Optimising Publications for Google Users

Abstract

Librarians should think explicitly about Google users whenever they publish on the Web, and should update their policies and procedures accordingly. The article describes procedures that libraries can adopt to ensure that their publications are optimised for access by users of Google and other Web search engines. The aim of these procedures is to enhance resource discovery and information retrieval, and to enhance the reputation of libraries as valued custodians of published information, as well as exemplars of good practice in information management.     

A Gaggle of Googles

Abstract

In recent years, Google has expanded at a furious rate and so have its competitors. While these sources are important to libraries and play an important role within the library, they are neither a substitute nor a panacea to information access as is often thought. Serious weaknesses exist in Google and the rest, and librarians should resist the hype of enthusiasts who believe libraries are no longer important, or are becoming obsolete.     

Running with the Devil

Abstract

Linking full-text proprietary databases with Google Scholar revealed three significant limitations in terms of precision (no subject heading search), transparency (no listing of information sources), and visibility (Google Scholar details are hard to find). Google Scholar is not a “one stop shopping” search engine that retrieves all relevant data from a library's licensed content. Despite these shortcomings, Google Scholar is a worthwhile search option for students, which may steer them away from Web resources, and towards the library's catalog and databases.     

Empirical assessment of individuals' 'personal information management systems'

Abstract

A simple pilot study has been undertaken to investigate the use of 'personal information management technologies' (including both traditional and emerging electronic technologies) via a combination of nominal questionnaire and semi-structured interview schedules. The pilot study suggested that the number of users adopting computer-based personal information management technologies is low, as is the combination of computer-based technologies with traditional paper-based technologies in users' 'personal information management systems'.     

Image

Abstract

In a few short years, Google has become one of the world's best known brands. Its strategies to preserve the brand image pose a challenge for information professionals who attempt to present Google's capabilities in a factual manner.     

Channeling Science Information Seekers' Attention? A Content Analysis of Top‐Ranked vs. Lower‐Ranked Sites in Google

Researchers have suggested that search engines shape portrayals of information by making large and popular websites more prominent while discriminating against smaller sites. Despite the possible skew of information sources, little empirical work has examined whether there is consistent dominance of content representative of that in highly ranked web links provided by search engines. We conducted a content analysis of a particular issue—nanotechnology—in Google and found that the very top‐ranked Google results are likely to feature the technical‐, environmental‐, and risk‐related aspects of nanotechnology. We compared this to lower‐ranked search results and found emphasis on significantly different themes. The implications of Google as a market‐dominant search engine on the diversity of online science content are discussed.     

Time and Using the Internet

Abstract

Time has always been a major factor in the way information professionals provide information and function on a daily basis. There always seems to be more things to do or use in the same amount of time. The Internet has added a new twist to the way informa–tion professionals do their jobs and what patrons expect from libraries. The Internet can be used for scholarly and personal information pursuits. Balance is the key for the information professional and the patron. Electronic access does not always mean better. And we have a responsibility to use the Internet in the same way that all sources are used.     

A Review of “Managing Electronic Government Information in Libraries,Issues and Practices”

ABSTRACT

Included in this bibliography are Internet sites pertaining to the United States Congress. Covered are the official sites from Congress and its supporting agencies. In addition, there are unofficial sites that contain Congress-related information. These include general Web sites of interest groups, document collections sites, general Congress-related sites, voter information and e-mail sites, as well as sites providing access to newsgroups, newsletters, and bulletin boards.

There is a great deal of information on Congress to be found on the Internet. With public Internet stations popping up in libraries, and the increase in personal Internet accounts, the Internet can help technology meet democracy. And with the ever-increasing trend by government agencies, including the Government Printing Office, to move toward electronic information, it will be important to know where to find the information. Hopefully, this bibliography will help you locate the information you are seeking on Congress.     

Don't Cache Out: What To Do When the Server Isn't There

ABSTRACT

This article discusses methods for retrieving information from dead or unavailable Web servers. It describes using the Google search engine cache and the Wayback Machine as possible means of recovering data that would otherwise be lost after a Web server or Web site is no longer online.     

Using the Google Search Appliance for Federated Searching

Abstract

This article discusses the University of Nevada, Reno's experiment of federated searching with version 4.1 of the Google Search Appliance. The project's testbed included locally held CONTENTdm and geospatial data collections and a sample of records from EBSCO's Academic Search Premiere database. The latter set of records revealed the GSA's limitations in being able to index and retrieve content that is dynamically generated and that requires third party authentication.     

Designing for sustainability: ergonomics – carpe diem.

Sustainability is a global issue that has worldwide attention but the role of ergonomics in designing for sustainability is poorly understood and seldom considered. An analysis of the literature on ergonomics, design and sustainability was conducted via a search of electronic databases: Scopus, Business Source Complete, Google Scholar, Emerald Publishing, Academic Search Premiere, Web of Science, Discover and Ergonomics Abstracts, for the years 1995–2012. A total of 1934 articles fulfilled the search criteria, but content analysis of the abstracts indicated that only 14 refereed articles addressed the main search criteria. Of those seven were in ergonomics journals and seven were in other journals (and were not written by ergonomists). It is concluded that the contribution of ergonomics to sustainability and sustainable design has been limited, even though the goals of sustainability and ergonomics are congruent. Ergonomists have not been at the forefront of research contributing to sustainability – and it is time for them to ‘seize the day’ – ‘carpe diem’.

Practitioner Summary: This literature review shows that ergonomics contribution to sustainability is limited but since there is congruence between the disciplines it calls for ergonomists to become more involved and to seize the day – carpe diem.     

The Value Proposition of Information Security: Putting The Pieces In Place

Abstract

Our privacy, if we value it, differs little from other treasures — fail to protect it and it is lost. The ability to protect information about us, i.e., to conduct our private lives, requires the ability to protect private communications (what I call transactional privacy) and the ability to protect personally identifiable information (PII) once it has been stored by a third party. Transactional privacy includes protection from unwarranted surveillance, wiretaps, or e-mail intercepts, and eavesdropping, whether intentional or coincidental.     

A Hands-Free Music Score Turner Using Google Glass

ABSTRACT

This article presents an innovative use of wearable technology for music performers, allowing them to interact with a mobile application that runs as a hands-free music score turner between Google Glass and a portable device such as a smartphone or a tablet. Using wink detection feature and head motion sensing of Google Glass, the application enables users to send a trigger without using their hands to turn pages of documents displayed on a nearby mobile device. The impetus for this work was music instrument players who need to turn music score sheets during their performance.

Beyond serving music performers, this project has potential benefits to users in any setting where restricted hand use makes it difficult to read documents or perform other computer-related tasks.     

Content Analysis of Web Privacy Policies in the GCC Countries

Abstract

Privacy has long been defined as the right of a person to be left alone and to be able to have control over the flow and disclosure of information about him- or herself (Warren and Brandeis, 1890). Worries about privacy are not new, although businesses have gathered information about their customers for years. However, privacy issues often come about because of new information technologies that have improved the collection, storage, use, and sharing of personal information.     

A PHRASE GRAMMAR-BASED CONCEPTUAL INDEXING PARADIGM

ABSTRACT

Present day information retrieval systems largely ignore the issues of lexical and compositional semantics, and rely mainly on some statistical measures for choosing or evolving an indexing scheme. This has been the reason for the decreasing precision in their responses, given an exponentially increasing number of Web pages. The work reported in this paper addresses this issue from a linguistic point of view. We show that the detection of domain-specific phrases can capture the task-specific semantics of documents. We introduce the notion of n*-gram formalism to characterize the domain-specific phrases and their variants, taking a few sample domains. A method to construct a phrase grammar from a small set of documents is proposed. A method of conceptual indexing based on the phrase grammar has also been proposed. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, we have designed a versatile system that can perform concept-based retrieval, in addition to several document-processing tasks, such as text classification, extraction-based summarization, context tracking, and semantic tagging. Collectively, the system can address the semantic content of documents. Considering the fact that an average user prefers highly relevant results in the top-ranked subset to an exhaustively retrieved set, it is shown that the proposed system performs better in that it retrieves documents that are more conceptually relevant than those retrieved by Google, and at 95% confidence level.     

Individual empowerment of agile and non-agile software developers in small teams

ContextEmpowerment of employees at work has been known to have a positive impact on job motivation and satisfaction. Software development is a field of knowledge work wherein one should also expect to see these effects, and the idea of empowerment has become particularly visible in agile methodologies, in which proponents emphasise team empowerment and individual control of the work activities as a central concern.ObjectiveThis research aims to get a better understanding of how empowerment is enabled in software development teams, both agile and non-agile, to identify differences in empowering practices and levels of individual empowerment.MethodTwenty-five interviews with agile and non-agile developers from Norway and Canada on decision making and empowerment are analysed. The analysis is conducted using a conceptual model with categories for involvement, structural empowerment and psychological empowerment.ResultsBoth kinds of development organisations are highly empowered and they are similar in most aspects relating to empowerment. However, there is a distinction in the sense that agile developers have more possibilities to select work tasks and influence the priorities in a development project due to team empowerment. Agile developers seem to put a higher emphasis on the value of information in decision making, and have more prescribed activities to enable low-cost information flow. More power is obtained through the achievement of managing roles for the non-agile developers who show interest and are rich in initiatives.ConclusionAgile developers have a higher sense of being able to impact the organisation than non-agile developers and have information channels that is significantly differently from non-agile developers. For non-agile teams, higher empowerment can be obtained by systematically applying low-cost participative decision making practices in the manager–developer relation and among peer developers. For agile teams, it is essential to more rigorously follow the empowering practices already established.     

Exploring Patients’ Use Intention of Personal Health Record Systems: Implications for Design

Abstract

Personal health record (PHR) systems offer a technology for personal health information management (PHIM) activities. Despite efforts to increase the use of PHR systems as a mechanism to support better patient-centered care and improve information management across the continuum of care, PHR adoption remains low. The purpose of this study was to explore how to design a PHR system that can adequately support personal health information management activities. Using a mixed-methods approach (questionnaires and interviews), we identified the factors affecting a person’s intention to use PHRs and also described the personal health information management activities among people from a wide age range in the United States. Results indicated that the intention to use PHR systems was affected by system-related factors, such as perceived usefulness, health information understandability, personalization, and patient–clinician communication support, and user-related factors, such as social influence, self-efficacy, and willingness to share. Furthermore, five types of personal health information management activities were found, including storage, organization, maintenance, retrieval, and sharing. Informed by the study findings, we developed seven design recommendations to improve PHR systems. Future studies can focus on further validating these findings using other methods and be based on larger and more representative PHR users.     

The Wonders and Woes of Wireless

Abstract

Ready or not, wireless devices have come of age. While not as mature adults, these devices that connect through cellular, radio frequency, infrared, spread spectrum, or other ethereal magic (Arthur C. Clark: “Technology, sufficiently advanced, is indistinguishable from magic.”) have invaded our enterprises like precocious teenagers wanting the privileged access granted mature systems without regard to their own lack of control. The personal digital assistant (PDA), the laptop PC, the Web-enabled cellular phone, and similar gadgets configured with wireless connectivity and sold as productivity enhancements are more accurately expensive toys that rapidly appear to grow into indispensable management information systems — often in the hands of executive management where an enterprise's most valuable and sensitive data is exchanged without regard to security considerations. One does not question the wisdom of wizards — that is, the magical nature of the communication must inherently protect the data because the user generally has no idea how it works.