Information systems that are available today do not optimally address the information-seeking behaviour of scholars, particularly those who belong to scientific communities; as a result, scholarly discovery is often cumbersome and incomplete. The hypothesis of this study is that an information-seeking system that is designed to address the nature of scholarly materials and the information seeking behaviour of scholars, particularly the members of one scientific community, will increase the effectiveness of the scholars’ searches and enable them to find and obtain relevant materials with greater ease and precision than current practices do. The information-seeking behaviour and search practices deployed by high-energy physics (HEP) researchers are explored through a series of interviews and observations. More than 2,100 responses obtained from a HEP survey are also examined; in particular, the participants’ open-ended responses are analysed. On the basis of qualitative and quantitative research regarding the characteristics of HEP scientists and their information-seeking practices, a set of six personas, representing typical members of the HEP community, is constructed. An original model is developed that leverages existing models of information behaviour, information seeking, and information searching and reflects the full pectrum of active information-seeking and information-searching practices of HEP scholars and the nature of the data that these researchers seek. The model is then evaluated by means of seven scenarios involving the personas constructed earlier. On the basis of the information-seeking model, a software user interface is designed as the future interface for the HEP INSPIRE information system. The user-interface design is corroborated through the model, and the personas are used to evaluate the design. Methods are suggested for long-term quantitative and qualitative monitoring of the ways in which this design supports HEP researchers. It is argued that the proposed user interface, which provides an information environment that accommodates the information-seeking practices of the HEP community in a friendly and efficient manner, will support HEP academic research—and research of other scholarly communities that share some of the HEP community’s characteristics—by shortening the search process and improving the findability of quality materials. This thesis contributes to the body of information-science knowledge in the novel modelling of information-seeking behaviour of a well-defined scientific community, the use of personas for the modelling, and the concretization of the model into a new user-interface design.

<p> Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) has been studied extensively in a variety of settings for the last thirty years. There has been no research, however, on OCB in the public library environment. OCB is grounded on the premise that helping others in the organization, even when such behavior is unrewarded, has a cumulative effect that is beneficial both for individual staff members and for the organization as a whole. This focus on &ldquo;helpful&rdquo; behaviors is especially relevant for a field such as public librarianship, given its foundation on altruistic ideals.</p><p> This dissertation begins to address the lack of research on organizational citizenship behaviors in public libraries by examining the relationship among OCB and two of its correlates: Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) and perceived supervisor support. Analysis of data reveals that OCB shows a statistically significant correlation with both LMX and perceived supervisor support, but that perceived supervisor support is a more powerful predictor of OCB in the workplace studied. One of the primary findings of this research is that institutions wishing to encourage OCB must focus not only on the citizenship behaviors of front-line staff, but also on the skills of the middle managers and other managerial leaders who directly oversee them. Immediate supervisors play a critical role in facilitating OCB by maintaining high quality exchange relationships with, and demonstrating consistent support for, their supervisees. This finding has practical importance not only for how managerial leaders should be expected to perform, but also for their hiring, training, and development.</p><p> Organizational citizenship behavior has been shown to impact positively traditional work outcomes such as effectiveness and productivity, as well as attitudinal and behavioral outcomes such as organizational commitment and engagement. This research affirms the importance of OCB as an organizational construct and highlights its potential for the public library environment. Further, it provides practical methods for fostering and maintaining a workplace culture that values and encourages citizenship behaviors. This study will be of particular interest to library administrators, human resource managers, and those in managerial leadership positions as they seek to hire for, train, develop, and retain both managerial and front-line staff who demonstrate behaviors that improve interpersonal relationships and organizational effectiveness. </p>

<p> In libraries around the world there are people asking librarians for research assistance. As technology has advanced and communication strategies have moved outside the physical library buildings, librarians now respond to reference queries online. This study analyzed two forms of virtual reference; instant messaging (IM) and log-in chat. The purpose of this study was to find out if there is any inherent difference between the way the patrons or the librarians used these two virtual services. </p><p> An exploratory research design focused on numerous aspects of virtual reference communication. During the spring terms of academic years 2011 and 2012 at a community college, 1,341 transcripts of IM and log-in chat sessions were recorded. Using a systematic sampling process, 320 transcripts were sampled and their content analyzed. </p><p> Findings indicate that a length of the transaction significantly affected the outcome of all transactions. Log-in chats were generally longer than IM chats and it was found that; they were more complicated, the librarians were more responsive and friendly, patrons were more satisfied and the librarian was generally able to conduct a reference interview more often. Additionally the findings indicated that both IM and log-in chat were very similar in three aspect; patron formality, completeness/accuracy of the librarians' answer and the reference interview adding/changing or clarifying the patrons question. </p><p> There were four major conclusions of this study: The log-in chat portal had longer online reference transactions and better overall outcomes; instant messaging portal queries, although similar in many aspects to log-in chat, were ultimately treated in a less formal manner by patrons; librarians gave reference interviews and complete/accurate answers equally in both platforms and there were similar overall success rates in both platforms. </p><p> Based on the findings in this study it is recommended that academic libraries serving a general population of students use both the IM and log-in chat portals on their library websites. Patrons appear to appears to be using each portal for different and equally important reasons. Further study of virtual communications practices is needed to enhance the findings of this study as more institutions expand their patron base beyond those who can physically meet with a reference librarian.</p>

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-11, Section: A, page: 4529. Adviser: Carole L. Palmer. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 204-213) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-11, Section: A, page: 4523. Adviser: Caroline Haythornthwaite. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 164-174) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, School of Library and Information Science, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-09, Section: A, page: 3205. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Oct. 30, 2008). Adviser: Elin K. Jacob.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, School of Library and Information Science, 2006. / Adviser: Elin K. Jacob.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-11, Section: A, page: 4528. Adviser: Boyd Rayward. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 264-279) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-11, Section: A, page: 4528. Adviser: Linda C. Smith. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 191-205) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.