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Doctor Of Philosophy / Department of Curriculum and Instruction / Rosemary Talab / The purpose of this study was to learn the perceived training needs of the support staff in the six Kansas Board of Regents’ (KBOR) university libraries. Based on data from field and pilot studies and advice from an expert panel, a survey instrument was designed to assess library support staff’s perceptions of their train needs on computer skills, interpersonal skills, supervision/management skills, important library/organizational support, helpful training delivery methods, and training sources. The survey instrument was administered to the entire 167 support staff in the six KBOR university libraries, with a return rate of 83 percent achieved through two mailings and two postcard reminders. Quantitative data from the responses to closed-ended questions were analyzed through descriptive measures and one-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Qualitative approaches to code answers from open-ended questions were utilized in order to allow stakeholder themes to emerge. Quantitative analyses indicated that the respondents viewed the most important training topics for each area of the study to be: database searching and MS Office suites for computer skills; working with difficult people and managing priorities for interpersonal skills; training new employees and supervising student employees for supervision/management skills; being supplied with appropriate software, release time, and technical support were viewed as the most important library support that would help their training. The respondents perceived classroom instruction with a teacher and interactive classroom discussions as being the most helpful delivery methods. The respondents considered in-house trainers, supervisors, and co-workers as being the most helpful training sources. A series of MANOVA tests were conducted on the six areas of the study. At the alpha = .05 level, statistically significant differences were found in the respondents’ perceptions of training needs on computer skills measured by their work units, supervision/management skills measured by their work units and level of job responsibilities, the respondents’ perceptions of important library/organizational support measured by their total years in the library filed and age range, and the respondents’ perceptions of helpful training sources measured by their total years at current positions. Qualitative analyses provided 314 units of information on 32 themes on additional training topics, library/organizational support, delivery methods, and training sources. The top 10 themes were related to “Software programs,” “Windows operating systems,” “Release time,” “Supervisor/management support,” “Relevance/applicable training,” “Promotion/opportunities,” “Training for motivation,” “Classroom with feedback,” “Training materials,” and “One-on-one and in-house training.” Based on the findings, summaries, and conclusions of this study, the researcher made recommendations for further study that focuses on job training needs of support staff at university libraries, including a broader scope of training topics, motivating factors, the perceptions of library administrators on the support staff’s training needs, training needs on supervision/management for non-supervision support staff, differing views on library/organizational support, different training delivery methods, etc.

Data science employment opportunities of varied complexity and environment are in growing demand across the globe. Data science as a discipline potentially offers a wealth of jobs to prospective employees, while traditional information science-based roles continue to decrease as budgets get cut across the U.S. Since data is related closely to information historically, this research will explore the education of U.S. iSchool professionals and compare it to traditional data science roles being advertised within the job market. Through a combination of latent semantic analysis of over 1600 job postings and iSchool course documentation, it is our aim to explore the intersection of library and information science and data science. Hopefully these research findings will guide future directions for library and information science professionals into data science driven roles, while also examining and highlighting the data science techniques currently driven by the education of iSchool professionals. In addition, it is our aim to understand how data science could benefit from a mutually symbiotic relationship with the field of information science as statistically data scientists spend far too much time working on data preparation and not nearly enough time conducting scientific inquiry. The results of this examination will potentially guide future directions of iSchool students and professionals towards more cooperative data science roles and guide future research into the intersection between iSchools and data science and possibilities for partnership.

Master of Science / Department of Food Science / Delores Chambers / Electronic reading (e-reading) device has been available for decades and there are many studies that have been published based on those devices. However with continuously changing tablet marketplace, there is a lack of studies looking at current devices. In order to understand the effect of tablets on undergraduate students, we conducted a consumer study to: 1) Determine the most beneficial tablet size for college students in their academic pursuits and 2) Determine the necessary types of support from academic libraries for college students conducting schoolwork using a tablet. An initial focus group study guided a consumer survey of 121 undergraduate students. The focus group study identified reading and note taking as key academic activities for tablet users. The participants were also interested in receiving quick help from the library and using electronic journal articles available from the library. A consumer survey took place at a university campus a month later. Each survey respondent answered a set of questionnaires using both large and small tablets of either Android or iOS operating system. The survey data showed that overall, larger tablet was preferred for academic use. Tablet size was not an important factor in reading or note taking (P ≥ 0.05) but perceived portability of a tablet size increased preference for that tablet size (P = 0.0078). In addition, the library’s instant messaging feature was found to be equally successful in both full and mobile website when viewed on a tablet (P ≥ 0.05). Many students who use HTML only or both HTML and PDF formats to view electronic journal articles when on a computer switched to PDF only when on a tablet. Our findings can assist tablet manufacturers in making a suitable tablet targeted for higher education uses. This study can also guide academic libraries in improving accessibility to resource for a growing number of undergraduate tablet users.

Thesis (M.Tech.: Library and Information Studies)-Durban Institute of Technology, 2004. viii, 71 leaves / The aim of the study was to investigate management and maintenance procedures that were used by other sites and how these could be used as a basis for formulating management and maintenance procedures for the SALO subject directory.

The emergence of third-generation, technology-based public bikeshare schemes offers new opportunities for researching cycling behaviour. In this study, data from one such scheme, the London Cycle Hire Scheme (LCHS), are analysed. Algorithms are developed for summarising and labelling cyclists’ usage behaviours and tailored visual analysis applications are designed for exploring their spatiotemporal context. Many of the research findings provide support to existing literature, particularly around gendered cycling behaviour. As well as making more discretionary journeys, women appear to preferentially select parts of London associated with greater levels of safety; and this is true even after controlling for geodemographic differences and levels of LCHS cycling experience. One hypothesis is that these differences represent diverging attitudes and perceptions. After developing a technique for identifying cyclists’ workplaces, these differences might also be explained by where cyclists need to travel for work and other facilities. An additional explanation is later offered that relates to the nature of cyclists’ estimated routes. The size and precision of the LCHS dataset allows under-explored aspects of behaviour to be investigated. Group cycling events – instances where two or more cyclists make journeys together in space and time – are labelled and analysed on a large scale. For certain types of cyclist, group cycling appears to encourage more extensive spatiotemporal cycling behaviour and there is some evidence to suggest that group cycling may help initiate scheme usage. The domain-specific findings, emerging research questions and also behavioural classifications are this study’s principal and unique contribution. A second contribution relates to the analysis approach. This is a data-driven study that takes a large dataset, measuring use of a relatively new cycle facility, and uses it to engage with research questions that are typically answered with very different datasets. There is some uncertainty around how discriminating and generalisable LCHS cycle behaviours may be and which variables, either directly measured or derived, might delineate those behaviours. Visual analysis techniques are shown to be effective in this more speculative research context: numerous behaviours are very quickly explored and understood. These techniques also enable a set of colleagues with relatively limited analysis experience, but substantial domain knowledge, to participate in the analysis and a general argument is made for their use in other, interdisciplinary analysis contexts.

National cultural heritage institutions are charged with representative preservation of their countries’ cultural materials and the ways their staff undertake preservation activities impact to whom and how these materials are representative. Music is hailed as an integral part of a nation’s cultural heritage, but while aspects of its preservation are individually understood, their combined treatment in cultural institutions — music curation — and its ability to alter concepts of national identity are not. Consequently, we must ask how does music curation influence notions of national identity? By answering this question, this thesis seeks to contribute to our understanding of the ways that national cultural heritage institutions shape and promote a sense of national community. Since its beginning in 1800, the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. has adopted several roles: a congressional resource; a copyright repository; a research centre; a hub for and leader in the library community; and cultural heritage institution. These combine to make the Library of Congress the de facto national library of the United States. However, these roles are not inherently congruent and in some instances undermine each other. Additionally, music has not always been easily integrated into its mission and its collections. Functioning as a national library, the Library of Congress potentially performs significant roles in the preservation and presentation of music, activities that make it an appropriate case study for investigating how music curation affects notions of national identity. Therefore, this work is structured in the following way: first, it offers an historical overview of the Library of Congress’ three music related departments — the Music Division, the American Folklife Center and the Recorded Sound component of the Motion Picture, Broadcast and Recorded Sound Division — to illuminate political, cultural and aesthetic forces that shaped their developments and their approaches to music curation. Second, it presents Howard Becker’s art world as the analytical framework by which this thesis critically engages narrative and identity theories. Third, employing the Library of Congress as a case study, it then investigates eight music curation narratives and juxtaposes them against its image as a cultural heritage institution. Narratives, gathered during semi-structured interviews and presented as interpretive stories, provide a focused insight into the tensions between staff and institution as well as institution and projected notions of national identity. In the context of music curation, this thesis’ conclusions illustrate a gap between the Library of Congress’ iconic image and its actual image, one that is perpetuated by its focus on research.

Digital file includes the first chapter from The Librarian Stereotype: Deconstructing Presentations and Perceptions of Information Work, edited by Nicole Pagowsky and Miriam Rigby; digital file also includes foreword by James V. Carmichael, Jr., Embracing the Melancholy: How the Author Renounced Moloch and the Conga Line for Sweet Conversations on Paper, to the Air of "Second Hand Rose

published_or_final_version / Chinese Historical Studies / Master / Master of Arts

<p>Information and communication technology (ICT) is foreign to a number of public libraries and those libraries that have a technology infrastructure in place, suffer from an under-utilization of the technology, owing to a shortage of skills that are critical to boost the library into the global information society. It is important that staff in public libraries have the necessary skills and positive attitude to use the technology offered to them. The main objective of this study was to determine the use of ICT's in Nyanga, Brown's Farm and Crossroads public libraries and make recommendations towards effective use of ICT in the above-mentioned public libraries.</p>