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Decision-making is one of the most important elements in the administration of any organization. University libraries are, of course, organizations. Inside these organizations the managers make a variety of decisions that will have a significant impact on the success of those libraries. Libraries' managers utilize different methods in processing their decisions. Many factors play roles in the success of libraries' managers. The manager's managerial decision style is one factor that contributes to the success of the manager and therefore to the success of their organization; and yet, there is a dearth of research about decision styles used in library administration and how they influence the decision-making process. The main purpose of this study was to explore the managerial decision styles of the managers (directors, associate directors, assistant directors, and the heads of departments) of Florida's state university libraries. A second purpose was to determine the relation between the variety of managers' decision styles and the following seven variables: gender, age, ethnicity, educational level, educational major, administrative experience, and current position. The results of this study will provide baseline information to improve our understanding of library managers and management. This study was grounded in the Decision Style Model developed by Alan Rowe and Richard O. Mason (1987). A survey questionnaire was employed in this study. The questionnaire included two parts: 1. "The Decision Style Inventory" (DSI) developed by Row and Mason (1987). This inventory was applied to measure the decision styles of the managers of Florida's state university main libraries. 2. The second part of the questionnaire consisted of questions designed to obtain descriptive data such as gender, age, ethnicity, educational level, educational major, current position, and administrative experience. According to the Decision Style Model, it was found that the predominant decision style for the majority of Florida's state university main libraries' managers was the behavioral decision style, followed by the conceptual decision style. The directive decision style was the style used least often by most of these managers. As for the decision style patterns, the findings inform us that the majority of Florida's state university main libraries' managers think using the right side of the brain rather than the left side. It was also found that there was no relationship was found between Florida's state university libraries' managers and their gender, age, or highest academic degree. On the other hand, the findings of this study indicated that years of administrative experience, ethnicity, position, and educational major of these managers were indeed related to the decision style or styles used by these managers. To date there has been no research conducted on profiling the decision styles of Florida's state university libraries' managers and the process of how they think in order to reach their decisions. Given this, the results of this study provided baseline information to improve our understanding of library managers and management in general and in particular, understanding of library managers and management in Florida's state university libraries. / A dissertation submitted to the School of Information Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2003. / Date of Defense: November 21, 2003. / Library managers, University library, Decision style / Includes bibliographical references. / John Bertot, Professor Directing Dissertation; Peter Garretson, Outside Committee Member; Thomas Hart, Committee Member; Darrell Burke, Committee Member.

This study was driven by the growing importance of electronic information resources in university scholarly inquiry. The main focus of the research was to discover graduate students' information needs, the level of these needs, and the extent to which they were being met in relation to accessing and utilizing electronic information in an academic environment. The study's conceptual framework was grounded in Dervin's sense-making theory. It used Kari's modification of sense-making to clarify the research questions and guide the survey questionnaire to examine Saudi graduate students' information actions (needs, seeking, and use) in the context of academic electronic information resources in Saudi Arabian universities. The study examined graduate students in three Saudi universities: Umm Al-Qura University, King Saud University, and King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals. Because the researcher wanted to examine a large sample of Saudi university graduate students' information needs, a quantitative survey was most practical and cost-effective. The variables of the study were gender, age, academic degree, major, English language proficiency, Internet experience, and university. The sample of the study was 502 graduate students (10% of all Saudi Arabian graduate students) in the three universities. There were 480 usable responses which were coded and analyzed using SPSS software. The study used both descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings indicated that only half of graduate students used the library's electronic resources for their academic information needs. Chi-square test found a significant relationship between graduate students' use or lack of use of their library's electronic resources and the students' situational variables. Of those students who used the library's electronic resources, only about half needed these for written class assignments (61.1%), their thesis or dissertation (59.8%), and/or personal use (47.1%). Only 18.4% needed electronic information for oral class presentations and 8.6% for other purposes. For information strategies, the library's electronic resources were never ranked as the first strategy of the six that were available. Kendall's tau-b test indicated a significant relationship between graduate students' strategies and their English proficiency. Of those graduate students who used the library's electronic resources, most said they always accessed the Online Catalog (59.0%) and the Internet (60.2%), but only sometimes used electronic journals (52.9%), databases (50.4%), and other links on the library website (45.1%). The analysis of variance (ANOVA) test revealed significant differences between students' English language proficiency and the frequency of their use of these resources. Most students tended to agree that they were able to make sense of the information they got from the library's electronic resources. However, they could not tell if they achieved information success or information overall satisfaction. ANOVA showed significant differences between students' major and their judgment on the usefulness of the retrieved information. The main barrier to student information actions was insufficient instructions for using or searching the library's electronic resources followed by not enough librarians to help. Other barriers were insufficient availability of computers or computer labs and libraries did not improve graduate students information technology skills. Difficulty accessing the Internet and the library's electronic resources, clarity and ease of use of these resources, and relationship to their field were additional barriers to electronic information. Overall, the study showed that, for a variety of reasons, the considerable electronic information resources of Saudi university libraries are under-utilized because they are not meeting graduate student needs. The most striking finding for this study was that most of the graduate students were deterred from using electronic resources, apparently due to experienced or perceived barriers. Graduate students who accessed these resources often found them not useful for their needs, further discouraging use. Instead, many graduate students' information seeking situations were very diverse, yet the usefulness of library electronic information was questionable. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Information Studies in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2004. / Date of Defense: June 10, 2004. / Electronic resources, information need, information seeking, Saudi Arabia, Academic libraries, graduate students / Includes bibliographical references. / Kathleen Burnett, Professor Directing Dissertation; Peter Garretson, Outside Committee Member; Thomas Hart, Committee Member; Darrell Burke, Committee Member.

One of the most important roles of the online instructor is to insure successful teaching by keeping students' interactions and discussions focused on topic, adding knowledge and expertise, and maintaining group harmony. Therefore, the success of online learning depends on the instructors' ability to acquire new competencies, rather than mastering the technology. Despite the growth in online instructor competency related studies, there is a lack of research regarding the instructors' roles and competencies from the distance learning students' perspective. This study was an attempt to explore distance learning students' perceptions of the roles and competencies defined by experts in the field. A comprehensive list of roles, outputs, and competencies of online instructors were provided to the students in order to rate the importance of each role and competency. It was the purpose of this study to compare the findings of this study with the findings of pervious studies. The population of this study included all distance learning graduate students (n = 328) currently enrolled in the School of Information Studies at Florida State University. Forty-two percent (n = 140) of the original student population of 328, completed and submitted the online survey. Roles and competencies were ranked by their importance; ranking was also achieved by taking the average of competency means across roles and competencies. Results for the top ten competencies in overall importance, based on highest mean rating are: Content Knowledge, Facilitation (discussion) Skills, Organizational Skills, Planning Skills, English Proficiency, Presentation Skills, Interpersonal Communication Skills, Learning Styles and Theory, Teaching Strategies/models, Skills with Internet Tools for Instruction. The findings also determined that when compared to previous competency studies, there was a significant difference between students' perceptions and experts' perceptions regarding the most important online instructor competencies. Experts rated social competencies (interpersonal communication skills) number one in the list of top ten most important online instructor competencies; on the other hand, students rated intellectual competencies (content knowledge) number one in their list of top ten. However, both experts and students concurred regarding managerial competencies, because both rated at least four managerial skills in the list of top ten competencies. Distance learning students' responses indicated that instructors should give careful attention to the development and improvement of their intellectual, social, managerial, and technical roles and competencies. The importance of paying attention to the technical and managerial roles, in addition to intellectual and social competencies of the online instructor, were emphasized as critical factors for the success of discussion and interaction in the online environment. This dissertation has helped bridge the gap between the perceptions of distance education experts and distance learning students by providing a comprehensive list of important online instructors' roles and competencies. Due to the rate of change in technologies used to deliver instruction and related changes in higher education, it is recommended to do another study to identify more roles and competencies. This study should be expanded to include the perceptions of students in different disciplines and other countries. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Information Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2004. / Date of Defense: April 1, 2004. / Online instructor competencies, students' perspectives, distance learning / Includes bibliographical references. / Thomas L. Hart, Professor Directing Dissertation; Peter P. Garretson, Outside Committee Member; John C. Bertot, Committee Member; Michelle M. Kazmer, Committee Member.

Over the past half-century, the expression of sexuality has become ubiquitous in most sectors of American society. From the free love movement associated with the 1960s to Harvey Milk's agitations for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights in the 1970s, "sex" is no longer an expletive in United States culture. Recent television shows like Modern Family and The L Word celebrate those whom Milk sought to represent, and earlier programming like Maude exemplified female self-actualization and self-discovery. However, as gender and queer studies have expanded in the past five decades, certain arenas have lagged in terms of attitudes toward sexual understanding. The world of competitive sports is known to be a hyper-sexualized and hyper-masculine realm, but sex and gender add a new dimension of complexity. Structures of sexuality work to maintain overarching social standards; scholar Jayne Caudwell finds that when an athlete challenges those paradigms, fans respond negatively. Whether the stories of such occurrences concern behaviors, such as promiscuity, or inborn traits like sexual preference or gender identity, ardent fans and casual readers alike tend to respond with shock, disdain or despair when their heroes fall from grace. This qualitative analysis utilizes the works of Kenneth Burke and Judith Butler in examining reactions to controversial stories regarding American professional golfer Tiger Woods and South African runner Caster Semenya. A variety of continuously-updated, Internet-facilitated sources such as blogs are used as the primary texts for research into the mindset of the American sports fan. This allows for a diverse slate of root materials for the analysis, as well as a more assuredly accurate portrayal of fans' voices in the interest of determining the causes and implications of sports fans' reactions to stories concerning athletes' sexuality. / A Thesis submitted to the School of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2011. / Date of Defense: July 6, 2011. / Media studies, Journalism / Includes bibliographical references. / Jeanette L. Castillo, Professor Directing Thesis; Stephen D. McDowell, Committee Member; Donna Marie Nudd, Committee Member.

The purpose of this study was to propose a library networking model for the Caribbean region. In addition, the probability, desirability, and feasibility of developing and implementing the proposed model was assessed. / Three questionnaires were used for collecting the data. One called the preliminary questionnaire; the second one consisted of the Delphi questionnaire, which was sent in two rounds; and the third, was the cross-impact questionnaire. / The analysis of responses to the three questionnaires were the major sources of input on the design of this prototype model. The major findings were: Almost all libraries were involved in some kind of cooperative activity involving other institutions. Interlibrary loans, exchange of professional information, and reference services were three major activities which are carried out by libraries, both at the local level and based on informal arrangements. Eighteen institutions reported that they were engaged in computer activities with other libraries. Responses indicated that a wide array of materials exist and that a good portion is in English. Other languages represented were French, Spanish, Dutch, Papiamento, and German. There is a variety of materials found in library collections in the Caribbean region. / The classification schemes used are DDC--the most widely used--followed by LC. The AACR II is used by 82.5 percent of the institutions participating in the study. / All respondents, except one, agreed that there is a need for a networking structure in the Caribbean. Inadequate funding of library and information services was the major obstacle to the development and implementation of a library network. Absence of planning and lack of library legislation were two other impediments mentioned. The responses to the two rounds of Delphi questionnaires provided information with regard to the probability, desirability, and feasibility of the occurrence of the events presented to the participants. In general, experts agreed with all the components that were proposed in the questionnaires. The components for the proposed structure include objectives, functions, governance structure, composition of the network structure, types of members, funding and financing sources, type of structure, and operational requirements of the network. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-03, Section: A, page: 0722. / Major Professor: John N. DePew. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.

This research study was conducted to determine factors about the selection and acquisition of children's materials about Black people. Citing the various interpretations of the American Library Association's "Bill of Rights," the paper argues that there may be disparity between an interpretation titled "Cultural Diversity" and the practice of librarians to either include or exclude Black materials in the selection and purchase of library materials. / The study's sample consisted of 202 library employees at public libraries in the United States though its aim was at children's librarians. The frequencies and respective percentages were found for survey items pertaining to selection particulars such as the selection cycle; types of materials selected such as periodicals and reference books; holdings of Black materials in various subject categories; review sources for selection; and specific problems in selecting Black materials. Means and standard deviations were found for responses to items pertaining to materials budget allocations for types of library materials; and the number and percentage of holdings in the children's collections. / The testing of hypotheses revealed five groups which have the most influence on the selection and purchase of children's materials. Those groups are: reviews, children, parents, teachers and library staff, respectively. There was found to be no significant difference between the short-term and the long-term goals of public libraries for selecting more books about minorities or about Blacks. / The tenor of libraries is displayed through their comments which were given in response to the open-ended question. Primarily, one sees a reflection of the pervasive attitude of the dominant group's members to exclude some of the materials based on their estimation of whether patrons will ever call for the materials or not. Additionally, as has been noted in the literature review section, not every item in any library's circulating collection will be called for or will circulate. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-03, Section: A, page: 0369. / Major Professor: Phyllis Van Orden. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.

<p> With the advancement of information technology, national library websites have become an essential vehicle for their users to access official information and library resources. They serve the general public from different countries, age groups, ethnicities, and educational levels. The purpose of this dissertation research is to examine the usability, user experience (UX), and information architecture (IA) of national library websites in different countries. Focal areas of investigation include: (1) the primary content elements on national library websites' homepages, (2) the extent to which various quantitative measures of heuristic evaluation and IA assessment overlap with those measures from task-based usability testing, (3) the extent of the impact of cultural and national origins on participants&rsquo; assessment of usability of national libraries&rsquo; websites. The research design of this dissertation study features (1) a content inventory of 28 national library websites, (2) a web IA assessment and a usability evaluation of five national library websites, and (3) usability tests for three national library websites involving 30 participants. The key findings of this dissertation research help to establish a list of common content elements on the homepages of national library websites worldwide and provide a concrete, practical, and feasible procedure to evaluate such websites. The results show statistically significant differences in task performance with the use of national library websites between different groups of users, such as those from different genders and educational backgrounds. Significant correlations were found between the overall participant satisfaction of a national library website and multiple variables such as the content, visual design, and information architecture, as well as between heuristic evaluation scores and participants&rsquo; ratings of some aspects of the websites. </p><p> Based on the specific results from various phases of the research, this dissertation presented detailed recommendations that could help to make national library websites more usable for all its users, including the first-time users across different genders, age groups, and educational backgrounds. Furthermore, in order to achieve a high level of satisfaction, it is recommended that national libraries focus on six factors affecting participants&rsquo; satisfaction: the quality of information, the trustworthiness of the content, the credibility of the content producers/providers, the website&rsquo;s overall structure, the design, and the aesthetics of the website. </p><p> Another significant contribution of this dissertation research is its use of various methods used to evaluate national library websites and its integration of the results of the different methods to obtain a broader and more comprehensive understanding of these findings. Future UX research on national library websites could expand the research by incorporating the methodology used in this research, testing a greater number of national library websites around the world, and involving users from all walks of life. </p><p>

The purpose of this research study was to gather and examine data on the relationships among individuals' demographic and use environment characteristics; information seeking behavior; valuation of information; and impact and usage of information. The research design methodology employed to accomplish this purpose included two techniques of descriptive research, the questionnaire and in-depth interview. The collected data were used to test the specified five study hypotheses in an effort to specify the nature of these relationships. / The following null hypotheses were tested: (1) Perceptual valuation of selection attributes of received information by recipients/users is independent of their information seeking behavior (requesting/not requesting/receiving without opportunity to request information). (2) Information impact and usage is independent of recipient's/user's information seeking behavior. (3) Recipient's/user's perceptual valuation of information attributes associated with the quality of information content and/or the information channel is independent of their usage of the received information. (4) Perceptual valuation of information attributes associated with the quality of information content and the information channel is independent of selected demographic and personal characteristics for recipients/users. (5) Usage of received information is independent of selected demographic and personal characteristics for recipients/users. / The hypothesized model of the reflected factors of information usage with the associated variables includes the following components: Information Seeking Behavior: Requestors, Non-Requestors, and Recipients Only. Information Channel Attributes: Ease of Use, Readability, Availability, Accessibility, Response Time, Procedures to Receive Information, and Instructions for Information Use. Information Content Attributes: Completeness, Accuracy, Relevancy, Timeliness, Volume, Currency, and Value of Information. Information Impacts: Increases in Productivity, Saves Time, Necessary Part of Work Activity, Confirms Existing Knowledge, Stimulus for Action, etc. Information Usages: Discarded, Considered and Rejected, Redirected, Communicated, Filed, Read then Filed, Stimulus for Action, etc., Transformed into Another Information Product, Analyzed and Combined with Other Information, and Other Usages. Demographic and Use Environment Characteristics: Type of Work Environment--Public or Private. Management Level--Manager or Non-Manager. Gender--Male or Female. Education Levels--High School through Graduate School Degree. / Findings and conclusions are based on analysis and interpretation of the critical functions and relationships among the identified variables of the information transfer and utilization processes, and in the valuation activities accomplished by recipients/users. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-03, Section: A, page: 0652. / Major Professor: Ronald Blazek. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

Twenty-eight blind or low-vision and fourteen matched-sample sighted students attending public post-secondary institutions in the Atlanta metropolitan area were interviewed in this descriptive research to determine their academic information needs and their information-seeking behaviors. Thirty-six of the forty-two students discussed an academic information need related to a writing assignment, five students discussed an academic information need that was based on something other than a writing assignment, and one student did not have any academic information need. The academic information needs were analyzed in terms of variables such as type of vision, conditions of visual impairment, secondary school attended, gender, year in college, full or part-time status, major or program of study, and familiarity with the library. / The students' information-seeking behaviors were analyzed based on which of ten potential sources of information they used to satisfy their academic information need. For all students, the most frequently used information source was the library. Few students sought information from social services or governmental agencies. / The blind or low-vision students discussed their dependency on and the qualifications they sought in readers. Additionally, they identified areas in which librarians could improve service or assistance for blind or low-vision students. / The study concludes with some of the researcher's observations related to working with blind or low-vision college students. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-07, Section: A, page: 2142. / Major Professor: Gerald Jahoda. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.