Search results

The aim of this paper is to investigate the use of Web 2.0 tools and their use by Greek library science and information systems (LSIS) students; to study to what extent students use these tools both in everyday life and in relation to their studies.

A web‐based questionnaire was distributed to students of the LSIS Department at the Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, Greece; 240 (25.5 per cent) students of a total population of 958 responded. The paper presents students' knowledge concerning Web 2.0 tools, their use and understanding of such tools, and to draw conclusions regarding the penetration of such tools into their everyday life.

The research found that although most of the students have heard of the term Web 2.0 and its tools, further knowledge of the subject is limited. This lack of knowledge was apparent in the poor ways that students exploited Web 2.0 features. The questionnaire, which was divided into two sections, examined the knowledge and use of Web 2.0 tools by students, and further explored the use of Web 2.0 tools in the educational process. It is hoped that the results of this study will provide insightful information to the Greek LIS community in order to better understand students' behaviour, with a view to encouraging the incorporation of new elements into the curriculum with regard to Web 2.0.

The research suggests that the knowledge and implementation of Web 2.0 should begin in the LIS schools to prepare future library staff for the new challenges ahead. The Greek LIS research community has so far largely overlooked students' use of Web 2.0

The paper highlights that Web 2.0 is playing a leading role in library science.

This paper aims to investigate the level of awareness and use of Web 2.0 tools by librarians in university libraries in Africa.

A questionnaire was used to collect data from 140 librarians from 16 leading university libraries in Africa.

The study revealed that librarians in Africa are mostly familiar with Web 2.0 tools such as social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), blogs, instant messaging and wikis. It was also found that the most frequently used Web 2.0 tools by the librarians in university libraries in Africa are Facebook, instant messaging, blogs, Twitter and wikis. The study revealed that the librarians use the Web 2.0 tools for the purpose of announcing library news/events, online reference services, training resources, blogging and image and video sharing with users. Finally, lack of skills, power failure, lack of facilities such as computers with Internet access, lack of time and lack of interest were mentioned by the librarians as some of the challenges to using Web 2.0 tools.

These research results can also be consulted by interested librarians when they plan to make Web 2.0 applications in their libraries.

This study draws an overall picture of the Web 2.0 applications in university libraries in Africa and attempts to provide these libraries with helpful information to better understand how their colleagues elsewhere are utilizing Web 2.0 technologies in rendering library services.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the extent to which librarians in university libraries in Nigeria and South Africa use Web 2.0 tools.

The study is a descriptive survey using comparative method. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 110 librarians from 11 leading university libraries in Nigeria and South Africa.

The results showed that the librarians from both countries use Web 2.0 tools, but differences exist between the librarians in university libraries in Nigeria and South Africa. It emerged that librarians in South Africa use various Web 2.0 tools frequently, more than the librarians in university libraries in Nigeria. This might be as a result of lack of awareness, lack of interest, lack of skills, and not willing to embrace emerging technologies on the part of librarians in university libraries in Nigeria. The results revealed that librarians in university libraries in Nigeria are confronted with challenges such as power failure, lack of facilities, lack internet connectivity and lack of skills when compared to their South African counterparts in the use of Web 2.0 tools.

These research results can be consulted by interested librarians, mostly in developing countries, when planning for Web 2.0 applications in their libraries.

The study aims to present a comparative analysis of available Web 2.0 tools in library websites of selected Nigerian and South African universities.

Content analysis was adopted as the design for the study. Twenty university library websites comprising ten top-ranking Nigerian universities and ten top-ranking South African universities were sampled for data collection. Five research questions developed and answered.

The findings show that the use of Web 2.0 tools in the selected universities is encouraging. There are more Web 2.0 tools available on the South African university library websites. The South African university libraries are ahead of their Nigerian counterparts in terms of the integration of Web 2.0 tools, e-resources and e-databases and provide platforms for easy retrieval of information by their users. There are more e-resources available on the South African university library websites compared with their Nigerian counterparts. e-Journals are the most available e-resources in the selected university library websites of both countries. Similarly, more academic e-databases are available on the South African university library websites, whereas only few are listed on the web pages of the selected Nigerian university library websites.

Because available studies seem to ignore the possibility of comparing one university library’s website with another, conducting a study such as this will provide an insight and idea on the types of features, tools and applications to be included on university library websites. This will be useful for university whose library is planning to develop a website.

Because of the wide variation reported in this study concerning available tools and resources on the university library websites in South Africa and Nigeria, it is recommended that African universities should come up with a standard that will mandate universities to have a certain number of tools identified in this study on their various university websites.

The present study aims to investigate levels of awareness and use of Web 2.0 tools by librarians in the university libraries of East Azerbaijan (EA) in Iran and to determine how librarians use these tools in everyday life.

A Web-based questionnaire was used to collect data from 38 per cent librarians in the university libraries of EA.

The research findings indicate that the librarians were more familiar with Web 2.0 tools such as wikis and blogs. While librarians widely use blogs and wikis, tools such as social bookmarking, social networks, RSS feeds, instant messaging and digital maps were less frequently used. Results obtained from present study indicated that librarians use Web 2.0 tools mostly to communicate with friends and family, to keep up-to-date, to collaborate with colleagues and for curiosity and fun. Also, librarians believe that Web 2.0 tools can be used mostly for sharing information about library resources. Internet filtering, lack of access to high-speed internet and lack of training were the major obstacles for Web 2.0 adoption by librarians.

This study is a useful source for implementing Web 2.0-based technology in libraries. Also, this study will help managers understand the librarians’ needs about Web 2.0 to improve their library services.

This study aims at examining the factors governing business benefits of moving to Enterprise 2.0. Web 2.0 has been around for more than a decade, and has been exploited by a lot of business organizations for improving their operations and profitability. However, the success rate has not been uniform.

Is there a pattern behind this successful adoption has been a matter of curiosity for most top management personnel. This paper goes into analyzing what factors govern this movement from Enterprise 1.0 to Enterprise 2.0 and uses structured equation modeling to predict the possibilities.

It concludes by demonstrating that business benefits to the organization are significantly linked to the usage of Web 2.0 tools.

The paper has been done in India, and the authors expect that similar studies around the world will result in similar results.

Results of this paper emphasize the strong correlation between the use of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 tools with business benefits obtained in terms of improved productivity of resources used and a higher level of information quality leading to better decision-making. Thus, transition to the Enterprise 2.0 state should be strived by all business organizations.

This is an original work of the authors.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the adoption of Web 2.0 in library associations in the presence of social media. This paper attempts to measure the penetration of Web 2.0 tools in various library associations all over the world.

The study was conducted through an assessment of the library associations’ web sites. A total of 188 library associations’ web sites were analysed, out of which 115 library associations have implemented Web 2.0 applications; this is 61.17 percent of the total.

On the basis of the analysis it was found that the majority of Web 2.0 tools have been used by American continents library associations. This stands at, 89.86 percent, whereas only a small number of Web 2.0 tools have been used by Asian continent library associations, that is, 25.64 percent. The most of Web 2.0 tools used by library associations, is, Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds, LinkedIn, Flickr and Blogs.

The findings of this study can be utilized to assess the status of assorted Web 2.0 tools used in libraries associations. It may enable future research to investigate other aspects, such as the adoption of Web 2.0 tools in library associations of a particular country as well as continent.

The paper begins with an introduction to Web 2.0 technology and attempts has been made to analyse the usage of this new technology in library associations worldwide.

This paper aims to present the results of a study that investigated the Erasmus Mundus Digital Library Learning (DILL) Master programme students' conceptions and experiences of the use of Web 2.0 tools.

The study adopted phenomenography as a research approach to identify DILL students' conceptions and experiences of Web 2.0 tools. Semi‐structured interviews with open‐ended questions were conducted with 12 students from Africa and Asia within the DILL Master programme.

The data analysis revealed four categories of descriptions of Web 2.0 tools: communication, educational, professional and multi‐purpose. For each category of descriptions preferred Web 2.0 tools were identified.

The study analyses only conceptions and experiences of the use of Web 2.0 tools of 12 DILL students. This small group of students was from Africa and Asia and, therefore, the results should not be generalized to describe all DILL students' conceptions and experiences of the use of Web 2.0 tools.

The results of this study can be taken into consideration when designing and delivering a DILL programme. In order to use technologies to support learning there is a need to understand and know what students do with these new technological tools.

This paper supports the idea of integration of information and communication technologies into education and highlights the potential of Web 2.0 tools to support teaching and learning in the higher education setting.

The study aims to investigate the level of awareness and use of Web 2.0 tools by librarians in university libraries in Nigeria.

A questionnaire was used to collect data from 176 librarians in 49 university libraries in Nigeria.

It emerged that the librarians were more familiar with social networking sites, instant messaging, media sharing sites, blogs and wikis. The popularity of these Web 2.0 tools made them the most frequently used by the librarians. Web 2.0 tools like Flickr, RSS feeds, podcasts, social bookmarking, were among the least used. The study revealed that librarians use Web 2.0 tools mostly for reference services online, library news/events, training resources, and image and video sharing. Lack of facilities such as computers with internet access, lack of skills, and lack of time were indicated as some of the barriers in the use of Web 2.0 tools by librarians in university libraries in Nigeria.

These research results can be consulted by interested librarians as they plan to implement Web 2.0 applications in their libraries.

This study draws an overall picture of Web 2.0 applications in Nigerian university libraries and attempts to provide helpful information to better understand how librarians elsewhere are utilizing Web 2.0 technologies in rendering library services.

The aim of this paper is to examine the subject area of implementing Web 2.0 tools in organisations to identify from the literature common issues that must be addressed to assist organisations in their approach towards introducing Web 2.0 tools in their workplace. Based on the findings of the literature a Web 2.0 tools implementation model is presented.

A general scoping review of the literature will be conducted to identify potential issues that might impact on the implementation of Web 2.0 tools in organisations to provide an overview of examples of empirical evidence that exists in this subject area with a view to examining how to advance this particular field of research.

The findings of the scoping literature review indicate that while certain conceptual models and frameworks exist on how to implement Web 2.0 tools in organisations there is a lack of evidence to suggest that they have been empirically tested. The paper also notes that though organisations are unique, based on the literature common features can be found regarding “best practice” on how to introduce Web 2.0 tools in organisations.

This paper does not present any findings based on an empirical study involving the implementation of Web 2.0 tools in organisations. The paper does however provide scope for both academic and management practitioners to adopt and test the models and frameworks identified in the literature review when implementing Web 2.0 tools in their organisations.

The contribution to knowledge that this paper provides is that it reviews an area where there is a lack of empirical evidence, namely, in the approaches that organisations can adopt when implementing Web 2.0 tools. Based on the findings from the literature and through the creation of a Web 2.0 tools implementation model, this paper provides practical guidance to management practitioners who might find introducing Web 2.0 tools into the workplace a challenge.