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Value co‐creation as a research topic has been a critical proposition of interest to a wide range of disciplines. In recent years, the field of cultural heritage has also developed a range of information practices to promote different forms of value co‐creation. While the body of literature has begun to accumulate, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of conceptual foundations and how value co‐creation is implemented in cultural heritage information practices. This paper conducted a hermeneutic literature review to understand and conceptualize the core aspects of value co‐creation in various cultural heritage information works. In particular, this paper provides a research mapping of the genres of co‐creation in cultural heritage information practices, the actors, and the roles played by the stakeholders. Further, this review provides an overview of the dominant value co‐creation models in the cultural heritage field. It distills the drivers of value co‐creation and the core value consequences that arise from a process perspective. Finally, this paper puts forward a thematic, theoretical, and methodological agenda for future work based on these findings. The review contributes to the literature by proposing an integrated conceptual framework that summarizes the core elements of value co‐creation in cultural heritage information practices. The framework also serves as a call for action, providing a general understanding of the conceptual foundation for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzed top papers published in the field of Library and Information Science (LIS) published between 2009 and 2019 and included in the Web of Science (WoS) subject category "Information Science & Library Science". Data of the 501 top papers were extracted from the Essential Science Indicators (ESI) database comprising 499 highly cited papers and 16 hot papers in the field. The distributions of document type, language of publication, scientific output, and publication of journals are reported in this paper. The co-authorship network visualization of authors, organizations and countries, co-occurrence network visualization of all keywords are visualized using VOSviewer software. The 501 papers, all written in English language, were from 1,579 authors employed at 680 organizations based in 59 countries/territories. The papers were published in 40 journals in the field. The top 5 core journals ranked based on the impact factor (IF) were MIS Quarterly, Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, International Journal of Information Management, Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, and Information Management. The top 5 organizations were University of Maryland (USA), University of Wolverhampton (UK), Vanderbilt University (USA), Indiana University (USA), and Wuhan University (China). Authors from the following countries contributed the most - USA, People's Republic of China, England, Canada and Netherlands. Based on network map using VOSviewer, there were micro, meso and macro level collaborations based on common interests in a specific topics. Analysis of all keywords showed that the research were distributed into 6 clusters. This study concludes that one important characteristic of top papers is the journal reputation, therefore authors can choose their ideal journal with a high JIF and quartile to publish papers in the English language related to this research field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Main path analysis is a popular method for extracting the scientific backbone from the citation network of a research domain. Existing approaches ignored the semantic relationships between the citing and cited publications, resulting in several adverse issues, in terms of coherence of main paths and coverage of significant studies. This paper advocated the semantic main path network analysis approach to alleviate these issues based on citation function analysis. A wide variety of SciBERT‐based deep learning models were designed for identifying citation functions. Semantic citation networks were built by either including important citations, for example, extension, motivation, usage and similarity, or excluding incidental citations like background and future work. Semantic main path network was built by merging the top‐K main paths extracted from various time slices of semantic citation network. In addition, a three‐way framework was proposed for the quantitative evaluation of main path analysis results. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis on three research areas of computational linguistics demonstrated that, compared to semantics‐agnostic counterparts, different types of semantic main path networks provide complementary views of scientific knowledge flows. Combining them together, we obtained a more precise and comprehensive picture of domain evolution and uncover more coherent development pathways between scientific ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this opinion paper, we frame a discussion on paradigm shift(s) in the field of information. We believe that in this astonishing historical moment of new directions and new opportunities both the existing paradigms and conceptual models in the field of information can benefit from re‐examination to stay current with the times. We propose a framework articulating key narratives associated with the why, what, how, and who dimensions to discuss paradigm shift(s). The purpose of this opinion paper is to initiate dialogues on ground‐breaking ideas and innovative solutions as well as support research that addresses contemporary challenges in the field of information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the process of creating a better Field of Information Dreams, one that is inextricably interwoven with user needs and preferences in a digital world. The author highlights recent usage studies, suggests some effective assessment and usability approaches, and concludes with a discussion of the need for institutional research agenda.

ICT plays a very dynamic role in the field of research because of their eminent qualities like easy to access, download, current information access, or retrospective in nature, easily transfer of information etc. This research paper is an attempt to focuses on the use of ICT products and services by the research scholars. A survey was conducted in the academic year 2016-17 at Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU). It is based on the survey of 69 research scholars. The study put light on the overall proficiency in managing various e-resources and stresses its impact on research work. Further, the study identifies drawbacks due to lack of training and technical knowledge to use of ICT as major hindrances faced by the research scholars in MDU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to point out the increasing need to provide information professionals with a sound grounding in the technological aspects of their profession. Design/methodology/approach - The paper sets out by describing the sudden increase in volumes of information that confront our society, and then looks at how the younger generation approaches/uses this mass of information. It then analyses how the traditional functions of information professionals (presentation of material, reliable preservation of information, maintaining authenticity, and conservation) are handled in an electronic environment. Findings - The paper discovers that considerable technical knowledge and experience are required to carry out those same functions in an electronic environment and suggests a redefinition of information sciences as information engineering. Research limitations/implications - The paper recommends increasing the technology content in the training of information professionals such as archivists, records managers and librarians. Originality/value - The paper concludes with a radical assertion that the proper locus for such training is a school of engineering rather than a school of librarianship, information studies and/or archives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces, at a high level, the key topics relevant to continuous availability of IBM systems infrastructures. After defining terms and identifying what is encompassed in the scope of continuous availability of IBM system infrastructures, we explain the IT (information technology) life cycle of planning and execution through which an IT organization and its infrastructure pass to create and continuously improve the IT infrastructure. Throughout, we show how each of the subsequent papers in this issue, drawing on real-life deployments, technology developments, and research efforts, expands on important aspects of this introductory discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important problem in the area of homeland security is to identify abnormal or suspicious entities in large data sets. Although there are methods from data mining and social network analysis focusing on finding patterns or central nodes from networks or numerical data sets, there has been little work aimed at discovering abnormal instances in large complex semantic graphs, whose nodes are richly connected with many different types of links. In this paper, we describe a novel unsupervised framework to identify such instances. Besides discovering abnormal instances, we believe that to complete the process, a system has to also provide users with understandable explanations for its findings. Therefore, in the second part of the paper, we describe an explanation mechanism to automatically generate human-understandable explanations for the discovered results. To evaluate our discovery and explanation systems, we perform experiments on several different semantic graphs. The results show that our discovery system outperforms state-of-the-art unsupervised network algorithms used to analyze the 9/11 terrorist network and other graph-based outlier detection algorithms by a significant margin. Additionally, the human study we conducted demonstrates that our explanation system, which provides natural language explanations for the system's findings, allowed human subjects to perform complex data analysis in a much more efficient and accurate manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology mediated learning (TML) is gaining interest from both academic researchers and communication professionals as training with internet technology and web-based distance learning become increasingly popular. This paper investigates social norms, individual-level cultural orientation (collectivism), and affective commitment (internalization and identification) and studies their influences on the system users' (or learners') attitude toward sharing knowledge by email in the TML environment. An empirical test of the proposed model was conducted in the pilot test (71 = 155) and the main test (7 = 411). Theoretical and practical implications of these findings for TML, knowledge management, and e-collaboration are discussed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the changes in the way information management is taught at the Department of Applied Social Science (DASS) in the context of a fast-changing world situation. It looks at the way reflective learning is being incorporated in teaching and provides some details of projects and modules which incorporate reflective learning in teaching and learning programmes. Design/methodology/approach - The paper examines the changing global situation to which a university education needs to respond. It then focuses on the information field and gives details of the way in which some new projects and modules are being developed to meet new challenges. Findings - As this is ongoing work, a final analysis is not possible at this stage. External evaluation of the Quality Leaders Project (QLP) will provide further assessment of this approach and responses from employers and students will further inform the direction of this approach. Practical implications - The paper highlights the need for change in the teaching of information management. Changes in curricula and learning practices at universities and direct intervention through pilot projects can offer one solution. The experience gained has the potential of developing a new teaching model with lifelong learning at its core. Originality/value - This paper brings ideas and practices from teaching, learning and management to the information sector. It will be of interest to a number of professions: teaching, management, lifelong learning and information as well as political activists and organisations whose learning needs are largely ignored in the mainstream education systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the application of post-structuralist theory to understanding hypertext and the World Wide Web, and the challenge posed by digital information technology to the practices of the information profession. Design/methodology/approach - The method adopted is that of a critical study. Findings - The paper argues for the importance of post-structuralism for an understanding of the implications of digital information for the information management profession. Originality/value - Focuses on an epistemological gap between the traditional practices of the information profession, and the structure of the World Wide Web. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — To provide some theoretical considerations concerning information literacy so as to contribute to a theoretically informed point of departure for understanding information literacy and to argue that to be an information literate person is to have knowledge about information sources and that searching and using them is determined by an insight into how knowledge is socially organized in society. Design/methodology/approach — Using concepts from composition studies that deal with the question of what a writer needs to know in order to produce a text, the paper outlines some ideas and key concepts in order to show how these ideas and concepts are useful to our understanding of information literacy. To demonstrate how information-literacy is to have knowledge about information sources and that searching and using them is determined by an insight into how knowledge is socially organized in society, the paper takes a point of departure in Habermas' theory of the public sphere. Findings — Concludes that information seeking competence is a sociopolitical skill, like reading and writing skills, connected to human activity. Searching for documents in information systems is a complex and sociopolitical activity. As an expression of human activity we might say that searching for documents and reading and writing constitutes each other. The genre knowledge necessary in reading and writing does also apply when seeking information in systems of organized knowledge as the forms of information determine what can be expected and found in these systems. Information literacy covers, then, the ability to read society and its textually and genre-mediated structures. Information literacy represents an understanding of society and its textual mediation. Research limitations/implications — Locating an understanding of information literacy in a broader discursive framework requires us to rethink our hitherto concepts and understandings of information literacy as socio-political skills and not mere technical search skills Originality/value — Rarely is information literacy discussed and understood from social-theoretical perspectives. This article illuminates how an analysis of information literacy from the perspective of the theory of the public sphere can open up for an understanding of information literacy socio-political skills. Thus, the article has contributed with a new interpretation of information literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information systems researchers have a long tradition of drawing on theories from disciplines such as economics, computer science, psychology, and general management and using them in their own research. Because of this, the information systems field has become a rich tapestry of theoretical and conceptul foundations. As new theories are brought into the field, particularly theories that have become dominant in other areas, there may be a benefit in pausing to assess their use and contribution in an IS context. The purpose of this paper is to explore and critically evaluate use of the resource-based view of the firm (RBV) by IS researchers. The paper provides a brief review of resource-based theory and then suggests extensions to make the RBV more useful for empirical IS research. First, a typology of key IS resources is presented, and these are then described using six traditional resource attributes. Second, we emphasize the particular importance of looking at both resource complementarity and moderating factors when studying IS resource effects on firm performance. Finally, we discuss three considerations that IS researchers need to address when using the RBV empirically. Eight sets of propositions are advanced to help guide future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citation analysis was used to measure the impact of GESAMP, the Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection, which since 1969 has published reports for the United Nations and seven of its agencies. Web of Science was used to search for citations to 114 publications, of which 15 are journal articles or books. Citations to grey literature can be difficult to locate and interpret, but two-thirds of the 1436 citations, in 1178 citing papers, are to grey literature items. The distribution of citations and self-citation are examined. Journal versions were cited more than corresponding reports. Core journals for GESAMP citations include seven environmental science journals and a social science journal. This paper confirms that citation searching can successfully measure the impact of organizations producing grey literature. Such publications can be very influential, diffusing widely from their source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homeless persons lack economic capital, but it is less clear whether they concomitantly lack important information capital. The basic information needed by the homeless is not available on the Internet as this is information controlled by governmental social services agencies, but does this result in a state of information poverty? This paper examines the issues of how the lack of access to information technology does not affect how the homeless access basic-needs-level information. The study investigates the information needs of the homeless, information sources, and information-seeking behaviours within the analytical constructs of information outsiders and insiders and the theory of information poverty posed by Chatman (1996). The study explores the differences in information seeking pursuits based on whether the catalyst for the search is internally or externally motivated. Finally, the paper speculates on whether making basic level needs information available via the Internet would be useful and/or used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citation based metrics are widely used to assess the impact of research published in journals. This paper presents the results of a research study to verify the accuracy of data and calculations of journal impact metrics presented in Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus in the case of three journals of information and library science. Data collected from the websites of journals were compared with that of two citation extended databases. The study manually calculated the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) and the Impact per Publication (IPP) in accordance with formulas given in the databases. Data were also collected from the Google Scholar to draw a comparison. The study found discrepancies in two sets of data and bibliometric values, i.e., systematic values presented in WoS and Scopus and calculated in this study. Commercial databases presented inflated measures based on fabricated or erroneous data. The study is of practical importance to researchers, universities and research financing bodies that consider these bibliometric indicators as a good tool for measuring performance, assessment, and evaluation of research quality as well as researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is about a new method for managing the information, respecting material characteristics in the near infrared light. Common ground has been created with the visual and near infrared component of the sunlight as a new manner of researching, interpreting and managing colours and dyes. Until set theory named INFRAREDESIGN /1/, /2/ the „colour management technology" dealt only with the perfectionism explanation and interpretation of the relationship colours and dyes for visual feeling. The practice of using colorant matter characteristics is extended in such a way that a colorant is simultaneously designed for visual and infrared area. The discovery of INFRAREDESIGN encourages to make way for many new area of information science applied to painting, prints, military clothing, leather and textile design. Communication is extended to planning a double independent information on the same place as a double picture, i.e. two messages that are dependent on each other in the course of realization, but when trying to make a copy, the message in infrared is lost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managing emerging scientific, professional, and applied practice knowledge has become increasingly more important in the 21st century because economic and social connections in organizations are becoming more complex, associated with greater global connectivity. One approach to this growing complexity and emerging need involves the development of a technology-based knowledge management (KM) system. This paper describes one human service organization's attempt to implement and capture the complex knowledge needs and requirements for a knowledge management system. The implementation described is in the third year of a five year process. The challenges when incorporating such reorganization will be addressed. This case example also illustrates the complexities, possibilities, and lessons learned while implementing a knowledge management system within a school of social work and subsequently its capacity to be transferred to human service organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to describe the progress India has made in its move towards a knowledge-based economy with details of how the Indian Government has demonstrated its commitment to the development of fundamental pillars of knowledge sharing infrastructure, knowledge workers and a knowledge innovation system. Libraries are identified as key players in building an inclusive knowledge economy (KE) for a country. Design/methodology/approach - An empirical study of the initiatives taken by Government of India as well as premier institutions and non-governmental organisations in the area of information literacy, lifelong learning and knowledge repository development was undertaken. These are reviewed to report on the contribution each of them has made in the development of KE in India. Findings - The practice-based examples of how information and communication technology (ICT) projects are influencing contemporary Indian society and an account of government policies in regard to ICT implementation and development towards a KE are presented. The impediments in the process of KE in India are identified and recommendations are made. Originality/value - This is an attempt to bring together initiatives and projects initiated by the Government of India as well as other agencies aimed at developing a knowledge-based society which will ultimately lead to a KE in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the intellectual core of the information systems discipline? This study uses latent semantic analysis to examine a large body of published IS research in order to address this question. Specifically, the abstracts of all research papers over the time period from 1985 through 2006 published in three top IS research journals--MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, and Journal of Management Information Systems--were analyzed. This analysis identified five core research areas: (1) information technology and organizations; (2) IS development; (3) IT and individuals; (4) IT and markets; and (5) IT and groups. Over the time frame of our analysis, these core topics have remained quite stable. However, the specific research themes within each core area have evolved significantly, reflecting research that has focused less on technology development and more on the social context in which information technologies are designed and used. As such, this analysis demonstrates that the information systems academic discipline has maintained a relatively stable research identity that focuses on how IT systems are developed and how individuals, groups, organizations, and markets interact with IT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impact-targeted activities are rare but they may have a significant impact on the society. For example, isolated terrorism activities may lead to a disastrous event, threatening the national security. Similar issues can also be seen in many other areas. Therefore, it is important to identify such particular activities before they lead to having a significant impact to the world. However, it is challenging to mine impact-targeted activity patterns due to their imbalanced structure. This paper develops techniques for discovering such activity patterns. First, the complexities of mining imbalanced impact-targeted activities are analyzed. We then discuss strategies for constructing impact-targeted activity sequences. Algorithms are developed to mine frequent positive-impact-oriented (P → T¯) and negative-impact-oriented (P → T) activity patterns, sequential impact-contrasted activity patterns (P is frequently associated with both patterns P → T and P → T¯ in separated data sets), and sequential impact-reversed activity patterns (both P → T and PQ → T¯ are frequent). Activity impact modeling is also studied to quantify the pattern impact on business outcomes. Social security debt-related activity data is used to test the proposed approaches. The outcomes show that they are promising for information and security informatics (ISI) applications to identify impact-targeted activity patterns in imbalanced data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given a transportation network having source nodes with evacuees and destination nodes, we want to find a contraflow network configuration (that is, ideal direction for each edge) to minimize the evacuation time. Contraflow lane reversal is considered a potential remedy to reduce congestion during evacuations in the context of homeland security and natural disasters (for example, hurricanes). This problem is computationally challenging because of the very large search space and the expense of calculating the evacuation time on a given network. To our knowledge, this paper presents the first macroscopic approaches for the solution of a contraflow network reconfiguration incorporating road capacity constraints, multiple sources, congestion, and scalability. We formally define the contraflow problem based on graph theory and provide a framework of computational structure to classify our approaches. A Greedy heuristic is designed to produce high-quality solutions with significant performance. A Bottleneck Relief heuristic is developed to deal with large numbers of evacuees. We evaluate the proposed approaches both analytically and experimentally using real-world data sets. Experimental results show that our contraflow approaches can reduce the evacuation time by 40 percent or more. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we leverage network coding (NC) to reduce the bandwidth consumption for data broadcast (DB). We use the concept of mixing in a different way from the traditional NC. Traditional NC mixes all data items together. However, we mix each data item from only some data items according to the queried and stored data of receivers. Therefore, each receiver in our approach is required to receive fewer coded data to decode the required information, and the sender, thereby, is able to broadcast fewer data items. We formulate an optimization problem with integer-linear programming to minimize the bandwidth consumption in DB. We prove that the problem is NP-hard and design an approximation algorithm that can be implemented in the data server. In addition, we show that different mixings of data items lead to different decoding costs for receivers. We design an algorithm to optimally code the data items with the minimum decoding cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Checking data possession in networked information systems such as those related to critical infrastructures (power facilities, airports, data vaults, defense systems, and so forth) is a matter of crucial importance. Remote data possession checking protocols permit checking that a remote server can access an uncorrupted file in such a way that the verifier does not need to know beforehand the entire file that is being verified. Unfortunately, current protocols only allow a limited number of successive verifications or are impractical from the computational point of view. In this paper, we present a new remote data possession checking protocol such that 1) it allows an unlimited number of file integrity verifications and 2) its maximum running time can be chosen at set-up time and traded off against storage at the verifier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last three decades, research in Information Retrieval (IR) shows performance improvement when many sources of evidence are combined to produce a ranking of documents. Most current approaches assess document relevance by computing a single score which aggregates values of some attributes or criteria. They use analytic aggregation operators which either lead to a loss of valuable information, e.g., the min or lexicographic operators, or allow very bad scores on some criteria to be compensated with good ones, e.g., the weighted sum operator. Moreover, all these approaches do not handle imprecision of criterion scores. In this paper, we propose a multiple criteria framework using a new aggregation mechanism based on decision rules identifying positive and negative reasons for judging whether a document should get a better ranking than another. The resulting procedure also handles imprecision in criteria design. Experimental results are reported showing that the suggested method performs better than standard aggregation operators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. The concepts of "divergent" and "convergent" research fields are utilised to discuss the strategy of introducing "turns" in information science. Method. This is a discussion paper which uses conceptual analyses in combination with a discussion of research ideals. Analysis. Information science is a divergent research field which includes many subfields with diverse perspectives. They are influenced by different schools of thought and when "turns" are introduced, there will be many attempting to turn the field in different directions. Results. Different turns have various implications for the research field. The metaphor of "the turn" is highly flexible and the research field can be bent in many different ways and in a more or less fundamental manner. The situation of information science being a relatively small research field, including many subdisciplines and perspectives serves as a setting for a divergent field with many turns in different directions. However, several ideas that address a more fundamental turn, that would make the field more convergent, is discussed in the article. Conclusions. An image of a stronger more convergent research field is often a hidden implication of a turn. Perhaps strategies of introducing different "turns" need to be connected to a position on what kind of research field information science should be. Do we want a field with many minor turns or do we want to move over to a more convergent research field and turn as one unit? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emerging discipline of community informatics (CI) has begun to trace out a distinct agenda for change in the social uses of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Focusing upon the appropriation of ICTs by local communities who have been disenfranchised by technological development, this agenda foregrounds uses of the Internet in the pursuit of distinctly community-related objectives. However, the role that the local state ought to play within this agenda for change remains marked by a degree of controversy and ambiguity. Assertions of the need for community autonomy coexist uneasily with a recognition that the local state can help develop and sustain CI. Much current work therefore focuses upon exploring notions of 'partnership' between the local state and local groups in developing CI. Against this background, this paper draws on a case study of Birmingham City Council (BCC) in order to explore a series of significant organizational changes to local government, which have seen BCC adopt a fundamentally new 'community leadership' role. This shift to community leadership is being expedited by innovative uses of Internet technology. It is argued that, rather than straightforwardly re-creating BCC as a better partner to community groups in developing CI, such changes are deeply paradoxical. In the first instance shifts to community leadership have enabled BCC to develop valuable web resources that enhance their role as a partner facilitating citizen-led CI. Conversely, however, these changes are bound up in a broader attempt by BCC to reassert managerial control at a time when its legitimacy as a social institution is being questioned. Faced with a series of external challenges, BCC has replicated important CI activities in the pursuit of its own interests. Ultimately it is argued that this assimilation of CI could eventually undermine the broader CI agenda for change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests the 'leap-frog' hypothesis by modeling the impact of existing telecommunications infrastructure, controlling for economic, political and demographic factors, on changes in information communication technology (ICT) access for over 200 countries between 1995 and 2005. This study has significantly greater coverage than previous research, in terms of both time frame and country cases. First, the analysis demonstrates that in the first decade of the information society successful leap-frog countries are few and far between. Second, the relative distribution of personal computers, internet hosts and secure servers among the nations of the world has barely improved over the last decade. Third, contrary to received wisdom, most of the countries that might qualify as successful leap-frog countries are actually among the wealthiest in the world. Finally, while policy reform in the telecommunications sector can sometimes speed the diffusion of digital communication tools, the record of market reforms is mixed, and the overall effect of economic wealth is still paramount. In sum, a few poor countries have leapt ahead in the development of a few aspects of ICT infrastructure and use, but these relatively rare successes are more likely to be due to economic productivity than to privatization, regulatory separation and depoliticization, or market liberalization in the telecommunications sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many applications require a randomized ordering of input data. Examples include algorithms for online aggregation, data mining, and various randomized algorithms. Most existing work seems to assume that accessing the records from a large database in a randomized order is not a difficult problem. However, it turns out to be extremely difficult in practice. Using existing methods, randomization is either extremely expensive at the front end (as data are loaded), or at the back end (as data are queried). This paper presents a simple file structure which supports both efficient, online random shuffling of a large database, as well as efficient online sampling or randomization Of the database when it is queried. The key innovation of our method is the introduction of a small degree of carefully controlled, rigorously monitored nonrandomness into the file. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This philosophical essay aims to explore the concept of information science. Design/methodology/approach - The philosophical argumentation is composed of five phases. It is based on clarifying the meanings of its basic concept ‘data’, ‘information’ and ‘knowledge’. Findings - The study suggests that the name of the field ‘information science’ should be changed to ‘knowledge science’. Originality/value - The paper offers reflections on the explored phenomena of information science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An investigation of the development of Australian scientific and technological information (STI) service has been undertaken. It comprises a consideration of the characteristic and development of the services, which is the focus of this part of the paper, along with a broader examination of discipline formation in information management covered in Part II. This first part of the study provides an historical overview of the development of several of the services that were established in the 1970s. Specific reference is made to Australian Agriculture and Natural Resources Online (AANRO), the Australian Medical Index (AMI), Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Information (ANSTI) Australian Transport Index (ATRI), AusGeoref and its forerunner AESIS, and the Australian engineering database (ENGINE). The account includes a summary of the policy environment that influenced the development of database and which supported the original STI services. Some observations are made about STI publishing output from Australia, the way it is reported and how appropriate reporting and how appropriate reporting and documentation of that output might continue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors propose a convergent model for information literacy (IL) based on complementary proficiencies in research and web literacy. Within this integrated framework, information technology (IT) is an essential dynamic in IL instruction. This model was designed, implemented and tested in an upper-level discipline-specific undergraduate information science (IS) course that requires students to develop research-oriented web pages. This study finds that student familiarity with IL and IT increased in this course. In addition, students who indicated a familiarity with certain web design terms also reported a familiarity with certain IL terms. A factor analysis of survey data indicates that a correlation may exist between research and web design in the development of comprehensive IL knowledge. This paper identifies three dimensions of IL and IT: web environment knowledge, web development knowledge, and research skills. This model is portable to other courses, programs, and organizations engaged in IL and IT instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For pattern recognition, the weight of the feature index is very important and is usually used to measure the feature index's importance. The weight is usually divided into two types. One is determined by the knowledge and experience of experts or individuals, and called subjective weight; the other is based on statistical properties and measurement data, and is called objective weight. In this paper, a new objective weight, information entropy weight (IEW) is defined and constructed based on information entropy and the practical background of the survey data. On the basis of gray relation analysis and IEW presented here, a new concept of information incidence degree (IID) is proposed. A new method of incidence pattern recognition based on IID is set up, and applied to soil nutrient data processing. The results of simulation application show that the method presented here is feasible and effective. It provides a new research approach for information pattern recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we presented a framework for query refinement which is driven by user's information needs. Based on the analyses of the real web IR case studies we model the query refinement process as the process of decreasing query ambiguity with respect to the user's need. In the refinement process a user is provided with the query's neighborhood and the guidelines for changing the ambiguities of the query. The approach assumes the existence of a controlled vocabulary, which is used for describing the content of information resources. We model the queries (query-answering pairs), ambiguities and refinements formally. The partial ordering of the query-answering pairs in the searching space represents the mathematical lattice structure, so that formal concept analysis is used as the mathematical backbone of the query refinement process. We present a case study related to the searching in MEDLINE, which shows the benefits of using our approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent development of the network such as the Internet makes it easy to retrieve documents over the World Wide Web (WWW). Document retrieval with search engines is convenient, especially to retrieve documents for a domain with which a user is not so familiar, since the retrieved documents can be used to get a gross overview of the domain as a preliminary investigation. However, when inappropriate query terms are used, it often results in retrieving too many documents and the retrieved documents have to be scanned by the user him/herself to find out truly valuable ones. This paper proposes a document retrieval support system to reduce such "dual" retrieval by suggesting terms based on the relationship of relevant terms to the specified query terms. Semantic relations of terms are dealt with using a thesaurus and relevant terms for the terms are organized into a tree structure based on the relations defined in the thesaurus. Since the value of retrieved documents is intrinsically user-dependent, even when the same query terms are used, appropriate terms to facilitate document retrieval can vary depending on users. To realize personalization in term suggestion, the relationship of terms for the user is learned from a user-supplied case so that personalized terms can be suggested. A prototype system has been implemented and it is evaluated through experiments. The results of experiments are encouraging and show that it is worth following this path, especially for supporting users who are not yet familiar with the target domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, surfing on the net is not limited to the search of scientific information, indeed a generic user is interested in different kinds of information about business, music, travel and so on. When accessing web documents, however, the lack of explicit structure does not facilitate in understanding data semantics, thus the comprehension of logical organization of web data relies on user's intuition of the underlying author's schema. In this paper, we present an approach to web structuring based on the analysis of the structure and the semantics of both web pages and sites, in order to discover and provide users with hidden schemas. Aimed benefits from this work are to facilitate the navigation inside web documents/sites, to promote the use of more powerful, semantic-based search methods and to allow better pages/sites management and re-design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an alternative view of the Information Systems identity crisis described recently by Benbasat and Zmud (2003). We agree with many of their observations, but we are concerned with their prescription for IS research. We critique their discussion of errors of inclusion and exclusion in IS research and highlight the potential misinterpretations that are possible from a literal reading of their comments. Our conclusion is that following Benbasat and Zmud's nomological net will result in a micro focus for IS research. The results of such a focus are potentially dangerous for the field. They could result in the elimination of IS from many academic programs. We present an alternative set of heuristics that can be used to assess what lies within the domain of IS scholarship. We argue that the IS community has a powerful story to tell about the transformational impact of information technology. We believe that a significant portion of our research should be macro studies of the impact of IT. It is important for academic colleagues, deans, and managers to understand the transformational power of the technology. As IS researchers with deep knowledge of the underlying artifact, we are best positioned to do such research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars in many disciplines have considered the antecedents and consequences of various forms of trust. This paper generates 11 propositions exploring the relationship between Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) and the trust an individual places in the inanimate technology (technology trust) and models the effect of those relationships on HRIS implementation success. Specifically, organizational, technological, and user factors are considered and modeled to generate a set of testable propositions that can subsequently be investigated in various organizational settings. Eleven propositions are offered suggesting that organizational trust, pooled interdependence, organizational community, organizational culture, technology adoption, technology utility, technology usability, socialization, sensitivity to privacy, and predisposition to trust influence an individual's level of trust in the HRIS technology (technology trust) and ultimately the success of an HRIS implementation process. A summary of the relationships between the key constructs in the model and recommendations for future research are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Common queries regarding information processing in ubiquitous computing are based on the location of physical objects. No matter whether it is the next printer, next restaurant, or a friend is searched for, a notion of distances between objects is required. A search for all objects in a certain geographic area requires the possibility to define spatial ranges and spatial inclusion of locations. In this paper, we discuss general properties of symbolic and geometric coordinates. Based on that, we present an overview of existing location models allowing for position, range, and nearest neighbor queries. The location models are classified according to their suitability with respect to the query processing and the involved modeling effort along with other requirements. Besides an overview of existing location models and approaches, the classification of location models with respect to application requirements can assist developers in their design decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The SensVest is an item of wearable technology that measures, records and transmits aspects of human physical performance such as heart rate, temperature and movement. The SensVest has been designed for use by science teachers and students to meet their requirements. This paper reports the stages undertaken to design the SensVest, from determining appropriate methods of assessing human performance, to considerations of mounting the technology on the body. Trials have shown that concessions need to be made with ease of use and cost to ensure that the data collected is reliable and usable, with an awareness of the sensors’ limitations. By designing the SensVest with the wearer in mind a system has been developed that is comfortable, does not inhibit normal performance and is wearable. User trials have shown that meaningful, reliable and useful data can be collected using the SensVest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Users’ personal information spaces are characterized by their content, organisation, and ongoing user interaction with them. They are fluid entities, evolving over time, and supporting multiple user activities that may require different perspectives of the same underlying information structure. Increasing storage capacity of computing devices and ready access to networked resources puts users at risk of information overload, and presents increasing challenges in organising and accessing their information. The hierarchical model of information organisation currently dominates personal computing, and is realised for the user in interfaces that help to manage and access filestore hierarchies. Such a model provides limited inherent support for what users do-carry out a range of interleaved activities over time. In this paper, we describe the TimeSpace system, which provides perspectives on a user’s information resources based on activities and temporal attributes of the information. TimeSpace can be used alongside, or in place of, existing systems and models (such as the Microsoft Windows hierarchical file model). User interaction with an information space is non-intrusively observed and then represented automatically in TimeSpace. Visualisations provide overviews of user activity on multiple projects and detailed views of activity within particular projects, allowing navigation forward and backward in time. An observational study of use of the system revealed positive user views of the utility of temporal, activity-oriented workspaces in real world contexts alongside existing tools. Participants appreciated being offered a different perspective on their electronic information collection, one that visually shows the composition and development of their information space. They were interested in using the system for current and long-term work as well as for archiving information, as the visualisations provide a context for their work and give an overview of all their work in progress. The ideas embodied by the system and its visualisations show promise and raise a number of issues for further exploration. In future work, these ideas will be adapted and extended to support users in managing their information spaces across multiple personal devices, locations and time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we describe the practical aspects of extracting and using a glossary for a selected technical domain. We first describe the existing glossary extraction process, as applied to general corpora, and examine its shortcomings in the technical support domain. Then we propose a number of enhancements to it, including focusing the glossary on a selected domain context, providing support for multidomain glossaries, and importing domain-specific dictionaries. We apply our focused-glossary approach to the IBM Technical Support corpus and incorporate resulting glossaries within the information search and delivery system used by IBM Technical Support. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by evaluating the quality of keywords and terms extracted from sample documents with the help of these glossaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present the architecture and describe the functionality of an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS), which uses an expert system to make decisions during the teaching process. The expert system uses neurules for knowledge representation of the pedagogical knowledge. Neurules are a type of hybrid rules integrating symbolic rules with neurocomputing. The expert system consists of three components: the user modelling unit, the pedagogical unit and the inference system. The pedagogical knowledge is distributed in a number of neurule bases within the user modelling and the pedagogical unit. Another important component of the ITS, for both its development and maintenance, is its knowledge management unit, which provides knowledge acquisition and knowledge update capabilities to the system, that is, offers expert knowledge authoring capabilities to the system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This is the first in the series of the papers on an application of the systems analytic approach to evaluation of information retrieval (IR). At the beginning, the importance of consistent terminology in information retrieval is discussed, and different definitions of “information retrieval” and “IR system” are presented. The importance of identifying boundaries of the IR system for clarifying terminological differences is discussed. The terminological problems in IR are summarized, and some of the existing approaches to their solution are identified. A historical overview of IR research is presented in order to explain the existing terminological differences and to create a common basis for a discussion of evaluation approaches to IR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops reliability as a measure of information systems (IS) success based on the critical success factors (CSF). This paper constructs the hierarchical configuration of CSFs using Rockart's data on CSFs of IS executives, and checks the applicability of this configuration by using Martin's data. The article then derives IS reliability from the CSF configuration.
Reliability is a quantifiable measure useful in the control and management of IS. It provides an early warning about the quality of the IS, and identifies the areas where the trouble lies. Reliability can be used to compare various information systems, and as the numerical example in this article demonstrates, this measure could be used extensively in cost/benefit analyses of competing IS investment projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although planning is a crucial information management issue, it must be seen as only one facet of an organization's complete program for information technology management. Attention in this article is first directed toward understanding the larger management context within which planning activities are likely to transpire. The paper then describes a view of planning appropriate for the 1990's and identifies contributions from the information technology (IT) planning literature likely to facilitate IT planning efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]