Information Science Studies Research Articles

Analyzing cross‐reference transactions between authors by use of an asymmetric proximity measure and multidimensional unfolding

AbstractThe present paper explores simultaneous modelling of cross‐reference activity between authors by use of asymmetric proximities and multidimensional unfolding. We thereby model and map both citing and cited relations between authors in a common space. This enables a more comprehensive comparison of the author's dual roles of citing and being cited in a reference network. We model a set of 31 authors and compare the results to a recent author co‐citation study of Information Science. We find that multidimensional unfolding is a reliable and insightful technique for modelling authors' citing and cited dimensions simultaneously. The common space of citing and cited positions exemplify that some authors have substantial discrepancies between their citing behaviour and the way their works are used by peers in the set. Further, modelling mutual relationships as asymmetric brings more accuracy and nuances into the maps as relationships become overt. Finally, the study discusses how high publication activity influences mapping results considerably. To counter this effect, we demonstrate the appropriateness of correcting data for main effects by use of an asymmetric proximity measure of odds ratios.

A pesquisa em Ciência da Informação no Brasil: marcos institucionais, cenários e perspectivas

Observa-se nas duas últimas décadas uma maior concentração dos estudos da ciência da informação em relação aos contextos institucional, histórico e epistemológico de sua conformação como disciplina ou campo científico, o que poderia indicar uma maior reflexividade da área de estudos em relação a si própria. Além disso, a disciplina parece assumir de forma mais sustentada o seu pertencimento ao campo das ciências sociais e das humanidades. Esses aspectos fornecem um plano de apoio para se refletir sobre a constituição da pós-graduação e as perspectivas da pesquisa no Brasil e, em seguida, no campo da ciência da informação. Destaca-se o papel da ANCIB-Associação Nacional de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação em Ciência da Informação e de seus grupos temáticos de trabalho nesse contexto. Reflete-se ainda sobre como a pesquisa no campo de estudos da informação deve enfrentar os condicionantes de um novo regime de informação e conhecimento configurado pelo mercado e pelas organizações empresariais, de forma diferente de um regime anterior, orientado pelo Estado, pelo público e pela escola.

The Bologna reform at the department of library and information science and book studies, university of Ljubljana

Relevance of the new Bologna study programme at the Department of Library and Information Science and Book Studies at University of Ljubljana is demonstrated from different aspects. The example of IS&R themes and topics which are recognized as one of LIS core areas is used to show the differences from the previous study programme in terms of content, together with coverage of Web 2.0 related themes. In regard to teaching and learning methods it is shown how e-learning is used to support the educational process. At the end a few insights into employability of future graduates are added.

Dorobek naukowy pracowników Instytutu Informacji Naukowej i Bibliologii UMK za lata 1976−2007. Cz. 1. Analiza ilościowa

The article presents results of a bibliometric analysis of the scientific output made by researchers from Institute of Information Science and Book Studies at Nicolas Copernicus University in Torun during 1976-2007. The research material includes set of 873 items, especially: books and their editions, articles published in journals and collective works, literature reviews, interviews and translations. Authors of this article make a quantitative analysis of the material, take into account dynamic of publications' growth, organizational and employment status of Institute, during the 32-year period of its activity.

Badanie tempa i techniki czytania studentów informacji naukowej i bibliotekoznawstwa

The article describes results of the survey conducted among the students of information science and book studies at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun between the years of 2007-2008 concerning elementary level of their reading abilities. Over 100 students of the first and the second year were asked to check the speed and comprehension of their reading on the ground of some text chosen from the field of their study. The results were not so satisfying - average speed of their reading (199 words per one minute) was on a level with all adult Polish people standards (200 w/m) but below approximate range established for students population (200-220 w/m). Comprehension factor - 60% of content understanding - was typical for conventional, linear, word by word strategy of reading.

Situación laboral de los diplomados en biblioteconomía y documentación por la <i>Universidad de Zaragoza</i> (1992-2006)

The article presents the results of a survey on working life, answered by 183 graduates in Information Science studies of the Universidad de Zaragoza, between the years 1992 and 2006. The results can be summarized in that these professionals improve their academic results with respect to other previous studies due to their motivation throughout the studies. The expectations for job access of these graduates have been fulfilled in most of the cases, and they spent an average of thirteen months looking for a job. A great part of these workers are employed in specific functions of Information Science. Nevertheless, most of them don’t belong to any Professional Association of Information Sciences. In spite of this, we can conclude that these studies must be better known in order to show everybody what opportunities are available to these professionals.

Civilisation and its disconnects

PurposeThis paper aims to explore some initial and necessarily broad ideas about the effects of the world wide web on our methods of understanding and trusting, online and off.Design/methodology/approachThe paper considers the idea of trust via some of the revolutionary meanings inherent in the world wide web at its public conception in 1994, and some of its different meanings now. It does so in the context of the collaborative reader‐writer Web2.0 (of today), and also through a brief exploration of our relationship to the grand narratives (and some histories) of the post‐war West. It uses a variety of formal approaches taken from information science, literary criticism, philosophy, history, and journalism studies – together with some practical analysis based on 15 years as a web practitioner and content creator. It is a starting point.FindingsThis paper suggests that a pronounced effect of the world wide web is the further atomising of many once‐shared Western post‐war narratives, and the global democratising of doubt as a powerful though not necessarily helpful epistemological tool. The world wide web is the place that most actively demonstrates contemporary doubt.Research limitations/implicationsThis is the starting place for a piece of larger cross‐faculty (and cross‐platform) research into the arena of trust and doubt. In particular, the relationship of concepts such as news, event, history and myth with the myriad content platforms of new media, the idea of the digital consumer, and the impact of geography on knowledge that is enshrined in the virtual. This paper attempts to frame a few of the initial issues inherent in the idea of “trust” in the digital age and argues that without some kind of shared aesthetics of narrative judgment brought about through a far broader public understanding of (rather than an interpretation of) oral, visual, literary and multi‐media narratives, stories and plots, we cannot be said to trust many types of knowledge – not just in philosophical terms but also in our daily actions and behaviours.Originality/valueThis paper initiates debate about whether the creation of a new academic “space” in which cross‐faculty collaborations into the nature of modern narrative (in terms of production and consumption; producers and consumers) might be able to help us to understand more of the social implications of the collaborative content produced for consumption on the world wide web.

Perceptions and importance of user friendliness of IR systems according to users' individual characteristics and academic discipline

AbstractThis article presents one part of a wider study, performed at the Department of library and information science and book studies (LIS & BS) at the University of Ljubljana (UL). The study investigated the perceptions of user friendliness of information‐retrieval systems (IRS) and the role of individual characteristics of users in these perceptions. Based on an expert study, a user study with 61 postgraduate students of the UL was performed. Three interfaces of e‐journals were studied: Science Direct, Proquest Direct, and Ebsco Host. Questionnaires and observations were used for data collection. The users'perceptions of user friendliness and of importance of auxiliary functions were investigated. Also, the connections between these perceptions and the users'individual characteristics were identified. Three sets of individual characteristics were included: approaches to studying, thinking styles, and hemisphere leanings. In connection with the dimensions of individual characteristics, very different perceptions of user friendliness were expressed. Some dimensions of individual characteristics were also found to be connected to the users'academic areas. It is shown that participants from different academic areas have different requirements and perceptions of user friendliness. The results of the study are relevant for the design of the user interfaces of disciplinary IR systems. They also have implications for other areas, for example, user education and training.

Das Bibliotheksvolontariat: Eine verwaltungsinterne Ausbildung zwischen Vorbereitungsdienst und freiem Studium

Instead of the traditional course of training for academic librarianship which involves an internship within the civil service (Bibliotheksreferendariat), some German states offer salaried professional traineeships.This so-called »volontariat« combines two years of practical instruction In the library with parallel postgraduate studies in library and information science. The following article describes the structure and course content of this program and discusses the problematic legal regulations for civil service careers which may effect the job opportunities for these trainees.

Evolution of research activities and intellectual influences in information science 1996–2005: Introducing author bibliographic‐coupling analysis

AbstractAuthor cocitation analysis (ACA) has frequently been applied over the last two decades for mapping the intellectual structure of a research field as represented by its authors. However, what is mapped in ACA is actually the structure of intellectual influences on a research field as perceived by its active authors. In this exploratory paper, by contrast, we introduce author bibliographic‐coupling analysis (ABCA) as a method to map the research activities of active authors themselves for a more realistic picture of the current state of research in a field. We choose the information science (IS) field and study its intellectual structure both in terms of current research activities as seen from ABCA and in terms of intellectual influences on its research as shown from ACA. We examine how these two aspects of the intellectual structure of the IS field are related, and how they both developed during the “first decade of the Web,” 1996–2005. We find that these two citation‐based author‐mapping methods complement each other, and that, in combination, they provide a more comprehensive view of the intellectual structure of the IS field than either of them can provide on its own.

An introduction to the study of library and information science

An introduction to the study of library and information science

문헌정보학분야에서 메타분석 연구에 관한 고찰

Meta-analysis refers to the analysis of analysis. It is the statistical analysis of a large collection of analysis results from individual studies for the purpose of summarizing, integrating and interpreting the inconsistent findings. However, no meta-analysis study has been conducted in Library and Information Science in Korea. This Study introduced the characteristics, basic principles, analysis procesure, and major models of meta-analysis, reviewed meta-analysis studies in Library and Information Science, and discussed major problems in conducting meta-analysis in Library and Information Science especially in Korea.

Los estudios de usuarios en los planes de estudio de Biblioteconomía y documentación

User studies, acknowledged as an effective tool for acquiring an understanding of user characteristics in organizations’ information an evaluation processes, have evolved considerably in both theory and methodology. Their use is uneven in the professional, research and academic domains, however, and the subject is included in very few Spanish university curricula. The present article addresses some of the education objectives of the discipline and proposes the basic subject matter to achieve them, against the backdrop of the specific competencies associated with this diploma in the White Paper on the adaptation of Library and Information Science studies to European Higher Education Area criteria.

Informação e representações sociais: um estudo com familiares de portadores de sofrimento mental 10.5007/1518-2924.2007v12n24p72

The present article intends to contribute for a new perspective of empiric studies in Information Science, in the information denominated researches social information or anthropology slope, through the theory utilization and of the phenomenon of the social representations. The transfer model of the adopted information was the denominated diagramatico, propose for Teixeira (1997), that we base in a logic relacional. The research group was formed by family of bearers of mental suffering referenced in the Clinica Psicossocial (CLIPS), located in Ipatinga/MG. For the reception process analysis of the information, they were used the theory objectified and anchorage concepts of the social representations. It empiric research developed that the experience of care and to accompany the treatment of a bearer of mental suffering is the lunatic social representations main element former, of the madness and of the madness treatment. It treatment psicossocial approach proposed in the process of psychiatric reform finds reception in the measure in which it gets if anchor in the experience, in the everyday lived by the family of bearers of mental suffering. In this meaning, the theory job of the social representations enabled a new way of seeing the information and knowledge processes cognitive aspect that can open new perspectives for users' studies in Information Science.

Librarianship and information science studies

Librarianship and information science studies

Mapping interdisciplinarity at the interfaces between the Science Citation Index and the Social Science Citation Index

The two Journal Citation Reports of the Science Citation Index 2004 and the Social Science Citation Index 2004 were combined in order to analyze and map journals and specialties at the edges and in the overlap between the two databases. For journals which belong to the overlap (e.g., Scientometrics), the merger mainly enriches our insight into the structure which can be obtained from the two databases separately; but in the case of scientific journals which are more marginal in either database, the combination can provide a new perspective on the position and function of these journals (e.g., Environment and Planning B — Planning and Design). The combined database additionally enables us to map citation environments in terms of the various specialties comprehensively. Using the vector-space model, visualizations are provided for specialties that are parts of the overlap (information science, science & technology studies). On the basis of the resulting visualizations, “betweenness” — a measure from social network analysis — is suggested as an indicator for measuring the interdisciplinarity of journals.

In this issue

In this issue

A discourse analysis technique for charting the flow of micro‐information behavior

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to describe a discourse analysis technique which can be used to analyze text or speech that is produced by people when discussing their information practices.Design/methodology/approachThe method involves coding the phrases and sentences of this interpretive discourse into the three domains of behavior investigated in psychology and education, namely, the affective domain of evaluating and intending, the cognitive domain of appraising and planning, and the sensorimotor domain of noticing, perceiving, and executing or acting.FindingsSamples of discourse from independent published sources were categorized and coded. In every case people's self‐descriptions of their information practices are shown to contain references to their activities in these three domains. A model is presented to depict how information behavior can be represented as a continuous processing flow of satisficing and optimizing behavior. These mental behavioral procedures are practiced by individuals in information settings as members of a group or culture, and are reflected in the verbal accounts they construct about their information behavior.Research limitations/implicationsThe model of ecological constructionism, upon which the coding technique is based, needs to be tested in many more diverse contexts. Second, the model needs to address differences in types of information behavior such as searching, computing, blogging, etc., as well as different information settings and purposes of use, e.g. online shopping, doing job tasks with the computer, etc.Practical implicationsThe technique can theoretically be automated and applied to the processing of large volumes of text produced daily in the online environment. The results yield a type of average digital code that can serve as an index of people's information behaviors in these diverse settings with regard to their affective, cognitive and sensorimotor activities.Originality/valueThe model or theory was constructed by integrating the concepts of “satisficing” and “optimizing” in decision making with research in information behavior, human ecology, social cognitive theory and ethnomethodology. The model is comprehensive and general enough to provide a potentially useful common topical reference chart for human studies in information science.

Assessing the value of a journal beyond the impact factor

AbstractThe well‐documented limitations of journal impact factor rankings and perceptual ratings, the evolving scholarly communication system, the open‐access movement, and increasing globalization are some reasons that prompted an examination of journal value rather than just impact. Using a single, specialized journal established in 1960, about education for the Information professions, the author discusses the fall from citation grace of the Journal of Education for Library and Information Science (JELIS) in terms of impact factor and declining subscriptions. Journal evaluation studies in Library and Information Science based on subjective ratings are used to show the high rank of JELIS during the same period (1984–2004) and explain why impact factors and perceptual ratings either singly or jointly are inadequate measures for understanding the value of specialized, scholarly journals such as JELIS. This case study was also a search for bibliometric measures of journal value. Three measures, namely journal attraction power, author associativity, and journal consumption power, were selected; two of them were redefined as journal measures of affinity (the proportion of foreign authors), associativity (the amount of collaboration), and calculated as objective indicators of journal value. The affinity and associativity for JELIS calculated for 1984, 1994, 2004, and consumption calculated for 1985 and 1994 show a holding pattern; however, they also reveal interesting dimensions for future study. Journal value is multidimensional and citations do not capture all the facets; costs, benefits, and measures for informative and scientific value must be distinguished and developed in a fuller model of journal value.

Controlled quantum-state transfer in a spin chain

Control of the transfer of quantum information encoded in quantum wave packets moving along a spin chain is demonstrated. Specifically, based on a relationship with control in a paradigm of quantum chaos, it is shown that wave packets with slow dispersion can automatically emerge from a class of initial superposition states involving only a few spins, and that arbitrary unspecified traveling wave packets can be nondestructively stopped and later relaunched with perfection. The results establish an interesting application of quantum chaos studies in quantum information science.