Search results

The purpose of the present study is to take an overview of the use of computers, internet, computer skills and information searching behaviour on the web as well as the OPAC in a university setting among students at the postgraduate level from rural and urban backgrounds in a comparative analogue.

This survey‐based study utilized the questionnaire as its major data collection instrument. However, the interview method and general observations were also used, whenever required, to supplement the data and make the information more explicit. The data, thus collected, were analysed with the aid of SPSS statistical software. The Chi‐square test was also performed to identify significant comparability among urban and rural background students.

The study revealed that most postgraduates (95.5 per cent) belonging to rural areas were computer literate. Further, most of them had accessed the web for communication purposes and for locating general and academic information. The results showed no significant differences between rural and urban students for the use of computer and internet, usage patterns of OPAC like search engines and the ease of OPAC use and their expectations from OPAC. The only significant differences found among both groups were for their reactions during unsuccessful searches. Thus, the background of users at the postgraduate level does not significantly affect the use of computer and internet, information searching behaviour patterns on the web and library systems, especially OPAC.

This is a pioneering work to examine whether postgraduates from differing backgrounds searched for information required by them differently through varying information channels for academic purposes in a university library system in India.

The implementation of interaction design concepts to facilitate communication between users and shopping websites has gained increasing attention in recent years. Mouse hover is a vital interaction method for users to access shopping sites and significantly impacts their decision-making experience. A well-designed mouse hover function can effectively enhance the user's search performance and improve the user experience. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the dynamic prompt designs at the hover position and the degree of feedback transparency may affect the user's task performance and personal feelings when operating the hover function on the shopping website.

The study employed two independent variables in the experiments: dynamic prompt and background transparency of hover feedback. A between-subject design of 2 (single flicker and continuous flicker) × 3 (transparency at 0%, 25%, and 50%) was adopted in the experiment. A total of 60 participants were invited to participate in the experiment using the purposive sampling method. Participants were asked to complete four operation tasks, and the time of each was recorded. They were then asked to complete the system usability scale (SUS) questionnaire and conduct subjective evaluations before they were briefly interviewed.

The generated results revealed that: (1) In the interaction with a shopping website, the degree of background transparency of hover feedback affected the participants' task performance. (2) The effect of a single flicker had significantly higher subjective evaluation results regarding the degree of rationality compared with a continuous flicker. (3) The participants' perceptions of the information clarity were affected when the background transparency of hover feedback was 50%. (4) The effect of a continuous flicker was better than that of a single flicker when the background transparency of hover feedback was 25%. The participants' attraction to a continuous flicker was significantly higher than that of a single flicker. Nonetheless, when the degree of background transparency was at 0% or 50%, the results were the opposite.

The findings generated from the research can be a reference for the development of hover operation in the user interface design for shopping websites.

The Northern Echo has long provided its newspaper in a digital form. It is now looking to use the Internet to widen its customer base and information remit. To this end two initiatives have been launched: it now provides background information to support and enhance the stories it publishes and it also runs an online reference service, which largely provides information on matters of local and national concern. This article describes and evaluates these initiatives and looks forward to their future.

The purpose of this paper is to redefine the concept of grey number with information background and to propose novel grey number algorithms.

As the basic element of a grey system, grey number is defined as a number of which the true value is unknown because of the limited information while the boundary or possible value set can be known. Grey number algorithms are key points for constructing grey system models and helping to calculate model results. The concept of grey number is redefined with information background in this paper. Novel grey number algorithms are defined considering all the different forms of grey number information background. Several illustrative examples are applied to state the process of the proposed algorithms.

The results show that the novel grey number algorithms can do the operations well no matter what the grey number's type. It is useful to create effective grey system models and to do system analysis, forecasting, decision making and control in grey systems.

The method exposed in the paper can be used to calculate different grey numbers and used in constructing new grey models.

The paper succeeds in defining new grey number algorithm. The concept and its remarks of grey number are discussed. The novel algorithm can be used in creating new grey models and solve the modelling parameters in of grey systems theory undoubtedly.

The purpose of this empirical paper is to identify the role of social networking information (SNI) on job candidates' pre-employment background checking (PBC) process. SNI was further divided into three elements: perceived availability of information (PAI), perceived accuracy of information (PACI) and perceived reliability of information (PRI). In addition, the authors employed two mediating variables: perceived benefit (PB) and organizational branding (OB) to study the influence of each element of SNI on PBC.

The authors used primary data collected from a valid sample of 465 using a structured questionnaire survey selected through purposive sampling. For descriptive analysis, SPSS 24 and for testing the hypothesized relationships, structural equation modeling technique (with AMOS 24) were utilized.

The results indicated that only PAI had strong positive influence on PBC. The other two independent variables: PACI and PRI had insignificant positive influence on PBC. In case of mediators, OB was found to partially mediate the relationship between PAI and PBC while it did not mediate two other direct relationships. Further, PB did not mediate any relationship at all.

The paper is expected to be useful for the academicians involved in investigating the role of SNI on PBC as a lucrative research topic.

The hiring professionals can utilize the findings of this primary research as the guidelines for formulating effective social media background checking policies.

Using SNI for different HRM practices is comparatively new but a growing practice. However, the empirical investigation covering this area is almost absent in academia. This paper as one of the very initial attempts to reveal the role of SNI on PBC can fill that severe gap to some extent and guide future research attempts. Furthermore, the HR professionals are expected to be benefitted from the empirical results in formulating and implementing an effective media policy that will help them in utilizing the SNI in an efficient and rightful manner.

Publishers of some scientific journals and the ISO standard require or recommend specific information to be present in abstracts. However, little is known whether this is what scientists give when they write abstracts. The aim of this paper is to test the structure of abstracts in Czech, Slovenian and international scientific journals in the English language in the areas of library and information science (IS) and materials science (MS).

A total of 100 research paper abstracts were selected from each journal, and content analysis was performed both manually and using Weft QDA qualitative analysis software.

The results show that neither the ISO nor the Emerald structure is entirely appropriate. Abstracts in IS usually have the following structure: Ikaros (CZ): background, purpose of the research project; Knjižnica (SI): background, results only indicated; Journal of Documentation: results, methods, and purpose. In MS, the abstracts usually report on the following. Czech MS journals: background, methods, results; Materiali in Tehnologije (SI): methods, background; Materials Science and Technology (international): methods, results. The differences can in part be attributed to the varying disciplines and to the different roles of journals in professional societies and to cultural differences in perception regarding the role of abstracts.

It seems that purpose and results are usual for information science, while methods and results are more frequent for materials science.

This relatively small sample gives the first insight into the culture of writing abstracts in smaller research communities.

The concept and practice of e-services has become essential in business transactions. Yet there are still many organizations that have not developed e-services optimally. This is especially relevant in the context of Indonesian Airline companies. Therefore, many airline customers in Indonesia are still in doubt about it, or even do not use it. To fill this gap, this study attempts to develop a model for e-services adoption and empirically examines the factors influencing the airlines customers in Indonesia in using e-services offered by the Indonesian airline companies. Taking six Indonesian airline companies as a case example, the study investigated the antecedents of e-services usage of Indonesian airlines. This study further examined the impacts of motivation on customers in using e-services in the Indonesian context. Another important aim of this study was to investigate how ages, experiences and geographical areas moderate effects of e-services usage.

The study adopts a positivist research paradigm with a two-phase sequential mixed method design involving qualitative and quantitative approaches. An initial research model was first developed based on an extensive literature review, by combining acceptance and use of information technology theories, expectancy theory and the inter-organizational system motivation models. A qualitative field study via semi-structured interviews was then conducted to explore the present state among 15 respondents. The results of the interviews were analysed using content analysis yielding the final model of e-services usage. Eighteen antecedent factors hypotheses and three moderating factors hypotheses and 52-item questionnaire were developed. A focus group discussion of five respondents and a pilot study of 59 respondents resulted in final version of the questionnaire.

In the second phase, the main survey was conducted nationally to collect the research data among Indonesian airline customers who had already used Indonesian airline e-services. A total of 819 valid questionnaires were obtained. The data was then analysed using a partial least square (PLS) based structural equation modelling (SEM) technique to produce the contributions of links in the e-services model (22% of all the variances in e-services usage, 37.8% in intention to use, 46.6% in motivation, 39.2% in outcome expectancy, and 37.7% in effort expectancy). Meanwhile, path coefficients and t-values demonstrated various different influences of antecedent factors towards e-services usage. Additionally, a multi-group analysis based on PLS is employed with mixed results. In the final findings, 14 hypotheses were supported and 7 hypotheses were not supported.

The major findings of this study have confirmed that motivation has the strongest contribution in e-services usage. In addition, motivation affects e-services usage both directly and indirectly through intention-to-use. This study provides contributions to the existing knowledge of e-services models, and practical applications of IT usage. Most importantly, an understanding of antecedents of e-services adoption will provide guidelines for stakeholders in developing better e-services and strategies in order to promote and encourage more customers to use e-services. Finally, the accomplishment of this study can be expanded through possible adaptations in other industries and other geographical contexts.

The aim of this article is threefold: (1) to give a summary of empirical results reported earlier on relations between students‘ problem stages in the course of writing their research proposals for a master’s thesis and the information sought, choice of search terms and tactics and relevance assessments of the information found for that task; (2) to show how the findings of the study refine Kuhlthau‘s model of the information search process in the field of information retrieval (IR); and (3) to construe a tentative theory of a task‐based IR process based on the supported hypotheses. The results of the empirical studies show that there is a close connection between the students’ problem stages (mental model) in the task performance and the information sought, the search tactics used and the assessment of the relevance and utility of the information found. The corroborated hypotheses expand the ideas in Kuhlthau‘s model in the domain of IR. A theory of task‐based information searching based on the empirical findings of the study is presented.

The purpose of this paper is to propose an uncertainty representation and information measurement method for characterizing grey numbers, estimating their internal laws and solving how to generate them based on available information data in the real world.

This paper attempts to present a new mathematical methodology in the field of grey numbers. The generalized grey number is defined at first with the concept of information elements and information samples. Then, the probability function of a grey number is proposed to describe the internal law of the grey number. By finding the feasible information elements from information samples, the probability calculation method for the true value of a grey number is presented. Finally, some numerical examples and comparisons are carried out to assess the efficiency and performance.

The results show that the uncertainty representation and information measurement method is effective in characterizing and quantifying grey numbers based on available information data.

Uncertain information is widespread in practical applications. In this manuscript, the grey number is represented and its information is measured through some existing data in discrete or interval forms, which provides a grey information concept that utilizes information elements to represent uncertainty in the real world.

The proposal presents a novel data-driven method to generate a grey number representation from available data rather than the classical whitening weight function constructed from experience, and the dynamic evolution process of a grey number is measured by the increase of information samples.

This paper aims to investigate the relationship of information-seeking anxiety (ISA) with socio-academic variables of business students in the digital environment.

A cross-sectional survey using a questionnaire was conducted. The questionnaire, composed of 47 items of Information Seeking Anxiety Scale along with certain socio-academic variables, was administered personally among business students by visiting their classrooms at the Lahore School of Economics, Pakistan. The received 283 responses were analyzed by applying descriptive and inferential statistics such as mean, standard deviation, t-test and one-way analysis of variance.

The results revealed that a large majority of business students were less comfortable in information seeking and experienced anxiety from mild to moderate levels. There were only a few respondents who faced either low or severe levels of ISA. In relationship testing, the students’ socio-academic variables such as program type, gender, school background, geographical background, information communication technology skills and English language competence did not appear to be the predictors of their ISA.

The results of this study should carefully be used while making generalizations for all the business students in Pakistan and abroad as this research collected data from the business students of a single university in Pakistan.

These results have greater implications for the future directions of information literacy as creating awareness and building capacity for skills about the information search process will help in reducing ISA. These findings provided a pragmatic insight that can be used as a guide by information professionals, especially those engaged in information services, to develop a need-based curriculum of information literacy which would ultimately help in the alleviation of anxiety and combating its effects on students’ academic performance.

This study address specifically ISA of business students that would make a worthy contribution to the existing research on ISA as, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no such study has appeared so far.