3,122 research outputs found
Publication productivity of Malaysian authors and institutions in LIS
No full textThe paper attempted to provide a “picture” of Malaysian LIS research and publications. The study aimed to show (a) the total number and spread of publications produced by Malaysian authors; (b) the active authors; (c) the authorship pattern; (d) the affiliation status of the authors; (e) the main channels used to publish; and (f) the subject covered by the published works. The study confined its scope to the publications produced between 1965 and 2005 by Malaysian authors published in Malaysia as well as abroad. Bibliometric techniques and regression analysis were employed as the measuring instrument. The data was collected from seven online databases and seven well established library OPACs, which are expected to hold earlier and current LIS publications. A bibliometric toolbox was used to feed in text files which provided brief summaries of ranked results, a bibliograph and minimal Bradford zonal analysis. The subject categorization used by Gorman and Corbit’s Model of core competencies for LIS was used to categorized entries by subjects. The results indicated that (a) Malaysian LIS authors preferred to publish in journals (511, 48.9) and conference papers (474, 45.4); (b) the publication distribution fluctuated over the 41 year period but the moving average depicted a steady incremental trend; (c) a total of 506 authors contributed to 1,045 publications and 309 are one-time authors’ (d) the active authors in LIS are affiliated to 131 institutions and the productive institutions were the national Library of Malaysia, University of Malaya library and the academics at the MLIS Programme, University of Malaya.; (e) publication productivity was related to institutional active involvement in LIS journal publishing; and (f) the main subject areas actively researched upon were collection development and management, information centres and services, and ICT applications LIS
E-LIS: an international open archive towards building open digital libraries
No full textEstablished in 2003, E-LIS is an international open access archive related to librarianship, information science and technology, and related disciplines. It uses the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) protocol and tools to facilitate interoperability between repository servers. To date E-LIS is the biggest repository in library and information science and after only two years contains over 2200 papers. E-LIS is the first international e-server in this area, is part of the RCLIS (Research in Computing, Library and Information Science) project and is organised, managed and maintained by an international team of librarians working on a voluntary basis. This paper describes the main characteristics (technical and organizational) of the archive and its configuration and customization, and discusses its policies, aims and mission. Its main focus, however, is on the E-LIS organizational model and on the strategic issues correlated with Open Access (OA). It also delineates some of the challenges and opportunities consequent on a global vision for the Library and Information Science (LIS) field which envisages papers coming from all over the world and which gives E-LIS the impetus and motivation to stimulate participation in the venture and to further develop international research activities. Finally, this paper also emphasises that the promotion of E-LIS further enhances the OA movement in general, so E-LIS can be regarded as a tool for the dissemination of the OA philosophy
E-LIS - archiwum publikacji z zakresu bibliotekoznawstwa i informacji naukowej. Uwagi praktyczne dla polskich autorów
No full textThis article is for the perusal of Polish librarians and was written to provide them with information about open E-LIS repository. This particular repository was founded by Spanish and Italian fellow librarians for the purpose of gathering works on the subject of library science and scientific information, and is supposed to be professional librarians' electronic source of information. Instruction and explanation on ways of publishing own articles and texts in the archives can be found in the provided materials
Ranking the Research Productivity of LIS Faculty and Schools: An Evaluation of Data Sources and Research Methods
No full textThis study evaluates the data sources and research methods used in earlier studies to rank the research productivity of Library and Information Science (LIS) faculty and schools. In doing so, the study identifies both tools and methods that generate more accurate publication count rankings as well as databases that should be taken into consideration when conducting comprehensive searches in the literature for research and curricular needs. With a list of 2,625 items published between 1982 and 2002 by 68 faculty members of 18 American Library Association– (ALA-) accredited LIS schools, hundreds of databases were searched. Results show that there are only 10 databases that provide significant coverage of the LIS indexed literature. Results also show that restricting the data sources to one, two, or even three databases leads to inaccurate rankings and erroneous conclusions. Because no database provides comprehensive coverage of the LIS literature, researchers must rely on a wide range of disciplinary and multidisciplinary databases for ranking and other research purposes. The study answers such questions as the following: Is the Association of Library and Information Science Education’s (ALISE’s) directory of members a reliable tool to identify a complete list of faculty members at LIS schools? How many and which databases are needed in a multifile search to arrive at accurate publication count rankings? What coverage will be achieved using a certain number of databases? Which research areas are well covered by which databases? What alternative methods and tools are available to supplement gaps among databases? Did coverage performance of databases change over time? What counting method should be used when determining what and how many items each LIS faculty and school has published? The authors recommend advanced analysis of research productivity to provide a more detailed assessment of research productivity of authors and programs
Connecting Theory and Practice in LIS: The Training Model of the Information Resource Centers
No full textThe traditional LIS education is also essential as it provides the foundation for our profession. Also, the LIS theory explores the history and evolution of the librarianship in different era. The library science educators do review the LIS courses from time to time, because it isn’t one time job. As the nature of information sources changes, the sophistication of information technology advances, and the quantity of knowledge explodes; the job market of librarians itself demands revision and expansion in the curricula of the LIS.
Even if the curriculum of an LIS school is up to the mark, the institution is required to train its new information professionals. Every type of library (i.e. public, academic, or special etc.) has to impart a proper training to its employees for better performance and productivity.
At the same time, it is true that not all the libraries or their parent institutions can afford the expensive and sophisticated training model of the IRCs. However, if they put the professional training on priority and spend some resources and time on it, they can get best out of their employees. One way is to arrange the in-house training sessions at their libraries. Moreover, the libraries of the same kind or in the same region can coordinate training on different LIS modules. The Internet is itself a good learning, teaching and training tool. The information professional can improve the professional skills through reading the professional literature, becoming a member of professional association, and consulting the value added professional websites
In what Way have Māori Contributed to the Development of Midwifery Education in New Zealand?
No full textThis dissertation identifies sources of disparity between theory and practice in relation to Māori women in midwifery education. It is aimed at revealing existing relationships between Māori women and midwives to dispel beliefs that women and midwives in New Zealand have partnership relationships based on an understanding that they are equal. The aims of this paper are:
a) To examine contributing factors to the development of midwifery education.
b) To describe a process for developing a partnership model between Māori and midwifery educational institutions.
This research explores the element of 'participation' by Māori women in relationships with midwives, specifically, midwifery education development and presents a framework from Mason Durie's five-point plan to encourage their participation
The social class struggles concept with an interdisciplinary approach: a paramount concept for research in library and information science (LIS)
No full textThis paper analyses the social class struggles concept with an interdisciplinary approach to be used by theorists and practitioners of library and information science (LIS). This concept emerged as part of the theoretical framework employed by the author in his doctoral thesis (Muela-Meza, 2010): An Application of Community Profiling to Analyse Community Information Needs, and Providers: Perceptions from the People of the Broomhall Neighbourhood of Sheffield, UK. This concept is complemented from philosophy (Marx and Engels, [1848] 1976a), and the natural sciences (Hauser, 2006; Sagan and Druyan, 1992), and it served the author to understand better the bigger dimensions of the underlying issues behind social classes and human conflicts. It also served to understand better the contradictions between people (e.g. LIS users with contradictory and mutually exclusive information needs to be provided by libraries and other institutions of information recorded in documents), and how these intensify when these are interrelated with the social class they belong to (Muela-Meza, 2007). This paper also criticises some competing views whose proponents by pretending fallaciously and deceitfully to deny the presence of social class divides in society, such as those rhetorical ploys of post-modernism that propose capitalist-class-driven ideologues of “community cohesion” based on “social capital” (Putnam, 1999). It shows evidence of how those followers (e.g. Pateman, 2006; Contreras Contreras, 2004; Bryson, Usherwood and Proctor, 2003) of capitalist-class ideologues, by doing so they aligned their discourse to that of dominance hierarchies and hegemony against working class people, in LIS and other sciences, and the humanities. It also criticises the postmodern pseudoscience because it pretends to undermine the logical rationality fundamental in LIS and all other sciences. It recommends that LIS theorists and practitioners employ the social class struggles concept as configured here in order to understand better contradictions, conflicts, and struggles within LIS theory and practice, and also to search for broader epistemological aims such as justice and wisdom (Fleissner and Hofkirchner, 1998), concealed by the capitalist or bourgeois and middle classes for their benefit against working class
E te tākuta, kei a koe te tikanga - A qualitative study of factors influencing treatment decision-making in cancer consultations with Māori patients and whānau
No full textAim
This research explores factors influencing treatment decision-making in cancer consultations with Māori patients and whānau (extended families) to ascertain if any of these factors could be contributing to cancer treatment inequities experienced by Māori.
Design
Māori centred research using case study and qualitative methods.
Participants
Five adult Māori patients who had recently received a cancer diagnosis participated in this study along with their whānau and three oncology specialists with whom they had a consultation where a treatment option was discussed.
Methods
Consultations were audio-recorded and soon after patients and whānau were interviewed. Specialists self-recorded a brief debrief using a prompt questionnaire.
Results
Within and across cases, a range of factors appeared to influence patients’/whānau treatment decision-making: comorbidity, disease and treatment factors. Whānau involvement and support was significant as was the specialist’s treatment recommendation. They also identified positive experiences with the specialist. Specialists attended the consultation prepared to offer one medical treatment option in each of the cases studied and patient factors such as fitness for treatment, family history and symptoms appeared important to their treatment decision-making. Information shared by specialists with patients indicated comorbidity, disease, treatment and health care system factors such as multidisciplinary team decision-making had influenced the development of the treatment option offered in the consultation.
Conclusion
This research provides valuable information about the range of factors that influence both specialists’ and patients’/whānau treatment decision-making in cancer consultations. Whānau and specialists treatment recommendations appeared important to patients’ decision-making and medical factors and patient factors to specialists’. In some cases, comorbidity requires greater attention given the impact it has on treatment decision-making.
While it did not appear as if any of these factors were likely contributors to cancer treatment inequities there were signs to suggest that health care system treatment decision-making processes could be improved. Further exploration for factors influencing treatment decision-making earlier in the treatment decision-making pathway may also provide clues to potential causes of treatment inequities
Co-authorship Network of Scientometrics Research Collaboration
No full textThis paper examines the co-authorship network in the field of scientometrics using social network analysis techniques with the aim of developing an understanding of research collaboration in this scientific community. Using co-authorship data from 3125 articles published in the journal Scientometrics with a time span of more than three decades (1980-2012), we construct an evolving co-authorship network and calculate three centrality measures (closeness, betweenness, and degree) for 3024 authors, 1207 institutions, 68 countries and 22 academic fields in this network. This paper also discusses the usability of centrality measures in author ranking, and suggests that centrality measures can be useful indicators for impact analysis. Findings revealed that scientometrics was not dominated by a couple of key researchers as quite a significant number of popular researchers were identified. The United States occupies the topmost position in all measures except for degree centrality. The most active, central and collaborative academic discipline in scientometrics is Information & Library Science
A Semiotic View of Information: Semiotics as a Foundation of LIS Research in Information Behavior
No full textTraditional information behavior studies in library and information science (LIS) research have focused on primarily two trends: one is to provide physical access to material objects and the other is to direct users to certain thoughts and ideas. Both focuses are two sides of the same problem that LIS researchers have worked to address: how to provide a better system or service to accommodate people’s need for information. Among the domains of users, material objects,
and meaningful ideas, applying the concept of information as sign with semiotics not only joins these two trends in the analysis of the pragmatic-syntactic relationship and the pragmatic-semantic relationship, but it also gives an
additional focus on the syntactic-semantic relationship. It is this additional focus that helps LIS professionals/researchers understand an individual’s states of knowing and ways of obtaining knowledge through physical and mental interactions with informative objects. The author conducts a review of information studies, the epistemological concerns and pragmatic traditions in
LIS, and semiotics in an attempt to seek a holistic principle that will incorporate both the traditional trends of LIS research and provide an additional awareness
in assisting users to make connections between material objects and ideas in information behavior studies. By applying a semiotic view of information and the concept of information as sign, LIS researchers of information behavior will find semiotics a useful epistemological framework
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