Enhancing the representation and relationship of information through ontology is a promising alternative approach for knowledge organization. This improved knowledge organization is vital for collocation of information and effective and efficient searching. This study concerned the testing of user performance when searching an ontology-driven information retrieval (ONTOIR) system that shows explicit relationships among resources. The study explores the possibilities of improving user performance in searching for information. The goal was to examine whether or not ontology enhances user performance in terms of recall and search time. The experiment was conducted with 40 participants to evaluate and compare the differences in user performance (recall and search time) between an ontology-driven information retrieval system and a traditional, thesaurus-driven information retrieval system. Better recall and shorter search time were found when conducting relationship-based queries in an ontology-driven information retrieval system as compared to a thesaurus-based system. . Further studies comparing user performance with a cluster-based search engine and an ontology-driven information retrieval system are needed. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Information in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2006. / Date of Defense: March 31, 2006. / Information Retrieval, Topic Maps, Ontology, Information Organization / Includes bibliographical references. / Kathleen Burnett, Professor Directing Dissertation; Akihito Kamata, Outside Committee Member; Gary Burnett, Committee Member; Darrell Burke, Committee Member; Kyunghye Kim, Committee Member.

The overarching question of this descriptive and interpretive study, was "What motivated youth to read the Harry Potter series?" Defining the focus and parameters of the study were three more specific sub-questions: What are the general reading interests, habits, and attitudes towards reading of the young readers who participated in this study? What factors do the young readers identify as initially attracting them to Harry Potter? What factors do the young readers identify as motivating them to continue to read Harry Potter? A purposive sample of six-hundred-seventy-one readers who responded to a request posted on three online discussion forums completed a web-based survey with results clarified or expanded via semi-structured interviews. The members of this unique-in-time group were born between 1984 and 1990 (18 to 24 years old at the time of the study), grew up in the United States, began reading the Harry Potter before 2000 and read each book as the series was published . The questionnaire administered during Phase One of this mixed methods explanatory model approach addressed the relationship of young readers who grew up with Harry Potter and the factors these readers identified as impacting their motivation to continue reading Rowling's series during the 10 years the books were published. The quantitative and qualitative results of the Phase One influenced the questions asked during Phase Two guided selection of the most appropriate subjects to interview. Phase Two utilized semi-structured qualitative interviews to more fully explore themes and data derived during analysis of Phase One data. Not employed in previous Harry Potter studies, Rosenblatt's reader response theory was drawn on to construct this research, resulting in a wealth of new insights into motivational factors for these avid young readers of Harry Potter. These readers differ from the general population of readers in many ways: they preferred reading adventure and fantasy over horror or science fiction, read for pleasure more frequently, and were more likely to perceive themselves as having strong reading skills. Factors identified as initially motivating this group to read Harry Potter were predominantly extrinsic, with friends most often identified as encouraging them to join the in on the experience. Continued motivation to read was largely found to be intrinsic in nature with personal associations and emotional attachments between readers and the characters, changes in the reading experience as readers matured and as the books became more complex, and strong links between the books and memories of childhood. Findings of this study have several potentially important implications for theory and practice. Theoretically, this study substantiates the validity of reader response theory as a method to understand reading interests, habits, and attitudes of youth. Preferences of enthusiastic readers differed from those of typical young readers. This enables provision of attention-grabbing materials and extends the scope of reading interest research. Finally, this study documents intrinsic motivation as more important than extrinsic motivation, at least in enthusiastic readers. Extrinsic motivators attracted new readers, but the magnitude of intrinsic factors on motivation to continue reading brings into question the widespread and often controversial use of extrinsic motivators for all children in school settings. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Information Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2009. / Date of Defense: December 11, 2008. / Reading Interests, Reader Response, Reading Motivation, Young Readers, Harry Potter / Includes bibliographical references. / Eliza T. Dresang, Professor Directing Dissertation; Susan Wood, Outside Committee Member; Don Latham, Committee Member; Nancy Everhart, Committee Member.

Web-based learning is rapidly expanding as a method of delivery in higher education. Nationally and internationally, more and more graduate degree programs are using this delivery method as a viable alternative to traditional campus based face-to face education. Educators need to examine the extent to which information needs of students are being met in web-based contexts. Because the majority of students enrolled in web-based courses do not live near enough to their host institution to take advantage of traditional information resources, they may not have the same opportunities to meet their information needs. Therefore, careful assessment and examination of student information needs is very critical to provide appropriate student services and to ensure student success. In addition, more research is required to explore the information needs of specific populations, such as multilingual students studying in web-based contexts. This instrumental case study was concerned with culture and information needs of multilingual graduate students in web-based learning contexts. Specifically, it aimed at answering the following research questions: 1) How and in what ways do multilingual graduate students in web-based degree programs perceive that their culture affects the way they meet their information needs in web-based learning contexts? 2) What do multilingual graduate students in web-based degree graduate programs perceive as their information needs? 3) What are the main characteristics and primary uses of information to satisfy multilingual graduate students' needs? The study used the Comprehensive Model of Information Seeking by Johnson (1997) as a theoretical foundation. The target population for this study was multilingual students who had partaken in a graduate level web-based learning degree program and/or course. This research employed semi-structured interviews as the primary data gathering technique. The findings of the study indicate that there were two types of factors influencing multilingual graduate students in web-based course contexts: a) factors relating to students' demographics and direct experience with the context and b) factors relating to the context in which web-based courses are delivered, such as course related factors, technical factors, time related factors, and course resource-related factors. Major findings of the study include that certain cultural elements directly affect the ways multilingual graduate students meet their information needs in web-based courses as they pursue their graduate degrees: Language; geographic location; level of education; communication and interaction skills and styles; length of stay in host country; and cultural proximity to culture of host country. Some cultural elements do not affect the students directly; they have indirect effects on the students, such as social class, nation of origin, and age. Finally, race or ethnicity, and gender were reported to have played no direct role in fulfilling their information needs in web-based courses. Other findings of the study include that students perceive that there are three types of information needs: a) information needs of the students relating to the University, b) information needs of the students relating to the program, and c) information needs of the students relating to courses. The participants were asked to characterize the types of information they used and describe all information sources that they utilized to satisfy their needs in web-based courses. Online library resources and course websites were two most often used information sources. Additionally, physical libraries, including the University libraries, local university, public, or community college libraries were used by the participants to meet their information needs. Textbooks and printed materials were among the other most often used information sources by the study participants. Finally, each participant was asked to identify and provide examples of information use activities where they met their information needs in their web-based courses. Students had to fulfill their information needs in three types of activities both synchronously and asynchronously: 1) class discussions individually or collectively; 2) individual assignments; and 3) group projects and assignments. In conclusion, an overview of this instrumental case study, limitations of the study and implications for the theoretical framework and information practices are presented. Recommendations for future research are made. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Information in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2005. / Date of Defense: August 6, 2004. / Online Learning, E-Learning, Web-Based Learning, Instructional Systems, Distance Learning, Higher Education, Information Seeking, Information Behaviour, Information Behavior, Information Needs, Culture, Information, Information Studies, Multilingual, Graduate Students, Instructional Design, Instrumental Case Study, Library Studies, Language, Anthropology, International Education / Includes bibliographical references. / Kathleen Burnett, Professor Directing Dissertation; Marcy Driscoll, Outside Committee Member; Michelle Kazmer, Committee Member; Gary Burnett, Committee Member.

The purpose of this ethnographic case study was to examine the factors inherent in the diffusion of information technology innovation in the school library media center. The introduction of innovation and the diffusion process were observed in a small, rural high school, as were the ways in which the school library media specialist responded to and affected the process. / Empirical data were gathered through observation, interviews, and document analysis and were organized and analyzed using the constant comparative method. A computer software program designed for use in qualitative research was employed in coding and memo writing. / A model illustrating three interactive and interrelated factors evident in the diffusion process was conceptualized. The factors are: facilitating diffusion, supporting diffusion, and shaping diffusion. Ten themes affecting the process and the role of the school library media specialist were manifested within these factors; the themes involved the attitudes and training of the specialist and of the faculty and administration as well as the characteristics of the innovations. Four diffusion-related roles of the professional were identified: change agent, innovator, opinion leader, and monitor. / As a result of the examination and analysis of the data, four assertions related to the role of the school library media specialist and the diffusion of information technology innovation were generated. (1) The professional is critical to the success of the diffusion of information technology innovation. (2) The specialist performs four co-occurring diffusion-related roles in the innovation process. (3) The professional diffuses information technology innovation to the entire school community. The time and effort required varies both with the number of innovations and with their complexity. (4) The established instructional and curricular roles of the school library media specialist will be strongly affected and changed by continuing involvement with information technology innovation. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-11, Section: A, page: 3914. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

Mobile devices with Internet capabilities and applications have dramatically increased the convenience of accessing information for community college students. This study uses technology acceptance theory as a theoretical framework to examine the determinants associated with community college students' behavioral intention to use of mobile learning and mobile library resources. The acceptance of mobile learning by students and educators is critical to the successful implementation of mobile learning systems therefore it is important to understand the factors that affect student intentions to use mobile learning. This research is based on relevant technology acceptance literature and the the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). The purpose of this study is to test the determinants of the behavioral intention to use mobile learning by community college students and to discover if there exist either age or gender differences in the acceptance of mobile learning. The results indicate that performance expectancy, social influence, perceived playfulness of learning, and voluntariness of use were all significant determinants of behavioral intention to use mobile learning. Effort expectancy and self-management were not found to be significant predictor variables. This research provides useful information in understanding the drivers of acceptance for mobile learning in order to take proactive interventions for students that may be less inclined to adopt mobile learning. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Library and Information Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2011. / Date of Defense: April 29, 2011. / educational technology, technology innovation, technology acceptance, voluntariness of use, self management of learning, UTAUT, TAM, mobile learning, mobile, perceived playfulness / Includes bibliographical references. / Gary Burnett, Professor Directing Dissertation; Allan Jeong, University Representative; Mia Liza A. Lustria, Committee Member; Lisa Tripp, Committee Member.

The 535 deposit collections (small collections of blind and physically handicapped (BPH) equipment and materials, e.g. talking-book cassette players and cassettes lent to facilities, e.g. nursing homes) in the direct service area of the Florida Division of Blind Services Library F/T Blind and Physically Handicapped in Daytona Beach were surveyed via a mail questionnaire during November 1989-February 1990 to determine: what deposit collections were being utilized by type of facility, e.g. nursing home and to what extent; what reactions deposit collection site personnel had towards: the Florida Regional Library (FRL), the operation of the deposit collections, and staff use of BPH equipment and materials with BPH users; what site personnel knew about the full range of services available from the FRL; what site personnel knew about in-house distribution and utilization of BPH equipment and materials with programming, e.g., poetry groups; and what type assistance was provided to BPH users, e.g. reader's advisory services. / A data analysis based on 274 total usable respondents produced: 28 conclusions; 7 national recommendations; 8 Florida Regional Library Recommendations; 7 deposit collection recommendations; and 3 study recommendations which included that given the non-availability of policies, procedures, guidelines, standards and/or operational manuals for deposit collection organization and operation and given a continued disregard for this condition, it was recommended that the FRL consider the discontinuance of deposit collection services. The study included: 24 Figures and 4 Tables; and the study instrument questionnaire in the Appendices. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-09, Section: A, page: 2909. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

Decision-making is one of the most important elements in the administration of any organization. University libraries are, of course, organizations. Inside these organizations the managers make a variety of decisions that will have a significant impact on the success of those libraries. Libraries' managers utilize different methods in processing their decisions. Many factors play roles in the success of libraries' managers. The manager's managerial decision style is one factor that contributes to the success of the manager and therefore to the success of their organization; and yet, there is a dearth of research about decision styles used in library administration and how they influence the decision-making process. The main purpose of this study was to explore the managerial decision styles of the managers (directors, associate directors, assistant directors, and the heads of departments) of Florida's state university libraries. A second purpose was to determine the relation between the variety of managers' decision styles and the following seven variables: gender, age, ethnicity, educational level, educational major, administrative experience, and current position. The results of this study will provide baseline information to improve our understanding of library managers and management. This study was grounded in the Decision Style Model developed by Alan Rowe and Richard O. Mason (1987). A survey questionnaire was employed in this study. The questionnaire included two parts: 1. "The Decision Style Inventory" (DSI) developed by Row and Mason (1987). This inventory was applied to measure the decision styles of the managers of Florida's state university main libraries. 2. The second part of the questionnaire consisted of questions designed to obtain descriptive data such as gender, age, ethnicity, educational level, educational major, current position, and administrative experience. According to the Decision Style Model, it was found that the predominant decision style for the majority of Florida's state university main libraries' managers was the behavioral decision style, followed by the conceptual decision style. The directive decision style was the style used least often by most of these managers. As for the decision style patterns, the findings inform us that the majority of Florida's state university main libraries' managers think using the right side of the brain rather than the left side. It was also found that there was no relationship was found between Florida's state university libraries' managers and their gender, age, or highest academic degree. On the other hand, the findings of this study indicated that years of administrative experience, ethnicity, position, and educational major of these managers were indeed related to the decision style or styles used by these managers. To date there has been no research conducted on profiling the decision styles of Florida's state university libraries' managers and the process of how they think in order to reach their decisions. Given this, the results of this study provided baseline information to improve our understanding of library managers and management in general and in particular, understanding of library managers and management in Florida's state university libraries. / A dissertation submitted to the School of Information Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2003. / Date of Defense: November 21, 2003. / Library managers, University library, Decision style / Includes bibliographical references. / John Bertot, Professor Directing Dissertation; Peter Garretson, Outside Committee Member; Thomas Hart, Committee Member; Darrell Burke, Committee Member.

This study was driven by the growing importance of electronic information resources in university scholarly inquiry. The main focus of the research was to discover graduate students' information needs, the level of these needs, and the extent to which they were being met in relation to accessing and utilizing electronic information in an academic environment. The study's conceptual framework was grounded in Dervin's sense-making theory. It used Kari's modification of sense-making to clarify the research questions and guide the survey questionnaire to examine Saudi graduate students' information actions (needs, seeking, and use) in the context of academic electronic information resources in Saudi Arabian universities. The study examined graduate students in three Saudi universities: Umm Al-Qura University, King Saud University, and King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals. Because the researcher wanted to examine a large sample of Saudi university graduate students' information needs, a quantitative survey was most practical and cost-effective. The variables of the study were gender, age, academic degree, major, English language proficiency, Internet experience, and university. The sample of the study was 502 graduate students (10% of all Saudi Arabian graduate students) in the three universities. There were 480 usable responses which were coded and analyzed using SPSS software. The study used both descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings indicated that only half of graduate students used the library's electronic resources for their academic information needs. Chi-square test found a significant relationship between graduate students' use or lack of use of their library's electronic resources and the students' situational variables. Of those students who used the library's electronic resources, only about half needed these for written class assignments (61.1%), their thesis or dissertation (59.8%), and/or personal use (47.1%). Only 18.4% needed electronic information for oral class presentations and 8.6% for other purposes. For information strategies, the library's electronic resources were never ranked as the first strategy of the six that were available. Kendall's tau-b test indicated a significant relationship between graduate students' strategies and their English proficiency. Of those graduate students who used the library's electronic resources, most said they always accessed the Online Catalog (59.0%) and the Internet (60.2%), but only sometimes used electronic journals (52.9%), databases (50.4%), and other links on the library website (45.1%). The analysis of variance (ANOVA) test revealed significant differences between students' English language proficiency and the frequency of their use of these resources. Most students tended to agree that they were able to make sense of the information they got from the library's electronic resources. However, they could not tell if they achieved information success or information overall satisfaction. ANOVA showed significant differences between students' major and their judgment on the usefulness of the retrieved information. The main barrier to student information actions was insufficient instructions for using or searching the library's electronic resources followed by not enough librarians to help. Other barriers were insufficient availability of computers or computer labs and libraries did not improve graduate students information technology skills. Difficulty accessing the Internet and the library's electronic resources, clarity and ease of use of these resources, and relationship to their field were additional barriers to electronic information. Overall, the study showed that, for a variety of reasons, the considerable electronic information resources of Saudi university libraries are under-utilized because they are not meeting graduate student needs. The most striking finding for this study was that most of the graduate students were deterred from using electronic resources, apparently due to experienced or perceived barriers. Graduate students who accessed these resources often found them not useful for their needs, further discouraging use. Instead, many graduate students' information seeking situations were very diverse, yet the usefulness of library electronic information was questionable. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Information Studies in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2004. / Date of Defense: June 10, 2004. / Electronic resources, information need, information seeking, Saudi Arabia, Academic libraries, graduate students / Includes bibliographical references. / Kathleen Burnett, Professor Directing Dissertation; Peter Garretson, Outside Committee Member; Thomas Hart, Committee Member; Darrell Burke, Committee Member.

One of the most important roles of the online instructor is to insure successful teaching by keeping students' interactions and discussions focused on topic, adding knowledge and expertise, and maintaining group harmony. Therefore, the success of online learning depends on the instructors' ability to acquire new competencies, rather than mastering the technology. Despite the growth in online instructor competency related studies, there is a lack of research regarding the instructors' roles and competencies from the distance learning students' perspective. This study was an attempt to explore distance learning students' perceptions of the roles and competencies defined by experts in the field. A comprehensive list of roles, outputs, and competencies of online instructors were provided to the students in order to rate the importance of each role and competency. It was the purpose of this study to compare the findings of this study with the findings of pervious studies. The population of this study included all distance learning graduate students (n = 328) currently enrolled in the School of Information Studies at Florida State University. Forty-two percent (n = 140) of the original student population of 328, completed and submitted the online survey. Roles and competencies were ranked by their importance; ranking was also achieved by taking the average of competency means across roles and competencies. Results for the top ten competencies in overall importance, based on highest mean rating are: Content Knowledge, Facilitation (discussion) Skills, Organizational Skills, Planning Skills, English Proficiency, Presentation Skills, Interpersonal Communication Skills, Learning Styles and Theory, Teaching Strategies/models, Skills with Internet Tools for Instruction. The findings also determined that when compared to previous competency studies, there was a significant difference between students' perceptions and experts' perceptions regarding the most important online instructor competencies. Experts rated social competencies (interpersonal communication skills) number one in the list of top ten most important online instructor competencies; on the other hand, students rated intellectual competencies (content knowledge) number one in their list of top ten. However, both experts and students concurred regarding managerial competencies, because both rated at least four managerial skills in the list of top ten competencies. Distance learning students' responses indicated that instructors should give careful attention to the development and improvement of their intellectual, social, managerial, and technical roles and competencies. The importance of paying attention to the technical and managerial roles, in addition to intellectual and social competencies of the online instructor, were emphasized as critical factors for the success of discussion and interaction in the online environment. This dissertation has helped bridge the gap between the perceptions of distance education experts and distance learning students by providing a comprehensive list of important online instructors' roles and competencies. Due to the rate of change in technologies used to deliver instruction and related changes in higher education, it is recommended to do another study to identify more roles and competencies. This study should be expanded to include the perceptions of students in different disciplines and other countries. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Information Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2004. / Date of Defense: April 1, 2004. / Online instructor competencies, students' perspectives, distance learning / Includes bibliographical references. / Thomas L. Hart, Professor Directing Dissertation; Peter P. Garretson, Outside Committee Member; John C. Bertot, Committee Member; Michelle M. Kazmer, Committee Member.

Over the past half-century, the expression of sexuality has become ubiquitous in most sectors of American society. From the free love movement associated with the 1960s to Harvey Milk's agitations for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights in the 1970s, "sex" is no longer an expletive in United States culture. Recent television shows like Modern Family and The L Word celebrate those whom Milk sought to represent, and earlier programming like Maude exemplified female self-actualization and self-discovery. However, as gender and queer studies have expanded in the past five decades, certain arenas have lagged in terms of attitudes toward sexual understanding. The world of competitive sports is known to be a hyper-sexualized and hyper-masculine realm, but sex and gender add a new dimension of complexity. Structures of sexuality work to maintain overarching social standards; scholar Jayne Caudwell finds that when an athlete challenges those paradigms, fans respond negatively. Whether the stories of such occurrences concern behaviors, such as promiscuity, or inborn traits like sexual preference or gender identity, ardent fans and casual readers alike tend to respond with shock, disdain or despair when their heroes fall from grace. This qualitative analysis utilizes the works of Kenneth Burke and Judith Butler in examining reactions to controversial stories regarding American professional golfer Tiger Woods and South African runner Caster Semenya. A variety of continuously-updated, Internet-facilitated sources such as blogs are used as the primary texts for research into the mindset of the American sports fan. This allows for a diverse slate of root materials for the analysis, as well as a more assuredly accurate portrayal of fans' voices in the interest of determining the causes and implications of sports fans' reactions to stories concerning athletes' sexuality. / A Thesis submitted to the School of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2011. / Date of Defense: July 6, 2011. / Media studies, Journalism / Includes bibliographical references. / Jeanette L. Castillo, Professor Directing Thesis; Stephen D. McDowell, Committee Member; Donna Marie Nudd, Committee Member.