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Purpose: Effective use of data is critically important for the provision of health services. A large proportion of employees in health organisations work in non-clinical roles and play a major part in organisational information flows. However, their practice, data-related capabilities and learning needs have been rarely studied. The purpose of this paper is to investigate issues of capabilities and learning needs related to employees' interactions with data in non-clinical work roles. Design/methodology/approach: The study used a mixed-method approach. Qualitative methods were used to explore issues, and survey was administered to gather additional data. Findings: Data use and related capabilities at the workplace are highly contextual. A range of general, core and data-specific capabilities, underpinned by transferable skills and personal traits, enable successful interactions with data. Continuous learning is needed in most areas related to data use. Research limitations/implications: The study was conducted in a large public-health organisation in Australia, which is not representative of unique organisations elsewhere. The study has implications for the provision of health services, workplace learning and education. Practical implications: Findings have implications for organisational decisions related to data-use and workplace learning, and for formal education and lifelong learning. Originality/value: The study contributes to closing a research gap in understanding interactions with data, capabilities and learning needs of employees in non-clinical work roles. Capabilities continuum presented in this paper can be used to inform education, training and service provision. The workplace-based results contribute to theoretical considerations of capabilities required for work in technology-rich environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper reports findings from a research project about human information behaviour in the context of serious leisure. Various forms of information activities in this context have been identified and categorised to depict common patterns of information seeking, sharing, using and producing. Design/methodology/approach: The project adopted a qualitative approach in an interpretive paradigm using a thematic analysis method. Data-collection technique was semi-structured interview and 20 volunteers were recruited via a maximum variation sampling strategy. The collected data was transcribed and thematically analysed to identify the main concepts and categories. Findings: The participants have been experiencing six qualities of serious leisure during their long-term engagement with their hobbies or voluntary jobs and their experiences can be fully mapped onto the serious leisure perspective. The findings also confirmed serious leisure is a unique context in terms of the diversity of information activities embedded into a wide range of individual and collective actions in this context. Information seeking and sharing in serious leisure is not only a source of personal satisfaction for the participants, it also can provide them with a sense of purpose in a meaningful journey towards self-actualization and social inclusion. Research limitations/implications: The generalisability of the findings needs to be examined in wider populations. Nonetheless, the existing findings can be useful for follow-up research in the area. Practical implications: This study will be useful in both policy and practice levels. In the policy level, it will be beneficial for cultural policy makers to gain a better understanding about the nature of leisure activities. In the practice level, it will be helpful for serious leisure participants to understand the value of information seeking and sharing in their leisure endeavours. Also, information professionals can use it to enhance the quality of their services for the serious leisure participants who are usually among devoted patrons of libraries, museums, archives and galleries. Social implications: Learning about serious leisure can provide new insights on people preferences in terms of choosing different entertaining and recreational pursuits – such as indoor and outdoor hobbies – in their free time. Originality/value: The informational aspects of serious leisure is an emerging and evolving ground of research. This paper provides empirical evidence on this topic from a specific context in the regional areas in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to create a greater understanding of how people who are blind or vision impaired describe their use of audio-based reading technologies, with a particular focus on how they reason about whether the use of these technologies can be understood in terms of reading. Design/methodology/approach: The study is part of the emerging research area Critical Studies of Reading and draws theoretical inspiration from Document Theory, New Literacy Studies and Critical Disability Studies. The article presents a discourse analysis of how 16 university students in Australia who are blind or vision impaired and use audio-based reading technologies describe this use in semi-structured interviews. Findings: The participants relate to a division between 'real' reading and reading by listening, where the latter is constructed as an exception and is connected to the subject position of being blind or vision impaired. However, resistance is also noticeable, where reading by listening is constructed as something that is normal, and as a right. Originality/value: The article is a theoretical and empirical contribution to the ongoing discussion on the use of audio-based reading technologies. It presents perspectives from the users of these technologies and argues why a specific understanding of this use is important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present findings of an enquiry into the use and experience of information, in learning to become an ambulance officer. The paper aims to explore how the information environment is constituted for novice and experience practitioners. The paper also aims to consider what type of information is considered important by novice and experienced practitioners in learning about practice and profession. Design/methodology/approach - The study is approached from an information literacy (IL) perspective, where IL is viewed as the catalyst for learning about work and professional practice. It draws on constructivist-influenced grounded theory method to explore how an IL experience is constituted for the worker. Findings - Three modalities of information which inform practice are described. IL is illustrated as more than just an experience with text or skills-based literacy. It is viewed as socio-cultural practice which is shaped by discourse. Research limitations/implications - The research was limited to an in-depth exploration of one professional group in one geographic location. Practical implications - The study highlights the value of an IL approach to understanding how information is experienced in a workplace context. Originality/value - This paper reports original research of significance to information professionals and educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper seeks to address the question: do university web sites publish the same kind of information and use the same kind of hyperlinks year on year or do these change over time? Design/methodology/approach - A link classification exercise is used to identify temporal changes in the distribution of different types of academic web links changes, using the academic web spaces of the UK, Australia and New Zealand in the years 2000 and 2006. Findings - Significant increases in "research oriented", "social/leisure" and "superficial" links were identified as well as notable decreases in "technical" and "personal" links. Some of these changes identified may be explained by general changes in the management of university web sites and some by more wide-spread internet trends, e.g. dynamic pages, blogs and social networking. The increase in the proportion of research-oriented links is particularly hopeful for future link analysis research. Originality/value - This is an important issue from the perspective of interpreting the results of academic web analyses, because changes in link types over time would also force interpretations of link analyses to change over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problems that the great developments in digital information and the Internet are creating for copyright may be partly solved through new legislation as well as through the implementation of technological systems (generically known as ECMS) that help protect it. These two approaches - legal and technological - interact, as the new copyright laws protect these electronic measures through the prohibition of their circumvention. The contents of the three main legal norms that have regulated this area to date, the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the European Directive and the new Australian Copyright Act, are analysed in an attempt to determine what impact they might have on the traditional limitations and exceptions to copyright (fair use/dealing, private copying, library privileges) that benefit libraries, their users and the general public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]