This thesis examines how national museum libraries are planning to respond over the next decade to the strategic challenges and opportunities they are facing as a result of socio-technological changes that are occurring during the digital age. The study adopts a pragmatic philosophical approach and uses an explanatory sequential mixed-methods research design. The research consists of a two round Delphi survey, which was distributed to two hundred national museum libraries across forty countries, and seven case studies, which were undertaken across five countries. The case studies are comprised of semi-structured interviews with library managers and users, and document analysis of library strategies and policies. The results are presented as thematic conclusions and possible future scenarios. The research shows that many library managers have a clearly defined sense of their libraries' roles, values, and future strategic priorities. However, there is a lack of consensus concerning strategic positioning, with some seeking to augment internal museum support and others aiming to increase public engagement. Collection development is set to remain predominantly print focused, with acquisition of electronic resources likely to develop gradually. This position contrasts with libraries in other sectors, notably academic libraries, where the print to digital change process is typically occurring more rapidly. Similarly, utilisation of digital technologies that support service provision and content delivery will take place in a highly selective and planned manner. Most library users have a positive outlook about their national museum libraries. They particularly value the specialist nature of the collections, the subject knowledge of library staff, and opportunities for scholarly collaboration. However, there are concerns about collection discoverability and library communication. The research findings point towards three possible future scenarios for national museum libraries - internally focused consolidation, externally focused commercialisation, and mixed economy contradistinction. Each offers plausible options for strategic planning over the next decade.

This research investigates various factors, including standards and standardisation, which have shaped and continue to shape archival practices at the National Archives of Thailand (NAT). It also explores standards or approaches to standardisation that might be suitable for archival practices in Thailand and the perspectives of NAT staff members towards standards and standardisation. The study employs an interpretivist approach with data collected in 2014 from a literature review, interviews (with UK standardisers and NAT archival professionals), and surveys (of NAT users, non-users, and Thai central government ministries). The research results include the development of a "Conceptualised Diagram of Factors Impacting on Recordkeeping Culture" showing that the various factors shaping archival practices at the NAT include recordkeeping legislation, standards and standardisation systems, and the NAT itself (in terms of its status, its origin, recordkeeping culture, mechanisms of performance assessment and quality assurance, archival professionals' development and attitudes). These factors further include political, economic, IT, and educational factors driven by the phenomenon of globalisation. The results reveal that existing standards at NAT: the Principles of Fundamental Administration and Archives Management (Fine Arts Department, 1999) and the Standard for Records and Archives Preservation of the National Archives (Fine Arts Department, 2012) are not sufficient for archival operations in the digital age of the 21st century. They suggest suitable kinds of standards and standardisation approaches for the NAT and show that archival professionals at the NAT are aware of the necessity to implement new standards and are not against the ideas of adopting international standards. The findings lead to suggestions for developing the quality of archival practices at the NAT, which include improving the regulatory frameworks and policies for recordkeeping practices, and also active outreach programmes to increase public awareness of archival services.

This research aimed to find out the main barriers to information access facing students in culturally similar as well as distinct university environments. Using Wilson's model as a broad basis for the study, various intervening variables from (1) two culturally distinct academic environments, viz. University of Strathclyde (SU) in Glasgow, UK, and King Abdul-Aziz University (KAAU) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and (3) three universities from the same environment, viz. KAAU, King Saud University (KSU) and Imam Mohammed Bin Saud Islamic University (IMBSIU) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, have been studied using both quantitative and qualitative research methods, and a combination of data collection techniques via questionnaire, interview and focus groups. It was noted that university students in the UK get better information services because of the prevailing national and institutional policies and guidelines for ICT infrastructure and information support. Each university in Saudi Arabia has different ICT and information policies, which are not often clearly written, and the geographical location of the university plays a great role in the provision of ICT and information services. Similarities were noted among Saudi university students in terms of the influences of demographic variables on the use, type and preference of e-information resources, and on the access and usage patterns of Internet. Differences were noted with regard to the students' social/interpersonal variables, particularly on the type and preference of e-information resources, and the level of parental education influencing the access and user confidence in adopting ICT. Concluded that information behaviour of university students in Saudi Arabia is influenced by the ICT and information infrastructure of the country and the specific universities, the geographical location, as well as religious and social customs and practices, and the socio- economic characteristics of the students and their ICT and informat ion skills. The design of academic library websites needs to be improved to meet the user needs. Wilson's general model of human information behaviour, especially with regard to the barriers to information access, has been modified in accordance with the findings of this research.

This study contributes to knowledge and practice in the area of e-book management in academic libraries. The thesis is a three part study, two preliminary studies and the main study, with each part making a distinct contribution. As practitioners and researchers embark on a more extensive engagement with e-books and while the e-book market is developing rapidly, it is increasingly important that some agreement is reached regarding the definition of the term 'e-book'. Hence, the first study reported a content analysis of 36 e-book defmitions in order to determine a valid and representative definition of 'e-book'. The study proposed a two-part definition of the term reflecting both the persistent characteristics of e-books, and their dynamic and developing nature, driven largely by the changing technologies. Despite the growth in the e-book market, the e-book industry has been researched much less than the e-journal market. An overview of the e-book marketplace is a valuable starting point for academic library decision making about the management of e-book collections. Hence, the second study provided an overview of key e-book marketplace players and their services, by analysing the web sites of nine publishers and eleven aggregators as a basis for profiling their main services. The findings showed that the e-book market is changing. The majority of ebook vendors market typically to libraries, and publishers are increasingly using e-aggregators to distribute their titles. Collections of e-books are expanding gradually and e-book business models are complex and range considerably. Academic libraries are changing and e-books have been incorporated into their collections. The demand for e-books by library users is increasing and academic librarians are planning expansion of their e-book holdings. E-books are an exciting and controversial area for librarians but they pose various challenges to academic libraries. Nevertheless, the impact of ebooks on collection management practices is under-documented. Furthermore, the future of ebooks in academic libraries is a topic that has not been extensively investigated in the current literature. Therefore, the main study of this thesis provided in-depth insights into e-book management activities and what are the associated issues and challenges faced by the librarians. In addition, the study identified and validated the main stages of the e-book management process in academic libraries. Moreover, the main study gathered opinions on the factors that will affect the future and adoption of e-books in academic libraries. The survey approach was employed for the main study. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 librarians working in seven UK academic libraries, each with different sizes and with different levels of engagement with providing e-book services. The card-game method was incorporated into the interview process mainly in order to test and establish the process of e-book management in academic libraries. Overall, the findings confirmed past and recent studies on the management of e-books, whilst offering additional insights into specific practices and challenges. The central and most significant part of the study is the proposed e-book management framework of activities and the associated issues and challenges in academic libraries. The e-book management process is complex and practice needs further development at all the stages of the process

Well managed and good quality metadata plays a vital role in long-term data curation by capturing information necessary for the efficient functioning of different curation operations, such as data preservation and provenance tracking. For data preservation in particular, metadata can be used to record information required to reconstruct or at least understand the reconstruction process for digital resources on future technological platform. However, without curation, metadata itself may deteriorate in terms of its quality and integrity over time. Therefore, a digital curation process needs to incorporate the curation of metadata along with that of data in order to ensure the accurate description of data over the long-term. Unfortunately, no comprehensive method for effective curation of metadata for long periods of time is known to exist at present. Even the Reference Model for Open Archival Information System (OAIS), despite being the most comprehensive and widely adopted framework for long-term data preservation, does not address the requirements of long-term metadata curation in a comprehensive and unambiguous manner. This thesis presents an approach that aims to fill the void for an efficient strategy for curating digital metadata over the long-term. The approach involves the use of a "Metadata Curation Record" and a "Metadata Curation Model". The former is a curarion-aware metadata specification that captures additional statements about both data objects and associated metadata to aid long-term digital curation, while the latter is a specialised version of the "Data Management" module of the OAIS reference model, dedicated to the purpose of long-term metadata curation. The feasibility of the approach is demonstrated by a number of case studies and a web services based prototype system for metadata curation. In addition, this thesis outlines the main requirements of long-term metadata curation and presents an indepth assessment of the current state of play.

No description available.

The thesis begins with an introduction to the study, interdisciplinarity and information seeking behaviour. A review of the literature pertinent to information-seeking behaviour and interdisciplinarity leads to the suggestion that existing research is insufficient to address questions about the information behaviour of interdisciplinary researchers. From this review questions relating to the nature of interdisciplinary information behaviour and the shape of a model of interdisciplinary information seeking behaviour and how this relates to existing single discipline models are developed. The methodology of the study followed a naturalistic inquiry approach to the subject using interviews and inductive analysis while addressing validity within the Lincoln and Guba framework and is based around a sample of 45 academics selected using a combination of purposive and snowball sampling techniques. This thesis traces the development of the results in a sequence of chapters detailing core processes (Opening. Orientation, and Consolidation) and what may be termed "general influences" relating to Cognitive Approach, Internal Context and External Context. There are therefore three core processes and three levels of general influence, each composed of several individual activities and attributes. Further chapters discuss the relationship of the core processes and general influences and their position in a model. The behavioural patterns identified are analogous to an artist's palette in which activities remain available throughout the course of information seeking, each process iteratively leading back to a new selection from the palette. The interactivity and shifts described by the model show information seeking to be non-linear dynamic, holistic, and flowing. A non-linear model of interdisciplinary information behaviour is put forward. The resulting model presents an alternative framework for understanding interdisciplinary information seeking behaviour with wider implications based upon transferability of the findings to other contexts and plans for further research to develop the model.

No description available.

This thesis examines the rational basis for how people search online consumer reviews in service of purchasing decisions. It considers the questions of (1) how prior uncertainty about the relative value of alternatives affects the depth of opinion search (2) whether people have a preference to obtain more reviews for one of the alternatives under consideration, and (3) whether people have a tendency to obtain specific reviews, and take varying time to read reviews, depending on reviews rating. Two sequential sampling probabilistic models are proposed to describe opinion seeking behaviour. The central assumption in both models is that people consult online opinions to discriminate between the choice's alternatives. The first model examines only when opinion seeking ceases. The second model, extends the first, and additionally examines what information people gather, by proposing an Optimal Experimental Design theory which operationalises the value of information as the extent that it discriminates between alternatives. It is also sensitive to the shape of the distribution of review ratings in the world. Model predictions are generated, and tested in five controlled experiments. The work demonstrates that viewing online opinion search as optimally increasing the discrimination between alternatives by acquiring reviews, explains the effect of prior relative uncertainty on the depth of information search, and the preferences for which alternative to seek information. It also explains the preference to obtain reviews of lower rating, and to take more time to inspect them for inferior alternatives. However, it does not explain what appears to be a similar tendency to take more time to inspect a review with lower rating for the best alternative under consideration - which is explained however by an outcome maximisation search strategy. It is suggested that a new Optimal Experimental Design theory that takes into account the value of information in both discriminating between alternatives and maximizing choice outcome may offer a comprehensive account of the data. 10

No description available.