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The aim of the JUSTEIS project over the first three cycles (1999‐2002) was to examine the uptake and use of electronic information services in higher education in the UK, so that planning of services could be informed by trends in usage and evidence of specific needs. The objectives were to: examine which services were used by students and academic staff; how senior library staff planned services to purchase content and support its use; and examine how library and information services promoted services through their Web pages. Results over the three years explained the growing popularity of electronic journal services, the acceptance of the search engine model for information retrieval and the important role academic staff play in the promotion of electronic information services for student learning. Conclusions and recommendations concern the need for library and information staff to make their approach to integration of information skills into the curriculum appropriate for the discipline, the type of institution, and its strategy for implementation of any virtual or managed learning environment software.

Collaboration on procurement of e‐content between health libraries in the National Health Service (NHS) and in higher education (HE) should have advantages in increasing their negotiating power to improve licence terms and avoiding unnecessary duplication of content. The aim of the paper is to examine some of the strategies for ensuring that collaboration across the two sectors works effectively. The paper is based on a report to the Joint Information Systems Committee of the Funding Councils (for higher and further education) in the UK, and the NHS Library and Knowledge Development Network, on research conducted in 2006.

The methods included interviews (n=39) with representatives from NHS and higher education bodies, representatives of independent health libraries, the National Library for Health, collective agencies, publishers and aggregators.

There were common interests in functionality/interfaces, open access, and better metrics for estimating usage that might contribute to discussions with publishers over the licence terms. There are differences in the type of resource each sector might deem to be core. The extent of existing collaboration on purchasing and related collection management activities varied considerably across the UK. Three possible paths for cooperative activity were identified: sharing information and joint advocacy; building the technical infrastructure; and joint procurement. Mapping of the stages, roles, actors and stakeholders in some processes was done with “use cases” (Unified Modeling Language) to help identify some of the risks involved.

Poor response from online surveys limited the validity of the forecasting of user needs. Usage statistics were difficult to obtain and compare.

The paper concludes that collaborative procurement of e‐content activities should focus on health services research requirements, and open access needs across the sectors. More innovative analysis of usage statistics is required to profile usage and inform cost analyses of both the impact of new roles for health librarians, and cost analyses of e‐resources on a life cycle basis.

The paper develops new ways of examining the business processes required for collaborative procurement.

Describes key aspects of the methodology and outcomes of the JISC User Behaviour Monitoring and Evaluation Framework in its first three annual cycles (1999‐2002). The Framework was initiated to assure the JISC that their investment in digital content and network infrastructure facilitates use and learning, and to identify barriers and facilitators to the use of electronic information services (EIS). Key Framework outcomes are: a multi‐dimensional across sector methodology for the continued monitoring of user behaviour in respect of EIS and the factors that impact on that behaviour; a profile of user behaviour in respect of EIS over the three annual cycles of the Framework; the EIS Diagnostic Toolkit that can be used to benchmark development in the provision and use of EIS in specific disciplines or at specific institutions; a methodology for monitoring, and a profile of the EIS resources available to higher and further education users; and a summary of some of the key issues in their provision. The challenge for the future is the embedding of EIS in curricula and learning experiences.

The purpose was to evaluate the effectiveness of Google (as an international search engine) as well as of Parsijoo, Rismoon, and Yooz (as Persian search engines).

In this research, Google search engine as an international search engine, and three local ones, Parsijoo, Rismoon, and Yooz, were selected for evaluation. Likewise, 32 subject headings were selected from the Persian Subject Headings List, and then simulated work tasks were assigned based on them. A total of 192 students from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad were asked to search for the information needed for simulated work tasks in the selected search engines, and then to copy the relevant website URLs in the search form.

The findings indicated that Google, Parsijoo, Rismoon, and Yooz had a significant difference in the precision, recall, and normalized discounted cumulative gain. There was also a significant difference in the effectiveness (average of precision, recall, and NDCG) of these four search engines in the retrieval of the Persian resources.

Users using an efficient search engine will attain more relevant documents, and Google search engine was more efficient in retrieving the Persian resources. It is recommended to use Google as it has a more efficient search.

In this research, for the first time, Google has been compared with local Persian search engines considering the new approach (simulated work tasks).

The purpose of this paper is to compare the perspectives of actors who contribute to trust in the food system in four high income countries which have diverse food incident histories: Australia, New Zealand (NZ), the United Kingdom (UK) and the Island of Ireland (IOI), focussing on their communication with the public, and their approach to food system interrelationships.

Data were collected in two separate studies: the first in Australia, NZ and the UK (Study 1); and the second on the IOI (Study 2). In-depth interviews were conducted with media, food industry and food regulatory actors across the four regions (n=105, Study 1; n=50, Study 2). Analysis focussed on identifying similarities and differences in the perspectives of actors from the four regions regarding the key themes of communication with the public, and relationships between media, industry and regulators.

While there were many similarities in the way food system actors from the four regions discussed (re)building trust in the context of a food incident, their perceptions differed in a number of critical ways regarding food system actor use of social media, and the attitudes and approaches towards relationships between food system actors.

This paper outlines opportunities for the regions studied to learn from each other when looking for practical strategies to maximise consumer trust in the food system, particularly relating to the use of social media and attitudes towards role definition in industry–regulator relationships.