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Findings from informetric research represent an important background resource to add to the mix of information useful for resolving difficult and ongoing problems in specific library environments or information service settings. This paper provides examples of informetric research that can be useful input to decision-making in the field of library management and information service provision. This overview takes four of the challenges that Michael Buckland outlined for library research as a way of guiding the discussion of ways that informetric work can be used to inform library decision-making.' References are made to relevant informetric work undertaken or conducted in Australia, by Australian researchers, or with Australian data. Informetrics includes both quantitative and qualitative methods, which when used in combination can provide a rounded set of findings that has great validity for management, policy and service applications. Quantitative methodologies are generally based on bibliometric techniques, such as mining and analysis of data from various bibliographic and textual databases. Qualitative methods include survey, case study and historical approaches. Used in combination, each set of findings adds richness and other perspectives to an analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performance of the World Wide Web is evaluated as an information resource in a specific information domain. The theoretical framework underpinning this approach recognises the contribution of information-seeking behaviour from the discipline of information science and models of information systems success from the discipline of information systems in explaining World Wide Web usage as an information resource. A model integrating the construct of uncertainty and the task-technology fit model is presented. A questionnaire-based empirical study is used to test this integrated approach. Our results confirm that richer models representing the broad context of World Wide Web usage are required to evaluate usage of the World Wide Web as an information resource. Usage for travel tasks, uncertainty reduction, the Web as an information resource, and mediation all have a significant impact on users' perception of performance, explaining 46 per cent of the variance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the use of the World Wide Web for international travel by integrating the construct of uncertainty in information seeking and the Task-Technology Fit Model. The author states that the evaluation and measurement of information provision through traditional media has been the domain of information science. Concepts of "information need" and "information seeking behavior" have been seminal in evaluating information services and user behavior when interfacing with traditional media. These two disciplines have now converged through Web technologies that utilize information and communication technologies to meet the information needs of the population at large. Evaluation of Web technologies as an information resource should bring together these two perspectives. In this article a model integrating information systems models of success and information science concepts of information seeking and uncertainty reduction is proposed. Specifically, the concept of "uncertainty" is integrated into the task-technology fit model to evaluate Web usage within the non-work domain of personal travel.