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Texte remanié de: Thesis--Philosophy--Tallahassee. / Notes bibliogr. Index.

The verbal protocol method is used extensively in computer usability studies. This study was designed to test the feasibility of using the verbal protocol method as a means of conducting field research on the online catalogue. Ten undergraduate students conducted their own research on DRA’s Infogate. As they searched, they talked aloud about what keys they were pressing, what was happening on the screen, and their reactions. Transcripts of sessions were analyzed. A total of 65 different problems or comments were noted during search sessions, with 11 problems or comments noted in three or more sessions. This supports the hypothesis that the verbal protocol method is a valuable means of identifying common problems for users. It is suggested that the verbal protocol method offers great potential as a research tool in librarianship, for example in the area of interface design.

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.

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.

Introduction. Against the background of the last decades’ developments of Swedish public library websites and the changing language and minority situation, a study of the multilingual web accessibility status is motivated, including identifying obstacles for moving forward on the topic. At its core it’s a question of democratic rights. Method. Website observations with multilingual aspects in focus were conducted on the public library websites housing their catalogues, for all Swedish municipalities. Same libraries and their web system vendors (or the like) were then invited to an online survey which complemented the observations with their thoughts and opinions on the topic. Both studies produced primarily quantitative data, although the response rate from system vendors (or the like) was low. Analysis. Quantitative analysis was carried out on the data, with an element of content analysis on the survey’s comments and open-ended questions. The quantitative analysis employed Microsoft Excel for descriptive statistics. Activity theory constituted the main theoretical framework for further analysis and interpretation. Results. Prerequisites of multilingual accessibility were largely in place, but potentials of underlying web systems were not fully utilized. Checking against selected official web guidelines in the public sector, library websites showed varying compliance but also room for improvement in general. Survey results proved respondents consider multilingual accessibility on library websites fairly important. Libraries show awareness of current language minorities although demographic assessments are rarely made. Lack of resources in a broad sense was stated as a hindrance for multilingual website work. The systems of Swedish public libraries are largely dominated by one vendor, although this is a field undergoing changes, with some libraries switching to open source systems. Conclusion. Results suggest progress on this topic is highly dependent on getting library management and decision makers on board. More co-operation is needed, and there’s room for education. A few suggestions for future research were given.

The present study was undertaken to investigate the concerns of secondary school teacher-librarians, that the subject headings set down by the Australian Schools Catalogue Information Service (ASCIS) do not cover topics in senior sourses of study. NSW HSC Economics was chosen to test this perception. Terms were extracted from three textual sources (syllabus, textbook and examination papers) and checked against the subject headings in the ASCIS Subject Headings List. A comparison was made between terms which matched exactly, those which were only partially matched and those which had no match. The linguistic complexity of the term (single-word or multi-word) and the number of textual sources using the term were also taken into account. The results showed a varying degree of match between textual terms and subject headings. Single-word terms found in more than one textual source were much more likely to be found in the subject headings than those from only one textual source. Multi-word terms were found less frequently than single-word terms, but were also more likely to be found when they came from more than one textual source. There was a large number of partial matches in this group, and these were found to be more general in concept than the textual terms. Most of the terms were found, but the general nature of the partial matches and the lack of adequate cross references may cause problems in subject analysis and retrieval.