Search results

The purpose of this paper is to describe a new approach to a well-known problem for digital libraries, how to search across multiple unrelated libraries with a single query.

The approach involves creating new Dewey Decimal Classification terms and numbers from existing Dublin Core records. In total, 263,550 records were harvested from three digital libraries. Weighted key terms were extracted from the title, description and subject fields of each record. Ranked DDC classes were automatically generated from these key terms by considering DDC hierarchies via a series of filtering and aggregation stages. A mean reciprocal ranking evaluation compared a sample of 49 generated classes against DDC classes created by a trained librarian for the same records.

The best results combined weighted key terms from the title, description and subject fields. Performance declines with increased specificity of DDC level. The results compare favorably with similar studies.

The metadata harvest required manual intervention and the evaluation was resource intensive. Future research will look at evaluation methodologies that take account of issues of consistency and ecological validity.

The method does not require training data and is easily scalable. The pipeline can be customized for individual use cases, for example, recall or precision enhancing.

The approach can provide centralized access to information from multiple domains currently provided by individual digital libraries.

The approach addresses metadata normalization in the context of web resources. The automatic classification approach accounts for matches within hierarchies, aggregating lower level matches to broader parents and thus approximates the practices of a human cataloger.

The purpose of this paper is to identify, present and categorise the main requirements, challenges and impacts of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) applications. Emphasis is given to the soft impacts of LSS applications, which are intangible in nature and difficult to quantify and measure, highlighting the most frequently cited ones.

A qualitative synthesis of the studies using the narrative synthesis approach is adopted to descriptively summarise and categorise the requirements, challenges and impacts of LSS applications. The studies were searched by using the following keywords: “LSS applications,” “LSS requirements,” “LSS challenges” and “LSS impacts” in almost all major electronic databases such as Emerald, Taylor and Francis, ScienceDirect and Wiley. A total of 116 articles published between 2007 and 2017 in 41 academic journals were collected and reviewed. Consideration was also given to a number of substantial publications in 2006, 2018 and 2019.

In addition to its process efficiency and financial impacts, LSS was found to have another impact category related to individual and organisational behaviours. Management commitment, training and organisational culture were concluded to be amongst the most important and required categories for successful LSS applications. It was also found that the lack of awareness of LSS tools and benefits and the lack of change management and resistance to change were amongst the most cited categories of implementation challenges.

The studies published between 2007 and 2017 are mainly considered in this paper. It is believed that 10-year publication period considered in this research is sufficient to study the evolution, benefits, limitations and future trends of a particular research topic. However, the exclusion criteria used in the search process with respect to the articles’ year of publication and search terms and keywords may limit the generalisation of the research findings. In addition, the qualitative nature of this research study and the lack of empirical data to support its findings is another limitation that future research should consider.

This research paper may serve as a valuable source of information for LSS researchers as it will provide them with useful and new insights and directions for further research in LSS. It will also increase the awareness of LSS practitioners about the kind of impact LSS has, and therefore, achieve a better utilisation of its tools by ensuring availability of application requirements and overcoming application challenges.

This study differs from previous research studies as it focusses attention on the soft impacts of LSS applications and highlights them. The study identifies and prioritises LSS application impacts, requirements and challenges. The study on these aspects was found to be limited and lacking in previous research studies.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of city brand benefits (cost efficiency, job chances, social life, recreation and self–brand connection) on highly skilled, potential residents’ attitudes toward the city brand.

A literature analysis and qualitative study inform a conceptual model, which is tested with structural equation modelling using 354 evaluations of the six largest German cities by 294 highly skilled, potential residents, in terms of their perceptions of city brand benefits and attitudes.

Social life and self–brand connection positively affect the city brand attitudes of highly skilled, potential residents. In contrast, cost efficiency, job chances and recreation do not affect these attitudes.

The relevance of city brand benefits might be specific to a country or culture, so further research should test the conceptual model in other settings, including smaller cities. Further studies might compare the relevance of the effects for actual and potential residents.

Social life emerged as the most important city brand benefit, so cities must ensure they offer and communicate a rich social life. Cities also should identify and communicate congruent characteristics between the city and the self-concepts of relevant target groups.

This study identifies relevant and irrelevant city brand benefits for highly skilled, potential residents. In addition, it establishes self–brand connection as symbolic benefit that previous research into potential residents has not considered.

The following bibliography focuses mainly on programs which can run on IBM microcomputers and compatibles under the operating system PC DOS/MS DOS, and which can be used in online information and documentation work. They fall into the following categories: