This thesis examines factors affecting the dissemination of findings arising from DHSS-funded health and personal social services (HPSS) research. The Department's programme covers a broad area of HPSS research, and is highly diverse in respect of topics, methods, research personnel and institutions, etc. The findings of projects within this programme are normally expected to have relevance to 'customer divisions' within the Department, whilst also having interest and implications for a variety of extra-Departmental groups. For the purpose of this investigation, DHSS, the research community and research audiences were each viewed as 'open systems' exchanging information (along with other commodities) with one another. Researchers and 'key actors' within DHSS (i.e. personnel concerned with research management and the Department's information resources and publications) were interviewed to determine the nature and extent of their communication practices, and to examine how each came to adopt his or her particular methods for processing and transmitting research information. The handling of completed research within the Department was further studied by means of an analysis of the minutes and papers of the DESS Research Liaison Groups. Amongst other findings it is shown that the fixed-term nature of research funding limits researchers' opportunities for a full dissemination of their findings. meanwhile, the research community's reward system leads researchers to publish their findings preferentially in specialist research journals. Dissemination to the field, to practitioners in particular, is further frustrated by the Department's uncertainty with regard to the role which it should play in assisting or effecting such action, and by its preferential concern for the consideration of the implications of research findings for primary Departmental 'customers'.

The research explores the theoretical possibility of a semiotic approach to the Museum phenomenon, seen as a process of communication and signification, and the consequences on the determination of the social function of museums, in its semantic and pragmatic levels. It proposes a new discipline for the field - that of 'Museum Semiotics', as a theoretical background and a tool for the understanding of museums as 'semiosic spaces', acting in the cultural process through their 'communicative actions'. PARTS I and II propose the basic assumptions and premises for the study of the specific Museum Language, defining its terms and concepts, and considering museum objects as bearing a 'sign-function', as 'signifying units' used in the construction of messages and 'discourses', manifested or hidden in museum exhibitions. The mechanisms of the process of sign production and of sign interpretation in the Museum context, the concept of 'museality', the Museum 'mythological speech', the interplay of codes and the interaction between emitters and receivers in the museum communication process, are explored here. PARTS III and IV propose and develop a preliminary model of analysis of exhibition 'texts' and of their specific 'rhetorics', applied in a particular case study, the exhibition on 'Buddhism, Art and Faith', held at the British Museum (1985), in order to detect the multiple ways in which the public 'reads' a Museum message, and all the elements working in this process. PART V presents the conclusions and insights on Museum Communication, on exhibition production and evaluation, on Museum Education, and on new fields of research opened up through the approach of Museum Semiotics, proposing a strategy for changing the conditions of communication, through open and aesthetic texts, which may encourage the visitors to recover their freedom of decoding'.

The thesis aims to investigate the implications of incidental recall for the design of personal information systems. Incidental recall is defined here as memory, without prior intent to recall, for information that is not meaningfully related to the information handling situation. When an information worker fails to recall how information is filed, is uncertain of its whereabouts, retrieval of that information becomes problematic and can result in the system not being used. One possible approach to solving this problem is to increase technological power, but even though electronic filing systems may offer varied and complex functions to assist information management, these functions lose their value if the systems are not actually used. An alternative approach to solving this problem is tailoring the system to make use of information that human memory can remember with little or no effort, in particular using attributes that human memory can recall incidentally, as labels for files. An experimental paradigm was developed to explore the nature of incidental recall for aspects of office information. The scarcity of investigative work using realistic, information handling, tasks to investigate incidental recall prompted the experimental design using a realistic task for an office worker. A business simulation game was employed involving the subjects sorting information, in the form of documents, based on decisions about their information content. Situated on the documents' were "Icons", logo-like designs, each with unique attributes of colour, location, and shape. Following the sorting task, the subjects participated in an unexpected test for each attribute of the icon. Four experiments were run within this paradigm which involved subjects experiencing varying levels of exposure to different combinations of attributes. The analysis provided substantial evidence for incidental recall of the attributes. Incidental recall of the attributes varied as a function of the task orientation. Evidence suggested a predisposition to integrate colour and shape in memory, while in contrast, location had a tendency to be recalled independently of the other attributes. The findings suggest that incidental recall as a filing aid will be most useful when attributes incidental to the information content are actively used in the course of handling the information.

The developed countries are_moving swiftly and steadily towards electronic information handling and exchange. The speed of this progress needs to be matched in Higher Education libraries in the Arab countries to cope with the advancement of research and scientific activity. There are hundreds of academic libraries in Arab countries with an enormous wealth of library collections and a rapid growth of potential library users. This study aims to investigate the main factors involved in the development of IT, Arabisation, cooperation and telematics, in the AC Higher Education libraries with special reference to Kuwait. Kuwait has suffered severely owing to the Iraqi invasion in August 1990. Most of its Higher Education libraries are in the process of being rebuilt. Therefore, this study comes at a suitable time to analyse the requirements for the implementation of IT at this stage. critical literature review has been carried out to examine the three main aspects namely,, IT, Arabisation, cooperation and telematics. A questionnaire survey was conducted inselected university libraries in AC. A field work study and a comprehensive survey including questionnaires, interviews and observations, were conducted in the Higher Education libraries in Kuwait specif icallY. This included a detailed study of user opinions, regarding IT, Arabised library system and cooperation and telematics The study shows that university libraries in AC are still at an early stage in the development of IT, Arabisation and cooperation and telematics and most of the progress in this field is to be found in certain GCC countries. Although KU and PAAET are the only two Higher Educational institutes in Kuwait their libraries lack IT, Arabisation and cooperation and telematics. Library users are dissatisfied with the current traditional library system and services being used and offered in these libraries. Both librarians and library users, although they have limited IT backgrounds, have high expectations and positive attitudes to the importance of -the above IT facilities for improving their library services. The study identifies the main critical issues affecting IT, Arabisation and cooperation and telematics in Kuwait Higher Education libraries and explores possible solutions and practical recommendations. This study also considers whether the results of the Kuwait study could be generalised to apply to other similar Arab countries

No description available.

This research describes the evaluation of SPRITE (Sheffield Peoples' Resource for Information Technology), an innovative project fundet by the European Social Fund and Sheffield City Council Department of Employment and Economic Development. The aim of the project is to make I.T. resources accessible to unwaged people in their local community centres. SPRITE was evaluated during the first two years of the project's implementation. The evaluation was set in an action research framework and evaluation findings were regularly fed back into the project. Therefore the emphasis of the research was on understanding the processes by which the project developed, as well as describing and analysing project outcomes. A variety of qualitative data collection techniques were used and the analysis and interpretation of this data is presented in a series of in-depth case studies. The thesis provides: 1. An overall evaluation of the project, focusing on six research questions. These include an analysis of the impact that involvement with SPRITE had on unwaged individuals, and the impact on the community centres where the project was based. 2. An assessment of the extent to which the psychological literature can provide insights into the issues that the project raises, for example, the application of the organisational psychology literature to community organisations. 3. A review of action research as a technique in the light of the results of the evaluation of SPRITE. ~. Practical recommendations for those involved with the implementation of, or the evaluation of, similar community projects. The results of the evaluation are discussed in terms of these four areas. The conclusions note that SPRITE was successful in making I.T. resources accessible to unwaged people in Sheffield, and that the tools of organisational analysis can be useful to organisations within the community sector. A model of action research which focuses on the different characteristics of feedback at various stages of an evaluation is provided. Additionally a list of recommendations aimed at service providers within the voluntary or community sector is produced.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.