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The purpose of this study is to carry out a systematic literature review for evidence-based assessment of the effectiveness of thesaurus in digital information retrieval systems. It also aimed to identify the evaluation methods, evaluation measures and data collection tools which may be used in evaluating digital information retrieval systems.

A systematic literature review (SLR) of 344 publications from LISA and 238 from Scopus has been carried out to identify the evaluation studies for analysis, and 15 evaluation studies have been analyzed.

This study presents evidences for the effectiveness of thesaurus in digital information retrieval systems. Various methods for evaluating digital information systems have been identified. Also, a wide range of evaluation measures and data collection tools have been identified.

The study was limited to the literature published in English language and indexed in LISA and Scopus. The evaluation methods, evaluation measures and data collection tools identified in this study may be used to design more cognizant evaluation studies for digital information retrieval systems.

The findings have significant implications for the administrators of any type of digital information retrieval systems in making more informed decisions toward implementation of thesaurus in resource description and access to digital collections.

This study extends our knowledge on the potentials of thesauri in digital information retrieval systems. It also provides cues for designing more cognizant evaluation studies for digital information systems.

Systems to support literature review (LR) and manuscript preparation tend to focus on only one or two of the tasks involved. The purpose of this paper is to describe an intervention framework that redesigns a particular set of tasks, allowing for interconnectivity between the tasks and providing appropriate user interface display features for each task in a prototype system.

A user evaluation study was conducted on the prototype system. The system supports the three tasks: building a reading list (RL) of research papers, finding similar papers based on a set of papers and shortlisting papers from the final RL for inclusion in manuscript based on article type. A total of 119 researchers who had experience in authoring research papers, participated in the evaluation study. They had to select one of the provided 43 topics and execute the tasks offered by the system. Three questionnaires were provided for evaluating the tasks and system. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed on the collected evaluation data.

Task redesign aspects had a positive impact in user evaluation for the second task of finding similar papers while improvement was found to be required for the first and third tasks. The tasks interconnectivity features seed basket and RL were helpful for the participants in conveniently searching for papers within the system. Two of the four proposed informational display features, namely, information cue labels and shared co-relations were the most preferred features of the system. Student user group found the task recommendations and the overall system to be more useful and effective than the staff group.

This study validates the importance of interconnected task design and novel informational display features in accentuating task-based recommendations for LR and manuscript preparatory tasks. The potential for improvement in recommendations was shown through the task redesign exercise where new requirements for the tasks were identified. The resultant prototype system helps in bridging the gap between novices and experts in terms of LR skills.

Print theses and dissertations have regularly been submitted together with complementary material, such as maps, tables, speech samples, photos or videos, in various formats and on different supports. In the digital environment of open repositories and open data, these research results could become a rich source of research results and data sets, for reuse and other exploitation. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

After introducing electronic theses and dissertations (ETD) into the context of eScience, the paper investigates some aspects that impact the availability and openness of data sets and other supplemental files related to ETD (system architecture, metadata and data retrieval, legal aspects).

These items are part of the so-called “small data” of eScience, with a wide range of contents and formats. Their heterogeneity and their link to ETD need specific approaches to data curation and management, with specific metadata and identifiers and with specific services, workflows and systems. One size may not fit for all but it seems appropriate to separate text and data files. Regarding copyright and licensing, data sets must be evaluated carefully but should not be processed and disseminated under the same conditions as the related PhD theses. Some examples are presented.

The paper concludes with recommendations for further investigation and development to foster open access to research results produced along with PhD theses.

ETDs are an important part of the content of open repositories. Yet, their potential as a gateway to underlying research results has not really been explored so far.

The purpose of the study is to identify current trends in library and information science (LIS) education related to the user‐centred approach adopted by libraries and information professionals in response to the advent of the internet.

Course descriptions of 30 LIS departments around the world were analyzed based on Wilson's map of information science that proposes five basic foundations fields: information content, information systems, people, organizations, and policy. The analysis focused on the user‐centred people field and on the interactions between this field and the other four fields proposed by the model. Course descriptions found in the departments' web sites were analyzed using the content analysis method and eight categories were revealed in the analysis that represent the different interactions between the fields.

Findings show that LIS departments have been successful in infusing the traditional information‐related curricula with a user‐centred approach but they have yet to develop areas of study that strengthen the students' social skills.

The data collection method limited the scope of the study. By restricting the data collection to course descriptions as advertised in the departments' web sites the study could only analyze the departments' intent and not their actual work in the field.

The study recommends the implementation of courses dealing with social or personal skills.

This paper aims to discover the effectiveness of Farsi-English query using ontology.

The present study is quasi-experimental. The sample consisted of 60 students and graduate and doctoral staff from Shiraz University and the Regional Center for Science and Technology. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to assess the level of English language proficiency of users, background knowledge and their level of satisfaction with search results before and after using ontology. Each user also evaluated the relevance of the top ten results on the Google search engine results page before and after using ontology.

The findings showed that the level of complexity of the task, the use of ontology, the interactive effect of the level of complexity of the task with the domain knowledge of the users, and the interactive effect of the level of complexity of the task with ontology, influence the effectiveness of retrieval results from the users' point of view. The results of the present study also showed that the level of complexity of the task, the use of ontology, and the interactive effect of the level of complexity of the task and the use of ontology, affect the level of user satisfaction.

The results of this research are significant in both theoretical and practical aspects. Theoretically, given the lack of research in which the interactive effect of the use of ontology has examined the level of complexity of tasks and domain knowledge of users, the present study can be considered as an attempt to improve information retrieval systems. From a practical point of view, the results of this research will help researchers and designers of information retrieval systems to understand that the use of ontologies can be used to retrieve information and improve the query and assess the needs of users and their satisfaction in this field, and ultimately, making the information retrieval process more effective.

The purpose of this study is to examine how guidelines for information literacy and library instruction can be incorporated into online research guides and provide examples from guides that have done this.

Online research guides in forestry were identified and examined using the ACRL's “Information literacy competency standards for higher education” and guidelines for library instruction set forth in LaGuardia and Oka's Becoming a Library Teacher.

While some research guides simply provide unannotated links to online resources, others seek to engage the user by incorporating features that correspond directly to elements of a library instruction session.

The study presents practical ways in which online research guides can serve as library instruction tools.

A model is proposed, based on four “foundation fields” (information content, information systems, people, and organizations) which may assist the process of curriculum development and related activities in library and information studies education. The logical relationships among these areas are discussed and a number of applications of the resulting model are described.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the applications of social media in digital libraries and identify related problems.

A total of ten institutions were selected from the following cultural institution types – public libraries, academic libraries, museums, government, and international organisations – to represent a variety of digital libraries developed or sponsored by different types of organisations. The social media applications were examined with regard to the following aspects: types of social media, placement of social media, updating social media, types of interactions, and types of functions.

This study presents the types of social media applications in the selected digital libraries and further characterises their placements, update frequency, types of interactions between digital librarians and users, as well as various types of roles they played. In the process of analysis the authors also identified problems related to lack of standards, creating two-way communication channels, and the lack of education functions.

Further research needs to expand the selection of institutions and digital libraries to have more representative sampling, in particular institutions that are outside North America and Europe. It is also important to perform in-depth content analysis of social media to identify patterns and functions that social media perform. Moreover the authors will compare specific social media tools, such as Twitter, Facebook, etc., across institutions. In order to explore fully the reason why certain social media tools are implemented in digital libraries, it is important to survey or interview digital librarians of digital libraries in different types of cultural institutions. In addition users can be interviewed to solicit their perspectives about their usage of social media in digital libraries.

This study not only examines the current status and problems of social media application in digital libraries but also offers suggestions on making good use of social media to connect users and digital libraries.

The article presents and discusses a methodological procedure based on the functional density of information, which can be used for value‐added processing of bibliographic databases with scientific and technological information to predict and recognise trends in research and development fields. The concept of functional information density can be applied in processing bibliographic databases by specific search fields, such as: number of documents by the publication year, number of articles and patents by year, patent assignee, patent applications and granted patents by country, international patents classification codes, and journal titles. The proposed information procedure was tested on the research topics microencapsulation technology, microencapsulated pesticides, microencapsulated repellents and superabsorbents, and was used as an information support for design of research hypotheses, planning of research, development and marketing of products.