Search (83 results, page 1 of 5)

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Date

27.11.2005 18:04:22

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Abstract

Im Dezember 2003 fand in Genf die erste Phase des UN-Weltgipfels zur Informationsgesellschaft (WSIS) statt. Die Gipfelkonferenz, an der mehr als 11.000 Vertreter von Regierungen, der privaten Wirtschaft und der Zivilgesellschaft teilnahmen, verhandelte u. a. Themen wie die Überwindung der digitalen Spaltung, Menschenrechte im Informationszeitalter, geistige Eigentumsrechte, Cyberkriminalität und Internet Governance. Das vorliegende Buch stellt den WSIS-Gipfel in den historischen Kontext 200-jähriger internationaler Verhandlungen zur Regulierung grenzüberschreitender Kommunikation -- von den Karlsbader Verträgen 1819 bis zur Entstehung des Internets. Es beschreibt die spannenden und kontroversen Auseinandersetzungen darüber, wie das Internet reguliert, Menschenrechte im Informationszeitalter garantiert, Sicherheit im Cyberspace gewährleistet, geistiges Eigentum geschützt und die digitale Spaltung überbrückt werden soll. Kleinwächter lässt keinen Zweifel daran, dass der WSIS-Kompromiss von Genf nicht mehr ist als der Beginn eines langen Prozesses zur Gestaltung der globalen Informationsgesellschaft der Zukunft. Die zweite Phase des Gipfeltreffens findet im November 2005 in Tunis statt. Das Buch enthält im Anhang die vom Gipfel verabschiedete Deklaration und den Aktionsplan sowie die von der Zivilgesellschaft angenommene Erklärung zur Zukunft der Informationsgesellschaft.

Date

20.12.2006 18:22:32

Isbn

3-936931-22-4

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Date

22.12.2002 17:22:34

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Abstract

The scale of web site design has grown so that what was once comparable to decorating a room is now comparable to designing buildings or even cities. Designing sites so that people can find their way around is an ever-growing challenge as sites contain more and more information. In the past, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web has helped developers and designers establish consistent and usable structures for their sites and their information. This edition of the classic primer on web site design and navigation is updated with recent examples, new scenarios, and new information on best practices. Readers will learn how to present large volumes of information to visitors who need to find what they're looking for quickly. With topics that range from aesthetics to mechanics, this valuable book explains how to create interfaces that users can understand easily.

Date

22. 3.2008 16:18:27

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Date

22. 3.2008 12:21:28

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Content

Inhalt: Uses, Users, and User Interaction Metadata Applications - Semantic Browsing / Alexander Faaborg, Carl Lagoze Annotation and Recommendation Automatic Classification and Indexing - Cross-Lingual Text Categorization / Nuria Bel, Cornelis H.A. Koster, Marta Villegas - Automatic Multi-label Subject Indexing in a Multilingual Environment / Boris Lauser, Andreas Hotho Web Technologies Topical Crawling, Subject Gateways - VASCODA: A German Scientific Portal for Cross-Searching Distributed Digital Resource Collections / Heike Neuroth, Tamara Pianos Architectures and Systems Knowledge Organization: Concepts - The ADEPT Concept-Based Digital Learning Environment / T.R. Smith, D. Ancona, O. Buchel, M. Freeston, W. Heller, R. Nottrott, T. Tierney, A. Ushakov - A User Evaluation of Hierarchical Phrase Browsing / Katrina D. Edgar, David M. Nichols, Gordon W. Paynter, Kirsten Thomson, Ian H. Witten - Visual Semantic Modeling of Digital Libraries / Qinwei Zhu, Marcos Andre Gongalves, Rao Shen, Lillian Cassell, Edward A. Fox Collection Building and Management Knowledge Organization: Authorities and Works - Automatic Conversion from MARC to FRBR / Christian Monch, Trond Aalberg Information Retrieval in Different Application Areas Digital Preservation Indexing and Searching of Special Document and Collection Information

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Abstract

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th European Conference on Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries, ECDL 2006, held in Alicante, Spain in September 2006. The 36 revised full papers presented together with the extended abstracts of 18 demo papers and 15 revised poster papers were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 159 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on architectures, preservation, retrieval, applications, methodology, metadata, evaluation, user studies, modeling, audiovisual content, and language technologies.

Content

Inhalt u.a.: Architectures I Preservation Retrieval - The Use of Summaries in XML Retrieval / Zoltdn Szldvik, Anastasios Tombros, Mounia Laimas - An Enhanced Search Interface for Information Discovery from Digital Libraries / Georgia Koutrika, Alkis Simitsis - The TIP/Greenstone Bridge: A Service for Mobile Location-Based Access to Digital Libraries / Annika Hinze, Xin Gao, David Bainbridge Architectures II Applications Methodology Metadata Evaluation User Studies Modeling Audiovisual Content Language Technologies - Incorporating Cross-Document Relationships Between Sentences for Single Document Summarizations / Xiaojun Wan, Jianwu Yang, Jianguo Xiao - Semantic Web Techniques for Multiple Views on Heterogeneous Collections: A Case Study / Marjolein van Gendt, Antoine Isaac, Lourens van der Meij, Stefan Schlobach Posters - A Tool for Converting from MARC to FRBR / Trond Aalberg, Frank Berg Haugen, Ole Husby

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Date

22. 2.2009 12:33:37

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Classification

303.48/33 22 (LoC)

DDC

303.48/33 22 (LoC)

Footnote

Rez. in: JASIST 58(2007) no.1, S.150-151 (L. Westbrook): "The purpose of this volume is to bring together various analyses by international scholars of the social and cultural impact of information technology on individuals and societies (preface, n.p.). It grew from the First International Conference on Human Perspectives in the Internet Society held in Cadiz, Spain, in 2004. The editors and contributors have addressed an impressive array of significant issues with rigorous research and insightful analysis although the resulting volume does suffer from the usual unevenness in depth and content that affects books based on conference proceedings. Although the $256 price is prohibitive for many individual scholars, the effort to obtain a library edition for perusal regarding particular areas of interest is likely to prove worthwhile. Unlike many international conferences that are able to attract scholars from only a handful of nations, this genuinely diverse conference included research conducted in Australia, Beijing, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, England, Fiji, Germany, Greece, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Norway, Russia, Scotland, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan, and the United States. The expense of a conference format and governmental travel restrictions may have precluded greater inclusion of the work being done to develop information technology for use in nonindustrialized nations in support of economic, social justice, and political movements. Although the cultural variants among these nations preclude direct cross-cultural comparisons, many papers carefully provide sufficient background information to make basic conceptual transfers possible. A great strength of the work is the unusual combination of academic disciplines that contributes substantially to the depth of many individual papers, particularly when they are read within the larger context of the entire volume. Although complete professional affiliations are not universally available, the authors who did name their affiliation come from widely divergent disciplines including accounting, business administration, architecture, business computing, communication, computing, economics, educational technology, environmental management, experimental psychology, gender research in computer science, geography, human work sciences, humanistic informatics, industrial engineering, information management, informatics in transport and telecommunications, information science, information technology, management, mathematics, organizational behavior, pedagogy, psychology, telemedicine, and women's education. This is all to the good, but the lack of representation from departments of women's studies, gender studies, and library studies certainly limits the breadth and depth of the perspectives provided.
The editorial and peer review processes appear to be slightly spotty in application. All of the 55 papers are in English but a few of them are in such need of basic editing that they are almost incomprehensible in sections. Consider, for example, the following: "So, the meaning of region where we are studying on, should be discovered and then affect on the final plan" (p. 346). The collection shows a strong array of methodological approaches including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods studies; however, a few of the research efforts exhibit fundamental design flaws. Consider, for example, the study that "set[s] out to show that nurses as care-givers find it difficult to transfer any previously acquired technological skills into their work based on technology needs (p. 187). After studying 39 female and 6 male nurses, this study finds, not surprisingly, exactly what it "set out" to find. Rather than noting the limitations of sample size and data gathering techniques, the paper firmly concludes that nurses can be technologists "only in areas of technology that support their primary role as carers" (p. 188). Finally, some of the papers do not report on original research but are competent, if brief, summaries of theories or concepts that are covered in equal depth elsewhere. For example, a three-page summary of "the major personality and learning theories" (p. 3) is useful but lacks the intellectual depth or insight needed to contribute substantially to the field. These problems with composition, methodological rigor, and theoretical depth are not uncommon in papers designed for a broadly defined conference theme. The authors may have been writing for an in-person audience and anticipating thoughtful postpresentation discussions; they probably had no idea of the heavy price tag put on their work. The editors, however, might have kept that $256 in mind and exercised a heavier editorial hand. Perhaps the publisher could have paid for a careful subject indexing of the work as a substantive addition to the author index provided. The complexity of the subject domains included in the volume certainly merits careful indexing.
The volume is organized into 13 sections, each of which contains between two and eight conference papers. As with most conferences, the papers do not cover the issues in each section with equal weight or depth but the editors have grouped papers into reasonable patterns. Section 1 covers "understanding online behavior" with eight papers on problems such as e-learning attitudes, the neuropsychology of HCI, Japanese blogger motivation, and the dividing line between computer addiction and high engagement. Sections 2 (personality and computer attitudes), 3 (cyber interactions), and 4 (new interaction methods) each contain only two papers on topics such as helmet-mounted displays, online energy audits, and the use of ICT in family life. Sections 6, 7, and 8 focus on gender issues with papers on career development, the computer literacy of Malaysian women, mentoring, gaming, and faculty job satisfaction. Sections 9 and 10 move to a broader examination of cyber society and its diversity concerns with papers on cultural identity, virtual architecture, economic growth's impact on culture, and Iranian development impediments. Section 11's two articles on advertising might well have been merged with those of section 13's ebusiness. Section 12 addressed education with papers on topics such as computer-assisted homework, assessment, and Web-based learning. It would have been useful to introduce each section with a brief definition of the theme, summaries of the major contributions of the authors, and analyses of the gaps that might be addressed in future conferences. Despite the aforementioned concerns, this volume does provide a uniquely rich array of technological analyses embedded in social context. An examination of recent works in related areas finds nothing that is this complex culturally or that has such diversity of disciplines. Cultural Production in a Digital Age (Klinenberg, 2005), Perspectives and Policies on ICT in Society (Berleur & Avgerou, 2005), and Social, Ethical, and Policy Implications of Information Technology (Brennan & Johnson, 2004) address various aspects of the society/Internet intersection but this volume is unique in its coverage of psychology, gender, and culture issues in cyberspace. The lip service often given to global concerns and the value of interdisciplinary analysis of intransigent social problems seldom develop into a genuine willingness to listen to unfamiliar research paradigms. Academic silos and cultural islands need conferences like this one-willing to take on the risk of examining the large questions in an intellectually open space. Editorial and methodological concerns notwithstanding, this volume merits review and, where appropriate, careful consideration across disciplines."

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Date

22. 8.2002 9:15:06

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Date

22. 3.2004 14:46:50

Footnote

Rez. in: B.I.T. online 6(2003) H.3, S.298-299 (J. Plieninger): "Wer im vorigen Heft von B.I.T.online den Fachbeitrag von Hermann Rösch über Bibliothekarische Auskunft im Web gelesen und sich daraufhin überlegt, einen solchen Dienst einzuführen, für den wäre dieses Buch das geeignete Mittel, sich für die Einführung einer Online-Auskunft fit zu machen. Die Autorin ist in der amerikanischen Internet Librarian- und Reference Librarian-Szene wohlbekannt: 1993 verfasste sie mit zwei Mitautoren Crossing the Internet Treshold, ein Tutorial für die Nutzung des Netzes, welches für die Profession eine Hilfestellung für die breite Nutzung des Internets bot. Das hier besprochene Buch könnte eine ähnliche Funktion für die Einführung der Virtual Reference bekommen: Es bietet einen Selbstlernkurs, welcher anschaulich die Grundlagen und die Grundhaltung bei der Implementation eines solchen Dienstes vermittelt. Was ist alles in diesem Kurs enthalten? Der erste Teil des Buches behandelt den Entscheidungsprozess, einen Online-Auskunftsdienst einzuführen: Es werden Vor- und Nachteile diskutiert, die Bedürfnisse der Benutzer untersucht ("There will always be a need for a human consultant to satisfy the needs of the information seeker.") und die Grundlagen der Entscheidungsfindung für eine geeignete Software behandelt. Der zweite Teil handelt dann von den Fragen der "Einrichtung" des virtuellen Auskunftsplatzes. Hier gibt es z.B. eine Schulung in den besonderen Kommunikationsformen, welche beim Chat zu beachten sind, eine Einbettung des neuen Dienstes in das Leitbild, die Geschäftsordnung bzw. Arbeitsorganisation der Bibliothek ("library policies") und zuletzt die komfortable Ausstattung des Auskunftsplatzes für Benutzer und Beschäftigte bis hin zu Fragen der Evaluation und Qualitätssicherung. Der dritte Teil behandelt die Aufgabe, einen Dienst zu implementieren, der sich selbst trägt, indem man ein Marketing für den neuen Dienst einrichtet, das ihn auf herkömmlichen und neuen Wegen promotet und ihn benutzerfreundlich ausgestaltet.

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Footnote

Rez. in: JASIST. 54(2003) no.9, S.906-908 (E.G. Ackermann): "In this book Harry Bruce provides a construct or view of "how and why people are using the Internet," which can be used "to inform the design of new services and to augment our usings of the Internet" (pp. viii-ix; see also pp. 183-184). In the process, he develops an analytical tool that I term the Metatheory of Circulating Usings, and proves an impressive distillation of a vast quantity of research data from previous studies. The book's perspective is explicitly user-centered, as is its theoretical bent. The book is organized into a preface, acknowledgments, and five chapters (Chapter 1, "The Internet Story;" Chapter 2, "Technology and People;" Chapter 3, "A Focus an Usings;" Chapter 4, "Users of the Internet;" Chapter 5, "The User's View of the Internet"), followed by an extensive bibliography and short index. Any notes are found at the end of the relevant Chapter. The book is illustrated with figures and tables, which are clearly presented and labeled. The text is clearly written in a conversational style, relatively jargon-free, and contains no quantification. The intellectual structure follows that of the book for the most part, with some exceptions. The definition of several key concepts or terms are scattered throughout the book, often appearing much later after extensive earlier use. For example, "stakeholders" used repeatedly from p. viii onward, remains undefined until late in the book (pp. 175-176). The study's method is presented in Chapter 3 (p. 34), relatively late in the book. Its metatheoretical basis is developed in two widely separated places (Chapter 3, pp. 56-61, and Chapter 5, pp. 157-159) for no apparent reason. The goal or purpose of presenting the data in Chapter 4 is explained after its presentation (p. 129) rather than earlier with the limits of the data (p. 69). Although none of these problems are crippling to the book, it does introduce an element of unevenness into the flow of the narrative that can confuse the reader and unnecessarily obscures the author's intent. Bruce provides the contextual Background of the book in Chapter 1 (The Internet Story) in the form of a brief history of the Internet followed by a brief delineation of the early popular views of the Internet as an information superstructure. His recapitulation of the origins and development of the Internet from its origins as ARPANET in 1957 to 1995 touches an the highlights of this familiar story that will not be retold here. The early popular views or characterizations of the Internet as an "information society" or "information superhighway" revolved primarily around its function as an information infrastructure (p. 13). These views shared three main components (technology, political values, and implied information values) as well as a set of common assumptions. The technology aspect focused an the Internet as a "common ground an which digital information products and services achieve interoperability" (p. 14). The political values provided a "vision of universal access to distributed information resources and the benefits that this will bring to the lives of individual people and to society in general" (p. 14). The implied communication and information values portrayed the Internet as a "medium for human creativity and innovation" (p. 14). These popular views also assumed that "good decisions arise from good information," that "good democracy is based an making information available to all sectors of society," and that "wisdom is the by-product of effective use of information" (p. 15). Therefore, because the Internet is an information infrastructure, it must be "good and using the Internet will benefit individuals and society in general" (p. 15).
Chapter 2 (Technology and People) focuses an several theories of technological acceptance and diffusion. Unfortunately, Bruce's presentation is somewhat confusing as he moves from one theory to next, never quite connecting them into a logical sequence or coherent whole. Two theories are of particular interest to Bruce: the Theory of Diffusion of Innovations and the Theory of Planned Behavior. The Theory of Diffusion of Innovations is an "information-centric view of technology acceptance" in which technology adopters are placed in the information flows of society from which they learn about innovations and "drive innovation adoption decisions" (p. 20). The Theory of Planned Behavior maintains that the "performance of a behavior is a joint function of intentions and perceived behavioral control" (i.e., how muck control a person thinks they have) (pp. 22-23). Bruce combines these two theories to form the basis for the Technology Acceptance Model. This model posits that "an individual's acceptance of information technology is based an beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors" (p. 24). In all these theories and models echoes a recurring theme: "individual perceptions of the innovation or technology are critical" in terms of both its characteristics and its use (pp. 24-25). From these, in turn, Bruce derives a predictive theory of the role personal perceptions play in technology adoption: Personal Innovativeness of Information Technology Adoption (PIITA). Personal inventiveness is defined as "the willingness of an individual to try out any new information technology" (p. 26). In general, the PIITA theory predicts that information technology will be adopted by individuals that have a greater exposure to mass media, rely less an the evaluation of information technology by others, exhibit a greater ability to cope with uncertainty and take risks, and requires a less positive perception of an information technology prior to its adoption. Chapter 3 (A Focus an Usings) introduces the User-Centered Paradigm (UCP). The UCP is characteristic of the shift of emphasis from technology to users as the driving force behind technology and research agendas for Internet development [for a dissenting view, see Andrew Dillion's (2003) challenge to the utility of user-centerness for design guidance]. It entails the "broad acceptance of the user-oriented perspective across a range of disciplines and professional fields," such as business, education, cognitive engineering, and information science (p. 34).
The UCP's effect an business practices is focused mainly in the management and marketing areas. Marketing experienced a shift from "product-oriented operations" with its focus an "selling the products' features" and customer contact only at the point of sale toward more service-Centered business practice ("customer Jemand orientation") and the development of one-to-one customer relationships (pp. 35-36). For management, the adoption of the UCP caused a shift from "mechanistic, bureaucratic, top-down organizational structures" to "flatter, inclusive, and participative" ones (p. 37). In education, practice shifted from the teachercentered model where the "teacher is responsible for and makes all the decisions related to the learning environment" to a learnercentered model where the student is "responsible for his or her own learning" and the teacher focuses an "matching learning events to the individual skills, aptitudes, and interests of the individual learner" (pp. 38-39). Cognitive engineering saw the rise of "user-Centered design" and human factors that were concerned with applying "scientific knowledge of humans to the design of man-machine interface systems" (p. 44). The UCP had a great effect an Information Science in the "design of information systems" (p. 47). Previous to UCP's explicit proposed by Brenda Dervin and M. Nilan in 1986, systems design was dominated by the "physical of system oriented paradigm" (p. 48). The physical paradigm held a positivistic and materialistic view of technology and (passive) human interaction as exemplified by the 1953 Cranfield tests of information retrieval mechanisms. Instead, the UCP focuses an "users rather than systems" by making the perceptions of individual information users the "centerpiece consideration for information service and system design" (pp. 47-48). Bruce briefly touches an the various schools of thought within user-oriented paradigm, such as the cognitive/self studies approach with its emphasis is an an individual's knowledge structures or model of the world [e.g., Belkin (1990)], the cognitve/context studies approach that focuses an "context in explaining variations in information behavior" [e.g., Savolainen (1995) and Dervin's (1999) sensemaking], and the social constructionism/discourse analytic theory with its focus an that language, not mental/knowledge constructs, as the primary shaper of the world as a system of intersubjective meanings [e.g., Talja 1996], (pp. 53-54). Drawing from the rich tradition of user oriented research, Bruce attempts to gain a metatheoretical understanding of the Internet as a phenomena by combining Dervin's (1996) "micromoments of human usings" with the French philosopher Bruno Latour's (1999) "conception of Circulating reference" to form what 1 term the Metatheory of Circulating Usings (pp. ix, 56, 60). According to Bruce, Latour's concept is designed to bridge "the gap between mind and object" by engaging in a "succession of finely grained transformations that construct and transfer truth about the object" through a chain of "microtranslations" from "matter to form," thereby connecting mind and object (p. 56). The connection works as long as the chain remains unbroken. The nature of this chain of "information producing translations" are such that as one moves away from the object, one experiences a "reduction" of the object's "locality, particularity, materiality, multiplicity and continuity," while simultaneously gaining the "amplification" of its "compatibility, standardization, text, calculation, circulation, and relative universality" (p. 57).
Bruce points out that Dervin is also concerned about how "we look at the world" in terms of "information needs and seeking" (p.60). She maintains that information scientists traditionally view information seeking and needs in terms of "contexts, users, and systems." Dervin questions whether or not, from a user's point of view, these three "points of interest" even exist. Rather it is the "micromoments of human usings" [emphasis original], and the "world viewings, seekings, and valuings" that comprise them that are real (p. 60). Using his metatheory, Bruce represents the Internet, the "object" of study, as a "chain of transformations made up of the micromoments of human usings" (p. 60). The Internet then is a "composite of usings" that, through research and study, is continuously reduced in complexity while its "essence" and "explanation" are amplified (p. 60). Bruce plans to use the Metatheory of Circulating Usings as an analytical "lens" to "tease out a characterization of the micromoments of Internet usings" from previous research an the Internet thereby exposing "the user's view of the Internet" (pp. 60-61). In Chapter 4 (Users of the Internet), Bruce presents the research data for the study. He begins with an explanation of the limits of the data, and to a certain extent, the study itself. The perspective is that of the Internet user, with a focus an use, not nonuse, thereby exluding issues such as the digital divide and universal service. The research is limited to Internet users "in modern economies around the world" (p. 60). The data is a synthesis of research from many disciplines, but mainly from those "associated with the information field" with its traditional focus an users, systems, and context rather than usings (p. 70). Bruce then presents an extensive summary of the research results from a massive literature review of available Internet studies. He examines the research for each study group in order of the amount of data available, starting with the most studied group professional users ("academics, librarians, and teachers") followed by "the younger generation" ("College students, youths, and young adults"), users of e-government information and e-business services, and ending with the general public (the least studied group) (p. 70). Bruce does a masterful job of condensing and summarizing a vast amount of research data in 49 pages. Although there is too muck to recapitulate here, one can get a sense of the results by looking at the areas of data examined for one of the study groups: academic Internet users. There is data an their frequency of use, reasons for nonuse, length of use, specific types of use (e.g., research, teaching, administration), use of discussion lists, use of e-journals, use of Web browsers and search engines, how academics learn to use web tools and services (mainly by self-instruction), factors affecting use, and information seeking habits. Bruce's goal in presenting all this research data is to provide "the foundation for constructs of the Internet that can inform stakeholders who will play a role in determining how the Internet will develop" (p. 129). These constructs are presented in Chapter 5.
Bruce begins Chapter 5 (The Users' View of the Internet) by pointing out that the Internet not only exists as a physical entity of hardware, software, and networked connectivity, but also as a mental representation or knowledge structure constructed by users based an their usings. These knowledge structures or constructs "allow people to interpret and make sense of things" by functioning as a link between the new unknown thing with known thing(s) (p. 158). The knowledge structures or using constructs are continually evolving as people use the Internet over time, and represent the user's view of the Internet. To capture the users' view of the Internet from the research literature, Bruce uses his Metatheory of Circulating Usings. He recapitulates the theory, casting it more closely to the study of Internet use than previously. Here the reduction component provides a more detailed "understanding of the individual users involved in the micromoment of Internet using" while simultaneously the amplification component increases our understanding of the "generalized construct of the Internet" (p. 158). From this point an Bruce presents a relatively detail users' view of the Internet. He starts with examining Internet usings, which is composed of three parts: using space, using literacies, and Internet space. According to Bruce, using space is a using horizon likened to a "sphere of influence," comfortable and intimate, in which an individual interacts with the Internet successfully (p. 164). It is a "composite of individual (professional nonwork) constructs of Internet utility" (p. 165). Using literacies are the groups of skills or tools that an individual must acquire for successful interaction with the Internet. These literacies serve to link the using space with the Internet space. They are usually self-taught and form individual standards of successful or satisfactory usings that can be (and often are) at odds with the standards of the information profession. Internet space is, according to Bruce, a user construct that perceives the Internet as a physical, tangible place separate from using space. Bruce concludes that the user's view of the Internet explains six "principles" (p. 173). "Internet using is proof of concept" and occurs in contexts; using space is created through using frequency, individuals use literacies to explore and utilize Internet space, Internet space "does not require proof of concept, and is often influence by the perceptions and usings of others," and "the user's view of the Internet is upbeat and optimistic" (pp. 173-175). He ends with a section describing who are the Internet stakeholders. Bruce defines them as Internet hardware/software developers, Professional users practicing their profession in both familiar and transformational ways, and individuals using the Internet "for the tasks and pleasures of everyday life" (p. 176).
This book suffers from two major shortcomings: the failure to explain how the metatheory is actually used to analyze extant research data, and the failure to explicitly link the data presented to the conclusions drawn. The analytical function of Bruce's metatheory is clearly stated, but no explicit explanation or example is given to show how he actually accomplished this analysis. Granted, it is impractical given the volume of research data involved, to show how every bit of the data in Chapter 4 was derived. However, several examples of how the metatheory was applied would have been useful in understanding its actual function in the study at hand as well as its potential utility any future studies. More serious is the lack of explicit linkage between the data summary presented in Chapter 4 and the conclusions given in Chapter 5. Each chapter is presented as stand-alone entities containing no citations or internal referencing to connect the data with the conclusions. This leaves the readers with no ready means to evaluate the concluding construct of the user's view of the Internet in light of the data from which it was ostensibly derived. The readers must either go back and laboriously construct the connections themselves, or just take the author's word for it. Because the goal of the book is to create a convincing construct of the user's view of the Internet for others to understand, follow, apply, and improve upon in the "next generation of Internet development," the burden of proof is an the author, not the readers (pp. ix, 183). This oversight may not be so crucial if the author were presenting an exploratory essay designed primarily to stimulate thought and expand our perceptions. However, given that the book is intended as a scholarly work (otherwise why the tremendous effort in analyzing and summarizing vast quantities of research data in Chapter 4?), the lack of explicit linkage between the data and the conclusion is not only puzzling, but simply unacceptable. In summary then, the book is strong in its theoretical and metatheoretical development, presentation of the research data and scope of the literature review, and clarity of the concluding construct of the user's view of the Internet. If these items are of particular interest to the you, then this book may be worth your while. Otherwise, the failure of the book to provide an explanation of how the Metatheory of Circulating Usings is applied in analyzing extant research data, coupled with book's failure to link explicitly the data presented with the conclusions severely undermines this reviewer's confidence in the author's conclusions."

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Date

22. 8.2009 19:50:27

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22. 3.2008 14:24:08

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22.10.2006 10:22:33

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Editor

Oram, A.

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Abstract

If your customers don't sleep, why should your reference service? Online library reference services available 24/7 are offered in a growing number of institutions. With many models to choose from and more details to be worked out, it is a critical time for librarians to assess their patrons' needs and market their services to address these needs. Collecting and documenting what thousands of virtual reference librarians have learned over the past few years, this comprehensive guide provides a needed overview to help new and aspiring virtual reference library departments to understand the entire process and its ramifications. In a text supplemented with checklists so no key element is forgotten, this reference offers the real-world answers from Ieading experts to the most common questions: - Where has Web-based library reference come from and where is it going? - What is the best digital reference software to address specific needs? - How do they get hired and trained? - When and how does a library market such a radial new Service? - Why are evaluations and system enhancerncnts critical to the future of digital reference? With a look into the costs, and a look into the future, supplemented with the most comprehensive bibliography available an the topic, Going Live is a one-stop resource for getting started in digital reference services.

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Footnote

Rez. in: JASIST 55(2004) no.2, S.181-182 (J. Scholl): "The book is based an a doctoral thesis titled "Global opportunity and national political economy: The development of internet ventures in Germany," which was supervised by Razeen Sally and accepted at the International Relations Department of the London School of Economics & Political Science, UK, in 2002. Its primary audience, although it is certainly of interest to policy makers, trade press journalists, and industry practitioners, is the academic community, and, in particular, (international) policy, business, business history, information technology, and information science scholars. The book's self-stated purpose is to explain "why Europe, despite initiating a tremendous amount of change ... failed to produce independent internet ventures of note" (p. 1) in contrast to the United States, where Internet start-ups such as Amazon.com, eBay, E*trade, and Yahoo managed to survive the notorious dot.com shakeout of 200I-2002. A few pages down, the objective is restated as "to explore the hypothesis of a global opportunity for technology innovation delivered via the internet and to explain Europe's entrepreneurial response" (p. 4). As a proxy case for Europe, the study provides a broad account of the changing legal and socioeconomic setting during the phase of early Internet adoption and development in Germany throughout the 1990s. The author highlights and details various facets of the entrepreneurial opportunity and compares the German case in some detail to corresponding developments in Sweden. Waesche concludes that starting an Internet business in Germany during that particular period of time was a "wrong country, wrong time" (p. I86) proposition.
With both context and topic richly introduced, Waesche presents his research in two parts, the first of which outlines what he calls the Global Opportunity while the second details the National Political Economy. In the first part, the rapid global diffusion of the Internet is discussed with a special emphasis an the role of the U.S. government, which significantly fostered the fast pace of growth. Designed as the unifying network of networks, the Internet addressed the specific need of interconnectivity regardless of existing network topology, architecture, speed, or vendor provenience, which was in high demand by the military, the educational, and the commercial sectors in the United States. The U.S. government-sponsored Internet architecture managed to supplant the rivaling European OSl/ISO network standardization attempts both domestically and globally due to a number of compelling technical, cost, and performance advantages. In the United States, those advantages were systematically leveraged further through the timely commercialization of the Internet, also backed by an earlier, well-crafted policy of telecommunications deregulation followed by deliberate tax exempts for Internet sales. While U.S. policy makers heavily relied an unleashing the forces of the market economy and an industry self-regulatinn for securing the success of the Internet, European policy makers were still entrenched in a tradition of regulating and standardizing before the nascent technology Gould have even demonstrated its full potential and impacts an both the economy and society at large. As a result, Internet-related infrastructures and services thrived rapidly in the United States, while they lagged behind in Europe and other parts of the world. However, as Waesche demonstrates, beyond those differing principles in policy making, when European legislators finally embarked an widespread deregulation of telecommunications, the impact of those policy changes came too late in order to establish a flourishing European Internet startup sector which Gould match its US competitors in agility, size, and global reach.
In the second part of his book, Waesche discusses the Gerrnan case in further detail. As he outlines, in this country, due to a tradition of "corporatist" and consensual decision making, entrepreneurial activity typically relies an proactive governmental policy making for setting detailed rules of the road. When in the course of the European Union's integration process national, government-controlled or -owned Post, Telephone, & Telegraph (PTT) monopolies were ordered to be dismantled and deregulated, the German federal government, as the owner of the largest PTT an the continent, opted in favor of a relatively slow and phased approach to privatization and dissection that spun over the major part of the 1990s, coinciding with the global rise of the Internet. Since the PTT managed to maintain its full control over the last mile into the new millennium, it was in a position to stifle the proliferation of the Internet via drastically increased fees for metered local calls. At that time, flat rates for Internet access were not available. To make the prospects for rapid growth even worse, the PTT, as the owner of German cable TV networks, decided to bar those networks from Internet access too. Other providers of physical network infrastructures appeared late an the scene, and play a minor role even today. Hence, accessing the Internet as a consumer or as a small-to-medium business was confined to phone lines with slow connection speeds at a prohibitively high price. As a result, the Internet had a very slow start in Germany. However, German Internet entrepreneurship was not only curtailed by weak demand, but also through insufficient capital supply. Unlike their U.S. counterparts, German Internet entrepreneurs had little or no access to a well-established and technology-savvy venture capitalist community for the most part of the 1990s. They instead had to resort to traditional instruments such as bank loans and self-financing, such that German Internet startups were undercapitalized and not geared for rapid growth. When the Neuer Markt (designed as a German NASDAQ equivalent) finally started providing capital to German Internet firms, it was rather late for helping German startups expand to a global reach. While U.S. Internet startups enjoyed a deregulated as well as an innovation- and technology-friendly domestic environment that readily provided sufficient capital supply and fostered a rapidly growing demand base, German startups had to fight an uphill battle in many respects. The domestic demand base had been artificially curtailed, deregulation had not fully unfolded, capital supply was initially weak, and a widespread mentality of embracing technological and social change was mostly absent in the German society of the 1990s. Unsurprisingly, quite a few U.S. Internet startups managed to grow into a global presence, with the strongest surviving the inevitable shakeout, while global players from Germany are missing.
Assessing the book's academic contribution presents a challenging task, which would have been easier to perform had the purpose been stated more precisely. To the business historian the study casts some light an a relatively short period of time (basically the years 1995 to 1998) of German technology-related policy making, its short-term effects, and the fate of a special breed of entrepreneurial activity during that period of time. The study demonstrates that German Start-ups could not help but miss a global opportunity should that opportunity have existed an a broad scale, at all (for example, why, globally speaking, are there only U.S. survivors of the first wave of "pure" Internet businesses? In other words, to what extent was the opportunity already a global one at that early stage?). The reviewer tends to be skeptical regarding that conjecture. Today, the New Economy euphoria has vanished in favor of a more realistic perspective that acknowledges the tremendous long-term potential of an increasingly global economy with the Internet as an important backbone of this development. In fact, meanwhile it has become undeniable that so-called Old Economy organizations (including governments) were relatively quick an their feet in embracing and even driving the new technological opportunities, therefore contributing to the global change and opportunity decisively more than all first and second-wave Internet startups taken together. Rather than Old versus New Economy, the Internet has challenged almost every organization around the world to change the old way in favor of a new, Internet-related way of doing business. In that regard, the pure Internet entrepreneurial opportunity existed only for a short while when traditional businesses had difficulties to acknowledge the extent and immediacy of the opportunity/threat of a new business model. It is revealing, for example, that Amazon.com, in order to survive, had to divert from its original broker-type model to more traditional ways of retailing books, CDs, Computer equipment, etc., with most of the backend logistics not far from those of traditional players. A 2002 dissertation and a 2003 book should, it is felt, be more critically reflective in that regard rather than stick to a 1998 perspective of an assumed immediate and revolutionary change from brick-and-mortar-based business to a "clicks and cookies" economy.
Waesche sparsely Sketches out a theoretical framework for his study combining "network thinking," which he Claims to stand in the Schumpeterian research tradition, with classical institutional theory a la Max Weber. It is not clear, though, how this theory has guided his empirical research. No detailed hypotheses are presented, which would further clarify what was studied. Beyond the rudimentary framework, the author presents a concept of "refraction" denoting the "distorting effect national institutions have an a global innovation opportunity" (p. 17). Again, no hypotheses or measures for this concept are developed. No indication is given about which specific academic contribution was intended to be made and which particular gap of knowledge was attempted to be filled. Waesche's book would have greatly benefited from a more sharply posed and more detailed set of research questions. Instead we leam many details about the German situation in general and about the perceptions of individual players, particularly managerial personnel, in entrepreneurial Internet businesses in a specific Situation within a relatively short period of time. While many of those details are interesting in their own right, the reader is left wondering what the study's novelty is, what it specifically uncovered, what the frame of reference was, and what was finally learned. Contrary to its Claim and unlike a Chandlerian treatment of business history, the study does not explain, it rather just deseribes a particular historical situation. Consequently, the author refrains from presenting any new theory or prescriptive framework in his concluding remarks, but rather briefly revisits and summarizes the presening chapters. The study's empirical basis consists of two surveys with Sample sizes of 123 and 30 as well as a total of 68 interviews. The surveys and interviews were mostly completed between July of 1997 and November of 1999. Although descriptive statistics and detailed demographic information is provided in the appendix, the questionnaires and interview protocols are not included, making it difficult to follow the research undertaking. In summary, while undeniably a number of interesting and illustrative details regarding early Internet entrepreneurship in Germany are accounted for in Waesche's book, it would have provided a much stronger academic contribution had it developed a sound theory upfront and then empirically tested that theory. Alternatively the author could have singled out certain gaps in existing theory, and then attempted to fill those gaps by providing empirical evidence. In either case, he would have almost inevitably arrived at new insights directing to further study."

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Footnote

Rez. in: JASIST. 54(2003) no.9, S.908-909 (L. Ennis): "This is a timely and important addition to the growing body of work an libraries and digital collections. Both Deegan and Tanner bring a wide array of experience and knowledge to the work creating a valuable resource for librarians and digital collection managers. The book is the first in what the authors hope will become a series of volumes covering various issues of digital futures. Digital Futures: Strategies for the Information Age contains nine main chapters divided into sections, an introduction, a conclusion, a bibliography, a glossary, and an index. Each chapter begins with a quote or two and an introduction to help set the stage for the rest of the chapter. The first chapter, "Digital Futures in Current Context," outlines the myriad of changes in information technology from the past 50 years and the impact of those changes an libraries, library practices, and publishing. The book is written for people with little or no prior knowledge of information technology, so technologically savvy readers may find the first chapter a little elementary. For instance, the chapter includes a good bit of the history and workings of the Internet and World Wide Web. However, without the chapter included in the text, the work world lack a real starting point for the narrative and possibly alienate readers just starting their voyage into information science. The second chapter, "Why Digitize?" discusses why libraries and librarians should consider digital projects as a means of providing access. While the concentration is an the benefits of digital projects, the authors are also careful to point out various pitfalls and stumbling blocks to creating, managing, and preserving a digital collection. To help demonstrate their point, the authors include examples of a number of active projects covering newspapers, photo collections, books, and periodicals, and provide URLs so readers can visit the projects an their own. This chapter gives the reader a good overview of the various issues surrounding digitization as well as practical examples. While the first two chapters are a good introduction to the subject and examine theoretical issues, the next two chapters begin take an more practical issues. In Chapter Three, "Developing Collections in the Digital World," and four, "The Economic Factors," the authors explore how digital collections work with traditional library collecfions and how collection development for digital resources differs from collection development of non-digital resources. One of the most interesting topics of these chapters covers the issues surrounding serials using JSTOR and Project MUSE as examples. E-books and their impact an libraries is also discussed. The remaining chapters are by far the most timely and important parts of the work. Chapter Five, "Resource Discovery, Description and Use," examines the growing area of metadata and its importance for libraries and librarians. The chapter begins with a look at how the World Wide Web works and the problems with search engines and then evolves into a discussion of what metadata is, the types of metadata, and metadata creation. The authors explain that one of the biggest problems with the World Wide Web is that the construction and description of web pages is imprecise. The solution for bettering retrieval is metadata.
The most common definition for metadata is "data about data." What metadata does is provide schemes for describing, organizing, exchanging, and receiving information over networks. The authors explain how metadata is used to describe resources by tagging item attributes like author, title, creation date, key words, file formats, compression, etc. The most well known scheme is MARC, but other schemes are developing for creating and managing digital collections, such as XML, TEI, EAD, and Dublin Core. The authors also do a good job of describing the difference between metadata and mark-up languages like HTML. The next two chapters discuss developing, designing, and providing access to a digital collection. In Chapter Six, "Developing and Designing Systems for Sharing Digital Resources," the authors examine a number of issues related to designing a shared collection. For instance, one issue the authors examine is interoperability. The authors stress that when designing a digital collection the creators should take care to ensure that their collection is "managed in such a way as to maximize opportunities for exchange and reuse of information, whether internally or externally" (p. 140). As a complement to Chapter Six, Chapter Seven, "Portals and Personalization: Mechanisms for End-user Access," focuses an the other end of the process; how the collection is used once it is made available. The majority of this chapter concentrates an the use of portals or gateways to digital collections. One example the authors use is MyLibrary@NCState, which provides the university community with a flexible user-drive customizable portal that allows user to access remote and local resources. The work logically concludes with a chapter an preservation and a chapter an the evolving role of librarians. Chapter Eight, "Preservation," is a thought-provoking discussion an preserving digital data and digitization as a preservation technique. The authors do a good job of relaying the complexity of preservation issues in a digital world in a single chapter. While the authors do not answer their questions, they definitely provide the reader wich some things to ponder. The final chapter, "Digital Librarians: New Roles for the Information Age," outlines where the authors believe librarianship is headed. Throughout the work they stress the role of the librarian in the digital world, but Chapter Nine really brings the point home. As the authors stress, librarians have always managed information and as experienced leaders in the information field, librarians are uniquely suited to take the digital bull by the horns. Also, the role of the librarian and what librarians can do is growing and evolving. The authors suggest that librarians are likely to move into rotes such as knowledge mediator, information architect, hybrid librarian-who brings resources and technologies together, and knowledge preserver. While these librarians must have the technical skills to cope with new technologies, the authors also state that management skills and subject skills will prove equally important.

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Abstract

There is a great challenge for librarians to keep up-to-date with how best to use the Internet. This book helps them achieve that goal. Covers for example: how to search in order to achieve the best results (strategies, what to ask and examples) and interpreting results (including examples). Not only does the book show how to use the Internet, but it also links this to perfect customer service - how to teach your customers what you know and how to properly interpret what your customers want.

Content

Key Features - Helps a librarian deliver perfect customer service with confidence - Provides practical tips and hints; is pragmatic rather than technical - Is written by a highly respected and experienced practitioner The Author Jeanne Froidevaux Müller is a frequent contributor to the respected magazine Managing Information; the author was, from 1992-2002, head of the library at the Swiss Cancer League. Jeanne is currently based at the public library of Thun, Switzerland. Readership The book is aimed at all librarians and informational professionals: in the academic, public and private sectors. It will be of interest to both large and small libraries. Contents Introduction Basis of confidence - the Internet as a tool and not something to be afraid of Data - Information - Knowledge How to search - simple strategies; what to ask; examples Interpreting results-including examples Maintaining a link list an your browser How to teach your customers what you know and how to know what your customers want Perfect customer service