Guide to the professional literature

Citation

(2006), "Guide to the professional literature", Online Information Review, Vol. 30 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/oir.2006.26430bae.001

Guide to the professional literature

This column is designed to alert readers to pertinent wider journal literature on digital information and research.

The Use of Electronic Resources at IIT Delhi Library: A Study of Search Behaviours

Ali, N., in The Electronic Library, Vol. 23 No. 6, 2005, pp. 691-700

The paper seeks to examine the use of electronic information services (EIS) among the users of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Library in Delhi, India. Both questionnaire and observational methods were used for data collection where 300 valid samples were collected. The analysis of data collected covers awareness of EIS services, use of e-journals, advanced search facilities, acquaintance with electronic information sources, the purpose of using e-information, problems faced by the users while using EIS, infrastructure facility available and satisfaction level of users. The study found that Boolean logic and truncation are the most often used search facilities by IIT users. Lack of printing facilities, terminals and trained staff are the major reasons that would discourage users from accessing the EIS. The survey also reveals that some 60 per cent of users face difficulties while browsing e-information. The paper provides suggestions for the further improvement of EIS to fulfil the information needs and requirements of users at the IIT Library, Delhi.

Combining Ethnographic and Clickstream Data to Identify User Web Browsing Strategies

Clark, L., Ting, I-H., Wright, P. and Kudenko, D. in Information Research, Vol. 11 No. 2, 2006http://InformationR.net/ir/11-2/paper250.html

The strategies that people use to browse web sites are difficult to analyse and understand: quantitative data can lack information about what a user actually intends to do, while qualitative data tends to be localised and is impractical to gather for large samples. This paper describes a novel approach that combines data from direct observation, user surveys and server logs to analyse users’ browsing behaviour. It is based on a longitudinal study of university students’ use of a web site related to one of their courses. The data were analysed by using Footstep graphs to categorise browsing behaviour into pre-defined strategies and comparing these with data from questionnaires and direct observation of the students’ actual use of the site. Initial results indicated that in certain cases the patterns from server logs matched the observed browsing strategies as described in the literature. In addition, by cross-referencing the quantitative and qualitative data, a number of insights were gained into potential problems. This study shows how combining quantitative and qualitative approaches can provide an insight into changes in user browsing behaviour over time. It also identifies some potential methodological problems in studies of browsing behaviour and indicates some directions for future research.

Descriptive Metadata for Copyright Status

Coyle, K. in First Monday, Vol. 10 No. 10, 2005www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue10_10/coyle/

This discussion of metadata for the copyright status of items in digital libraries presents a proposed strategy, complete with tables, grids and comparative information. Coyle proposes a manageable set of descriptive data elements that might accompany digital materials to inform potential users of the copyright status of the item. She suggests that it is possible to expand upon the well-articulated language of such sources as the Open Digital Rights Language of the Open Mobile Alliance, and the Creative Commons.

Some Features of alt Texts Associated with Images in Web Pages

Craven, T.C. in Information Research, Vol. 11 No. 2, 2006http://InformationR.net/ir/11-2/paper250.html

This paper extends a series on summaries of web objects, in this case, the alt attribute of image files. Data were logged from 1894 pages from Yahoo!’s random page service and 4,703 pages from the Google directory; an img tag was extracted randomly from each where present; its alt attribute, if any, was recorded; and the header for the corresponding image file was retrieved if possible. Associations were measured between image type and use of null alt values, image type and image file size, image file size and alt text length, and alt text length and number of images on the page. A total of 16.6 per cent and 17.3 per cent of pages respectively showed no img elements. Of 1,579 and 3,888 img tags randomly selected from the remainder, 47.7 per cent and 49.4 per cent had alt texts, of which 26.3 per cent and 27.5 per cent were null. Of the 1,316 and 3,384 images for which headers could be retrieved, 71.2 per cent and 74.2 per cent were GIF, 28.1 per cent and 20.5 per cent, JPEG; and 0.8 per cent and 0.8 per cent PNG. GIF images were more commonly assigned null alt texts than JPEG images, and GIF files tended to be shorter than JPEG files. Weak positive correlations were observed between image file size and alt text length, except for JPEG files in the Yahoo! set. Alt texts for images from pages containing more images tended to be slightly shorter.

The Digital Divide in Latin America: A Case Study

De Munster, I.L. in Collection Building, Vol. 24 No. 4, 2005, pp. 133-136

This article discusses the concept of the digital divide and its impact in Latin American libraries. The digital divide is a global problem that is amplified in the information age, a time in which groups and individuals in society are being denied access to technology. Provides an example by showing how the library of the Universidad de San Andrés has dealt with this situation.

Automated Capture of Thumbnails and Thumbshots for Use by Metadata Aggregation Services

Foulonneau, M., Habing, T. and Cole, T.W. in D-Lib Magazine, Vol. 12 No 1, 2006www.dlib.org/dlib/january06/foulonneau/01foulonneau.html

The practice of including thumbnails in short record displays, increasingly common in local implementations, is being adopted by metadata aggregation service providers as well. In addition, thumbnails and web thumbshots have begun appearing as part of web search results. This article reports on a project at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) to make more comprehensible heterogeneous resources available on the UIUC CIC metadata portal by incorporating thumbnails and thumbshots of image and web page resources in the context of the OAI Protocol for Metadata Harvesting. In addition to thumbnails provided by partner data providers, UIUC has developed an automated process to generate thumbnails and thumbshots from the web pages resources pointed to by the metadata records.

Digital Repositories: Not Quite at Your Fingertips

John, N. in Libri, Vol. 55 No. 4

The digital repository is a key technology used by today’s libraries to collect, organize, archive and make accessible electronic files of different types. This paper argues that while the vision of the role of the digital repository has grown sharper and more articulate, the actual practical outcome has not met the hyperbole. Building blocks continue to be developed, but user access to repositories is still in its early development. There are promising exemplars of this technology, but more effort is needed. Particularly promising is some vendor open source work that may provide the tools needed to open up these digital resources. But fundamental change in how the existence of these repositories and their content is made known to the online user community is needed; traditional metadata access and harvesting is not enough. Infusing the content with an information context may be one way to assure that repositories are a significant part not only of the library of the future but also of the world’s information landscape.

The Digital Library for Earth System Education Provides Individualized Reports for Teachers on the Effectiveness of Educational Resources in Their Own Classrooms

Kastens, K.A. and Holzman, N. in D-Lib Magazine, Vol. 12 No. 1, 2006www.dlib.org/dlib/january06/kastens/01kastens.html

We have developed and tested a system in which teachers and their students who have used an educational resource in the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) both submit on-line reviews of that resource using DLESE’s Community Review System. We aggregate the students’ reviews and generate an individualized report for the instructor on how his or her own students view the resource. The report for science teachers is formatted to show how well, on several dimensions, the resource worked. The report for science education professors is formatted to highlight how well students reflect on their own learning processes and identify what makes an educational resource effective.

Don’t Leave the Data in the Dark: Issues in Digitizing Print Statistical Publications

Landon, J. and Green, A. in D-Lib Magazine, Vol. 12 No. 1, 2006www.dlib.org/dlib/january06/linden/01linden.html

Digitization has the potential to transform scholarly use of data found in print statistical publications. While presenting images of statistical tables in a digital library environment may be desirable, the full potential of such material can be realized only if the resulting digital objects are easy to search and manipulate and are accompanied by sufficient metadata to support extraction of numbers from tables and comparison of numbers across tables. The Economic Growth Center Digital Library (EGCDL), funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, addressed these issues in a project that brought together the perspectives of digital libraries and data archives. In EGCDL, PDF reproductions of statistical abstracts co-exist with manipulable Excel files of tables from the abstracts. Rich descriptive metadata can be leveraged to provide discovery of and context for digital objects at varying levels of granularity – from a statistical series to a single number in a table cell. Thus, derivative digital objects – the manipulable table or even a cell from it – can be traced back to the original source or a faithful digital reproduction of that source.

Reading Behavior in the Digital Environment: Changes in Reading Behavior over the Past Ten Years

Liu, Z. in Journal of Documentation, Vol. 61 No. 6, 2005, pp. 700-712

This study looks at the changes in reading behaviour due to increased use of digital information. People highlight less but search more; people read linearly less but show intense concentration once sections are found that interest them. This is a good introduction to the field.

Challenges and Issues in Terminology Mapping: A Digital Library Perspective

McCulloch, E., Shiri, A. and Nicholson, D. in The Electronic Library, Vol. 23 No. 6, pp. 671-677

In light of information retrieval problems caused by the use of different subject schemes, this paper provides an overview of the terminology problem within the digital library field. Various proposed solutions are outlined and issues within one approach – terminology mapping are highlighted. Discusses benefits of the mapping approach, which include improved retrieval effectiveness for users and an opportunity to overcome problems associated with the use of multilingual schemes. Also describes various drawbacks such as the labour intensive nature and expense of such an approach, the different levels of granularity in existing schemes, and the high maintenance requirements due to scheme updates, and not least the nature of user terminology.

Disruptive Beneficence: The Google Print Program and the Future of Libraries

Sandler, M. in Internet Reference Services Quarterly, Vol. 10 No. 3/4, 2005, pp. 5-22

Sandler, Collection Development Officer at the University of Michigan, a Google-Print Library, explains the agreement between it and Google as a “work in progress, not fully formed in anyone’s mind”. It is important to focus not on Google but on libraries and what they want to do with digitised material, the goal being, at Michigan as elsewhere, “to provide online access in perpetuity to its collections”. “At best”, the author observes, “Google Print will be a massive collection of undifferentiated books”. Libraries will still be needed to fill in the gaps and to provide innovative services online and in-person that the competition, including Google, are unable to supply.

Constructing Web Subject Gateways Using Dublin Core, RDF and Topic Maps

Tramullas, J. and Garrido, P. in Information Research, Vol. 11 No. 2, 2006http://InformationR.net/ir/11-2/paper250.html

Specialised subject gateways have become an essential tool for locating and accessing digital information resources, with the added value of organisation and previous evaluation catering for the needs of the varying communities using these. Within the framework of a research project on the subject, a software tool has been developed that enables subject gateways to be developed and managed. General guidelines for the work were established which set out the main principles for the technical aspects of the application, on the one hand, and on aspects of the treatment and management of information, on the other. All this has been integrated into a prototype model for developing software tools. The needs analysis established the conditions to be fulfilled by the application. A detailed study of the available options for the treatment of information on metadata proved that the best option was to use the Dublin Core, and that the metadata set should be included, in turn, in RDF tags, or in tags based on XML. The project has resulted in the development of two versions of an application called Potnia (versions 1 and 2), which fulfil the requirements set out in the main principles, and which have been tested by users in real application environments.