This study focuses on the effects of Mild Cognitive Impairment and other minor memory impairments on a person’s ability to successfully use the Internet. Participants over sixty-five years of age were recruited from retirement communities and were selected based on self-reports of Mild Cognitive Impairment or other cognitive difficulties when using the Internet. Interviews with the participants focused on their abilities to use Email, Chat/Instant Messenger and the World Wide Web. Participants were then asked to step through several Internet-related tasks in order to further identify problem areas. Seven participants were interviewed, and six of them completed the optional observation session. The data collected from the interviews and observation sessions were then broken down into different categories, based on the type of difficulties experienced during Internet use. Finally, recommendations were made for good Web design practices intended to overcome the difficulties identified during the study.

It is widely recognised that meaning and interpretation are fundamental aspects of user-system interaction in the retrieval of specialised information. Important constituents of information retrieval system are thesauri. To identify what understandings of thesauri exist, is crucial to improve instruction of database users and for an assessment of the functioning of thesauri in specialised information. Thesauri as phenomena can be viewed from a techno scientific perspective and a lifeworld perspective. The lifeworld perspective is made up of the collective understanding of those who use them. Lifeworld aspects of thesauri, i.e., how they are understood by social science researchers, have been disclosed by applying phenomenographic research against the background of the hermeneutical constitution of the online dialogue. The phenomenographic interpretative model has been used since its knowledge interest focuses on how techno scientific concepts are conceived of in the lifeworld. This has rendered descriptions of conceptions of thesauri in the form of two main categories: 1) the thesaurus as being separable from the database with the subcategories a) the thesaurus as a control device, and b) as incomplete terminology; 2) the thesaurus as being inseparable from the database with the subcategories of a) descriptors as evaluation criteria, and b) as search enhancers. Based on the configuration of the online dialogue, searching without understanding the thesaurus has also been described in the form of a third, 'empty' category and contrasted with the conceptions of thesauri. The findings represent a contribution to the hermeneutics of the online dialogue, and the results are immediately applicable for the development of discourses in the instruction of end-users and future information professionals. They also provide an empirical argument in support of further conceptual development of thesauri, which strives to make explicit the meaning of descriptors by incorporating terminological and epistemological knowledge, thus integrating domain knowledge into the database search process. The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted for a degree or diploma at any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made.

Objetivo: Avaliar os resultados da capacitação de usuários de buscas informatizadas, através do Curso de Acesso às Bases em CD-ROM MEDLINE e LILACS, modalidade do Programa Educativo da Biblioteca da Faculdade de Saúde Publica da USP, oferecido a docentes e alunos da pós-graduação em saúde pública. Método: Questionário estruturado enviado aos 92 participantes dos Cursos, no período de 1993 e 1995. Resultados: Os resultados mostraram que após a participação no Curso 65,2% deles conseguiram autonomia no acesso às bases de dados, 15,2% solicitaram buscas intermediadas pelo bibliotecário, e 19,6% não realizaram forma alguma de busca nas bases da Biblioteca. O usuário que busca esse tipo de capacitação é principalmente o aluno de cursos de pós-graduação (79,3%), com formação básica na área de ciências biológicas (81,5%), para suas atividades acadêmicas (79,4%), com o objetivo de buscar autonomia no acesso à informação (72,8%). A intermediação dos bibliotecários foi solicitada por motivos como: pouca familiaridade com as bases, dificuldade em lidar com tecnologia, confiança na busca realizada pelo bibliotecário e falta de tempo para busca, evidenciando a necessidade do usuário contar também com os serviços de busca realizado pelo bibliotecário, confirmada por 79,4% dos participantes do Curso. O Curso também foi avaliado quanto ao seu conteúdo, estrutura, metodologia, material didático e demais aspectos específicos à organização de capacitação desse nível. Conclusão: O Curso MEDLINE/LILACS está atendendo às necessidades dos usuários das buscas informatizadas, porém a Biblioteca deve ter o compromisso de mantê-lo pois quanto mais tecnologia a Biblioteca disponibiliza, maior é o seu compromisso em capacitar seu usuário. / This study analyses the results of end-user instruction through the databases modulated course in CD-ROM MEDLINE / LILACS, modality of the Library of the School of Public Health of University of S.Paulo Educational Program, offered to health sciences scientists and postgraduate students. It uses a mailed questionnaire which was answered by 66% of the 140 course participants between November/1993 and November/1995. The whole of the category studied was 92 end-users. The results demonstrate that former students, who have done researches in the Library, managed, in most cases (65,2%), to acquire autonomy in using databases, some of them (15,2%) requested librarians interventions, and some of them (19,6%) didn´t use the databases of the Public Health Library, during this period. It determines the end-user searching profile and it shows that the course is mainly looked for by the postgraduate students (79,3%), health area (81,5%), for their academic activities (79,4%) and by those who look for information access autonomy (72,8%) when they decide to participate in such courses. The users who do intermediary searching, appear to use an intermediary mainly for reasons such as: the lack of information technology, lack of familiarity with databases, reliability in the searches made by librarians and, lack of time for searching. The results demonstrate that 79,4% of end-users would like to do both end-user searching and intermediary searching. This study also analyses the Course contents, structure, methodology and didactic materials. This paper gets to the conclusion that end-users, in the whole, consider to be more important that the Library maintains this course and this kind of information user continuous educational program. This survey findings suggests other evaluations to be held to check the end-user’s performance.

Objetivo: Avaliar os resultados da capacitação de usuários de buscas informatizadas, através do Curso de Acesso às Bases em CD-ROM MEDLINE e LILACS, modalidade do Programa Educativo da Biblioteca da Faculdade de Saúde Publica da USP, oferecido a docentes e alunos da pós-graduação em saúde pública. Método: Questionário estruturado enviado aos 92 participantes dos Cursos, no período de 1993 e 1995. Resultados: Os resultados mostraram que após a participação no Curso 65,2% deles conseguiram autonomia no acesso às bases de dados, 15,2% solicitaram buscas intermediadas pelo bibliotecário, e 19,6% não realizaram forma alguma de busca nas bases da Biblioteca. O usuário que busca esse tipo de capacitação é principalmente o aluno de cursos de pós-graduação (79,3%), com formação básica na área de ciências biológicas (81,5%), para suas atividades acadêmicas (79,4%), com o objetivo de buscar autonomia no acesso à informação (72,8%). A intermediação dos bibliotecários foi solicitada por motivos como: pouca familiaridade com as bases, dificuldade em lidar com tecnologia, confiança na busca realizada pelo bibliotecário e falta de tempo para busca, evidenciando a necessidade do usuário contar também com os serviços de busca realizado pelo bibliotecário, confirmada por 79,4% dos participantes do Curso. O Curso também foi avaliado quanto ao seu conteúdo, estrutura, metodologia, material didático e demais aspectos específicos à organização de capacitação desse nível. Conclusão: O Curso MEDLINE/LILACS está atendendo às necessidades dos usuários das buscas informatizadas, porém a Biblioteca deve ter o compromisso de mantê-lo pois quanto mais tecnologia a Biblioteca disponibiliza, maior é o seu compromisso em capacitar seu usuário. / This study analyses the results of end-user instruction through the databases modulated course in CD-ROM MEDLINE / LILACS, modality of the Library of the School of Public Health of University of S.Paulo Educational Program, offered to health sciences scientists and postgraduate students. It uses a mailed questionnaire which was answered by 66% of the 140 course participants between November/1993 and November/1995. The whole of the category studied was 92 end-users. The results demonstrate that former students, who have done researches in the Library, managed, in most cases (65,2%), to acquire autonomy in using databases, some of them (15,2%) requested librarians interventions, and some of them (19,6%) didn´t use the databases of the Public Health Library, during this period. It determines the end-user searching profile and it shows that the course is mainly looked for by the postgraduate students (79,3%), health area (81,5%), for their academic activities (79,4%) and by those who look for information access autonomy (72,8%) when they decide to participate in such courses. The users who do intermediary searching, appear to use an intermediary mainly for reasons such as: the lack of information technology, lack of familiarity with databases, reliability in the searches made by librarians and, lack of time for searching. The results demonstrate that 79,4% of end-users would like to do both end-user searching and intermediary searching. This study also analyses the Course contents, structure, methodology and didactic materials. This paper gets to the conclusion that end-users, in the whole, consider to be more important that the Library maintains this course and this kind of information user continuous educational program. This survey findings suggests other evaluations to be held to check the end-user’s performance.