Vital Information Resources Research Articles

The Usage of Electronic Academic Database Resources Among Lecturers and Postgraduate Students in Western Delta University, Oghara, Delta State, Nigeria

This study investigated the usage of electronic academic databases resources by lecturers and postgraduate students in Western Delta University, Oghara, Delta State, Nigeria. Four objectives with conforming research questions guided the study. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The population of the study consisted of 134 lecturers and postgraduate students in WDU. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire with the title “Usage of Electronic Academic Database Resources Questionnaire (UEADRQ)”. Data was analyzed using frequency counts and percentages. The findings showed that there was a high level of awareness of the electronic academic database by the lecturers and postgraduate students. JSTOR, Elsevier, DOAJ, ProQuest, Science direct, and LexisNexis where been put to maximum usage. Meanwhile, NUC Virtual library, HINARI, Research4life, AGORA and EBSCO Host were used least frequently. The purposes of using the electronic academic datasets were for research, writing of seminar/conference paper, assignments/seminar presentations and getting up-to-date information with subject areas. Lack of search skill, slow internet bandwidth and incessant power outrage were some of the problems preventing against the effective usage of electronic academic database resources in WDU. Based on the findings of this study, it was concluded that electronic academic databases are vital information resources that need to be readily available in academic libraries for use by lecturers and students in the pursuit of their academic advancement. This study recommended that orientation, workshop and seminar should be organized by librarians and university authorities on how to acquire the needed search skills in order to be able to make adequate use of these electronic academic database resources in order to advance academic excellence.

An Assessment of Accessibility and Usability of Saudi Online FinTech Services for People with Disabilities.

Innovations in financial services have given rise to Financial Technology (FinTech) as a disruptive technology which is now shaping the future of the financial sector through services like crowdfunding, peer-to-peer loans, and alternative underwriting platforms. Given the status of the web as a vital information resource, accessible and usable online FinTech services can aid people with disabilities in taking full advantage of the presented financial services to support them in basic needs like accessing high-quality care. This study set out to analyze the accessibility and usability of 32 Saudi FinTech websites by means of various automated tools and manual inspection. The results revealed the investigated websites to have a significant number of accessibility and usability problems that cause prejudice against disabled individuals and foster an overall poor user experience. Thus, more work is needed to disseminate knowledge about the importance of developing suitable FinTech websites and services to assist disabled people.

Digital Archive Management Based on Lucene Full-text Search Engine

With the rapid development of society, people have an increasing higher demand for information. As one of the vital information resources, archives are facing the significant impact of the global information tide. The original manual management method for archives can no longer meet the needs of people for their efficient management and utilization. How to transform archive management from manual to digital mode based on advanced information technology has become a hot issue of concern and research. Based on the digital application of archive management, supported by the advanced computer, communication, network, database, and multimedia technologies, we designed and developed a general digital system of archive management. The topological structure of the client/browser/server is used in the system, with the cross-platform characteristics.

The Challenges of Archiving Audio Visual Heritages in Northern Nigeria

This paper attempts to show case the challenges militating against the establishment, funding and promotion of audiovisual archiving collections held by different government institutions in Northern Nigeria. The rationale of such attempt rests on the observation that although audiovisual materials constitute vital information resource in such institutions, they are often not adequately managed after their creation. The paper also identifies the major constraints and limitations of audiovisual materials found in the public sectors, media houses and the challenges in their management. This serves as an important mechanism for raising general awareness on the audiovisual materials and on the need to preserve and safeguard such materials for future generations, as a means of making them accessible to the public. The paper shows that many of the problems related to the management of such materials in the country emanate from, such us national policy on preservation and conservation, lack of trained personnel in the management of audiovisual materials, technological challenges, inadequate storage facilities and the perception by users that audiovisual materials are not as valuable as records in other formats. The paper proffer strategies for dealing with the challenges of preserving and improving the use of audiovisual materials in Nigeria.

Fault detection for sucker rod pump based on motor power

Computer-aided fault detection for sucker rod pump is a crucial technology to monitor wells in the oil production. According to the detection results, engineers could take corresponding measures to ensure wells operating in a safe and productive state. Generally, the conventional approaches to address this problem are mainly based on dynamometer cards, but these methods have obvious defects in security risks and high maintenance cost in the application. Noteworthy, the motor is the energy resource of sucker rod pump and the change of motor’s power could reflect the variation of the working states. Therefore, in this paper, a novel method based on motor power for detecting the working state of the sucker rod pump is proposed. In this method, a set of the labeled motor power curve is essential. To obtain this vital information resource, the motor power curves are labeled by transforming them into dynamometer cards, which fully consider many crucial factors in this process. Moreover, to obtain useful information from motor power data, eight novel features are defined by analyzing the mechanism of motor work and the data distribution of the curve. Subsequently, the hidden Markov model (HMM), a probabilistic model with the double stochastic process, is employed to map the relationships between motor power data and working states. At last, the proposed method is verified experimentally using an oil dataset collected from oil field including six different working states, and then this technique is compared with some other methods. In the comparison, the proposed method gives 91.7% correct diagnosis that is higher than the 72.9% of SVM and the 62.5% of ANN. The experimental results show that the performance using the method proposed in this paper is satisfactory.

Relationship between Utilisation of Electronic Books and Users’ Satisfaction in University Libraries in North East Zone, Nigeria

Electronic books (e-books) are vital information resources in every university library as they are utilised by users in search of information for conducting research activities, teaching, learning and assignment. This study investigated the relationship between utilisation of e-books and users’ satisfaction in university libraries in North East Zone, Nigeria. Correlational research method was used. The population of the study comprised of five thousand three hundred and seventy nine (5,379) registered library users spread across the five sampled university libraries under study. Stratified random sampling technique was used in drawing the samples and the sample size for this study was one thousand three hundred and seventy two (1,372) registered library users drawn using Krejcie and Morgan (2006) table. Questionnaire was used as the research instrument. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics to answer the two research questions, while, inferential statistics of Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMC) was used to test the formulated null hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. Findings from the study revealed that users’ utilisation of e-books and users’ satisfaction with utilisation of e-books for research, learning, assignment and information in university libraries in North East Nigeria were generally moderate. The study also established that there was significant relationship between utilisation of e-books and users’ satisfaction in university libraries in North East Zone, Nigeria. The study recommended teaching of information literacy for library users, acquisition of adequate and relevant e-books in the university libraries as well as discouraging users from using information obtained from online sources such as Google and other search engines as they are mostly ineffective for their research activities, teaching, learning and assignment.

Public perception of the risk of disasters in a developing economy: the case of Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has in recent years experienced frequent disasters, including flooding, epidemics, and dust storms, while many parts of the country are subject to regular earthquake and volcanic activity. The paper examines public perception of the risk of disasters in this interesting socio-cultural and regional environment not already covered by existing literature. A wide national survey conducted between March and May 2012 resulted in 1,164 responses across the 13 regions of Saudi Arabia. The study showed that the majority of the participants have faith that God is in control of the world and that disasters may be a punishment from him. However, this does not hinder their desire to be prepared to cope with disasters. It also highlighted that direct experience with such disasters does not directly influence perception. The research findings lead to the emergence of a number of recommendations regarding raising awareness of hazards and the risk of disasters, including education, training, encouraging voluntary work, and improving public access to vital information resources. A requirement for research into resilience also emerges, to prepare communities to cope with disasters; this is the focus of the authors’ future research.

Mental information portrait of a subject of requirement as a modeling of component vital information resource

Mental information portrait of a subject of requirement as a modeling of component vital information resource

Digital libraries for general audiences: Usage patterns and trends in Wisconsin's BadgerLink

AbstractDigital libraries represent a recent advancement for information access. They may meet the needs of specialized audiences or, increasingly, general audiences in the form of state digital libraries. Covi & Kling (1996) broadly defined digital libraries “as a collection of electronic resources and services for the delivery of materials in a variety of formats. Digital libraries include personal, distributed, and centralized collections such as online public access catalogs and bibliographic databases, distributed document databases, scholarly and professional discussion lists and electronic journals, other online databases, forums, and bulletin boards”(p. 672). A growing number of examples of state digital libraries exist including Wisconsin's BadgerLink, the Colorado Virtual Library, and the Kentucky Commonwealth Virtual Library. Initial evaluations of the Washington (Efthimiadis & Bruce, 2000) and Wisconsin systems (Wolfram & Xie, 2000) show the positive impact of these services to residents of their respective states. BadgerLink has become a vital information resource for residents of Wisconsin since becoming available in 1998. It provides access to a range of regional and national information resources via the Internet and serves as a gateway to other remote resources. Of particular value to both libraries and residents have been the full text database products produced by EBSCO and ProQuest. EBSCO provides access to a wide range of full text resources of both a general and specialized nature.

Culture collections over the world.

Culture collections have the crucial role of providing the authenticated biological material upon which high quality research is based. Importantly, they serve as repositories for strains as part of patent deposits, providers of safe and confidential services to store key organisms for research and industry, and sources of organisms cited in scientific papers that can be used in the confirmation of results and for further study. The demands upon culture collections change as new technologies and uses of organisms are discovered. Many are becoming Biological Resource Centres, as defined by the OECD Biological Resource Centre (BRC) Initiative, in that they operate according to international quality criteria, carry out essential research, enhance the value and applications of strains and provide a vital information resource. In a changing international scientific environment, many collections are under threat of extinction because of inadequate funding, changing government support strategies and the cost of new technologies. We are also suffering a decline in the number of biosystematists, who are needed to form a sound base for molecular technologies and to aid in identifying, and characterizing microbial diversity. In this environment, collections must work together to make the best use of new technologies and to contribute to the description of the 1.4 million fungi yet to be discovered. At the current rate, this will take 700 years. New technologies and novel ways of funding this task must be engaged and, above all, scientists must collaborate. Common policies are necessary to address the regulatory demands on collections, to control access to dangerous organisms, and, in particular, to enforce the Convention on Biological Diversity. Countries that hold the majority of biodiversity require support in building the facilities required to explore their hidden resource. The World Federation for Culture Collections (WFCC) and, in Europe, the European Culture Collection Organisation (ECCO) have a key role to play. The world must benefit from its microbial diversity, which is crucial to solving increasing problems in food provision, public health and poverty alleviation.

User involvement in the early stages of the development of an aircraft warning system.

There is an increasing awareness of the importance and the benefits to be attained from consulting the end-users during system and product development. Although the rationale of utilizing the expertise of end-users in the system development life cycle appears to provide an apparently straightforward, even 'ideal' approach, there are many difficulties associated with eliciting the required knowledge from experts, both general and specific to every user group. Furthermore, many developers do not know how to involve users, or if they do, they do not utilize them to best effect. In the avionics sphere, the wealth of knowledge possessed by line pilots and flight engineers represents a vital information resource for the design of future flight-deck systems. As a specific example, this paper overviews some of the considerations which arose from working with these end-users in the early stages of the development of a warning and diagnostic system for civil aircraft. The end-goal of this particular phase of the work was the generation of guidelines for the design of the interface for the software engineers to use when building the prototype, and the methodological approach taken to achieve this is reported here.