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1.
Abstract

The aim of the study is to measure the effects of information resources and services of a regional information resources centre (NR CRI Library, Umudike), on the work of agricultural scientists within South Eastern Nigeria. The adequacy and relevance of resources and services were also examined.

One hundred and forty-one copies of a structured, self-administered questionnaire were sent to 140 scientists and one Head Librarian. Ninety-nine (70%) were retrieved and analysed. Data were also generated from intervies and a randomly selected sample, from documentary sources and observations. Analysis focused on library use, resources, services, effects of use on performance, relevance and adequacy of resources and services. Simple analytical tools such as graphs, charts and tables were used to elucidate library use, operations, benefits, effects of use on performance, relevance and adequacy of resources and services.

Results showed that research objective (20%) was the most common reason why scientists sought information and that information “effectively improved” the work of 73% of scientists. It also showed that among six other technical determinants that are essential for agricultural research, the importance attributed to the contribution of information to the success of research varied between groups of scientists. This trend was also observed in the amount of work achieved by scientists with the use information. The highest (20·4%) showed respondents who accepted that 31–40% of their research work was achieved with the use of information. The  相似文献   

2.
Information-seeking behaviour by university academics at Moi University, Kenya, is analysed. A survey, in the form of a pilot study, was conducted and data collected through questionnaires and interviews among 27 academics randomly sampled from four faculties: Health Sciences, Information Sciences, Environmental Studies and Education. The results obtained established that a great number of academics depend on libraries and colleagues for information and that although the academics heavily depend on textbooks for information, they display great interest in, and use, current and research-oriented information sources. It was also established that the nature of discipline and level of programme influence the information-seeking behaviour of academics and that lack of awareness of information services, and non-use of current awareness services and sources available at the university contribute to limited access and use of the information resources. In addition, academics indicated that they need information mainly for career development to circumvent the “publish or perish syndrome”, but also for their professional and occupational needs. It is concluded that despite insufficient relevant information resources at the university library due to budget cuts, academics still depend on the library for their information needs. Work colleagues are also an important source of intra-university information. It is suggested that the library would benefit the academics if equal attention were paid to current awareness services as well as publicity and promotion of information products and services. Similarly, methods should be devised by the university to strengthen the academics' overall accessibility to information. In this way, the circulation of information between academic colleagues can be maintained.  相似文献   

3.
Knowledge about the information needs and seeking behavior of scientists could play a vital role in meeting their information needs effectively. Libraries can use this knowledge for re-orienting their collections and facilities to attune them to the needs of the scientific community. This study explores information needs and seeking behavior of Malaysian agricultural scientists. It was found that research scientists spent 16% of their office time on reading and literature searching, whereas academicians spent 9.3% of their time for this purpose. The study also revealed that scientists preferred using primary sources of information, particularly journal and review articles. Informal communication with professional colleagues was also considered important for exchanging current research information. A large number of the participants felt that they had not been keeping in touch with scientific literature due to deficient library collections and services. This article recommends that science and technology libraries should periodically survey the information needs of their users, assess their collections and facilities, and strengthen their promotional activities.  相似文献   

4.
Design-based research for LIS   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  
Design-based research is a methodology emerging from the field of education that may hold potential for research in library and information science (LIS). Based upon the assumption that learning is situated in a real-world context, design-based research combines research, design, and practice into one process. It results in usable products that are supported by a theoretical framework. While definitional and methodological issues do exist, the method holds some promise for research into “user-centered” information systems and services. In the field of LIS, design-based research might contribute to our understanding of how people find, choose, understand, and use information in context. The method is also of interest to professionals concerned with “evidence-based practice.” This article will first explain and describe the method as it has been used in the allied field of education. Issues related to definition and methodology will be explored, as well as some of the solutions that have been proposed. The method will then be related to LIS, using the bonded design work of Large, Nesset, Beheshti, and Bowler [Large, A., Nesset, V., Beheshti, J., & Bowler, L. (2006a). Bonded design: a methodology for designing with children. In S. Kurniawan & P. Saphiris (Eds.), Advances in Universal Web Design and Evaluation: Research, Trends and Opportunities. London: Idea Group., Large, A., Nesset, V., Beheshti, J., & Bowler, L. (2006b). “Bonded design”: a novel approach to intergenerational information technology design. Library and Information Science Research, 28, 64–82] as a case study to demonstrate the applicability of design-based research to LIS inquiry.  相似文献   

5.
Somewhere in the vicinity of 80 percent of all governmental information has some “geographic” element, and the vast majority is called “geospatial” because of the nature of describing spatial phenomena of the earth. Geospatial information has been increasing steadily in popularity and use since the advent of geographic information systems in the 1960s. From the early 1990s until the present, research libraries have seen an increase in the availability of geospatial information, and they have also seen a substantial change in the services provided to support the needs of clients seeking that information. However, recent events have altered the “access landscape.” September 11, 2001, and subsequent events, caused many policy shifts to take place as to how, or whether, access to governmental geospatial information should be granted. This paper explores those policy developments with the goal of prognosticating on the future of access to governmental geospatial information.  相似文献   

6.
Technology has transformed the way people live. Current day information seekers are empowered with multiple choices of information sources and libraries no longer remain the primary centre for information seekers. With diminishing time and geographical barriers the world has become a global village and information seekers are stressed with time constraints. It is the duty of library and information professionals to address these tech-savvy library users' needs and align their services to satisfy them.Recently, the author of this paper conducted a research study on the “Impact of technology on quality of services in technical and management libraries in Karnataka” sponsored by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Government of India, New Delhi. The study was approved in 2005 and the final report was submitted to the government in 2007. This paper carries some of the results of this research study conducted by the author in Karnataka state in Southern India.  相似文献   

7.
Abstract

The objective of the study presented here was to determine the socio-cultural factors that enhanced the use and transfer of scientific information among agricultural scientists in south eastern Nigeria. The implications of some of these factors for agricultural development are highlighted.

Structured questionnaires were distributed to a stratified random sample of 300 scientists. Two hundred and ten (210) questionnaires were mailed while 90 were self-administered. Two hundred and forty-five (81·6%) usable responses were received and analysed. Data were also generated from interviews with selected members of the stratified random sample. Analyses focused on social and cultural factors of (1) motivation, (2) computer appreciation, (3) choice of media for research communication, (4) recipients of research communications, and (5) scientists' activities considered for assessment and reward. Frequency counts were the presentation techniques used to elucidate results.

Results showed that scientists were motivated more in the use and transfer of scientific information by social factors of self-development (53·3%) and job security (12·9%) than by social factors of scientific problem solution (19·6%) and intellectual contribution (12·6%).

Cultural factors of development in information technology (36·8%), adequate and relevant information resources (12·6%) and previous information attitudes (24·5%) also influenced scientists. Although five types of recipient groups of research communications were identified, the study noted that there was a disproportionately inadequate diffusion of research communications to two important groups of “national planners” and “external aid bodies”, who plan and finance agricultural development. Only 5% of scientists sent research communications to national planners and only 3·7% of scientists sent research communications to external aid bodies.

Strategies for assessing other quantifiable elements of productivity by scientists outside journal publications and for diffusing adequate scientific information to national planners and external aid bodies are deemed necessary.  相似文献   

8.
Although considerable attention has been focused on information users in recent years, little phenomenographic research into the word “information” has been conducted, perhaps because cursory consideration may suggest that work of this type is less useful than explorations of areas such as information-seeking. The lack of an established methodological framework discourages inquiry and, if understandings of the term are unique to each individual, there seems little scope to develop even broad principles for practice. Nevertheless, phenomenographic research helps professionals to learn how far users’ attitudes to the term “information” are consistent with their own and can reduce confusion between information providers and their clientele. Despite the absence of an accepted framework, several individual techniques are available. Ultimately, the research findings may prove highly instructive. They may, for example, influence the use of the word “information” by professionals when they interact with clients, whilst also offering insights into information behavior and information worlds.  相似文献   

9.
It is no longer effective to provide information literacy instruction that is thought to be “good for” college students, but rather, instruction must focus on the learning styles and preferences of the target population. This case study reports a series of hands-on/minds-on information literacy activities that dissolve student's misconception that “techno-savvy” is synonymous with information literate. Careful and thorough instruction in the mining of popular Internet search engines for authoritative information was coupled with instruction in the use of traditional library resources. It was found that the college students studied possess a high need for clarity and a low tolerance for ambiguity, and therefore any activities assigned must be thoroughly, yet succinctly, described in order to achieve success. Combining traditional information literacy instruction with novel approaches appeals to the confidence in and reliance on Internet search engines that college students exhibit, while it moves this microcosm toward a higher level of information literacy and commitment to life long learning.  相似文献   

10.
Academic libraries can effectively plan and market their services by identifying the value users perceive in their services and in their social media communications about those services. This study reports on findings of a survey of 104 undergraduate students in information technology courses at a large research university. Results of an ordered logistic regression analysis indicated that students considered access to information and computer resources and study support services as the most important library services offered. Likewise, students perceived library social media postings related to operations updates, study support services, and events as the most useful. Future related research will investigate the needs and priorities for library services of other key user populations of academic libraries, such as graduate students and online students, to assemble service repertoires that are tailored to individual user groups. In addition, future research will examine whether and how libraries can use the analysis of users' engagement with a library's social media postings to inexpensively gauge the value they perceive in library services.  相似文献   

11.
互联网传播时代的海量信息处理,对于教育、研究和科技工作者来说既是福音又是苦恼。一方面,当前科技文献的种类比传统图书馆能够提供的服务更加丰富;而另一方面,如何剔除随信息量增加的噪声信息,以求获取效率和质量上的平衡则是一个需要攻克的课题。图情服务机构利用图情有序组织的方法,针对海量的资源进行序化的组织和管理;结合教育、研究科技工作者的特点,利用科技信息分析的方法,在充分考虑我国国情的前提下最有效率地整合资源,并结合技术手段来提高科技信息资源使用的效率和质量。这对于中国教育、研究、科技工作者最大化利用科技文献来开展研究和工作,是最好的选择之一。  相似文献   

12.
A two-part questionnaire was designed to elicit information on use of print and electronic resources by agricultural science students in Nigerian universities. 912 respondents from faculties of agriculture in three Nigerian universities completed the questionnaires. The results revealed that agricultural science students most prefer to use textbooks (42.1%) among print materials, while The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library (TEEAL) is the most preferred among electronic resources available in their libraries (52.2%). Major problems faced by the agricultural science students include inadequate access to full Internet connectivity and lack of skills on their part to use available electronic databases properly. The study recommends restructuring library collections by increasing the number of agricultural textbooks and databases to meet the information use and retrieval needs of agricultural science students. Other recommendations include establishing Internet-ready computer centers to complement teaching, learning, and research in the library.  相似文献   

13.
This article investigates academic library needs of doctoral students. The study identifies PhD students' information literacy training needs and explores current levels of library engagement, barriers to use, and gaps in existing services. First-year PhD students at Ulster University (UU) were surveyed and interviews were undertaken with three students. Findings show that just over half the respondents start their research from the Library's e-journal interface or library databases and these resources are also their main research tools. Minimal use was made of social media or apps. Students' ability to correctly identify different source types within a reference did not match the confidence they expressed in their own abilities, and two thirds were not aware of basic e-book capabilities. However, over 90% of the respondents strongly agreed that the university library service was essential for their research. The article concludes with a number of recommendations on improving library services for PhD students.  相似文献   

14.
Large scale statewide library cooperation using information technology and wide area networks dates back to the early 1980s with efforts such as the Florida Center for Library Automation and, more recently, the LOUIS Project in Louisiana (see JAL January 1994) and OhioLink (see JAL September 1995). Early efforts were usually focused on the implementation of library information management systems and the provision of shared access to locally held collections, and they often still are. In the 1990s, though, we are witnessing a shift in statewide cooperative use of networks to provide principally access to bibliographic and full-text resources not held locally and usually provided by commercial vendors for use by libraries. As the case studies in this column illustrate the development of funding sources, the technical implementations and support, and the management organization differ from state to state. They reflect, though, the incremental shift in the information landscape towards “electronic libraries”. I choose the word incremental intentionally to reflect that this change has not (at least so far) been anywhere near as rapid or revolutionary as many expected. Nevertheless, what has happened in about 15 years is quite dramatic. It portends a different kind of academic library.—CBL, University of Maryland, College Park.  相似文献   

15.
Anthropologists at seven universities were surveyed in order to discover: the ways in which they go about locating information of value to them; the information sources that they use and that are of the greatest significance to them; the adequacy of the library service being currently provided to anthropologists; and any opinions they have on the subject of their information needs. Results show that anthropologists; information requirements differ somewhat from those of other social scientists. Reference lists in journals and books are often used to locate information sources; journals are the most important information source. However, cultural anthropologists report that their own field data is their most significant source. Anthropologists use pictorial sources and maps more frequently than social scientists in general do; they also make great use of interlibrary loan. Most of the information needs of the majority of respondents are met by their university's library. Older scholars tend to use databases less than younger ones do; online abstracts and indexes are most important to anthropologists than their print versions are. Some respondents express a great desire for a database which would include current references, abstracts, and articles in anthropology.  相似文献   

16.
A persona represents a group of target users that share common behavioural characteristics. The personas method, an approach to systems design, has been receiving significant attention from practitioners. However, only anecdotal evidence currently exists for the effectiveness of personas and there have been criticisms about its validity as a scientific approach to research. This paper attempts to demonstrate how incorporating personas may lead to better understand the information needs of humanities scholars. Humanities scholars in an advanced ICT environment in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan are sampled as a case. Previous studies show that the humanities scholars have a significant negative relation with ICT use; they are using it less than scientists and social scientists, and they demonstrate a significantly higher use of library facilities than other academics. There is also a lack of up-to-date international research on the humanities scholars' information needs that takes into account recent rapid increases in the availability of ICT infrastructure, especially the Internet. As such, the objective of this study is to understand the information needs of humanities scholars and the effect of the electronic environment on their information seeking behaviour using personas. This study is conducted within a conceptual framework based on an integration of existing models of information-seeking behaviour, along with additional new elements representing the information context environment, such as languages, decision to seek and format of information resources. The four personas that were uncovered in this study may be able to effectively communicate the actual information needs of the humanities scholars through the personal narrative, name, and face, which continuously will remind the academic library of what their users really want and need from their services. This study also lays the foundation for future research by identifying variables of interest, and building construct validity through the themes of information needs that emerged.  相似文献   

17.

Objective:

The research conducted a large-scale, multisite study on the value and impact of library and information services on patient care.

Methods:

The study used: (1) 2 initial focus groups of librarians; (2) a web-based survey of physicians, residents, and nurses at 56 library sites serving 118 hospitals; and (3) 24 follow-up telephone interviews. Survey respondents were asked to base their responses on a recent incident in which they had sought information for patient care.

Results:

Of the 16,122 survey respondents, 3/4 said that they had definitely or probably handled aspects of the patient care situation differently as a result of the information. Among the reported changes were advice given to the patient (48%), diagnosis (25%), and choice of drugs (33%), other treatment (31%), and tests (23%). Almost all of the respondents (95%) said the information resulted in a better informed clinical decision. Respondents reported that the information allowed them to avoid the following adverse events: patient misunderstanding of the disease (23%), additional tests (19%), misdiagnosis (13%), adverse drug reactions (13%), medication errors (12%), and patient mortality (6%).

Conclusions:

Library and information resources were perceived as valuable, and the information obtained was seen as having an impact on patient care.

Highlights

  • Library and information resources were perceived as valuable, and the information obtained was seen as having an impact on patient care.
  • Electronic access to information resources from multiple locations has increased the ability of health professionals to use these resources for improved patient care.
  • The roles of librarians are diversifying to include management of electronic resources, user instruction and support, specialized research and clinical information search services, and involvement in institution-level quality improvement.
  • It is possible to conduct a large-scale, multisite study on the value and impact of library services on patient care.

Implications

  • Ongoing studies of the value and impact of library and information resources will be important for advocacy and quality improvement.
  • Community-Based Participative Research methods hold promise as a way of ensuring the relevance of future research.
  相似文献   

18.
This study investigates two questions key to academic library resources and services: Which sources are students most likely to use to begin their academic work? Whom do students tend to consult for research assistance? In-depth interviews conducted with 15 undergraduate and graduate students were thematically analyzed through a three-step process. The findings indicate that students are most likely to consult faculty and peers for assistance and are largely unaware of librarians' roles, while they tend to begin research using library databases and do not necessarily start with Google. In addition, student use of small study groups as learning networks and reliance upon alternate sites to conduct research emerged as unanticipated themes.  相似文献   

19.

Objectives:

This study examined the information-seeking behaviors of basic science researchers to inform the development of customized library services.

Methods:

A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews was conducted on a sample of basic science researchers employed at a university medical school.

Results:

The basic science researchers used a variety of information resources ranging from popular Internet search engines to highly technical databases. They generally relied on basic keyword searching, using the simplest interface of a database or search engine. They were highly collegial, interacting primarily with coworkers in their laboratories and colleagues employed at other institutions. They made little use of traditional library services and instead performed many traditional library functions internally.

Conclusions:

Although the basic science researchers expressed a positive attitude toward the library, they did not view its resources or services as integral to their work. To maximize their use by researchers, library resources must be accessible via departmental websites. Use of library services may be increased by cultivating relationships with key departmental administrative personnel. Despite their self-sufficiency, subjects expressed a desire for centralized information about ongoing research on campus and shared resources, suggesting a role for the library in creating and managing an institutional repository.

Highlights

  • Basic science researchers rely on a small network of individuals in their institution and at other institutions to satisfy their information needs.
  • Basic science researchers tend to ignore institutional boundaries when searching for information and do not necessarily view the library as the primary source of scholarly information.
  • Basic science researchers use the interlibrary loan service regularly but otherwise rarely use traditional library services such as mediated literature searching and instruction.

Implications

  • The library must establish a presence in researchers'' work environments, rather than expect them to seek out library resources and services.
  • The increased emphasis by funding agencies on clinical translational science may impact the information needs of basic science researchers in the future.
  • Libraries have an opportunity to capitalize on their positive reputation and basic scientists'' desire for more centralized information to create new information resources and services such as institutional repositories.
  相似文献   

20.
Pepperdine University's six international campus libraries are not staffed by librarians. However, the library serves overseas students with small print collections, course specific LibGuides and highly trained student assistants. A goal of the LibGuides and student workers is to make students aware of library resources and services while studying abroad. Students studying overseas were surveyed to determine their use and awareness of library resources. In addition, to determine if the library could have an important role in supporting study abroad programs, students were asked if they had research assignments that required outside resources. While the results of the survey revealed that the majority of students are aware of library resources and services, the library should take additional steps to better serve overseas students.  相似文献   

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