This item is not the definitive copy. Please use the following citation when referencing this material: Dillon and Vaughan (1997) It's the journey and the destination: Shape and the emergent property of genre in digital documents. New Review of Multimedia and Hypermedia, 3, 91-106. Introduction: To anyone versed in the literature on hypermedia, it is clear that the last 10 yearsâ worth of research on usability since Conklinâ s (1987) seminal article has largely been ignored by web designers. Surfing web sites even casually will likely expose a user to screens of badly formatted text, superfluous graphics, mixed fonts, unreadable color combinations, and dangling or dead links. While the issue of knowledge transfer between research disciplines and design practice is fraught with problems and is a fascinating topic in and of itself (see e.g., Klein and Eason, 1993), this is not the focus of the present paper. Instead we wish to extend work that started with the birth of hypertext systems and continues to demand attention in these days of free-for-all web design: the evaluation of user behaviour in electronic space. Specifically, this paper will extend the analysis of â user navigationâ to the evaluation of user behaviour in web environments.

Middle school student's interaction within a digital library is explored. Issues of interface features used, obstacles encountered, search strategies and search techniques used, and representation obstacles are examined. A mechanism for evaluating user's descriptors is tested and effects of augmenting the system's resource descriptions with these descriptors on retrieval is explored. Transaction log data analysis (TLA) was used, with external corroborating achievement data provided by teachers. Analysis was conducted using quantitative and qualitative methods. Coding schemes for the failure analysis, search strategies and techniques analysis, as well as extent of match analysis between terms in student's questions and their search terms, and extent of match analysis between search terms and controlled vocabulary were developed. There are five chapters with twelve supporting appendixes. Chapter One presents an introduction to the problem and reviews the pilot study. Chapter Two presents the literature review and theoretical basis for the study. Chapter Three describes the research questions, hypotheses and methods. Chapter Four presents findings. Chapter Five presents a summary of the findings and their support of the hypotheses. Unanticipated findings, limitations, speculations, and areas of further research are indicated. Findings indicate that middle school users interact with the system in various sequences of patterns. User groups' interactions and scaffold use are influenced by the teacher's objectives for using the ADL. Users preferred to use single word searches over Boolean, phrase or natural language searches. Users tended to use a strategy of repeating the same exact search, instead of using the advanced scaffolds. A high percent of users attempted at least one search that included spelling or typographical errors, punctuation, or sequentially repeated searches. Search terms matched the DQ's in some instantiation 54% of all searches. Terms used by the system to represent the resources do not adequately represent the user groups' information needs, however, using student generated keywords to augment resource descriptions can have a positive effect on retrieval.

Duplicating a time series study done by Kuhlthau and associates in 1989, this study examines the applicability of the Information Search Process (ISP) Model in the context of a virtual learning environment. This study confirms that students given an information seeking task in a virtual learning environment do exhibit the stages indicated by the ISP Model. The six-phase ISP Model is shown to be valid for describing the different stages of cognitive, affective, and physical tasks individuals progress through when facing a situation where they must search for information to complete an academic task in a virtual learning environment. The findings in this study further indicate there is no relationship between the amount of computer experience subjects possess and demonstrating the patterns of thoughts, feelings, and actions described by the ISP Model. The study demonstrates the ISP Model to be independent of the original physical library environments where the model was developed. An attempt is made to represent the ISP model in a slightly different manner that provides more of the sense of motion and interaction among the components of thoughts, feelings, and action than is currently provided for in the model. The study suggests that the development of non-self-reporting data collection techniques would be useful in complementing and furthering research to enhance and refine the representation of the ISP Model. Additionally, expanding the research to include the examination of group interaction is called for to enhance the ISP Model and develop further applications that could potentially aid educational delivery in all types of learning environments.

Devido aos avancos da tecnologia da informacao e comunicacao, vive-se um momento marcado pelo aumento da quantidade de informacoes disponiveis na Internet, bem como pelo acelerado crescimento do numero de pessoas conectadas a rede. As bibliotecas, diante disso, tiveram que atender a demanda de clientes e usuarios de disponibilizar diversos produtos e servicos na internet. Houve uma ampliacao do publico de uma biblioteca digital, que embora planejada para uma populacao local, passou a ser regional, nacional e, ate mesmo, internacional. Acentua-se, portanto, uma preocupacao: o acesso universal, acessibilidade e usabilidade que a tecnologia pode proporcionar a uma sociedade que requer informacao em qualquer lugar e horario, para todos os tipos de usuarios em seus contextos individuais de busca. Tal preocupacao evidencia algumas lacunas do conhecimento sobre como considerar publicos de culturas distintas em projeto e avaliação de bibliotecas digitais e como considerar as diferencas culturais no uso e na usabilidade. O objetivo dessa dissertacao e investigar como o tema da diversidade cultural esta sendo abordada em estudos sobre usabilidade de bibliotecas digitais, por meio de mapeamento e revisao da literatura localizada e disponivel, de modo a contribuir para uma sistematização sobre o tema.. Apesar de embrionario, as conclusoes dessa pesquisa acerca da influencia da diversidade cultural na usabilidade de sistemas digitais podem ser aplicados e discutidos no ambito da Ciencia da Informacao, especialmente para o tema das Bibliotecas Digitais. / Due to advances in information and communication technologies, we can see the increasing amount of information available on the Internet and the rapid growth in the number of people connected to the network. The libraries have changed the way they serve customers and users and made available a lot of products and services on the Web and are increasingly serving worldwide audience. Even if initially designed for a local population, a digital library is now serving a regional, national and even international audience. And now it concerns about universal access, usability and accessibility of the systems that would provide information at any time and any place for all users in their individual search contexts. This concern highlights a few gaps about how to embody audiences from different cultures in digital library design and evaluation and how to consider cultural differences in the usability studies. This dissertations goal is to investigate how cultural diversity has been addressed in digital libraries usability studies, through research in diverse publications about the topic. Although this them is in a initial stage of research, the findings of this study about the influence of cross-cultural usability of digital systems can be applied and discussed within the Information Science, especially in the Digital Libraries topic.

Este trabalho de caráter exploratório tinha como objetivos principais investigar o uso e a busca de informações e de recursos didáticos realizada pelos Professores de Biologia do Ensino Médio (PBEM) cadastrados na Biblioteca Digital de Ciências da Unicamp (BDC), em seu aprendizado e aperfeiçoamento profissional e nas suas atividades didáticas. Foram utilizados métodos de coleta de dados indiretos, que consistiram na aplicação de dois questionários estruturados online, e métodos diretos, que consistiram no registro realizado por ferramentas instaladas na BDC sobre as palavras-chave utilizadas, os comentários sobre os recursos e as mensagens eletrônicas dos professores. O primeiro questionário permitiu traçar um perfil dos PBEM. Eles têm em média 36,4 anos, a maioria é do sexo feminino, leciona em escola pública e vive na região sudeste. A maioria encontrou a BDC usando ferramentas de busca; no momento do cadastramento, já usava a Internet há mais de cinco anos, e estava interessada principalmente em conteúdos para subsidiar o preparo de aulas e em recursos didáticos. O segundo questionário mostrou que os PBEM tiveram uma formação inicial compatível com a função que exercem: a maioria fez Biologia ou Ciências Biológicas e licenciatura. Entretanto, quanto ao uso didático das tecnologias digitais, a maioria não teve nenhuma preparação nem na formação inicial e nem por meio de cursos de capacitação. Na investigação sobre fontes de informação utilizadas na preparação de aulas, obtenção de recursos didáticos e no aprendizado do professor, foi possível perceber que, de forma geral, ainda ocorre uma baixa utilização de fontes de informação que utilizam a Internet, como as bibliotecas digitais, os sites de universidades, os blogs, fóruns e grupos de discussão. Fontes impressas como jornais e revistas especializadas ou não, livros acadêmicos, livros paradidáticos também são utilizadas pela maioria dos professores de forma eventual. A fonte mais utilizada é o livro didático que desempenha papéis múltiplos: para o aprendizado do professor, preparação de aulas e recurso didático. Congressos, palestras e cursos são considerados fontes de aprendizado eventuais para a maioria. Por outro lado, trocas de experiências com os pares é considerada uma fonte frequente de informações para o aprendizado do professor. A análise cruzada de dados sugere que a maioria dos professores ainda não detém as habilidades necessárias para o uso das tecnologias e que não sabem avaliar criticamente os recursos digitais educacionais. Os resultados também indicaram a preferência por recursos que não exigem interatividade por parte dos alunos (apresentações em PowerPoint e imagens) sugerindo um uso limitado dos recursos digitais educacionais. O quadro geral indica a existência de fragilidades na forma como os PBEM participantes desta pesquisa estão se atualizando e aprendendo, sendo importante verificar se essa tendência se mantém na totalidade dos PBEM do país. / This exploratory study investigates what are the sources of information and resources used by High School Biology Teachers (HSBT) enrolled in the Digital Library of Science (DLS) in their learning and professional development and in their didatic activities. Methods were used for collecting indirect data, which consisted in applying two online structured questionnaires, and direct methods, which consisted in analysing the keywords, comments about resources and the electronic messages left by teachers. The first questionnaire allowed us to outline a profile of the HSBT. They are averaged 36.4 years old, most are female, teach in public school and live in the Southeast. Most of the teachers found BDC using search engines. At the time of their registration, they were already using the Internet for over five years, and were interested primarily in contents to support lessons planning and teaching resources. The second questionnaire showed that HSBT had an initial formation compatible with their function: the majority studied Biology and has graduation degree. However, concerning on the didactic use of digital technologies, most had nothing on initial formation neither on training courses. The results about information sources used in planning lessons, getting instructional resources and teacher\'s learning showed that, in general, there are a low use of information sources based on Internet (such as digital libraries, sites of universities, blogs, forums and discussion groups). Printed sources like newspapers, magazines, textbooks, academic books have been used eventually by most teachers. The most common source used is the textbook that plays multiple roles: for teacher learning, lesson planning and as didactic resource. Congresses, lectures and courses are considered eventual sources of learning for the majority. Moreover, exchanging experiences with colleagues is considered a frequent source of information for learning. Cross-analysis of data suggests that most teachers do not hold basic skills to use technology, and also do not know how to evaluate digital resources in education. The results also indicated their preference for resources that do not require interactivity by students: the PowerPoint presentations and images (pictures, video or animation). It seems there is a limited use of digital educational resources. The overall picture portrayed in this work suggests the existence of weaknesses in how HSBT are upgrading and learning about science and about information and communication technology. It is recommended that further investigations can be lead to confirm if this tendency is observed in the totality of brazilian HSBT.

Recent legislation in Sweden mandates that all students beprovided access to a school library. In addition, schools areexpected to help students become independent and life-longlearners. Various national organizations stress theimportance of a school library in this process; however,reportedly independent schools use public libraries and theInternet for information activities instead. This studyexplores: 1) how independent schools in Sweden can meetboth government requirements to provide library accessand the information literacy demands of their students, and2) the function of digital libraries in this context. After acomparison of previous research, a qualitative method waschosen based on socio-cultural theoretical assumptions.Semi-structured interviews were conducted with aprincipal, a teacher, and a focus group of students from twoindependent schools. Through a process of open coding,important themes emerged concerning how libraries andinformation literacy are conceptualized. There is a strongtendency to see libraries in terms of a physical function(books on shelves) over social activities (e.g., integrationwith teachers, development of information literacies,collection management). Students rely first and foremoston Google during the information seeking process, but alsoconsult each other for help. There are also signs thatstudents are discouraged from asking their teachers for helpduring the information seeking process. The findingsindicate that current educator attitudes may hinder thedevelopment of digital school libraries. / Program: Biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap, Digitala bibliotek och informationstjänster

Este trabalho de caráter exploratório tinha como objetivos principais investigar o uso e a busca de informações e de recursos didáticos realizada pelos Professores de Biologia do Ensino Médio (PBEM) cadastrados na Biblioteca Digital de Ciências da Unicamp (BDC), em seu aprendizado e aperfeiçoamento profissional e nas suas atividades didáticas. Foram utilizados métodos de coleta de dados indiretos, que consistiram na aplicação de dois questionários estruturados online, e métodos diretos, que consistiram no registro realizado por ferramentas instaladas na BDC sobre as palavras-chave utilizadas, os comentários sobre os recursos e as mensagens eletrônicas dos professores. O primeiro questionário permitiu traçar um perfil dos PBEM. Eles têm em média 36,4 anos, a maioria é do sexo feminino, leciona em escola pública e vive na região sudeste. A maioria encontrou a BDC usando ferramentas de busca; no momento do cadastramento, já usava a Internet há mais de cinco anos, e estava interessada principalmente em conteúdos para subsidiar o preparo de aulas e em recursos didáticos. O segundo questionário mostrou que os PBEM tiveram uma formação inicial compatível com a função que exercem: a maioria fez Biologia ou Ciências Biológicas e licenciatura. Entretanto, quanto ao uso didático das tecnologias digitais, a maioria não teve nenhuma preparação nem na formação inicial e nem por meio de cursos de capacitação. Na investigação sobre fontes de informação utilizadas na preparação de aulas, obtenção de recursos didáticos e no aprendizado do professor, foi possível perceber que, de forma geral, ainda ocorre uma baixa utilização de fontes de informação que utilizam a Internet, como as bibliotecas digitais, os sites de universidades, os blogs, fóruns e grupos de discussão. Fontes impressas como jornais e revistas especializadas ou não, livros acadêmicos, livros paradidáticos também são utilizadas pela maioria dos professores de forma eventual. A fonte mais utilizada é o livro didático que desempenha papéis múltiplos: para o aprendizado do professor, preparação de aulas e recurso didático. Congressos, palestras e cursos são considerados fontes de aprendizado eventuais para a maioria. Por outro lado, trocas de experiências com os pares é considerada uma fonte frequente de informações para o aprendizado do professor. A análise cruzada de dados sugere que a maioria dos professores ainda não detém as habilidades necessárias para o uso das tecnologias e que não sabem avaliar criticamente os recursos digitais educacionais. Os resultados também indicaram a preferência por recursos que não exigem interatividade por parte dos alunos (apresentações em PowerPoint e imagens) sugerindo um uso limitado dos recursos digitais educacionais. O quadro geral indica a existência de fragilidades na forma como os PBEM participantes desta pesquisa estão se atualizando e aprendendo, sendo importante verificar se essa tendência se mantém na totalidade dos PBEM do país. / This exploratory study investigates what are the sources of information and resources used by High School Biology Teachers (HSBT) enrolled in the Digital Library of Science (DLS) in their learning and professional development and in their didatic activities. Methods were used for collecting indirect data, which consisted in applying two online structured questionnaires, and direct methods, which consisted in analysing the keywords, comments about resources and the electronic messages left by teachers. The first questionnaire allowed us to outline a profile of the HSBT. They are averaged 36.4 years old, most are female, teach in public school and live in the Southeast. Most of the teachers found BDC using search engines. At the time of their registration, they were already using the Internet for over five years, and were interested primarily in contents to support lessons planning and teaching resources. The second questionnaire showed that HSBT had an initial formation compatible with their function: the majority studied Biology and has graduation degree. However, concerning on the didactic use of digital technologies, most had nothing on initial formation neither on training courses. The results about information sources used in planning lessons, getting instructional resources and teacher\'s learning showed that, in general, there are a low use of information sources based on Internet (such as digital libraries, sites of universities, blogs, forums and discussion groups). Printed sources like newspapers, magazines, textbooks, academic books have been used eventually by most teachers. The most common source used is the textbook that plays multiple roles: for teacher learning, lesson planning and as didactic resource. Congresses, lectures and courses are considered eventual sources of learning for the majority. Moreover, exchanging experiences with colleagues is considered a frequent source of information for learning. Cross-analysis of data suggests that most teachers do not hold basic skills to use technology, and also do not know how to evaluate digital resources in education. The results also indicated their preference for resources that do not require interactivity by students: the PowerPoint presentations and images (pictures, video or animation). It seems there is a limited use of digital educational resources. The overall picture portrayed in this work suggests the existence of weaknesses in how HSBT are upgrading and learning about science and about information and communication technology. It is recommended that further investigations can be lead to confirm if this tendency is observed in the totality of brazilian HSBT.

L'augmentation constante du nombre de documents disponibles et des moyens d'accès transforme les pratiques de recherche d'information. Depuis quelques années, de plus en plus de plateformes de recherche d'information à destination des chercheurs ou du grand public font leur apparition sur la toile. Ce flot d'information est bien évidemment une opportunité pour les utilisateurs mais ils sont maintenant confrontés à de nouveaux problèmes. Auparavant, la principale problématique des chercheurs était de savoir si une information existait. Aujourd'hui, il est plutôt question de savoir comment accéder à une information pertinente. Pour résoudre ce problème, deux leviers d'action seront étudiés dans cette thèse. Nous pensons qu'il est avant tout important d'identifier l'usage qui est fait des principaux moyens d'accès à l'information. Être capable d'interpréter le comportement des utilisateurs est une étape nécessaire pour d'abord identifier ce que ces derniers comprennent des systèmes de recherche, et ensuite ce qui doit être approfondi. En effet, la plupart de ces systèmes agissent comme des boîtes noires qui masquent les différents processus sous-jacents. Si ces mécanismes n'ont pas besoin d'être entièrement maitrisés par les utilisateurs, ils ont cependant un impact majeur qui doit être pris en compte dans l'exploitation des résultats. Pourquoi le moteur de recherche me renvoie-t-il ces résultats ? Pourquoi ce document est-il plus pertinent qu'un autre ? Ces questions apparemment banales sont pourtant essentielles à une recherche d'information critique. Nous pensons que les utilisateurs ont le droit et le devoir de s'interroger sur la pertinence des outils informatiques mis à leur disposition. Pour les aider dans cette tâche, nous avons développé une plateforme de recherche d'information en ligne à double usage. Elle peut tout d'abord être utilisée pour l'observation et la compréhension du comportement des utilisateurs. De plus, elle peut aussi être utilisée comme support pédagogique, pour mettre en évidence les différents biais de recherche auxquels les utilisateurs sont confrontés. Dans le même temps, ces outils doivent être améliorés. Nous prenons dans cette thèse l'exemple de la qualité des documents qui a un impact certain sur leur accessibilité. La quantité de documents disponibles ne cessant d'augmenter, les opérateurs humains sont de moins en moins capables de les corriger manuellement et de s'assurer de leur qualité. Il est donc nécessaire de mettre en place de nouvelles stratégies pour améliorer le fonctionnement des systèmes de recherche. Nous proposons dans cette thèse une méthode pour automatiquement identifier et corriger certaines erreurs générées par les processus automatiques d'extraction d'information (en particulier l'OCR). / The constant increase of available documents and tools to access them has led to a change of research practices. For a few years now, more and more information retrieval platforms are made available online to the scientific community or the public. This data deluge is a great opportunity for users seeking information. However, it comes with new problems and new challenges to overcome. Formerly, the main issue for researchers was to identify if a particular resource existed. Today, the challenge is more about finding how to access pertinent information. We have identified two distinct levers to limit the impact of this new search paradigm. First, we believe that it is necessary to analyze how the different search platforms are used. To be able to understand and read into users behavior is a necessary step to comprehend what users understand, and to identify what they need to get an in-depth understanding of the operation of such platforms. Indeed, most systems act as black boxes which conceal the underlying transformations applied on data. Users do not need to understand in details how those algorithms work. However, because those algorithms have a major impact on the accessibility of information, and need to be taken into account during the exploitation of search results. Why is the search engine returning those particular results ? Why is this document more pertinent than another ? Such seemingly naive questions are nonetheless essential to undertake an analytical approach of the information search and retrieval task. We think that users have a right and a duty to question themselves about the relevance of such and such tool at their disposal. To help them cope with these issues, we developped a dual-use information search platform. On the one hand, it can be used to observe and understand user behavior. On the other hand, it can be used as a pedagogical medium to highlight research biases users can be exposed to. At the same time, we believe that the tools themselves must be improved. In the second part of this thesis, we study the impact that the quality of documents can have on their accessibility. Because of the increase of documents available online, human operators are less and less able to insure their quality. Thus, there is a need to set up new strategies to improve the way search platform operate and process documents. We propose a new method to automatically identify and correct errors generated by information extraction process such as OCR.

<p>Advances in peer-to-peer overlay networks and Semantic Web technology will have a substantial influence on the design and implementation of future digital libraries. However, it remains unclear how best to combine their advantages in constructing digital library systems. This thesis is devoted for investigating, proposing and evaluating possible solutions to advance developments in this field.</p><p>The main research goal of this work is to combine the strengths of both peer-to-peer overlay networks and Semantic Web for facilitating semantic searches in large-scale distributed digital library systems. The approach has been conducted in a sequential and progressive manner. Firstly, we recognize system infrastructure and metadata heterogeneity as two major challenges in conducting semantic searching across distributed digital libraries. Next, we investigate the strengths and weaknesses of both peer-to-peer and Semantic Web technology and justify that these two fields are complementary and can be combined in conducting semantic searches in a large-scale distributed environment. Thirdly, due to various topologies, functionalities and limitations different peer-to-peer infrastructures may possess, we survey current classical peer-to-peer systems so as to facilitate determinating appropriate infrastructure for specific application scenario. Fourthly, we probe into approaches in generating ontology-enriched metadata records for semantic search purpose. Finally and most importantly, we will propose a semantic search process for interoperation among heterogeneous resources, basing on ontology mapping mechanism.</p><p>A major contribution expected in our work is, in a broader term, proposing and investigating possible solutions in combining the strengths of both peer-to-peer overlay networks and Semantic Web for facilitating semantic search among highly distributed digital libraries. From a specific perspective, we provide an appropriate benchmark for facilitating decision making in choosing appropriate peer-to-peer networks for digital library construction; especially, we consider in this work no global schema exists and further justify the feasibility and advantages of ontology engineering method in semantic enriched metadata management; to support federated search in such a distributed environment, we also propose an extended super-peer network model, emphasizing in load-balancing and self-organizing capabilities; Based on semantic enriched metadata management, we propose also direct ontology mapping method to enable runtime semantic search process. Evaluation results have illustrated the feasibility and robustness of our approaches.</p><p>The future direction of this work includes studies on user authentication,efficient ontology parsing and real-life applications.</p>

Since the 1970s, music librarians have been discussing the challenges of cataloging music media. In the 1990s, they began work on a Music Thesaurus to provide a multi-faceted approach to indexing, cataloging, and retrieving music media. In 1999 Indiana University proposed a digital music library, to allow for better indexing and retrieval in addition to content-based music retrieval. In 2000, a commercial venture, The Music Genome Project ©, began cataloging sound recordings of popular music by hundreds of musical characteristics and has created a user interface that allows listeners to enter the title and artist of a certain piece of music and receive recommendations for similar music to then purchase via Pandora.com. The following paper will address the question: how might current analyzing and classifying methods be used to provide additional indexing that facilitates retrieval and use of sound recordings by special populations, specifically professionals treating children with Asperger’s syndrome?