The Police National Database (PND) was launched in June 2011 as a direct recommendation from the Bichard Inquiry. Its main purpose is to provide a national platform to share police information and for the first time, the PND will provide a single view of data held in police intelligence, custody, crime, child and domestic abuse systems across the UK. The PND will not replace local police systems, but it will allow all forces to see and share information - that until now has only been available within individual force boundaries.

The main aim of the study is to investigate the flows of information and the impact and added value of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) on the integration of information flows. This concept is related to the optimal design of organisational (and other) systems that allow the right decision to be made by the right person at the right time in an appropriate location. Clearly, information that is often distributed needs to come together in an efficient way to allow the best use of resources to maximize the information value. The virtual organisation (VO) is a new style of working that allows completion of tasks across time and location. The use of ICTs is viewed as a facilitator of these tasks and their application provides good examples to extend their use. The most common types of VOs are home offices, teleworking centres, mobile offices and `hotelling'. Teleworkers still face several problems, such as managing their work, lack of appropriate communications to complete their work efficiently, and isolation. This study applied an information-driven approach to investigate the current problems in the teleworking environment, and solutions are proposed to improve the flow of information in the VOs. The data required were collected by questionnaire survey, semi-structured interviews, and document analysis. Members of the Telework Association (TCA) in the UK were invited to take part in this survey, and 153 out of 800 respondents came from this source. From subsequent analysis of the data collected, there is indeed an issue with the use and integration of information flows in VOs. An in depth study of six individual cases revealed a lack of information sharing, poor understanding of information needs, and low rates of access to online information. Soft solutions can be achieved through understanding information needs, developing information policy, and training. Hard solutions can be achieved through using online information, using workflow software, upgrading the speed of Internet connection, using information sharing systems, and arranging more open access to information. Some indicators of future research can be mentioned, particularly in conducting the second generation of information audit in teleworking practice, to study knowledge management (KM) practices in teleworking, to develop information policies to enhance teleworking practices, to focus on the information needs of teleworkers, to evaluate the impact of software applications (such as workflow software), to implement information sharing systems, and to study the impact of training on information retrieval and use.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:16:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 4735.pdf: 2871302 bytes, checksum: fb4c7704f88f36de851155116ef6cc3e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-11-26 / The purpose defined for the development of this dissertation is to analyzing a set of six pictures portraying the Brazilian sociologist Florestan Fernandes, taking as a criterion the temporal delimitation, the period of the military dictatorship and, also, the time in which it was exiled of Brazil. The pictures, alongside with several other documents that belonged to Florestan Fernandes, were donated by his family, in 1996, as a result of the acquisition of the Library Florestan Fernandes by UFSCar. The photo collection is one of the assets that make up the collections belonging to the Florestan Fernandes. It was organized according to the operating principles from the field of archival science and is very requested by readers/users. The main purpose of the research is to investigate whether it would be possible to resort to theoretical and methodological procedures arising from information science to support and complement the organizational treatment given to images. The methodological perspective adopted of content analysis, from contexts historicalpartner, allowed developing descriptions that enlarged the signification of the photos of the theme open to question. For such, one opted for the inclusion of biographical data of the characters that were photographed together with Florestan and for the transcription of the published matters made a list to the images, having in mind the language own to the time and the natural difficulty of reading of already aged originals. Such an option gave itself on account of the necessity of contextualize the whole process what the character Florestan was subdued. The documents made feasible the affirmation of such facts as soon as same there became textual proofs of the incidents. The theoretical exploration, the analyses and the descriptions of the pictures allowed noting the existence of many forms of representation of photographic contents, having in mind the senses which are intrinsic and extrinsic, visible or hidden in the images. The analyses of the corpus composed by six pictures, pertaining to series Academic life , revealed imagetic details what can make easy the access and the recuperation of the information for any users of the Bottom Florestan Fernandes. With the pictures and the documentary inquiry carried out to subsidize the analyses of content they allowed the contact to realize that the photographic images have great informative value and that it is important to be adopted the verbal language as the complementary form of the visual language. This study, besides producing information and knowledge on a period of the life of Florestan Fernandes pointed, also, to ways for similar works with other photographic series pertaining to the Bottom Florestan Fernandes. Among several additions originating from this inquiry, we can point out that the accrued apprenticeship provided a new glance on scenes and objects, when other interpretations are making possible and details what up to that time were being paid attention or not valued. / O propósito definido para o desenvolvimento desta dissertação é o de analisar um conjunto de seis fotografias retratando o sociólogo brasileiro Florestan Fernandes, tendo por critério a delimitação temporal, o período da ditadura militar e, também, o tempo em que esteve exilado do Brasil. As fotografias, juntamente com vários outros documentos que pertenceram a Florestan Fernandes, foram doados pela sua família, em 1996, em decorrência da aquisição da Biblioteca Florestan Fernandes pela UFSCar. O acervo fotográfico constitui-se num dos acervos que compõem as coleções pertencentes ao Fundo Florestan Fernandes. Foi organizado segundo os princípios operacionais advindos do campo da Arquivologia e é muito requisitado por leitores/usuários, O principal propósito da pesquisa é o de investigar se seria possível recorrer aos procedimentos teórico-metodológicos advindos da Ciência da Informação para subsidiar e complementar o tratamento organizacional dado às imagens. A perspectiva metodológica adotada de análise de conteúdo, a partir de contextos sócio-históricos, permitiu desenvolver descrições que ampliaram a significação das fotos da temática em questão. Para tal, optou-se pela inclusão de dados biográficos dos personagens que foram fotografados junto com Florestan e pela transcrição das matérias publicadas relacionadas às imagens, tendo em vista a linguagem própria da época e a dificuldade natural de leitura de originais já envelhecidos. Tal opção deu-se em razão da necessidade de contextualizar todo o processo a que foi submetido o personagem Florestan. Os documentos viabilizaram a afirmação de tais fatos uma vez que os mesmos tornaram-se provas textuais das ocorrências. A exploração teórica, as análises e as descrições das fotografias permitiram constatar a existência de muitas formas de representação de conteúdos fotográficos, tendo em vista os sentidos intrínsecos e extrínsecos, visíveis ou ocultados nas imagens. As análises do corpus composto por seis fotografias, pertencentes a série Vida acadêmica , revelaram detalhes imagéticos que podem facilitar o acesso e a recuperação da informação por quaisquer usuários do Fundo Florestan Fernandes. O contato com as fotografias e a pesquisa documental realizada para subsidiar as análises de conteúdo permitiram perceber que as imagens fotográficas têm grande valor informativo e que é importante adotar-se a linguagem verbal como forma complementar da linguagem visual. Este estudo, além de gerar informação e conhecimento sobre um período da vida de Florestan Fernandes apontou, também, caminhos para trabalhos semelhantes com as outras séries fotográficas pertencentes ao Fundo Florestan Fernandes. Dentre as várias somatórias oriundas desta pesquisa, podemos salientar que o aprendizado acumulado proporcionou um novo olhar sobre cenas e objetos, possibilitando outras interpretações e detalhamentos que até então eram despercebidos ou não valorizados.