Successful knowledge management requires efficient tools to manage information in the form of text. However, our productivity in generating information has exceeded our ability to process it, and the dream of creating an information-rich society has become a nightmare of information overload. Although researchers and developers believe that interactive information access systems based on clustering and summarization offer a potential remedy to that problem, there is as yet no empirical evidence showing superiority of those tools over traditional keyword search. This dissertation attempted to determine whether automated clustering can help to find relevant information by suggesting an innovative implementation and verifying its potential ability to be of help. Our implementation is based on Kohonen's self-organizing maps and acts as a visualization layer between the user and a keyword-based search engine. We used the clustering properties of self-organizing maps to create a summary of search results. The user relies on this summary when deciding whether and how to provide additional feedback to the system to obtain more relevant documents. We have resolved multiple issues related to the speed and quality of output associated with self-organizing maps and created a version (Adaptive Search) that allows interactive Internet searching. We have performed user studies and a controlled experiment in order to test the proposed approach. In a laboratory experiment, subjects spent less time finding correct answers using Adaptive Search than using the search engine directly. In addition, the documents containing answers were positioned consistently higher in the rank-ordered lists suggested by Adaptive Search as opposed to the lists suggested by the search engine. The search engine that we used was AltaVista, known to be one of the most popular, comprehensive and flexible engines on the Web. Our main conclusion is that indeed information clustering helps information seekers if properly implemented.

The content of this dissertation will be an analysis of the acceptance of the American Association of School Librarians and the Association for Educational Communications & Technology Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning (1998) by members of the education community, including school library media specialists. The purpose of this analysis is to provide understanding of the standards' acceptance in various areas of education, and to provide direction in developing strategies that will assist in the understanding and implementation of these new standards throughout the learning community. The research design is a modified electronic Delphi study using a panel of experts from the education community to indicate their professional beliefs about the standards' validity and to suggest additions, deletions, and modifications. The panel of experts is determined by nomination from national professional associations and by participant acceptance. The data from the Delphi questionnaires will be analyzed in composite and disaggregated forms to determine group and sub group acceptance. Sub grouping will be determined by profile data provided by the participants. The relevance of this dissertation to education will be to provide a directed approach in developing understanding, acceptance, and implementation of new national information literacy standards in the K-12 education community. It will also suggest potential willingness of education professionals to work with the school library media program and professional in integrating information literacy processes within diverse content areas of the K-12 learning community.

This dissertation examined the relationship between Hispanic population proportion (HPROP) and an index variable indicating the provision of library services to the Spanish-speaking in the State of Arizona (PLSS). Mailed in the summer of 1999 to 169 public library facilities, a survey collected information on libraries' provision of Spanish-speaking personnel, Spanish-language materials, and Spanish-format library services. Regression analysis indicated that HPROP has a significant effect upon PLSS (B = .600, p < .0001). An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) procedure indicated that libraries in metropolitan areas were more likely than non-metropolitan libraries to provide service to Spanish-speakers (F = 106.72, p < .0001). Another ANCOVA found that libraries closer to the Mexican border were not significantly more likely to provide PLSS than libraries farther away from the border (F = 68.33, p > .0001); and a t-test revealed that libraries which maintained interaction with bilingual or ESL teachers were more likely to provide PLSS for Spanish-speaking children than libraries that did not interact with bilingual or ESL teachers ( t = -4.6351, p < .0001). Conclusions reached in this dissertation are that libraries plan their services and collections based on local demographics and community needs; that rural libraries are often unable to provide PLSS, possibly due to financial constraints; and that proximity to a political boundary does not always influence libraries on one side of that boundary.

Architectural archives contain cultural records that are valuable to researchers and students of architecture. According to a national survey conducted for this thesis, many of these valuable records are not accessible. Architectural records that are not accessible may become neglected, thereby jeopardizing their long term preservation. This thesis proposes that architectural records will become more accessible when the archives containing these records are linked to curricula in schools of architecture. The thesis outlines the change in mission, the educational programs, and the planning criteria required to transform these archives from expensive repositories to centers of education.

This paper discusses the nature and levels of information access by the information deprived communities in South Africa and the role libraries play in supporting information access to the information poor. The marginalized communities and information access are defined, and how, why and where such communities access information is discussed. The library system in South Africa is described and its role, activities, programmes and services are examined. The paper further discusses how the libraries are resourced and managed, and the challenges and opportunities they face. An attempt is made to compare South African library model support to the information poor communities with those of other countries of the region. It is concluded that South Africa has a strong information access capacity and library services, though comparatively better than those in other African countries in terms of management, resource support and distribution, but still lacks the capacity for effective information provision to the marginalized communities largely because of their location and information content and format that is largely in favor of information rich environments.

This is a preliminary scan of S.R. Ranganathan's Philosophy of Library Classification (1989 Indian reprint edition). Contents include: Conspectus, 8 chapters, and Index: 1. Evolution of classification. 2. Library classification: an artificial language. 3. Library Classification and social forces. 4. Library classification as a transformation and its limitations. 5. Library classification and its symbiosis with library catalogue. 6. Capacity of library classification. 7. Increasing of dimensions and optional facets. 8. Organisation for research in library classification. © Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science (SRELS). This is a title in the dLIST Classics project; permission for non-profit use granted by SRELS. To purchase print reprints of this work, please visit Ess Ess Publications at http://www.essessreference.com/.

Analysis of organizational documentation, sociometric survey and observation data from a two-year field study of an R&D organization suggests that a new type of research and development (R&D) organization, called the conceptual organization, is emerging. The conceptual organization relies on and facilitates collaboration in research and development; it is based on a long-term vision that addresses large complex and challenging problems of national and global importance. Its purpose is to work towards this vision, quickly and effectively contributing to relevant dynamic knowledge bases and meeting diverse stakeholder needs with minimum capitalization and start-up costs. To achieve this, it has an explicit conceptual organizational structure in addition to a physical structure, both of which are interwoven across other external organizational and physical structures. Conceptual organizations engage scientists through the appeal of their vision and socio-technical infrastructures that encourage and facilitate collaboration. Challenges for conceptual organizations may arise due to conflicts with traditional norms and practices embedded in university and R&D settings.

Throughout the world professional associations in librarianship place considerable emphasis on the professional credentialing of their members. This normally means that educational and training courses of study offering a first professional qualification take up much of this activity. Since this first professional qualification does not normally require emphasis on the research process, but rather in obtaining the required skills and knowledge in order to practice librarianship, it is little wonder that the role of research in the pro-fession has not always been openly encouraged by its associations. Nevertheless, there is evidence that some associations are realizing that research and the research process needs to be better recognized, particularly as library professionals are increasingly undertaking higher level qualifications which include a research com-ponent. Yet if a research qualification is not always necessary for recognition as a professional librarian, the question needs to be asked: why should librarians bother to undertake the rigours of study to achieve it? The paper will discuss the importance or otherwise of research and its processes in the profession of librarianship and consider the role of the professional association in recognizing, enabling and promoting a research cul-ture amongst qualified professionals. The paper will particularly address the Australian context.

The Public Libraries Survey is conducted annually by the National Center for Education Statistics through the Federal-State Cooperative System for Public Library Data. The data are collected by a network of state data coordinators appointed by the chief officers of state library agencies in the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and the outlying areas. Data are collected on population of legal service area, service outlets, public service hours, library materials, total circulation, circulation of children's materials, reference transactions, library visits, children's program attendance, electronic services and information, staff, operating income, operating expenditures, capital outlay, and more.

Winner of the Association of Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) Research Methodology Best Paper in 2001 Award. Abstract: As research questions and topics in information studies evolve, there is a continual need to seek out innovative research methods to help us investigate and address these questions. This paper presents an emerging research method, the creation and analysis of information horizon maps, and discusses the use of such maps in an ongoing research study. Sonnenwald's (1999) framework for human information behavior provides a theoretical foundation for this method. This theoretical framework suggests that within a context and situation is an 'information horizon' in which we can act. Study participants are asked to describe several recent information seeking situations for a particular context, and to draw a map of their information horizon, graphically representing the information resources (including people) they typically access in this context and their preferences for the resources accessed. The resulting graphical representation of their information horizons are analyzed in conjunction with the interview data using a variety of techniques derived from social network analysis and content analysis. In this paper these techniques are described and illustrated using examples from an ongoing study of the information seeking behavior of lower socio-economic students. They are then compared to other techniques that could be used to gather data about people's information seeking behavior.