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Introduction: This paper looks at the issue of inadequate and omitted citations in manuscripts by collecting the experiential opinions of researchers from the dual perspectives of manuscript reviewers and authors. Method: An online survey was conducted with participation from 207 respondents who had experience of reviewing and authoring research papers. Analysis: The collected data were analysed quantitatively. Descriptive and bivariate analyses were performed. Results: Reviewer and author groups opined that manuscript authors fail to cite seminal and topically-similar papers, while the reviewer group indicated that authors include too few papers and cite irrelevant papers. The lack of experience was perceived as a major reason for inadequate and omitted citations, followed by lack of overall research experience and working in interdisciplinary research projects. Authors needed external assistance in finding papers for a literature review. Google Scholar was the most used system among the list of information sources. Conclusions: The findings may benefit subsequent studies conducted to solve the issue of inadequate and omitted citations through process improvements and technological interventions. The findings helped in identifying three tasks for a literature review and manuscript writing assistive system. The usage preferences on information sources helped in shortlisting Google Scholar's user-interface as a basis for the user-interface design for the assistive system. [Paper presented at the Information Seeking in Context (ISIC): The Information Behaviour Conference, Part 1 (11th, Zadar, Croatia, September 20-23, 2016).]

Several comprehensive information literacy (IL) standards have been developed worldwide for use in the education sector, specifically for students and teachers. Apart from the more generic International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) IL standards, such standards are more appropriate for their countries of origins. If these standards are to be applied to schools in Southeast Asia, then some form of contextualization and customization is necessary to cater for gaps that surface due to their different and unique education environments and cultures. In addition, as a result of the growth of Web 2.0, information seeking moves rapidly in the social dimension. It is therefore timely to review ongoing research in the areas of collaborative information seeking and behavior, as well as education values in order to derive a set of up-to-date, relevant and holistic IL standards for schools. This paper proposes a model to help to develop IL standards for schools in Singapore that was constructed using the aforementioned standards as a guide, based on the paradigm of a popular information and technology literacy process model known as the Big6, and steered by related educational initiatives and education values that have been recently implemented in Singapore. The proposed model expounds each of the Big6 categories in terms of "Techniques" and "Tools", and supplements those categories with three important mindsets of "Ethics and Social Responsibility," "Collaborative Information Behavior," and "Attitudes and Perceptions." (Contains 3 figures and 2 tables.)

The key for students of today to become independent learners and knowledge workers of tomorrow lies in being information literate. However, existing information literacy (IL) teaching approaches have not always been successful in equipping students with these crucial skills to ensure deep erudition and long-lasting retention. Hence, sound pedagogical approaches become critical in IL education. This research hypothesizes that students grasp IL skills more effectively when their innate interests, such as that determined by their respective dominant intelligences, are stimulated and applied to their work. Consequently, they would produce work of better quality. To verify these postulations, an IL course was designed for students undertaking project work to equip them with the necessary IL skills, by using an established pedagogical approach--Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. Subsequently the quality of students' project work between the experimental and control groups were compared. It was found that the performance of students who had undergone IL training through the application of learning styles was superior in their project work. (Contains 8 tables.)

With rapid developments in information technology (IT) and the increasingly sophisticated abilities of IT users, schools have the inevitable task of integrating IT in their school curriculum. Owing to the prevalent use of educational technology in schools, it is often questioned whether information literacy (IL) is necessary in the school curriculum, especially when it is widely perceived that IT literacy is equivalent to IL. This article gives an overview of IT initiatives as well as IL strategies that have been implemented in Singapore schools and addresses the gaps that exist in the Singapore school education system in assimilating these two areas. On the basis of exploratory interviews with practitioners and academics in the area of education, several suggestions to bridge the gaps between IT and IL in the school curriculum are presented. These include compulsory IL training for all teachers; the revival of the now defunct School Libraries Unit within the Ministry of Education; the creation of the role of a full-time teacher librarian within each school; and the seamless integration of IT and IL training within the school curriculum. (Contains 1 table.)

Examines the interlibrary loan process used by libraries in Singapore and proposes that the existing paper-based manual system be replaced by a Web-based system. Presents an example of such a system that has been successfully designed and implemented at the Nanyang Technological University. (Author/LRW)

This research examines the information seeking and use behaviour of Filipino domestic workers (FDWs) in Singapore, who collectively make up around 40% of about 173,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in this city state. It is based on the premise that low-paid migrants are generally typecast as 'information poor', who are left with very common, limiting, and homogeneous information sources. The FDWs are drawn to their co-equals to form an information ground where they can exchange information serendipitously. A survey questionnaire was administered to 138 FDWs to learn about their information behaviour and problems encountered during information seeking. A 5-day ethnographic study in their off-work context supplemented the quantitative data. The study found that FDWs inadequately meet the requisites for digital and information literacy, which are indispensable yet lacking among many low-skilled migrants. Implications about public governance, education, and the pedagogical component of technology use through streamlined information dissemination are discussed to benefit these FDWs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to assess the information literacy (IL) and cyber-wellness skills of Secondary 3 (grade 9) students, age 14-15, in Singapore. The Ministry of Education in Singapore has introduced aspects of IL in schools through incorporating components into the syllabi of various subjects. A pilot-tested online survey, validated by IL experts from Canada, Hong Kong, Kuwait and Thailand, was used for data collection. The survey was taken by 2,458 students from 11 secondary schools in different geographical zones of Singapore. It was found that the use of school libraries and their resources was at a very low level. The majority of the students approached classmates and friends for help in solving their information-related problems. Only a small fraction consulted their school librarian. The overall IL assessment score showed that the students possessed a 'middle' level of IL skills which is better than previous (pre-curriculum integration) IL assessment studies in Singapore. As curriculum-embedded IL skills are taught by subject teachers, their level of preparedness could be a matter of concern. Similarly, fragmentation of IL concepts in different subject textbooks may cause co-ordination problems among teachers. This paper highlights the need for developing a roadmap for providing IL skills at different grade levels and in different subject areas. It is expected that the findings of this study will be useful to curriculum planners, teachers, schools librarians and others involved in IL education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The success of tourism firms relies heavily on their ability to adapt to the changing external environments. Environmental scanning, as the acquisition and use of information about external events and trends, has received greater attention in the tourism management literature. This study investigated the environmental scanning initiatives of travel agent companies in Singapore through a questionnaire survey. In total, 42 completed forms were returned from 319 invited firms. The findings discovered a positive relationship between the scanning frequency and the perceived strategic uncertainty of task environment. It was also found that human information sources were used most frequently for collecting environmental information due to their highest reliability, while electronic sources were under-utilized probably due to lack of computer-based information system and awareness toward the importance of online information. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Medical and healthcare literature is growing exponentially, and medical professionals, including nurses, need to possess basic literature searching skills to retrieve information for clinical decision making. This study aims to investigate the use of different medical information sources by nurses and their literature searching skills. Questionnaire survey was adopted for data collection and a total of 1,486 nurses from two public hospitals in Singapore participated in this study. It was found that human and printed sources were used more frequently by the nurse, as compared to online sources. For literature searching, nurses used basic search features, and only less than one-quarter of them were familiar with Boolean and proximity operators. The study suggests that hospital libraries should play an active role in improving literature searching skills of nurses which may subsequently result in increased use of electronic information sources, where more updated clinical research information may be found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Appropriately measuring information literacy (IL) skills is essential to understand their educational impact as well as exploring pedagogies to improve teaching of these skills. This paper reports findings of a baseline study to understand the IL level of secondary school students in Singapore. A comprehensive instrument encompassing a new dimension of ethical usage of information as well as major IL principles and guidelines was developed for data collection. A total of 298 responses were gathered through the online survey. The findings indicate that overall there was a scope to improve students' IL skills. That stated, higher order IL skills (such as information use, synthesis, and evaluation) demand more attention, as comparatively lower levels of proficiency were observed in this study [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to present the findings of a study that investigated the impact of information literacy (IL) teaching approaches, which are grounded in pedagogy, on students' level and applicability of IL competencies. Design/methodology/approach - A quasi-experimental control group study was carried out with 476 students, aged from 13 to 15 years old, from four secondary (high) schools in Singapore. The students were given a pre-intervention test in the beginning. Out of the 476 students, 279 students (from two schools) went through a mediated learning intervention programme, while the remaining 197 students went through a multiple intelligence intervention programme. Students were organised into smaller groups of five each, and were given a group project to do. Students in the experimental sub-clusters were exposed to the respective intervention approaches, while students in the control sub-clusters were left on their own to carry out the project. A post-intervention test was administered to all students at the end of the intervention programmes. Findings - The results of the group reports and project evaluation done by three independent and neutral teacher-examiners, as well as those from the pre- and post-intervention tests, found that the application of either mediated learning (or close coaching) or multiple intelligences helped students perform better in the learning and application of IL skills. Research limitations/implications The study managed to involve 476 students from four secondary (high) schools only. A larger number of students from more schools would have been more desirable. In addition, the inclusion of students from primary (elementary) schools and tertiary institutions would be useful in strengthening the findings. However, the study has sufficiently provided evidence that appropriate pedagogy is important in enhancing the learning and application of IL competencies amongst students. This could in turn yield initiatives on various aspects of IL-related research, such as in IL policy formulation, and IL pedagogy. Practical implications - The application of appropriate pedagogical approaches in teaching IL makes the learning and application of IL competencies more effective. Originality/value - Although it is widely accepted that IL competencies are useful in helping students perform better, both academically or otherwise, limited empirical evidence is available showing the relationship between IL education and IL competencies. The paper highlights the impact of appropriate pedagogy in imparting and entrenching IL competencies in students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With rapid developments in information technology (IT) and the increasingly sophisticated abilities of IT users, schools have the inevitable task of integrating IT in their school curriculum. Owing to the prevalent use of educational technology in schools, it is often questioned whether information literacy (IL) is necessary in the school curriculum, especially when it is widely perceived that IT literacy is equivalent to IL. This article gives an overview of IT initiatives as well as IL strategies that have been implemented in Singapore schools and addresses the gaps that exist in the Singapore school education system in assimilating these two areas. On the basis of exploratory interviews with practitioners and academics in the area of education, several suggestions to bridge the gaps between IT and IL in the school curriculum are presented. These include compulsory IL training for all teachers; the revival of the now defunct School Libraries Unit within the Ministry of Education; the creation of the role of a full-time teacher librarian within each school; and the seamless integration of IT and IL training within the school curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a first attempt to investigate eating patterns in children in Singapore in terms of frequency, sources and types of food, with specific emphasis on eating outside the home. Two sets of data were collected. A guided questionnaire was administered to adults accompanying the pre-school age children and young people at various eating outlets, hawker centres, food courts and fast food outlets. All 198 transcripts were usable. Overall, 19 per cent of those interviewed ate out five to seven times a week. The two most common reasons given for this were "convenience" (65, 33 per cent), and "nobody prepares home-cooked meals" (62, 31 per cent). "Convenience" was most common among pre-school (29, 48 per cent) and teenaged (27, 42 per cent) children, whereas "nobody cooks at home" (31, 43 per cent) was most common in school-age children. Few boys said that they ate fruit or vegetables. This picture is in keeping with the pattern among Singaporean adults and may contribute to the high rate of obesity that increases risk of adult diseases. Research is needed to confirm these findings and to investigate the social influences on eating patterns with a view to designing effective nutrition/health education that can effect behavioural change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper proposes an integrated Web-based inter-library loan (ILL) system to replace and enhance the existing manual-based ILL system used by Singapore libraries. It describes the system requirements that must be supported in order to make it a viable and acceptable solution to all participating libraries. Subsequently, it presents the client-server Web-based system architecture, database design and Java development platform that are used to implement the system. The new system exhibits a host of advantages over the manual system including the minimising of human resource by eliminating form-filling and other forms of paperwork completely, improving the access and speed of the ILL process by allowing participating libraries to update each other's databases directly, ensuring data integrity, simplifying status tracking and supporting instantaneous status and statistical reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between five domain-specific skills of health literacy: Find Health Information (FHI), Appraise Health Information (AHI), Understand Health Information to act (UHI), Actively Manage One's Health (AMH), and E-health literacy (e-Heals), and health information seeking behaviors and three categories of health outcomes.Methods: A survey was implemented and data was collected from 1062 college going adults and analyzed using bivariate tests and multiple regression analysis.Results: Among the five domain-specific Health Literacy skills, AHI and e-Heals were significantly associated with the use of traditional sources and the Internet for healthcare information respectively. Similarly and AMH and e-Heals were significantly associated with the use of traditional sources and the Internet for health lifestyle information respectively. Lastly AHI, AMH and e-Heals were significantly associated with the three categories of outcomes, and AFH was significantly associated with cognitive and instrumental outcomes, but not doctor-patient communication outcomes.Conclusion: Consumers' ability to use different health sources for both healthcare and health lifestyle information, and the three categories of health outcomes are associated with different domain-specific health literacy skills.Practice Implications: Health literacy initiatives may be improved by focusing on clients to develop domain-specific skills that increase the likelihood of using health information sources and accrue benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]