From the 1990’s there have been an increasing number of countries promoting laws to enhance public participation, transparency and accountability. Regarding legislation, this tendency reached a peak of 52 countries from 2000 to 2010, and currently there are around 102 countries which have enacted laws on ‘access to information’. Increasing number of countries with legislation suggests a need for assessment, but how to measure ‘impact’ and ‘compliance’ of the legislation considering the complexity of both constructs? The thesis examines methodological foundations applied to the design, and validation of a conceptual model to assess both constructs. As research problem, the thesis examines which analytical constructs withstand the assessment tests and which are vindicated to be included as independent variables of the conceptual model. Mixed methodology was applied to conduct the research. Papers published in mainstream publications during the last ten years were selected by relevance to create the model. Content analysis, expert panel technique, and statistical analysis were applied to support decisions on (1) dependent variables operationalisation, (2) underpinning components of the model definition, and (3) independent variables inclusion criteria. The proposed model was validated by 17 experts from 10 countries, and it has two dependent and 66 independent variables. The construct ‘impact’ was measured applying an innovation to Pastakia’s matrix – RIAM–, and ‘compliance’ was assessed through statistical analysis of three questionnaires. The proposed model was applied in public higher education institutions under the legislation in UK and Chile, through case studies. Although impact and compliance are different constructs, their assessment when examining the incidence of legislation on ‘access to information’, held by public HEIs reported no considerable asymmetries in term of impact scores and compliance achievements. When major positive impacts were obtained, compliance also reported positive results, and when impact was slightly positive, compliance was equally moderate or good.

Not much is not known about the totality of information behaviours of information providers from among the plethora of library and information science literature. This research aims to describe, categorise and devise a representation of information workers’ experiences as they engage in information behaviours in a health information provider organisation in Scotland. The organisation is a typical example of an information services provider where decision makers constantly strive to improve the quality of their information outputs by attempting to understand the information behaviours of their employees and respond to changes in the external information environment. A model of information behaviour becomes a useful tool for understanding what goes on within the information provider organisation. With pragmatism as its philosophical tether, the qualitatively-driven sequential mixed methods study uses critical incident interviewing within Heideggerian phenomenology and then a questionnaire survey to capture value-adding information behaviours, feeling states as outcomes of information behaviour, and perceptions of internal impact of information behaviour. The research subjects are invited to participate in a respondent validation workshop where a model of provider information behaviour is co-created. The findings reveal 3 core information behaviour types (information acquisition behaviour, information production behaviour and information dissemination behaviour) and 2 associated information behaviour types (multitasking and collaborative information behaviours) in a non-linear relationship. Several positive and negative feelings are identified together with information workers’ perceptions of how their information behaviours impact on the internal information environment of their organisation. The core and associated information behaviours are further categorised and their subtypes are validated on returning to the research participants. Recommendations for practice and further research include introducing Web 2.0 technologies in the provider organisation to enhance information dissemination, reviewing the value of some information activities in the provider organisation, investigating the mechanism of the information behaviour trigger, and further research on the role of feelings and individual characteristics before and after information interactions. The findings provide insights of information interactions of an information provider that make a significant contribution to LIS knowledge.

The aim of this research was to further understanding of the role of knowledge and knowledge-based processes within the process of technological innovation within the UK upstream oil and gas industry. The scope of the research encompassed three groups of actors within the innovation process: technology providers, enablers and end users. The research employed a qualitative approach using narrative and semi-structured interviews as a method for data collection, and employed an analytical template to analyse the data which was developed by integrating elements of Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) with narrative schema. A hypertextual system was also developed to determine how the explicit knowledge of the actors within the innovation process could be codified and transferred. The findings identify six knowledge-based processes present within the technological innovation process: knowledge acquisition and learning; knowledge transfer; knowledge storage and maintenance; knowledge creation; knowledge application and exploitation; and knowledge valuation and measurement. The research shows that different emphases are placed on the importance of these processes according to the role of each group of actors. In relation to the forms and types of knowledge present within the innovation process, the procedural and declarative knowledge of the technology providers are identified as key sources for the creation of new technologies. However, the enabling organisation plays a critical role in the innovation process by acting as a conduit of knowledge between the technology providers and the end users. End users are identified as a source of conditional knowledge relating to the applications of new technologies, and provide essential support for the process through funding. The research contributes to the understanding of the relationships which exist between the knowledge processes within the technological innovation process, and identifies an additional form of conditional knowledge used within the process. Methodological contributions are made in the application of snowball sampling; the development and application of the knowledge-based analytical template; the relationship between narrative schema and soft systems methodology; and the development and application of the hypertextual narrative system.

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This thesis takes a grounded theory approach in an attempt to seek, articulate and communicate a deeper understanding of the practice known as archival description. In so doing, it also seeks to allow readers to experience for themselves the process through which this thesis took shape, the research journey through which emerged both the questions and the answers. A more detailed exposition of the stages within this process is given in chapter three, which thereby acts as one route map to the whole. Another such map is provided here, in the following brief summary. Undertaking this journey, the questions that emerged included; what does autonomy mean, how is it possible to communicate, to bridge the gap between the separateness of individuals, and ultimately, how is it possible to have separateness without being separate? Then again, the answers that evolved concurrently seemed to lie in using a cybernetic perspective, and employing the concept of autopoiesis or self-production, whereby it is thought possible to become separate without being so. Further, as a result of the questions and answers explored above, a thesis took shape, that practicing archival description is a point of view, one from which it is difficult to lose sight of the observing within the observation, that is to say it is a point of view about how we look at the world and form a point of view in respect of it, about how we know what we know. It is this thesis which will be laid out in later chapters of this work, but first will follow introductions to both the substantive area of interest (archival description) and the approach taken (grounded theory).

The aim of institutional repositories is to aid the management and dissemination of the increasingly copious amount of scholarly electronic resources produced by academics. To date most research has focused on the impact for formal scholarly publishing. The purpose of this exploratory study is to discover the impact of IRs on the visibility and use of digital resources with particular focus on resources outside the formal publishing framework. An online survey and interviews with repository managers were conducted. A link analysis study was undertaken to determine what types of web resources were linking to items within repositories. The findings show that a wide range of non-formal e-resources are accepted and repository managers’ attitudes are positive towards their importance. In practice the range of resources is limited and mainly text based. The development of typologies for non-formal resources is done in an ad hoc manner. Workflow processes for content acquisition in repositories vary considerably and are quite complex in particular for non-formal e-resources. The findings show a lack of cohesive discourse between repository objectives and collection policies and actual work flow processes. Repository managers consider usage data important and its most popular uses are for advocacy and securing funding. Interpretation of usage data focuses on formal resources but evidence suggests that non-formal resources play an important part in repository visibility. Blogs, academic pages and discussion forums are important web sources that link to items within repositories. The study demonstrates that institutional repositories are not particularly successful at handling resources outside the framework of formal publishing. The system caters largely towards eprints, in particular postprints. A fundamental challenge, if scholarly communication is to move towards new forms of communication and publishing enabled by digital technologies, is to find ways to effectively name, manage and integrate non-formal electronic resources into the institutional repository.

This thesis examines the framework for effective management of digital records in Uganda, which was undertaken by a detailed study of the 23 ministries, which form the Uganda Public Service (UPS). Areas of research inquiry included establishing the current state of digital records in the UPS and revealing the factors impeding the managing of digital records. This raised many issues about the way in which digital records are created, maintained and used, including possible lines of action to resolve current digital records management (DRM) problems. It also considered how the DRM services and practices used elsewhere could be adopted to suit the UPS environment. The status of DRM and the factors affecting the creation, use, maintenance and disposition of digital records were critically reviewed and evaluated and, towards the end, the thesis recommends strategies and makes proposals that could contribute to the development of DRM services in the UPS. The study adopted a mixed methods research approach and drew on the ‘records continuum’ concept for its analytical framework. The study drew on data from primary and secondary (literature and research reports) sources. Data collection from primary sources was carried out using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, which made it possible to study the personal perspectives and experiences of those involved in the management of records and of digital systems in Uganda. The approach provided insight into the UPS ministries, where data was collected from senior and middle managers, ICT managers and records managers, through a total of 40 interviews. This approach was essential in so far as it focused on the importance of the meanings that emerged as respondents defined their DRM requirements through interpersonal interactions and it guided the data collection, analysis and reflection activities. The analysis of the findings of the study revealed that the problems with DRM are largely due to the absence of ICT facilities with recordkeeping functionality, a lack of clear policies, guidelines and procedures, and to the fact that the Uganda Records and Archives legislation is not fully implemented and not properly enforced. It is argued that the failure to fully implement the National Records and Archives Act has led to a lack of appropriate institutional and managerial structures. Other problems include the lack of a reliable power supply and of sufficient financial resources and human capacity. Although no UPS ministry has a complete Electronic Document and Records Management System (EDRMS), the survey of many ministries provided comprehensive evidence of the dynamism in the use of ICT that led to the generation of digital records. The problems and challenges elaborated upon in the study have shown that a successful DRM service depends on a number of factors. While it is not strictly possible to generalise the findings from this purposive sample to the whole of the Government of Uganda, it is likely that the issues identified in this study will apply to the whole of the Uganda public sector and, to some extent, to other sub-Saharan African countries. The study concludes that in order to facilitate a DRM service in the UPS, the objective should be to enable increased creation and keeping of records by digital means. The proposed recommendations are categorised into four key factors: the need for formal legal infrastructure; the need to establish formal instruments in particular a national archives agency with appropriate policies, procedures and guidelines; and the development of both robust DRM infrastructure and of appropriately skilled human resource capacity. These factors are necessary and need to be addressed urgently, and specifically for Uganda, in order to ensure accountable government for the citizens of Uganda in the digital world.

This dissertation discusses the changing nature of comics and comic books in a digital age. Its focus is on comics as an artistic form that developed in connection with technologies belonging to print culture and the age of mechanical reproduction. This fact is both reflected and challenged by the digitization of printed comics, digital comics (comics created with computers that can be read on different electronic platforms, either networked or not) and webcomics (comics made mainly to be read on computers online). It claims that comics as a communicative and artistic system has expressed itself as a type of materiality. Materiality in this case refers not only to the publications themselves but the processes involved in their creation and in their interaction with the reader in specific settings. Through an analysis that combines previous comics scholarship with critical theory, theories of electronic text and the history of the book, this thesis argues comic books' materiality is distinct and yet interacts with other media such as traditional books, film electonic texts, etc. The materiality of comics produces and is simultaneously the consequence of particular textual topologies, which have made comics partially untranslatable to digital and other media, or that at least interrogate the idea that such translation (or migration) can be done without significant loss or without becoming something else. The study concludes that digital media is presenting unique opportunities for comics textuality. Amongst other risks, were there to be a total migration from a printed culture to a digital one, a complex dimension of comic book reading as an interactive social experience organised around physical, historical materiality would be lost and replaced by an altogether different one. The evidence indicates that the current digital revolution in comic books fully includes, and not excludes, the culture of print.

Purpose: The research aim has two parts: Firstly, to characterise and evaluate clinical trial information and the dissemination of that information by constructing a conceptual model structuring the processes of information generation. Secondly, to test the model by identifying the dissemination methods used, consider their effectiveness and what factors affect dissemination. The research findings contribute to outline a framework of recommendations with an optimal model of effective dissemination for improved transparency in clinical research. Design and methodology: Based on the literature review, a conceptual model was constructed outlining the structure of information generation throughout the clinical research process. A mixed approach with qualitative and quantitative studies were undertaken to form a comprehensive picture of the dissemination of clinical trial information and in order to test the model. Key findings: The model identified that clinical trial information is very complex, scattered across many resources and many factors affect how, where and what clinical trial information is disseminated. A model of effective dissemination and a framework of recommendations for improved transparency in dissemination were drawn up for three areas; regulations and standards, communication planning and the organisation of clinical trial information. Limitations: This research has been done during a time of significant and rapid change in the clinical research environment and therefore this thesis is a snapshot of a time when new web tools allows for information to be disseminated rapidly. A series of small studies were made to gather an overall picture of information transparency in clinical trials as we lack evidence in these new areas. Originality/value: There is no existing conceptual model that explains and tests the dissemination and transparency of clinical trial information. Models can structure processes, suggest improvements in the processes and be used as a basis for further research.

Using extensive fieldwork in the online archival record, this thesis accounts for the descent and emergence of the weblog as a digital genre during its formative period up to the year 2000. The work examines the weblog’s process of genre formation as diffusion of innovation within a heterogeneous discourse network. It describes this process as a series of several consecutive and cumulative reinterpretations of the emerging genre’s form and intended purpose, effected for the most part by the most central actors in the network.