Search (8 results, page 1 of 1)

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Abstract

"Big Data" is on the covers of Science, Nature, the Economist, and Wired magazines, on the front pages of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. But despite the media hyperbole, as Christine Borgman points out in this examination of data and scholarly research, having the right data is usually better than having more data; little data can be just as valuable as big data. In many cases, there are no data -- because relevant data don't exist, cannot be found, or are not available. Moreover, data sharing is difficult, incentives to do so are minimal, and data practices vary widely across disciplines. Borgman, an often-cited authority on scholarly communication, argues that data have no value or meaning in isolation; they exist within a knowledge infrastructure -- an ecology of people, practices, technologies, institutions, material objects, and relationships. After laying out the premises of her investigation -- six "provocations" meant to inspire discussion about the uses of data in scholarship -- Borgman offers case studies of data practices in the sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities, and then considers the implications of her findings for scholarly practice and research policy. To manage and exploit data over the long term, Borgman argues, requires massive investment in knowledge infrastructures; at stake is the future of scholarship.

LCSH

Research / Methodology
Research / Data processing

Subject

Research / Methodology
Research / Data processing

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Footnote

Rez. in: Information Research, 9(3), review no. R129 (T.D. Wilson): "The first edition of this book was published ten years ago and rapidly become something of a classic in the field of information seeking behaviour. It is good to see the second edition which incorporates not only the work the author has done since 1993, but also related work by other researchers. Kuhlthau is one of the most cited authors in the field and her model of the information search process, involving stages in the search and associated feelings, has been used by others in a variety of contexts. However, what makes this book different (as was the case with the first edition) is the author's dedication to the field of practice and the book's sub-title demonstrates her commitment to the transfer of research. In Kuhlthau's case this is the practice of the school library media specialist, but her research has covered students of various ages as well as a wide range of occupational groups. Because the information search model is so well known, I shall concentrate in this review on the relationship between the research findings and practice. It is necessary, however, to begin with the search process model, because this is central. Briefly, the model proposes that the searcher goes through the stages of initiation, selection, exploration, formulation, collection and presentation, and, at each stage, experiences various feelings ranging from optimism and satisfaction to confusion and disappointment. Personally, I occasionally suffer despair, but perhaps that is too extreme for most!
It is important to understand the origins of Kuhlthau's ideas in the work of the educational theorists, Dewey, Kelly and Bruner. Putting the matter in a rather simplistic manner, Dewey identified stages of cognition, Kelly attached the idea of feelings being associated with cognitive stages, and Bruner added the notion of actions associated with both. We can see this framework underlying Kuhlthau's research in her description of the actions undertaken at different stages in the search process and the associated feelings. Central to the transfer of these ideas to practice is the notion of the 'Zone of Intervention' or the point at which an information seeker can proceed more effectively with assistance than without. Kuhlthau identifies five intervention zones, the first of which involves intervention by the information seeker him/herself. The remaining four involve interventions of different kinds, which the author distinguishes according to the level of mediation required: zone 2 involves the librarian as 'locater', i.e., providing the quick reference response; zone 3, as 'identifier', i.e., discovering potentially useful information resources, but taking no further interest in the user; zone 4 as 'advisor', i.e., not only identifying possibly helpful resources, but guiding the user through them, and zone 5 as 'counsellor', which might be seen as a more intensive version of the advisor, guiding not simply on the sources, but also on the overall process, through a continuing interaction with the user. Clearly, these processes can be used in workshops, conference presentations and the classroom to sensitise the practioner and the student to the range of helping strategies that ought to be made available to the information seeker. However, the author goes further, identifying a further set of strategies for intervening in the search process, which she describes as 'collaborating', 'continuing', 'choosing', 'charting', 'conversing' and 'composing'. 'Collaboration' clearly involves the participation of others - fellow students, work peers, fellow researchers, or whatever, in the search process; 'continuing' intervention is associated with information seeking that involves a succession of actions - the intermediary 'stays with' the searcher throughout the process, available as needed to support him/her; 'choosing', that is, enabling the information seeker to identify the available choices in any given situation; 'charting' involves presenting a graphic illustration of the overall process and locating the information seeker in that chart; 'conversing' is the encouragement of discussion about the problem(s), and 'composing' involves the librarian as counsellor in encouraging the information seeker to document his/her experience, perhaps by keeping a diary of the process.
Together with the zones of intervention, these ideas, and others set out in the book, provide a very powerful didactic mechanism for improving library and information service delivery. Of course, other things are necessary - the motivation to work in this way, and the availability resources to enable its accomplishment. Sadly, at least in the UK, many libraries today are too financially pressed to do much more than the minimum helpful intervention in the information seeking process. However, that should not serve as a stick with which to beat the author: not only has she performed work of genuine significance in the field of human information behaviour, she has demonstrated beyond question that the ideas that have emerged from her research have the capability to help to deliver more effective services." Auch unter: http://informationr.net/ir/reviews/revs129.html

LCSH

Library research
Library research / United States / Case studies

Subject

Library research
Library research / United States / Case studies

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Content

Enthält die Beiträge: Zins, C.: Knowledge map of information science: issues, principles, implications. - Lin, X., S. Aluker u. W. Zhu u.a.: Dynamic concept representation through a visual concept explorer. - Kohlbacher, F.: Knowledge organization(s) in Japan: empirical evidence from Japanese and western corporations. - Beghtol, C.: The global learning society and the iterative relationship between theory and practice in knowledge organization systems. - Tennis, J.T.: Function, purpose, predication, and context of information organization frameworks. - Doyle, A.: Naming and reclaiming knowledges in public intersections of landscapes and experience. - Qin, J., P. Creticos u. W.Y. Hsiao: Adaptive modeling of workforce domain knowledge. - Gnoli, C.: The meaning of facets in non-disciplinary classifications. - Loehrlein, A., E.K. Jacob u. S. Lee u.a.: Development of heuristics in a hybrid approach to faceted classification. - Thellefsen, M.: The dynamics of information representation and knowledge mediation. - LaBarre, K.: A multi faceted view: use of facet analysis in the practice of website organization and access. - Smiraglia, R.P.: Empiricism as the basis for metadata categorisation: expanding the case for instantiation with archival documents. - Bean, C.A.: Hierarchical relationships used in mapping between knowledge structures. - Friedman, A.: Concept mapping a measurable sign. - Naumis Pena, C.: Evaluation of educational thesauri. - Biagetti, M.T.: Indexing and scientific research needs. - Robert, C.A., A. Davis: Annotation and its application to information research in economic intelligence. - Mcllwaine, I.C., J.S. Mitchel: The new ecumenism: exploration of a DDC / UDC view of religion. - Hajdu Barát, A.: Usability and the user interfaces of classical information retrieval languages. - Eito Brun, R.: Uncovering hidden clues about geographic visualization in LCC. - Williamson, N.J.: Knowledge structures and the Internet progress and prospects. - Pajarillo, E.J.Y.: A classification scheme to determine medical necessity: a knowledge organization global learning application. - López-Huertas, M.J.: Thematic map of interdisciplinary domains based on their terminological representation: the gender studies. - Rodriguez Bravo, B.: The visibility of women in indexing languages. - Beall, J., D. Vizine-Goetz: Finding fiction: facilitating access to works of the imagination scattered by form and format. - Kwasnik, B.H., Y.L. Chun u. K. Crowston u.a.: Challenges in ceating a taxonomy of genres of digital documents. - Simon, J.: Interdisciplinary knowledge creation: using wikis in science. - Gabel, J.: Improving information retrieval of subjects through citation-analysis: a study. - Lee, H.L.: Navigating hierarchies vs. searching by keyword: two cultural perspectives. - Loehrlein, A., R. Martin u. E.L. Robertson: Integration of international standards in the domain of manufacturing enterprise. -
Dervos, D.A., A. Coleman: A common sense approach to defining data, information, and metadata. - Keränen, S.: Equivalence and focus of translation in multicultural thesaurus construction. - Dabbadie, M., J.M. Blancherie: Alexandria, a multilingual dictionary for knowledge management purposes. - Rosemblat, G., L. Graham: Cross-language search in a monolingual health information system: flexible designs and lexical processes. - Garcia Marco, F.J.: Understanding the categories and dynamics of multimedia information: a model for analysing multimedia information. - Afolabi, B., O. Thiery: Using users' expectations to adapt business intelligence systems. - Zimmermann, K., J. Mimkes u. H.U. Kamke: An ontology framework for e-learning in the knowledge society. - Jacob, E.K., H. Albrechtsen u. N. George: Empirical analysis and evaluation of a metadata scheme for representing pedagogical resources in a digital library for educators. - Breitenstein, M.: Global unity: Otto Neurath and the International Encyclopedia of United Science. - Andersen, J.: Social change, modernity and bibliography: bibliography as a document and a genre in the global learning society. - Miksa, S.D., WE. Moen u. G. Snyder u.a.: Metadata assistance of the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Record's four user tasks: a report on the MARC content designation utilization (MCDU) project. - Salaba, A., M.L. Zeng u. M. Zumer: Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Records. - Frâncu, V.: Subjects in FRBR and poly-hierarchical thesauri as possible knowledge organization tools. - Peschl, M.F.: Knowledge-oriented educational processes from knowledge transfer to collective knowledge creation and innovation. - Miller, S.J., M.J. Fox u. H.L. Lee u.a.: Great expectations: professionals' perceptions and knowledge organization curricula. - Pajarillo, E.J.Y.: A qualitative research on the use of knowledge organization in nursing information behavior.

Date

27.12.2008 11:22:36

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Date

22. 1.2017 17:12:50

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Abstract

Bibliometrics has moved well beyond the mere tracking of bibliographic citations. The web enables new ways to measure scholarly productivity and impact, making available tools and data that can reveal patterns of intellectual activity and impact that were previously invisible: mentions, acknowledgments, endorsements, downloads, recommendations, blog posts, tweets. This book describes recent theoretical and practical advances in metrics-based research, examining a variety of alternative metrics -- or "altmetrics" -- while also considering the ethical and cultural consequences of relying on metrics to assess the quality of scholarship. Once the domain of information scientists and mathematicians, bibliometrics is now a fast-growing, multidisciplinary field that ranges from webometrics to scientometrics to influmetrics. The contributors to Beyond Bibliometrics discuss the changing environment of scholarly publishing, the effects of open access and Web 2.0 on genres of discourse, novel analytic methods, and the emergence of next-generation metrics in a performance-conscious age.

Content

Inhalt: Scholars and scripts, spoors and scores / Blaise CroninHistory and evolution of (biblio)metrics / Nicola De Bellis -- The citation : from culture to infrastructure / Paul Wouters -- The data it is me! / Ronald E. Day -- The ethics of evaluative bibliometrics / Jonathan Furner -- Criteria for evaluating indicators / Yves Gingras -- Obliteration by incorporation / Katherine W. McCain -- A network approach to scholarly evaluation / Jevin D. West and Daril A. Vilhena -- Science visualization and discursive knowledge / Loet Leydesdorff -- Measuring interdisciplinarity / Vincent Larivière and Yves Gingras -- Bibliometric standards for evaluating research institutes in the natural sciences / Lutz Bornmann, Benjamin E. Bowman, Jonathan Bauer, Werner Marx, Hermann Schier and Margit Palzenberger -- Identifying and quantifying research strengths using market segmentation / Kevin W. Boyack and Richard Klavans -- Finding and recommending scholarly articles / Michael J. Kurtz and Edwin A. Henneken -- Altmetrics / Jason Priem -- Web impact measures for research assessment / Kayvan Kousha and Mike Thelwall -- Bibliographic references in Web 2.0 / Judit Bar-Illan, Hadas Shema and Mike Thelwall -- Readership metrics / Stefanie Haustein -- Evaluating the work of judges / Peter Hook -- Academic genealogy / Cassidy R. Sugimoto -- A publishing perspective on bibliometrics / Judith Kamalski, Andrew Plume and Mayur Amin -- Science metrics and science policy / Julia Lane, Mark Largent and Rebecca Rosen.

LCSH

Research / Evaluation / Statistical methods

Subject

Research / Evaluation / Statistical methods

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Abstract

Information management (IM) has exploded in importance in recent years and yet until now there has been no Reader to introduce students to the subject. This comprehensive international collection introduces you to the core topics and methodologies used in teaching IM, namely: information behaviour; environmental scanning and decision making; knowledge management; and information strategy. These peer-reviewed papers represent an elite selection from the respected "Information Research" journal, each carefully updated to take into account recent developments. This book is an essential introduction to IM for all students on courses in library and information science, IM, information systems, business information technology, business management, computer science and information technology; as well as for practitioners working in a wide range of organizations providing information services.

Footnote

Rez. in: JASIST 58(2007) no.4, S.607-608 (A.D. Petrou): "One small example of a tension in the book's chapters can be expressed as: What exactly falls under information management (IM) as a domain of study? Is it content and research about a traditional life cycle of information, or is it the latter and also any other important issue in information research, such as culture, virtual reality, and online behavior, and communities of practice? In chapter 13, T.D. Wilson states, "Information management is the management of the life cycle to the point of delivery to the information user" (p. 164), yet as he also recognizes, other aspects of information are now included as IM's study matter. On p. 163 of the same chapter, Wilson offers Figure 12.2, titled "The extended life cycle of information." The life cycle in this case includes the following information stages: acquisition, organization, storage, retrieval, access and lending, and dissemination. All of these six stages Wilson labels, inside the circle, as IM. The rest of the extended information life cycle is information use, which includes use, sharing, and application. Chapter 3's author, Gunilla Widen-Wulff, quoting Davenport (1994), states "effective IM is about helping people make effective use of the information, rather than the machines" (p. 31). Widen-Wulff, however, addresses IM from an information culture perspective. To review the book's critical content, IM definitions and research methodology and methods reported in chapters are critically summarized next. This will provide basic information for anyone interested in using the book as an information research reader.
The chapter by Wilson and Maceviciûtè should have been the first in the book, as it offers an informative, clearly laid out, research-based picture for IM. The chapter offers IM definitions, as mentioned earlier, and also covers a couple of major studies concerned with mapping diversity of content and topics studied in the IM field. RefViz, a visualization tool and an addition to EndNote, was used to map 462 articles published between 1999 and 2004 that had the term information management in their title. Figure 2.1 (Visualization of the IM literature), presents the map's 18 groups or clusters of documents. Two studies by Wilson also are presented. A study completed in 2004 covered the years 2000 to 2004 and reviewed five journals with articles about information activities. The 2004 study analyzed 190 articles from 383 authors. Wilson developed a number of categories about information activities as part of the 2000 and 2004 studies that indicate the scope of the articles analyzed and IM's diversity of subject matter. The remainder of the chapter presents comparative data between the 2000 and 2004 research studies. Joyce Kirk provides a hierarchy of five IM definitions. "IM as IT systems" and "information resource management" are two of these definitions. While it is difficult to clearly recognize any of the hierarchy statements as a definition for IM, what can be had from this hierarchy is the realization, as cviu te' and Wilson state in chapter 2, that IM "is used as an abbreviation for the management of IT, information systems management, management information systems, etc." (p. 20). Perhaps, the critical usefulness of the chapter resides not so much in that it offers any ready to apply definitions for IM but rather in that it provides an overall review about information. The latter can be helpful for a book intended as an information research reader and as an introduction to IM. WidenWulff examined 15 Finnish insurance businesses and developed scales for the measurement of open and closed organizations, and also presented learning organization attributes in different information environments. A 1999 study by Aiki Tibar about critical success factors (CSF) and information needs of successful Estonian companies is the centerpiece of the chapter. The study's findings are presented in relation to previous and more recent research on CSF. The study's methodology was qualitative in nature, involving semistructured interviews with managers and engineers from 25 of the most successful companies in Estonia; these companies were selected in a contest in 1998 as being included in the top 50 most successful companies. In terms of findings, IM was a CFS that was mentioned the most frequently.
Allen strikes a realistic note of the institutional importance of trust across teams of academics and administrators, and subsequently of the political behavior of academics and computer services administrators/ managers and the relation of the latter to information strategy formulation. Research was conducted at 12 university sites, information strategy process documents were analyzed, and 20 informants were interviewed at each site. The study's research focused on cross-case analysis (instead of an iterative approach to collection and analysis of data), research was longitudinal, and a grounded theory approach was employed. According to the author, findings confirm a similar position taken by Pettigrew (1977): "development of information strategy is the outcome of negotiated political relations" (p. 177). And for such negotiated political relations, the author concludes, trust is a necessary ingredient. It is important to reiterate that IM's scope requires a diversity of study methods and methodologies to address all issues involved. A multiplicity of information and IM definitions and the number of local and global issues that must be addressed, along with information's significance as resource and/or commodity in different types of organizations, necessitate diversity in information research. Each chapter has demonstrated a need to cover many aspects of IM and to ensure that there is as much clarity in that effort as possible, and yet differentiation of IM from other related fields such as KM clearly remains a top issue. As with any other effort to define a field's boundaries, the task at hand is not easy, but while definitions and boundaries are being worked out, there is always an opportunity to engage in fruitful discussions about scope and critical issues in information research."

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Date

22. 3.2008 12:26:32

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Abstract

Metadata research has emerged as a discipline cross-cutting many domains, focused on the provision of distributed descriptions (often called annotations) to Web resources or applications. Such associated descriptions are supposed to serve as a foundation for advanced services in many application areas, including search and location, personalization, federation of repositories and automated delivery of information. Indeed, the Semantic Web is in itself a concrete technological framework for ontology-based metadata. For example, Web-based social networking requires metadata describing people and their interrelations, and large databases with biological information use complex and detailed metadata schemas for more precise and informed search strategies. There is a wide diversity in the languages and idioms used for providing meta-descriptions, from simple structured text in metadata schemas to formal annotations using ontologies, and the technologies for storing, sharing and exploiting meta-descriptions are also diverse and evolve rapidly. In addition, there is a proliferation of schemas and standards related to metadata, resulting in a complex and moving technological landscape - hence, the need for specialized knowledge and skills in this area. The Handbook of Metadata, Semantics and Ontologies is intended as an authoritative reference for students, practitioners and researchers, serving as a roadmap for the variety of metadata schemas and ontologies available in a number of key domain areas, including culture, biology, education, healthcare, engineering and library science.