A Nontraditional Application of MetaSearch

ABSTRACT

Federated searching has become an increasingly popular way for academic libraries to provide access to their diverse and rapidly growing collections of electronic resources. IUPUI University Library handled the implementation of its federated search project somewhat differently than many academic libraries. The cornerstone of their efforts was to not only create a gateway to the library's electronic resources, but to build upon previous experience as a beta site for Ex Libris' SFX cross-referencing software by using MetaSearch in conjunction with SFX to permit teaching faculty to link to online bibliographies through the university's course management system, Oncourse. Issues of working with two closed systems needed to be overcome, but a product resulted that was embraced by the faculty and gave direction for future developments. doi:10.1300/J136v12n03_04     

Understanding Vendor Data with Federated Searching

ABSTRACT

Federated searching options are offered by academic libraries as a way to simplify using varied electronic resources while simulating a popular Internet search engine. While search results may satisfy the novice user, more senior, sophisticated researchers often prefer using the proprietary, native interfaces of the specific resource. This study investigates one university's encounter with a federated search portal and analyzes usage and effectiveness through vendor-provided data. Statistical reports indicate patron use despite the lack of promotion and instruction, no significant differences in completion of searches between access methods, and the distribution of access methods for freely available Internet resources. Avenues for further research are also presented.     

About the Web

ABSTRACT

This article reviews selected magazines and journals of interest to academic librarians that include information about the Web. Reviewed titles include library science titles, general educational titles, and popular titles found on newsstands. The titles reviewed are aimed towards two groups of librarians: those most involved with developing content (such as reference librarians and bibliographers), and those involved with Web design, development, and policy issues.     

Usability Testing of Academic Library Web Sites

ABSTRACT

This is a selective annotated bibliography of books, journal articles, and electronic resources relating to the usability assessment or testing of the academic library Web site. It focuses on the library Web site specifics, thus answering a librarian's need for one source of information on the available publications. All journal articles have been written by or for academic librarians. This bibliography embraces the issues of usability testing as a process, its goals, objectives, tools, and methodology. The bibliography is grouped by the following topics: background information, tools and methodologies, case studies, dedicated Web sites, and samples of presentations.     

Electronic Instruction at Carlson Library

Abstract

In this age of increasing electronic instruction in academic libraries, the University of Toledo's Carlson Library, like many other academic libraries, is trying to come of age. The library's instruction program has traditionally used a paper-based instructional format. However, with the introduction of the library's OPAC, CD-ROMs, the Internet, and OhioLINK in recent years, we are faced with a number of challenges which this paper will discuss. The main challenge is that we are trying to teach electronic resources without a mediated classroom in the library. We need to bridge the gap between the paper-based instruction program and electronic resources because our current teaching methods do not always allow for patron interaction with the technology. Increasingly, instruction is having to take place at the Information Desk, where there are time constraints and library users are unclear about the kinds of information they want or which electronic resources they need. Adapting to these new and growing resources and developing the skills needed to teach them are among the important challenges librarians at Carlson Library face.     

Build It (and Customize and Market It) and They Will Come

ABSTRACT

Like other academic libraries, the University Library System of the University of Pittsburgh (ULS) continues to invest in providing anytime, anywhere access to research materials in electronic format. While there are obvious benefits for users in this concomitant increase in complexity for these same users, with many of them, especially undergraduates, turning to the speed and simplicity of Google and away from the complexity of library sponsored electronic resources. Seeking ways to both maximize our investment in full text resources, and promote easy access to this universe of electronic resources for our users, the ULS felt strongly that a navigational solution had to be found, and in 2004 began the process of implementing a federated search tool.

This article discusses the collaborative process between the University Library System and its federated search vendor, and discusses the decision making process behind the customizations made by the ULS to its federated search system. The article also addresses the process of working with a professional marketing organization to developing a marketing message and supporting materials to promote its federated search system, and finally briefly looks at usability and usage statistics to assess the degree to which the Zoom! federated search system has met the goal of providing fast, easy access to high quality information. doi:10.1300/J136v12n03_07     

Location choices of face-to-face interactions in academic buildings: an experience sampling approach

Abstract

Although it is recognised that face-to-face interactions are important for sharing interests and (new) knowledge, it remains unknown how and where students and university employees interact in academic buildings. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyse the location choice for face-to-face interactions in an academic building, including several personal- and interaction characteristics. An Experience Sampling Method (ESM) was used to collect data on 643 face-to-face interactions during two weeks in the Flux building at Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands. In general, students more often interacted in meeting rooms than teaching staff, and support staff interacted less in eat/drink areas and the hallways than other users. Unexpectedly, some of the lectures took place outside of traditional project-/lecture space. Real estate managers of university campuses could use these results to create better interactive work environments that stimulate face-to-face interactions among employees and students of different departments.

Practitioner Summary: Based on longitudinal data of ftf interactions among students and employees in an academic building, results showed that ftf interaction characteristics, compared to personal characteristics, are most important for explaining the location choice of interactions. These insights could help to design academic work environments that optimise the support of interactions.

Abbreviation: ABO: activity-based office; ANOVA: analyses of variance; ESM: experience sampling method; FTF: face-to-face; HR: human resources; MMNL: mixed multinomial logit model; NewWoW: new ways of working     

Want to See the Sites? Better Find a Better Guide

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the results of a study of the utility of several popular search engines and of two newer search engines with respect to librarian-selected lists of Web resources and Internet searching behaviors. This study addresses whether said resources are returned where Internet searchers could reasonably be expected to find them and whether the search engines employed serve as acceptable substitutes for the expert advice of librarians. Search engines included in the study were Google, http://www.MSN.com, Yahoo, Lycos, AskJeeves, Icerocket, and Acoona. Searches for the study were based on the topics/titles of the “Internet Resources” columns from College & Research Libraries News for 2004. Finally, the paper addresses methodological concerns and proposes possible directions for further research.     

Freeway or Tollway?

Abstract

Privatization and commercialization of the Internet is starting to pose challenges for academic librarians. The once government financed “network of networks” is metamorphosing from an information highway to an information toll road. The history, structure, and development of the Internet are reviewed, including the role of the U.S. Government. The rapid growth of commercial users of the Net, especially since 1991 when the National Science Foundation eased its limitations on business use, is noted. The trend toward privatization of Internet connectivity and certain information resources is pointed out. How these changes are coming about and how academic libraries and their administrators might deal with them is discussed.     

The distributed program reliability analysis on ring-type topologies

Distributed computing system (DCS) has become very popular for its high fault-tolerance, potential for parallel processing, and better reliability performance. One of the important issues in the design of the DCS is the reliability performance. Distributed program reliability (DPR) is addressed to obtain this reliability measure. In this paper, we propose a polynomial-time algorithm for computing the DPR of ring topology and show that solving the DPR problem on a ring of trees topology is NP-hard.Scope and purposeThe widespread use of distributed computing system is due to the price–performance revolution in microelectronics, the development of cost-effective and efficient communication subsets, the development of resource sharing software, and the increased user demands for communication, economical sharing of resources, and productivity. This article is concerned with the analysis of distributed program reliability on a ring-distributed computing system. The distributed program reliability is a useful measure for reliability evaluation of distributed computing system. The distributed program reliability analyses also give a good index for designing a high-reliability-performance-distributed computing system.     

How influential has academic and industrial research been in current software life cycles? A retrospective analysis of four mainstream activities

ContextKnowledge transfer is an important responsibility of universities and research institutes as part of their contribution to society. In the field of software engineering, several studies have been performed to show the influence of research in popular technologies such as middleware systems. However, there is no scholarly analysis of the influence that research has had in mainstream activities of current software life cycles.ObjectiveWe analyse how methodological research has influenced activities of widespread use in current software life cycles. To keep this goal into manageable bounds, we focus on four very successful trends of current practice: iterative development, architecture-centric development, requirements-driven development, and coherent method integration.MethodWe follow different forms of evidence backwards in time. As signs of influence we admit the following categories: citations included in papers and standards, interviews, historical essays, people movement, and acquisitions of companies.ResultsFor each one of the mentioned activities, we obtain a trace diagram showing the indirect influence that pieces of research have had in the selected activities of software life cycles.ConclusionsOur results support the following claims: (1) mainstream dissemination of the analysed methodological research has taken on the order of 20–40 years; (2) interdisciplinarity has been important in the research that influenced some very popular activities of current software life cycles; (3) research on life cycles is more influential when it originates from large development projects; and (4) probably the best results can be obtained if industrial research goes hand in hand with academic research.     

A decision ladder analysis of eco-driving: the first step towards fuel-efficient driving behaviour

This paper provides a decision ladder analysis of eco-driving, and a discussion of the resultant models in terms of the skills, rules and knowledge taxonomy of human behaviour and how this can inform the design of an in-vehicle, eco-driving support system. In order to understand the types of behaviours that characterise fuel-efficient driving, a review was conducted of the academic literature and of more publicly available resources, such as governmental, car manufacturers' and specific eco-driving organisations' websites. The review identified four largely distinct driving activities that play a central role in the use of fuel in the private road vehicle. A focus group involving four researchers in the transport ergonomics field, followed by a series of five interviews with eco-driving experts, served to validate, supplement and further specify the models.

Practitioner Summary: This paper presents a decision ladder analysis of eco-driving. A four-member focus group and five interviews with eco-driving experts were conducted; the resultant models are discussed in terms of supporting fuel-efficient driving behaviours in the novice eco-driver through their potential to inform the design of an in-vehicle eco-driving support system.     

Smartphone addiction and associated consequences: role of loneliness and self-regulation

ABSTRACT

The ‘smartphone addiction’ is a popular theme in media. It has number of clear behavioural changes in addicts’ life and some of these aspects are yet to get due research attention. The present study identifies antecedents of smartphone addiction and its associated conflicts. The findings are based on data collected from adolescents, who are major targets for smartphone advertising and also vulnerable to addictions. The findings established ‘loneliness’ and ‘self-regulation’ as the main antecedents for smartphone addiction along with family, personal conflicts and poor academic performance as the significant negative consequences of its excessive use. The study findings would help to create awareness and offer insights for developing effective interventions for addressing smartphone addiction amongst adolescents. The planners, regulatory and administrative authorities will use the study findings to formulate measures that would promote positive coping mechanism to prevent smartphone addiction among adolescents.     

What do people know about eco-driving?

Abstract

An online survey of 321 respondents revealed that the majority of people are aware of eco-driving and have a positive attitude towards it. Although the types of eco-driving tips offered by respondents, and their potential effect on fuel consumption, were in line with those found in the popular and academic literature, knowledge of specific fuel saving behaviours was generally low. Relationships were found between environmental attitudes and knowledge of, and propensity to perform eco-driving behaviours; however, these relationships were weak, indicating that neither pro-environmental attitudes nor knowledge of eco-driving behaviours is strongly indicative of actual eco-driving performance. Males were found to be more knowledgeable of the means for driving in a fuel-efficient manner than females; however, no effect was found for either age or level of general education. Results are discussed in terms of the challenges and opportunities for encouraging eco-driving, and the necessity for both governmental and industry involvement.

Practitioner Summary: To successfully encourage the uptake of eco-driving (e.g. through policy, training and feedback) it is first necessary to understand how the general public perceives it, and what they already know of it. This survey study addresses this by looking at relationships between environmental attitudes and knowledge, and specific eco-driving measures.     

Graphical user interface (GUI) testing: Systematic mapping and repository

ContextGUI testing is system testing of a software that has a graphical-user interface (GUI) front-end. Because system testing entails that the entire software system, including the user interface, be tested as a whole, during GUI testing, test cases—modeled as sequences of user input events—are developed and executed on the software by exercising the GUI’s widgets (e.g., text boxes and clickable buttons). More than 230 articles have appeared in the area of GUI testing since 1991.ObjectiveIn this paper, we study this existing body of knowledge using a systematic mapping (SM).MethodThe SM is conducted using the guidelines proposed by Petersen et al. We pose three sets of research questions. We define selection and exclusion criteria. From the initial pool of 230 articles, published in years 1991–2011, our final pool consisted of 136 articles. We systematically develop a classification scheme and map the selected articles to this scheme.ResultsWe present two types of results. First, we report the demographics and bibliometrics trends in this domain, including: top-cited articles, active researchers, top venues, and active countries in this research area. Moreover, we derive the trends, for instance, in terms of types of articles, sources of information to derive test cases, types of evaluations used in articles, etc. Our second major result is a publicly-accessible repository that contains all our mapping data. We plan to update this repository on a regular basis, making it a “live” resource for all researchers.ConclusionOur SM provides an overview of existing GUI testing approaches and helps spot areas in the field that require more attention from the research community. For example, much work is needed to connect academic model-based techniques with commercially available tools. To this end, studies are needed to compare the state-of-the-art in GUI testing in academic techniques and industrial tools.     

Using Courseware Discussion Boards to Engage Graduate Students in Online Library Workshops

ABSTRACT

Librarians at Oregon State University (OSU) Libraries used the discussion board features of Blackboard courseware to create an interactive experience for graduate students at a distance who could not attend the on-campus “Literature Review Workshops.” These recently developed workshops have been extremely popular with graduate students across the disciplines and have generated a growing demand from distance education graduate students and faculty to offer similar information online. Reluctant to simply deliver content via an online tutorial, librarians sought to duplicate the workshop atmosphere by making the sessions available for a short time-period online, asking participants to respond to discussion questions at specific points in the workshop, and offering audio-mediated online demonstrations of tools and resources. Student feedback and follow-up requests for more workshops support the perception that this approach offered a rewarding learning experience that addressed their specific adult learning needs.     

A Review of “The Library: An Illustrated History”

Abstract

This paper describes one library's experience of using the Internet in its delivery of service to users. It describes the scope and methods of usage of the Internet via ALISplus, the Library's universal information access workstation at California State University, Fresno. It discusses the results of user surveys which were administered during the 1992/93 and 1993/94 academic years at the Library to assess the users' general response to the newly implemented ALISplus, with a focus on the accessibility of the Internet resources. ALISplus has provided access to the Library's GEAC/ADVANCE OPAC, CD-ROM databases, as well as other resources available through the Internet since the Summer 1993. The collective efforts which went into the process of developing the University's World Wide Web home page, under the leadership of the Library, are also described.     

Adaptive quaternion control of a 3-DOF inertial stabilised platforms

ABSTRACT

Inertial stabilised platforms are increasingly popular with a large range of products available mainstream. Most items are controlled using popular algorithms that sometimes do not offer best achievable performances. Present paper proposes an advanced control which aims at improving these latter. The exposed solution is based on quaternion representation and self-adapts to the characteristics of the payload it tries to stabilise. Proposed control law ensures the stability of the system whatever the required orientation path is. Although only simulation has been performed to check the performances of such control, results look very promising compared to non-adaptive controls and may help to construct more polyvalent and efficient gimbals which would further facilitate their expansion. Proposed control law can also be applied, as is, to every system that shares the same quaternion-based rotational dynamics.     

Service Priorities and Balance: Delivering a Menu of Quality Services That Reflect Users Needs and Tastes

ABSTRACT

With the increasing use of technology, librarians are being asked to provide instruction in a variety of different formats. One way for academic librarians to meet the demand of teaching is for them to take a closer look at what is written in the educational literature about teaching. This article reviews eight academic Web sites that deal with teaching effectiveness and describes their usefulness for librarians and others interested in teaching.     

A dynamic logistics process knowledge-based system – An RFID multi-agent approach

PurposeThis paper proposes a real-time knowledge support framework for the development of an RFID-multi-agent based process knowledge-based system which has the ability to solve dynamic logistics process management problems.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed system is developed with “real-time process management” capability which automatically identifies current process status, performs the process logic checking/reasoning, and, provides process knowledge support to staff members when they are tackling logistics activity problems. The unique feature of this on-line knowledge-based system, which enables it to enhance the performance of logistics organizations, is a process management engine incorporating radio-frequency identification (RFID) and multi-agent (MA) technologies.FindingsThe capability of the proposed system is demonstrated through an application case study in Eastern Worldwide Company Limited. The result reveals that both performance of operations and the utilization of resources have improved significantly.Originality/valueThe proposed system is a novel approach which leverages logistics performance and facilitates the creation of a learning organization through the provision of real-time knowledge support for those who handle logistics operations.Article typeResearch Paper.