a single format. The data is loaded from the Roscosmos geoportal (https://www.gptl.ru) automatically and pre-processed in a semi-automatic mode under the control of the operator. The stages of data processing and the problems that arise when organizing a centralized data catalog are described.

ANALYSIS OF USER SATISFACTION LIBRARY ONLINE CATALOG AT UPN VETERAN EAST JAVA USING EUCS METHOD

The development of information technology in this digital era has prompted numerous changes in many aspects of life, notably in the field of libraries, that are necessary to satisfy the demands of librarians to locate information easily, quickly, and precisely. OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog), often known as Online Catalog, is a website-based catalogue system used to search for information on library materials so they may be accessible whenever and wherever. One of the academic libraries that have used the Online Catalog is Universitas Pembangunan Nasional "Veteran" East Java. The purpose of this study is to determine what factors influence online catalogue user satisfaction using the End-User Computing Satisfaction (EUCS) model approach with two additional independent variables, System Speed and System Reliability. End-User Computing Satisfaction is one of the methods used to evaluate the overall system for user satisfaction. Proportional stratified random sampling was employed as the sample collecting method in this study, with a total of 303 respondents. The research data obtained from the questionnaire results were processed using SmartPLS 3.2.9 software. Based on the results obtained, accuracy, format, and ease of use are the three factors that have a positive and significant effect. In addition, the most influencing factor for Online Catalog user satisfaction is the format.

Historical Collections and Library Catalogs: Provenance Metadata, Bibliographic Standards and Frameworks, and Catalog Functionalities

ABSTRACT The article discusses the importance of custodial history metadata in bibliographic standards, formats and frameworks, and in library catalogs. It analyzes the present situation and proposes some basic solutions that would make it possible for the custodial history metadata to be entered in a standardized way and to be functionally linked to the holdings metadata so that catalog users would be able to search and retrieve information on the most relevant copies in terms of their provenance. Visual simulations of various functionalities based on the search and results display interface of the Slovenian National Library’s catalog are also included.

Genes go digital: Mendelian Inheritance in Man and the genealogy of electronic publishing in biomedicine.

Mendelian Inheritance in Man (MIM), a computerized catalogue of human genetic disorders authored and maintained by cardiologist and medical genetics pioneer Victor A. McKusick, played a major part in demarcating between a novel biomedical science and the eugenic projects of racial betterment which existed prior to its emergence. Nonetheless, it built upon prior efforts to systematize genetic knowledge tied to individuals and institutions invested in eugenics. By unpacking the process of digitizing a homespun cataloguing project and charting its development into an online database, this article aims to illuminate how the institution-building efforts of one individual created an 'information order' for accessing genetic information that tacitly shaped the norms and priorities of the field toward the pursuit of specific genes associated with discernible genetic disorders. This was not by design, but rather arose through negotiation with the catalogue's users; it accommodated further changes as biomedical research displaced the Mendelian paradigm. While great effort was expended toward making sequence data available to investigators during the Human Genome Project, MIM was largely taken for granted as a 'legacy system', McKusick's own labour of love. Drawing on recent histories of biomedical data, the article suggests that the bibliographical work of curation and translation is a central feature of value production in the life sciences meriting attention in its own right.

Behavioural and psychographic characteristics of supermarket catalogue users

Supermarket catalogues (also known as store flyers or circulars) are a popular retail tool for influencing shoppers’ behaviour and increasing store sales. Past research has documented varying effects of catalogue promotions on consumer behaviour, but it has not focused specifically on the psychographic and behavioural characteristics of catalogue users. This research aims to fill this gap through an analysis of a representative sample of 506 South Australian consumers. The results show that consumers who use supermarket catalogues are more likely to have one or more of these characteristics: price-consciousness, deal-proneness, low-income, and rarely switches brands. The contribution of this research provides empirical evidence on the user profiles of supermarket catalogues. Retailers and suppliers equipped with this knowledge can create more relevant promotions to increase efficiency and incremental sales.

Mixed Methods for Human–Computer Interactions Research: An Iterative Study Using Reddit and Social Media

Researchers have called for additional empirical studies associated with video games. However, every game is novel in terms of mechanics, content, context, and agency; known variables may be operationalized differently based on the game involved. It is incumbent upon researchers to leverage or create the best tools when extracting data from games. This article models instrument development of a scale intended to catalog users’ actions in a novel context (i.e., the game League of Legends) using a mixed methods approach. Specifically, this work outlines data collection and validation strategies using an online social news aggregation, rating, and discussion resource (i.e., Reddit), involving multiple cycles to elicit expert input and queries to generate consensus from expert gamers, followed by analysis of responses and an exploratory factor analysis for scale construction. Reddit provided three unique functions relative to the process: (a) access to experts who informed the development of scale items, (b) a social space and mechanism to validate scale items, and (c) the opportunity to capture data necessary to establish the psychometric properties of the instrument. Findings associated with scale development (i.e., item generation, theoretical and psychometric analyses) are presented. Overall, implications for instrument development in continually evolving contexts are discussed.

The NHGRI-EBI GWAS Catalog of published genome-wide association studies, targeted arrays and summary statistics 2019.

The GWAS Catalog delivers a high-quality curated collection of all published genome-wide association studies enabling investigations to identify causal variants, understand disease mechanisms, and establish targets for novel therapies. The scope of the Catalog has also expanded to targeted and exome arrays with 1000 new associations added for these technologies. As of September 2018, the Catalog contains 5687 GWAS comprising 71673 variant-trait associations from 3567 publications. New content includes 284 full P-value summary statistics datasets for genome-wide and new targeted array studies, representing 6 × 109 individual variant-trait statistics. In the last 12 months, the Catalog's user interface was accessed by ∼90000 unique users who viewed >1 million pages. We have improved data access with the release of a new RESTful API to support high-throughput programmatic access, an improved web interface and a new summary statistics database. Summary statistics provision is supported by a new format proposed as a community standard for summary statistics data representation. This format was derived from our experience in standardizing heterogeneous submissions, mapping formats and in harmonizing content. Availability: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/gwas/.

Characterizing queries in cross-device OPAC search: a large-scale log study

PurposeThe study focused on online public access catalog (OPAC) users’ cross-device search behavior. The purpose of this paper is to understand the characteristics of cross-device OPAC searches, and to identify query reformulation (QR) patterns during device transitions.Design/methodology/approachThe transaction log from a university library, spanning six months, was used to conduct the quantitative analysis. The query vocabulary richness, which refers to the average number of unique words each query contains in a search session, can evaluate query diversity, and contribute to the analysis of QR.FindingsThe results show that PC-PC transition is the most important pattern of device transition. The time interval of device transition was different to the time interval of transitions in web searches. Short device transitions mainly occurred in daytime, and the number of transitions that occurred in less than one minute was higher than on the web. Searches for Industry and Technology triggered the most device transitions, and the users tended to choose the same search field. In addition, the authors made a detailed analysis of the reasons for same-type device transitions and different-type device transitions. Furthermore, the authors focused on the characteristics of adjacent QR patterns. The authors not only refined the concept of cross-device to include the same-type device transition, but also summarized the characteristics of the cross-device QR patterns, which can be used to predict post-switch queries.Originality/valueThis study extends research into cross-device interaction and cross-device search to the domain of digital library research. The authors also introduced QR perspective on cross-device interaction on OPAC.

The search value added by subject descriptors in journal databases

Gross et al. (2015) have demonstrated that about a quarter of hits would typically be lost to keyword searchers if contemporary academic library catalogs dropped their controlled subject headings. This paper reports on an analysis of the loss levels that would result if a bibliographic database, namely the Australian Education Index (AEI), were missing the subject descriptors and identifiers assigned by its professional indexers, employing the methodology developed by Gross and Taylor (2005), and later by Gross et al. (2015). The results indicate that AEI users would lose a similar proportion of hits per query to that experienced by library catalog users: on average, 27% of the resources found by a sample of keyword queries on the AEI database would not have been found without the subject indexing, based on the Australian Thesaurus of Education Descriptors (ATED). The paper also discusses the methodological limitations of these studies, pointing out that real-life users might still find some of the resources missed by a particular query through follow-up searches, while additional resources might also be found through iterative searching on the subject vocabulary. The paper goes on to describe a new research design, based on a before-and-after experiment, which addresses some of these limitations. It is argued that this alternative design will provide a more realistic picture of the value that professionally assigned subject indexing and controlled subject vocabularies can add to literature searching of a more scholarly and thorough kind.

Catalog Users “In the Wild”: The Potential of an Ethnographic Approach to Studies of Library Catalogs and Their Users

An increasing number of library user studies are employing ethnographic techniques as an alternative to more traditional qualitative methods such as surveys. Such techniques, however, are only beginning to see significant application to catalog user studies. Beginning with a discussion of the applied ethnographic method and its current usage within the field of Library and Information Science research, this article will assess methods that have traditionally been applied to studies of catalog users and present the case for the potential of an ethnographic approach for future catalog evaluation and design.

The Logical Order of Different Categories of Responsibility for the Description of Moving Images in the ISBD Consolidated Edition

Numerous individuals and corporate bodies are involved in the creation of an audiovisual work, and the transcription of the statements of responsibility represents a complex task for cataloging. The International Standard for Bibliographic Description (ISBD) Consolidated edition does not define a logical order of different categories of responsibility for moving images. Determining the logical order, as it is defined for sound recordings, would facilitate cataloging processes and assist the catalog users to identify and select an entity. The article discusses the order of responsibility for moving images that is based on cataloging rules and practice, based on the analysis of credits of 100 films, and proposes the logical order of transcribing statements of responsibility as more suitable for the users of the catalog.

Experimenting with implementing FRBR in a Chinese Koha system

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide broad overviews of functional requirements for bibliographic records (FRBR) in the context of Chinese machine-readable cataloguing (CMARC). It examines areas of the FRBR model, FRBR system development, FRBR applications and FRBR research. Design/methodology/approach – A Chinese Koha_LibFRBR testbed was set up to develop three activities: building a FRBR application function library called LibFRBR to maintain FRBRized bibliographic records, implementing a mapping algorithm between CMARC/MARC 21 and FRBR, and designing a new generation Chinese FRBR Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) user interface. Findings – The pilot system implementation demonstrates a workable process with useful output using both automated means (through a Perl module) and manual means (through a cataloguing interface (CI)). The study shows that existing poor Relator Code system and the maintenance of very little authority data in libraries in Taiwan are disadvantages in utilizing th...

User Data on the Social Web: Authorship, Agency, and Appropriation

Social web services catalog users’ activities across the Internet, aggregating, analyzing, and selling a vast array of user data to be used largely for consumer profiling and target marketing. This article interrogates the tacit agreements and terms-of-use policies that govern who owns user data, how it circulates, and how it can be used. Relying on problematic assumptions about the authorship of social data, data-mining practices and technology policies unquestioningly place ownership in the hands of technology companies and compel users to surrender control over their own contributions on the social web. This article explores the implications of the practices and policies surrounding data management for composition and participation on the social web and argues for a more balanced distribution of rights to user data.

The Legacy of the Library Catalogue for the Present

The specter of impending change in library catalogues is strong but not very clear. In an attempt to help the clarification process, the first part of the present report discusses historical themes from the modern library catalogue legacy that has developed since the mid-nineteenth century—the origins and subsequent dominance of the dictionary catalogue for more than a century, considerations of library catalogue users and use over the same period, developments apart from the library catalogue during the twentieth century that have affected it, and aspects of the idea of the objects of a catalogue. In a second part, the general environment for the most recent period of library catalogue development is described, after which aspects of the historical legacy are used as a basis for raising questions relevant to impending library catalogue change.

Effect of web searching on the OPAC: a comparison of selected university libraries

PurposeThe paper seeks to evaluate the effect of web searching on online public access catalogue (OPAC) users in the university libraries in India. It is a comparative study of the three universities in the Union Territory of Chandigarh and Punjab State.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopted a questionnaire‐based survey. A structured questionnaire was administered to 500 users comprising faculty, research scholars, and postgraduate students of selected university libraries to collect data regarding the influence of web search engines on OPAC users.FindingsThe study showed that a majority of the users in all three universities made use of the web‐based resources. Ready access to information through search engines considerably increased the expectations of library users while searching OPAC. Web searching influenced their OPAC searching process greatly, as the majority of searches were performed on OPAC‐like popular search engines. Simultaneously, users did not know the difference between inner‐workings of OPAC and common search engines such as Google.Originality/valueThe paper provides useful information about how search engines influence OPAC users in India. The study recommends that OPACs need to include the modern features of present search engines to improve their practices. University libraries should communicate user expectations to OPAC designers. Further, the library community should collaborate with OPAC designers to develop a user‐friendly OPAC system, keeping in view the needs of the users of the internet age.

2010, Year of cataloging research in review

AbstractEditor's SummaryRecognizing the need for serious research on bibliographic control, the American Library Association and the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services declared 2010 as the Year of Cataloging Research. These and other library organizations, spurred on by forward thinking individuals, promoted the current and critical importance of cataloging research through conference presentations, panels and round table discussions throughout the year. The year 2010 also saw a proposal for an agenda for cataloging research, including conducting catalog user surveys, examining the effects of outsourcing and analyzing information retrieval with online catalogs. Catalogers were encouraged to recognize the value of what they learn through internal projects, to publish and share discoveries with others and to get actively involved with library decision making at their institutions. Cataloging research should be geared toward understanding the perspectives of the information producer and consumer, thereby enhancing the application of library cataloging skills to serve information access.

Name Disambiguation—Learning From More User-Friendly Models

Library catalogs do not provide catalog users with the assistance they need to easily and confidently select the person they are interested in. Examples are provided of Web services that do a better job of helping information seekers differentiate the person they are seeking from those with similar names. Some of the reasons for this failure in library catalogs are examined. This article then looks at how much information is necessary to help users disambiguate names, how that information could be captured and shared, and some ways the information could be displayed in library catalogs.

A Research Agenda for Cataloging: The CCQ Editorial Board Responds to the Year of Cataloging Research

The cataloging and classification community was called to highlight 2010 as “The Year of Cataloging Research,” and specifically was challenged to generate research ideas, conduct research, and generally promote the development of new research in cataloging. Cataloging & Classification Quarterly has become the most influential journal of research in cataloging and classification since its inception in 1981. The idea behind the research reported here was to give the CCQ editorial board an opportunity to present its point of view about research for cataloging. A Delphi study was conducted in three stages during the 2009–2010 academic year. Members were asked to define the key terms “cataloging,” “evidence,” and “research,” and to develop a research agenda in cataloging. The results reveal a basic core definition of cataloging perceived as a dynamic, active process at the core of information retrieval. An eight point research agenda emerges that is forward-looking and embraces change, along with top-ranked calls for new empirical evidence about catalogs, cataloging, and catalog users.