Library & Information Science Research最新文献

To solve the problem of information poverty, it is necessary to understand the factors influencing it. Past studies have examined information poverty from the perspectives of economic poverty and deficiency or deprivation. However, these studies do not fully explain the formulation of information poverty because they may overemphasize the economic and material side of information and neglect the social and communicative aspects. A quantitative study was conducted to examine how contextual factors (i.e., external situations, social relations, individual situations, and social interactions) affected the information poverty of ethnic villages in rural Southwest China. Research results showed that geographic locations, information assets, individual literacy, and individual psychology significantly influenced information poverty. Social norms and beliefs also affected information poverty; however, this influence was insignificant. These findings extend existing studies on information poverty and provide practical guidance for stakeholders (e.g., governments, libraries, and intellectual works) to alleviate information poverty.

Searches with learning intent typically require the users to interact with the searching environment and perform knowledge acquisition features such as scan, read, and process the online content to fulfill their information needs. To capture indicators from searching behaviors that could account for the knowledge gained during a Web search, a qualitative study was performed using the Concurrent Think-Aloud protocol to observe the mechanisms of transfer and map knowledge flows during 78 search sessions. Findings indicate evidence of transfer of learning in the form of sixteen online information searching strategy indicators. This research aids the understanding of how knowledge is gained during search sessions and how to identify behaviors that could indicate that learning has occurred, which could be used to represent knowledge gain on Web search engines. In this way, it can aid search engines to become not only better tools of searching, but also tools of learning.

Library and information science (LIS) provides only limited support for evidence-based decisions in the field of collaborative information behavior (CIB). In this study using the Web of Science and Library and Information Science and Technology Abstracts databases the researcher identified applied studies in LIS research on CIB, reviewed the studies' ability to provide scientifically proven support for practice, the general goals, and the basic methodological decisions upon which the studies were based. A mixed qualitative/quantitative approach was used, along with the content analysis method. The analysis showed that approximately 50% of the LIS studies on CIB were to some extent applied research, but only 8% concluded with specific recommendations verified during the research. Generally, they were development-oriented, exploratory, explanatory, and descriptive at the same time, synchronic, conducted without specifying the research setting, and based on survey techniques and elicited data. The results reveal the limitations of the potential of LIS research for CIB practice and thus indicate the possibilities of its development.

As the use of arts-involved and data visualization methods increases in information science, it is essential to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of various methods. An international lineup of information researchers shares their experiences using the participatory, visual elicitation technique Information World Mapping (IWM) in their work. The authors begin with an overview of IWM, detailing its origins and emerging directions. They summarize their application of IWM to describe information behaviors/practices across various locations, cultures, disciplines, and technology access environments. The authors conclude by discussing key questions and areas of exploration for IWM in information research, including cultural influences, changes in media and methods for data collection, power dynamics, and researcher positionality and reflexivity. Insights offer new possibilities for the next phase of IWM in information research, including challenges and areas for innovation.

The in-depth, narrative interview approach, its use as a storytelling vehicle, and its effectiveness in combination with other qualitative methods to elicit individuals' experiences and perspectives on the information behaviors which contribute to the social impact of gambling addiction is presented. This focus on the information behaviors of individuals affected by gambling allows them to speak out about a problem that is often side-lined, in part because it has been hidden and remains misunderstood in wider society. Collecting people's lived experiences supports a meaningful analysis of how people navigate information to respond to the problems associated with addiction, creating an understanding of social impact beyond the story of the numbers about addiction and offering policymakers a significant perspective to ameliorate marginalization of individuals.

The use of data mining modern technology in library management systems and information centers is of great importance. With the increasing availability of a large quantity of information, traditional tools and practices without wasting time and cost cannot respond to users accurately and quickly. The present study aims to analyze book circulation transactions and discover the user's book loan patterns to develop a recommender system. The data included 109,639 transactions and information from 8636 user records. Microsoft SQL Server and Matlab software were applied to analyze the data. Item-based collaborative filtering algorithms and decision tree methods were also applied. The results led to the extraction of rules for suggesting books to users. Analysis of the circulation data could be applied to address many issues like evaluation, collection acquisition policies, allocating funding for materials, and suggesting approaches to deselecting and allocating physical space for materials.

The culture surrounding authorship practices differs from discipline to discipline, with the potential for inconsistent terminology across disciplines to hamper comprehension in interdisciplinary conversations. To address this problem, an interdisciplinary corpus of research literature on the topic of questionable authorship practices was used to create a multidisciplinary thesaurus. This process used Evolutionary Concept Analysis (ECA) as mediated through MAXQDA. Problems of synonymy and polysemy are addressed using ECA which identifies and subsequently analyzes terms used to denote questionable authorship practices as well as their synonyms, relevant uses, attributes, references, antecedents, and consequences. The value is two-fold: first, this addresses the gap in the literature in terms of the identification, analysis, and organization of a set of interdisciplinary terms relating to questionable authorship practices; second, it presents a novel methodological approach to thesaurus construction from a multidisciplinary corpus through using ECA.

Animals, specially companion species, are an integral part of our daily homes and cities but have not been the focus of everyday information behavior research to date. The practice of incorporating animals into research is not straightforward because they do not share our language or norms. The question this research aims to answer is: how can the perspective of other animal subjects be incorporated in information behavior research? This preliminary study of four multispecies families, included humans, dogs, and cats in the research design, and a more-than-human perspective was used as a research paradigm, offering different ways of thinking about ethnography and phenomenology methods. Five methodological strategies (speaking for the animal, listening differently, walking and sensing, photography, and technological mediation) proved effective in making the role of animals in the information experience of multispecies family visible. The article concludes with a discussion of the methodological implications that emerge when a researcher claims to view humans as conjoined with other life forms and seeks to include animals in information behavior research.

The impact of social learning on disaster management has been widely studied. However, few studies have investigated the key attributes of social learning that impact the selection of preferred information sources about coastal cyclones. A mixed-methods approach was adopted to collect data by conducting 35 in-person interviews and a survey of 323 participants of Sundarban, a coastal region of West Bengal, India. Descriptive statistics helped to identify preferred information sources, whereas, structural equation modelling revealed four social learning attributes, namely Quality, Scale, Attachment with Place and Learning Process, having an impact on participants' information source preferences during a disaster. In-depth analysis of interview data suggested four indicators, i.e., Credibility, Availability, Accuracy and Frequency, that an individual considered when prioritizing within selected sources. The findings offer guidelines to officials for using the most useful sources and information dissemination approaches to inform vulnerable populations in the event of a disaster.