Search results

Automated text retrieval and library management systems have not yet taken a desired shape in Indian libraries, though efforts are being made in this direction. A number of software packages for this purpose have come out recently through government and private agencies. Published sources assessing this technology are yet to appear, therefore choosing the right software is difficult. This paper aims to high‐light the present Indian scenario by presenting a brief overview of 10 selected indigenous packages, namely CATMAN, CDS/ISIS, LIBRARIAN, LibSys, MAITRAYEE, MECSYS, NIRMALS, SANJAY, TULIPS, and WILISYS. The underlying framework and text retrieval and library management facilities in these packages are briefly discussed. Considering the cost aspect, it is concluded that CDS/ISIS, along with SANJAY with some further modifications, might prove to be the most suitable package for most Indian libraries.

A number of digital libraries have been set up in the course of various research and development activities in different parts of the world during the last few years. How do these digital libraries fair in terms of information retrieval features? This paper looks into this question by reviewing the information retrieval features of 20 digital libraries chosen from around the globe. The first part of the paper briefly describes the features of the chosen digital libraries in terms of their nature and content. The second part looks into the information retrieval features of each digital library. Unique features of some digital libraries have been indicated. Major areas of research that would improve the information retrieval features of the future digital libraries have been indicated.

Digital library research has attracted much attention in the most developed, and in a number of developing, countries. While many digital library research projects are funded by government agencies and national and international bodies, some are run by specific academic and research institutions and libraries, either individually or collaboratively. While some digital library projects, such as the ELINOR project in the UK, the first two phases of the eLib (Electronic Libraries) Programme in the UK, and the first phase of DLI (Digital Library Initiative) in the US, are now over, a number of other projects are currently under way in different parts of the world. Beginning with the definitions and characteristics of digital libraries, as proposed by various researchers, this paper provides brief accounts of some major digital library projects that are currently in progress, or are just completed, in different parts of the world. There follows a review of digital library research under sixteen major headings. Literature for this review has been identified through a search on LISA CD‐ROM database, and a Dialog search on library and information science databases, and the resulting output has been supplemented by a scan of the various issues of D‐Lib Magazine and Ariadne, and the websites of various organisations and institutions engaged in digital library research. The review indicates that we have learned a lot through digital library research within a short span of time. However, a number of issues are yet to be resolved. The paper ends with an indication of the research issues that need to be addressed and resolved in the near future in order to bring the digital library from the researcher‘s laboratory to the real life environment.

The purpose of this paper is to show that uncertainty may be caused not only by a knowledge gap in the mind of a user with respect to a given subject or topic, but also by the various complexities associated with the information seeking and retrieval (IS&R) process in a digital environment.

Both quantitative and qualitative studies were conducted to collect data from users in the higher education sector regarding whether or not they experienced uncertainty in relation to the IS&R process. Analysis: a correlation analysis was undertaken to establish whether there were any relationships between information-seeking activities and information-seeking problems.

The findings of this research show that uncertainty existed at different stages of the IS&R process amongst users. It was established that uncertainty was caused by a number of information-seeking activities and information-seeking problems, and that such uncertainty could continue over the course of successive search sessions, leading to the proposal of a new model of uncertainty.

The proposed model of uncertainty should contribute to a better understanding of the issues related to IS&R in a digital environment.

A number of benefits could be realised in systems design from the application of this model in terms of reducing the negative impact of uncertainty, while at the same time helping users to gain from the positive aspects of uncertainty in IS&R.

The general consensus is that uncertainty is a mental state of users reflecting a gap in knowledge which triggers an IS&R process, and that the gap is reduced as relevant information is found, and thus that the uncertainty disappears as the search process concludes. However, in the present study it is argued that some form of uncertainty is always associated with some part of the IS&R process and that it also fluctuates throughout the IS&R process. Users may therefore feel uncertain at any stage of the IS&R process and this may be related to: the initial information need and expression of that need, the search process itself, including identification of relevant systems, services and resources; and the assessment of, and reaction to, the results produced by the search process. Uncertainty may be unresolved, or even increase, as the user progresses, often iteratively, through the IS&R process and may remain even after its completion, resulting in what may be called a persistent uncertainty. In other words, this research hypothesises that, in addition to the uncertainty that triggers the information search process (Wilson et al., 2000), users suffer from varying degrees of uncertainty at every stage of the information search and retrieval process, and that in turn, triggers different information-seeking behaviours.

The main objective of this paper is to review work on the usability and impact of digital libraries.

Work on the usability and impact of digital libraries is reviewed. Specific studies on the usability and impact of digital libraries in specific domains are also discussed in order to identify general and specific usability and impact measures.

The usability studies reviewed in this paper show that a number of approaches have been used to assess usability. In addition to the technical aspects of digital library design (e.g. architecture, interfaces and search tools), there are a number of usability issues such as globalisation, localisation, language, culture issues, content and human information behaviour. Digital libraries should, however, be evaluated primarily with respect to their target users, applications and contexts.

Although a digital library evaluation study may have several objectives, ranging from the evaluation of its design and architecture to the evaluation of its usability and its impact on the target users, this paper focuses on usability and impact.

This paper provides insights into the state‐of‐the art in relation to the usability and impact of digital libraries.

The paper aims to find out what users expect from a news aggregator service, and how the current and available news aggregator services compare to each other in terms of their features and usability from users' perspectives.

Five news aggregator services were chosen randomly, and a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods were used for data collection involving users from the academic and research community. A total of 45 users participated in the questionnaire survey, and ten users participated in the interview. The researchers created the factors used for comparison of the features and usability of the chosen services based on the review of appropriate literature and a study of the chosen news aggregator services. Users were asked to comment on every feature of a chosen service using a ten‐point scale.

Users identified a number of expected features of news aggregators. Survey results show that an ideal news aggregator service may be created by combining the usability features of TVEyes and the retrieval performance of GoogleNews.

This research is based on a small set of users and a small number of news aggregator services. A larger sample set may produce more conclusive results.

Studies reporting on the features and usability of news aggregator services is not common in the literature. In that respect, this is an important and new piece of research. The findings of this research may be used by researchers or service providers to produce a new aggregator service, or improve an existing news aggregator service.

This paper aims to argue that different types of uncertainty are associated with information seeking and retrieval (IS&R), and that, with the proliferation of new and different search tools, channels and sources, uncertainty, whether positive or negative, continues to be a significant factor in the search process. The paper aims to report on one part of an ongoing research that aims to study correlations among a series of information‐seeking activities and information‐seeking problems that cause uncertainty amongst users in academic environment.

An online questionnaire is used to collect data from users in the higher education sector. Quantitative analysis is carried out on the data collected through an online questionnaire distributed through eight online mailing lists comprising a total of 3,607 registered users. A total of 668 responses are returned from three categories of respondents: academic staff, research staff and research students. Pearson's correlation coefficient is used to study correlation among the activities and problems that cause uncertainty in IS&R.

This research shows that uncertainty may occur in course of a number of information‐seeking activities, and may also be created because of some problems associated with information seeking. Some of the activities and problems that caused uncertainty have significant correlations. There is also a correlation between information‐seeking activities and gender and disciplines, though there is little correlation between information‐seeking activities and age, information and communication technology (ICT) skills, and user categories. There is also a correlation between information‐seeking problems and ICT skills, gender and user categories, but there is less correlation between information‐seeking problems and age. Information‐seeking activities and information‐seeking problems that cause uncertainty have a significant correlation with disciplines and gender. Furthermore, it is noted that information‐seeking activities caused less uncertainty for users in the discipline of computer and information sciences compared to the other chosen disciplines such as business and management, and arts and humanities.

This research for the first time aimed to study which information‐seeking activities and problems cause uncertainty and how they are correlated.