Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1994. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 191-199).

No description available.

Information Science / M. A. (Information Science)

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This paper presents the background, aim and results of a small empirical study conducted in the setting of a medical hospital library. The background is found both in the quality ambitions of the medical professions and organizations and in the effort of medical libraries to show their importance to the total quality of medical decision making. As a first step in the library's quality process, the aim has been to identify quality performance indicators of value to library users in their contact with a medical hospital library. The second step- to identify satisfaction levels - is not included in this work. Another aim has been to compare the quality categories in this small study with the generally accepted quality categories that emerged in the comprehensive studies of Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry in which customers express their expectations and perceptions of services. This study is based on a small number of interviews with representatives from different user groups within a hospital. The analysis is inspired by phenomenography which build on perceptions of phenomena - in this case the phenomenon "quality". In the material from the interviews five quality categories were identified. Compared to generally accepted quality categories from the service sector none of these five categories were unique. Important conclusions were that despite the homogeneity of the user group, expectations and needs are different and vary from time to time. Consequently flexibility and individual treatment of library users are crucial if the library is to meet user expectations. But the material also shows that despite access to modern technology users have very traditional perceptions of the library seeing the library as a room. If libraries were to let only user expectations initiate changes, it would lead to stagnation. It is not realistic to rely only on the knowledge or interest of the users.

I would like to publish this original research work for public domain / INTRODUCTION : The study was conducted at Pramukhswami Medical College in Karamsad from November-August 2007 to assess the Computer and Internet usage amongst health care professionals. OBJECTIVE: To identify the knowledge of Computer and Internet of health care professionals of Pramukhswami Medical College and to understand the information-seeking behavior. We have observed the search habits of Internet users at PSMC. Efforts are on to find the search requirements related to the use of the Internet information. METHODS: They were given a questionnaire to collect the data. RESULTS: Results show that all the respondents are using the Internet frequently because. They use the Internet in different ways, such as accessing to online journals, downloading text, chatting, discussion, E-mail services and for finding related references. It is revealed that the professionals of PSMC are getting quality information through the Internet. It is observed that the Google and Yahoo search engines are more widely use compared to other search engines. CONCLUSION: The study revealed that high computer usage among health care professionals in an institution with good computer facilities. The majority expressed their willingness to undergo further training.

The relationships between medical libraries and the main users of medical information in the teaching hospitals and University departments in Oxford is examined. Systems ideas are used to define the sort of model or picture of the users that a library manager needs in order to provide the appropriate services, and to provide a formal means of incorporating users and their information needs into a management control system. Data were gathered by several methods and combined into a rich picture of the users and their information-seeking behaviour. The systems methodology developed by Checkland at the University of Lancaster was used to test this rich picture and link it with monitoring for library effective- ness. Application of the Checkland methodology was a crucial step which shifted the emphasis of the project from quantitative to conceptual modelling. The methods of data collection and the results are described as the User Survey. The following techniques were used: questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, direct observation, feedback forms (a critical incident technique), a reference tracing experiment and analysis of existing library records. The data gathered by those methods presented a consistent picture in which the nature of the users' work, ie research or clinical practice, was the dominant influence on information-seeking patterns. Application of the Checkland methodology and the conceptual models derived from it are described as the Systems Study. This revealed that the formal processes for monitoring and control expected by the conceptual models did not appear in identifiable form in the real world. Further examination showed that a detailed description of the library function was necessary and that this statement could be used to generate performance criteria. In addition, the rich picture from the User Survey was found to be a fair representation of reality. Conclusions for systems thinking, user studies, library managers and medical librarianship are presented.

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Thesis (M.S.)--University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2009. / Title from title page screen (viewed on Mar. 17, 2010). Thesis advisor: Suzanne Allard. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 294-305).