Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pittsburgh, 1996. / "97-09421." eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-105).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2008. / "Graduate Program in Communication, Information and Library Studies." Includes bibliographical references (p. 176-184).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pittsburgh, 1996. / "97-09421." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-105).

This study describes a survey of 237 first-year undergraduate students conducted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Through this study, the researcher aimed to fill in gaps in librarians’ knowledge about first-year students’ awareness of reference services, and students’ preferred modes of communication with librarians. The results show significant positive relationships between librarians’ verbal promotion of reference services and students’ tendency to ask reference questions in person.

This two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Sciences aims to investigate and put the services of 118100 Svar På Allt (SPA, an SMS mobile question and answer service) and Fråga biblioteket (FB, a library operated e-mail reference service) into the context of the reference encounter. Questions sent to SPA and their subsequent answers are analysed, and part of these questions are forwarded to FB for comparative studies. Both of the formats are compared to the reference encounter as a whole. The framing of the question originates in the assumption that there may be a need for further negotiation of the questions submitted to the aforementioned formats. Do SPA and FB constitute formats different enough from the reference encounter to imply that the question at hand already has gone through the apropiate negotiations? These compressed and asynchronous reference services are not only compared to the synchronous reference, but are also examined as reference services in their own right. How does the e-mail reference and the SMS services fare against each other and the “regular” reference encounter? Findings in the analysis are subjected to appliable INSU theories, especially Robert S. Taylors thoughts on question negotitation and Nicholas Belkins et al regarding anomalous states of knowledge. Further major contributors are Marie L. Radford concerning the reference encounter and Reijo Savolainen on everyday information practices. The study found several occasions where a personal, or at least synchronous, reference encounter would have been decidedly more helpful than that of the electronic services. However, the larger majority of the questions analysed turned out to be completed in formulation for the compressed, asynchronous format. The e-mails of FB can to some extent work as an intermediary service since it is more allowing lengthwise than SPA and gives more of an opportunity to redirect towards more exhaustive sources.

The aim of this master’s thesis is to examine the virtual reference service Ask the Library [Bibblan svarar] from a postmodern perspective. Ask the Library is a Swedish online reference service that is run by the country’s public libraries. The postmodern theories of Jean-François Lyotard are used to study how information is managed and transmitted within the service. From this point-of-view three aspects of the reference service are studied; how the information is affected by the virtual environment, the librarian’s role within the service and finally how the content of the service is managed. The methods for extracting data are a blend of qualitative interviews and online observations. The data is then analyzed from a theoretical viewpoint. The result shows that there are several postmodern tendencies in Ask the Library. Namely the service shows a number of indications toward plurality. This can be related to Lyotard’s theory of the downfall of the grand narratives since postmodern theories celebrate the idea of plurality and diversity. Ask the Library is complex and dynamic in the sense that it adapts its services to the users. In addition to a multilingual service, Ask the Library also offers the users reference help in the form of social network sites like Facebook and Twitter. This makes the service more varied but also deeply complex. The reference service also emphasizes on the librarian’s individual competence and promotes personal knowledge and expertise. In Lyotard’s postmodern theories there is a rejection of absolute and objective truths and this falls in line with the subjectivity that the reference service celebrates. Ask the Library has two different agendas; providing qualitative reference service to the users and also promoting the librarians and their skills. The information, or content, in the service is still organized and under examination by the librarians. Critique of the sources is an important skill for a librarian within Ask the Library to have. These traditional ideas of objective truth are balanced with the new virtual environment that often promotes collective construction of information and knowledge. This study is a two years master’s thesis in the academic field library and information science.

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 (M.A.)(Hons)--University of Western Sydney, Nepean, 1996. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (M.A.)(Hons)--University of Western Sydney, Nepean, 1996. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (M. A. (Information Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / The study investigated the awareness towards the and utilisation of Reference Management Software (RMS) by postgraduate students in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Limpopo, South Africa. The aim of the study was to examine the awareness and usage of RMS among postgraduate students in the Faculty of Humanities. The study sought to fulfil the following objectives, namely: to describe the types of RMS available for use in university libraries; to determine awareness of RMS by postgraduate students in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Limpopo; to measure the extent to which postgraduate students in this faculty use RMS when writing academic papers; to identify the purposes for which the postgraduate students use RMS; and to identify postgraduate students’ perceptions regarding the use of RMS Quantitative research orientation though a survey research design were adopted in the study. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 320 respondents and a total number of 244 questionnaires were returned and a response rate of 76% was achieved. The findings of the study show that most of the respondents (59%) were aware of the RMS. Most of the postgraduate students became familiar with the software through attending library training. However, the study found that the usage of RMS was low as 45% postgraduate students indicated that they have used RMS before whilst, 55% indicated that they have never used the RMS before. RefWorks remains the most popular used software among postgraduate students. Most of the respondents’ reason for using RMS amongst others was because they have received training, and some mentioned the fact that it was the only RMS they were familiar with. The study also found that the respondents use RMS to cite sources for assignments, research and papers, as well as to create reference list and collect and organise citations. The study revealed that the respondents like RMS because it assists and improves referencing. The study recommends for an intensified library training by academic librarians so that students should know advanced features of the RMS.