Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the Masters Degree in Library and Information Science at the University of Zululand in the Department of Library and Information Science, South Africa, 2011. / This study investigated the feasibility of providing Library and Information Management higher education and training locally in Swaziland. It aimed to determine if it is possible and necessary for Swaziland to be involved in the education and training of its own Library and Information Management professionals within the country. The study was centered on two major concerns facing the country with respect to Library and Information Management practice. These were the dependence of the country on foreign schools to acquire higher education and training, and the required funding to import such education and training into the country. Also highlighted were issues of the relevance of the imported education and training and major concerns concerning funding for higher education and training in other countries. The study had seven objectives as follows: • To investigate the state of Library and Information Management higher education and training in Swaziland • To determine if there is a need for the local higher education and training of candidates to the profession and existing professionals in Swaziland • To investigate whether or not there is a market for Library and Information Management professionals to be educated and trained in Swaziland • To investigate the availability of infrastructure that is required for providing higher education and training in Library and Information Management in Swaziland • To establish the challenges and opportunities of providing Library and Information Management higher education and training in the country • To determine the feasibility of providing Library and Information Management higher education and training in Swaziland with respect to cost, relevance and human resources • To determine the role of major stakeholders, such as the government and the Library and Information Professional Association, in providing local higher education and training in Library and Information Management The study targeted five population groups as follows: • Prospective entrants to the Library and Information Management profession • Existing and practicing Library and Information Management employees • Job advertisements for Library and Information Management personnel • Existing and potential employers of Library and Information Management employees • Training institutions likely to host Library and Information Management higher education and training In this study, both qualitative and quantitative data was obtained using survey questionnaires, interviews, content analysis, and observation. Questionnaires gathered data from prospective entrants to the profession of Library and Information Management and existing employees in the profession. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with current and potential employers in the government and major Library and Information Management service organizations. Content analysis of newspaper advertisements for the job market in Library and Information Management was performed on two v local dailies spanning a period of four years (2005 - 2008). Observation was conducted in two higher education institutions to check whether or not they were capable of hosting Library and Information Management education. Prospective entrants, employees, employers and the training institutions highly favoured higher education in Library and Information Management within the country. 155 (64 %) of the prospective entrants expressed their willingness to join the profession of Library and Information Management and pursue higher education, and this could increase to 196 (81 %) with effective marketing campaigns that would woe the 41 (17 %) who were undecided / flexible prospective entrants. Many employees also expressed their desire for local higher education in Library and Information Management. The employees – most with foreign-acquired qualifications – desired to further their higher education and training in the local environment. Employers also continuously emphasized the feasibility of hosting higher education in Library and Information Management in Swaziland. The employers suggested that Swaziland must first introduce diploma programs before proceeding to degree levels. The government as a stakeholder ensured its financial support in sponsoring the pursuit of local higher education in Library and Information Management by local candidates. Both of the visited higher education institutions were suitable in terms of infrastructure. The University of Swaziland displayed more infrastructure and resources and is suitable for both graduate and postgraduate programs. Mananga’s infrastructure and resources could host a diploma and certificate program in Library and Information Management. Content analysis was performed on 98 newspaper advertisements obtained from 2084 papers. The percentage of the obtained advertisements against the total number of papers scanned was low at 9 %. This would suggest low feasibility, but only if the expectation is that job advertisements for a profession would run every day in a local newspaper. Employers in Library and Information Management, however, insisted on the availability of jobs in the local market and highlighted several positive indicators of a growing market in this profession. It was recommended that in hosting programs, the duplication of hosting institutions should be avoided for a small country like Swaziland, and stakeholder participation and involvement should be maintained for the continued success of the education programs. Relevance should also be fairly addressed and balanced for the local, regional and international applicability of locally acquired qualifications. Tracer studies on the usefulness of the educational programs against changing needs of the market would be necessary, and within the first five years, assessments should be conducted in order to positively influence the programs.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Masters of Commerce in Management, 2018 / This study sought to contribute to a further convergence between three topical research areas: Personal Knowledge Management (PKM), Individual Work Performance (IWP) and SelfPerceived Employability (SPE). Specifically, this study investigated the moderating effect of SPE on the relationship between PKM and IWP. PKM is an interdisciplinary concept, connected with management science, information science; information technology and other disciplines. The shift from the industrial economy to the knowledge economy has contributed to the surfacing of the knowledge-based view of the organisations and the emergence of the concept of knowledge workers or “people who think for a living” (Davenport, 2005). Knowledge workers are individuals who possess or seek to develop unique cognitive competencies and skills built upon effective PKM. While it has been acknowledged in the literature that PKM encompasses a competency aspect on the one hand and a technological perspective on the other hand, the overall reflection conducted in this study claimed to be skills/competencies centric. In that regard, a competency model developed by Kirby (2005, 2008) comprising of four-fold dimensions was used in this study to measure PKM. These four dimensions include analytical competencies (ANL), social competencies (SOC), information competencies (INF) and learning competencies (LRN). The construct of IWP relates to the individual behaviours or actions displayed by knowledge workers which are relevant to the goals of the organisation. This implies that IWP focuses on behaviours or actions of workers rather than the results of these actions. In addition, these behaviours should be under the control of the individual, thus excluding behaviours that are constrained by the environment. IWP was measured using the three components relevant to the IWP namely task performance (TSK), contextual performance (CON) and counterproductive work behavior (CWB). Employability concerns the extent to which people possess the skills and other attributes to find and stay in the kind of work they want. Such individuals are assumed to display a greater propensity to IWP. SPE is relating to a self-assessment of the employees as to how the organisation they are working for value them as individuals. Most importantly, SPE is associated with v individuals’ self-perception of their merit based more on their personal competencies than features of their occupation. Through a review of relevant literature this study discussed how PKM impacts IWP, and how SPE can potentially impact that relationship. This study used a sample of working professional students studying at Wits Plus (the University of the Witwatersrand’s centre for part-time studies), Wits Business School and Wits School of Governance and will perform Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and hierarchical regression for data analysis. / XL2019

Personal Information Management (PIM) studies the practice of storing, organizing, and retrieving information by an individual in support of their roles and tasks (Bergman, et al., 2004). One important problem in PIM is information fragmentation (IF) — the condition of having data in different formats, distributed across multiple locations, manipulated by different applications, and residing in a generally disconnected manner (Tungare, 2007). IF can conflict with the PIM ideal that users should have access to the right information at the right time, in the right place, in the right form, and of sufficient completeness and quality to perform the task at hand (Bergman, et al., 2004). It is typically assumed that IF is unintentional, and occurs as a result of the many applications and devices we use to do our daily work. It is further assumed that IF is "bad" or has negative consequences. In this thesis, I study when IF occurs intentionally. Intentional IF (IIF) refers to the fragmentation in PIM that occurs when a person fragments his or her own personal data purposefully. Although research into the problem of IF has been growing quickly in the past decade, IIF has not been investigated in the literature. Prior studies have portrayed IF as a problematic type of information management. Email is a common context in which IF is found. While IF in email may be unintentional, such as when required by an employer, it is also likely to be intentional, as is the case when users use separate email accounts for different purposes. To further the research in this field, this project investigated the phenomenon of IIF in email by conducting and analyzing data from an online survey. In addition to finding the extent of IIF in email, the survey addressed what motivates the participant to purposely fragment their email as well as the advantages and disadvantages in doing so. My study is the first that has explored intentional fragmentation of information. The findings of this study show that IIF exists in email usage, revealing that IIF occurs across a user's devices and also across a user's multiple email accounts. The two most common motivations for IIF are to keep information separated by the user's social roles (work, school, personal communications, etc.), and to filter out extraneous information in order to simplify their information management. These results show that in addition to the negative consequences of IF there also exists positive uses of IF, that is helpful for some users. / Master of Science

Collaborative engineering assumes a common understanding of the domain. To make joint decisions the engineers must have a common language to start from. Standards such as STEP may be used to communicate engineering data but to speak about information integration and interoperability there must be ways to expose and share concepts as well. By defining the concepts in a reference data library it is possible to extend the generic information models with a more precise definition of the content being exchanged. However, since concepts are depending on the context (the business) they have to be identified and defined. Thus, to reach this level of integration we must take a broader approach to information modelling incorporating product realization concepts into our modelling effort. This thesis presents a new reference model for manufacturing applications. It shows how the business may be modelled to identify the product realization concepts and how to foster a shared understanding of the information being exchanged using available technology. The reference model has been used and verified when developing the PIL application; a kind of engineering process support system for machine procurement, but may also be used in a wider sense when developing the next generation of model driven solutions. / QC 20101118

Providing an effective mechanism for personal information retrieval is important for many applications, and requires different techniques than have been developed for general web search. This thesis focuses on developing retrieval models and representations for personal search, and on designing evaluation frameworks that can be used to demonstrate retrieval effectiveness in a personal environment. From the retrieval model perspective, personal information can be viewed as a collection of multiple document types each of which has unique metadata. Based on this perspective, we propose a retrieval model that exploits document metadata and multi-type structure. Proposed retrieval models were found to be effective in other structured document collections, such as movies and job descriptions. Associative browsing is another search method that can complement keyword search. To support this type of search, we propose a method for building an association graph representation by combining multiple similarity measures based on a user's click patterns. We also present a learning techniques for refining the graph structure based on user's clicks. Evaluating these methods is particularly challenging for personal information due to privacy issues. This thesis introduces a set of techniques that enables realistic and repeatable evaluation of techniques for personal information retrieval. In particular, we describe techniques for simulating test collections and show that game-based user studies can collect more realistic usage data with relatively small cost.

This diploma thesis deals with the Product Information Management (PIM) and compares PIM software tools. Its goal is to introduce the area of the PIM systems in Czech language. Next subgoal is to define system of criteria. It is also necessary to achieve the last goal -- to analyze and compare PIM software. The method I used is the exploration of information sources; obtaining information through email communication and use of empirical knowledge to define system of criteria. The contribution of this work is the same as its goals. The work is divided into two parts. The first theoretical part deals with PIM definitions, context, functionality, architectures and PIM market developing. The second practical part involves selecting of particular PIM software tools, defining system of criteria and comparison of PIM software tools.

No description available.

After the break-up of the former Soviet Union in 1991, several states declared independence, including the Republic of Kazakhstan. Under the centralised soviet system Kazakhstan provided mainly raw materials to the USSR, and agriculture operated under a Moscow-based command and control model. Kazakhstan possesses vast wealth of mineral and energy resources and its agricultural land is well able to ensure national food security. However, after independence the rapid and frequently unplanned state actions such as land reform, taken to move from socialism to a market economy, were not always successful and the state of agriculture was initially one of chaos. A major exodus from the land to the cities ensued. Gradually Kazakhstani agriculture recovered some of its productivity but still lags well behind developed nations in the use of ICT supported agricultural information management (AIM). This research contributes to new knowledge in the area of ICT-based AIM by supplementing the limited statistical and scientific analyses of Kazakh agriculture by seeking to discover, through semi-structured interviews, the views and perceptions of agrarians who are both the customers and end users of ICT-based AIM in a post-soviet state. The researcher established that agrarian stakeholders were aware of the need for a centralised AIM system, but felt that to implement it, more assistance was required from the state. Kazakhstan can learn from the experiences of both developed and developing countries in furthering ICT-based AIM, and although its situation is unique, understanding of the perceptions of end users, who have had to make a series of flawed initiatives work, will arguably be relevant to policy makers in other post-soviet states.

The objective of this thesis has been to develop a framework to support the evaluation of information strategies of UK higher education institutions (REIs). For this study the theoretical and empirical literature was extensively reviewed and four substantial pieces of empirical research were conducted. These included action research CAR), two pieces of ethnographic research, and a case study. The AR analysed problems encountered with a Student Records System at a UK university and identified both immediate and deeper causes for these problems. Ethnography I involved the researcher's participation in the information strategy development process at the same university: This included consideration of the development processes adopted and also the way that decisions were taken. Ethnography II consisted of participant observation at a range of workshops and conferences organised by the Joint Information Systems Committee on information strategy development at UK REIs. These provided a broad picture of information strategy development procedures being adopted across these HEls. The case study investigated in detail the implementation of an information strategy at a university different from that examined in AR and Ethnography I. These empirical investigations all included in-depth interviews. In total 117 people of various levels and backgrounds involved in information strategies and associated information systems within UK HEIs were interviewed. Key findings from the empirical research were: Many HEIs in the process of developing an information strategy, or about to do so, were not fully sure how this should be achieved nor the extent of the likely benefits. Most HEIs implementing information strategies were using top-down directed system approaches, leaving little room for more inclusive bottom-up emergent planning. Information strategies need to be developed and evaluated using strongly human-centred methods, primarily because it became apparent that the successful functioning of such a strategy is dependent on the motivation and competencies of the people who create and use the information. Investigations into aspects of information strategy development and implementation need to focus on people's perceptions of the situation rather than seeking an objective truth independent of the participants. This reflects a Kantian perspective of knowledge. Overall, the empirical findings supported the use of a Critical Systems Thinking approach in the evaluation of information strategies at higher education institutions. The development of the evaluative framework, the main objective of the thesis, took place in two phases: developing the framework based on the literature review and revising the framework from the empirical research investigations involving a process of critical iteration. The first phase identified a range of elements associated with an HErs information strategy, and for each element highlighted the relevant theoretical andlor empirical literature that bears on the issues being addressed. In particular, the framework is strongly influenced by insights drawn from the work of three key social theorists: Kant, Habermas and Foucault. In addition, the framework includes 'guidelines for evaluation', where these are more practical questions to ask and areas to investigate when evaluating a given element ofthe strategy. The second phase took the framework through a series of reflections and revisions based on the findings from the empirical investigations. In each case, insights were gained that related to the use or applicability ofthe framework. By combining the findings from the theoretical and empirical literature with those from the empirical research, the final framework, which is believed to have filled a gap in the theoretical literature, aims to encompass the complexity of information strategy development and implementation within HEIs. The framework reflects a human-centred and Critical Systems Thinking approach, and is designed to allow potential evaluators to identify underlying causes for the success or failure of an information strategy that is implemented at an HEI.

With the advent of digital imagery and its wide spread application in all vistas of life, it has become an important component in the world of communication. Video content ranging from broadcast news, sports, personal videos, surveillance, movies and entertainment and similar domains is increasing exponentially in quantity and it is becoming a challenge to retrieve content of interest from the corpora. This has led to an increased interest amongst the researchers to investigate concepts of video structure analysis, feature extraction, content annotation, tagging, video indexing, querying and retrieval to fulfil the requirements. However, most of the previous work is confined within specific domain and constrained by the quality, processing and storage capabilities. This thesis presents a novel framework agglomerating the established approaches from feature extraction to browsing in one system of content based video retrieval. The proposed framework significantly fills the gap identified while satisfying the imposed constraints of processing, storage, quality and retrieval times. The output entails a framework, methodology and prototype application to allow the user to efficiently and effectively retrieved content of interest such as age, gender and activity by specifying the relevant query. Experiments have shown plausible results with an average precision and recall of 0.91 and 0.92 respectively for face detection using Haar wavelets based approach. Precision of age ranges from 0.82 to 0.91 and recall from 0.78 to 0.84. The recognition of gender gives better precision with males (0.89) compared to females while recall gives a higher value with females (0.92). Activity of the subject has been detected using Hough transform and classified using Hiddell Markov Model. A comprehensive dataset to support similar studies has also been developed as part of the research process. A Graphical User Interface (GUI) providing a friendly and intuitive interface has been integrated into the developed system to facilitate the retrieval process. The comparison results of the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) shows that the performance of the system closely resembles with that of the human annotator. The performance has been optimised for time and error rate.