<p>This dissertation study examines the role of the public library in fostering digital literacies in underserved Illinois communities. Over the course of two years I collected data on the library as an institution, and as a context, by investigating people, policies, activities and infrastructure related to how individuals learn, comprehend and apply digital technologies in collaboration with and in relation to the library. The data was collected during visits to libraries in sixteen locations around the state with significant levels of poverty, including a selection of rural localities and predominantly African American and Latino communities. Research methods included several kinds of site observation as well as interviews with librarians. As a collective whole, these case studies yield a series of interesting and surprising stories that reflect some of the connections between social roles and service roles, as well as the particular innovations and challenges present in underserved communities. </p><p> These findings support a number of related theories and initiatives, including the need to reconstruct digital literacy as digital <i>literacies </i>, in the plural, and the impetus to see them primarily as a function of community engagement, especially in underserved community settings. The data suggests that library roles related to digital literacy are changing in several substantial ways. First, libraries are moving beyond merely providing internet to proactively promoting assisted public computing. Second, they are shifting their view of themselves as a community space to include leadership in community networking. Finally, they are working to cultivate information experiences that progress beyond consumption to involve a dimension of generative learning. </p><p> When considered in conversation with existing scholarship, these findings have important implications: they show new avenues for research into diversity and social inclusion, critical discourse analysis and dynamic models for learning. They also suggest new directions for the field of Library and Information Science (LIS) and offer a compelling reason for libraries to both participate in and help guide movements and initiatives to promote digital literacies. </p>

<p> This study examines the organizational structures and decision-making processes used by school districts to recruit and hire school librarians. For students to acquire the information and technology literacy education they need, school libraries must be staffed with qualified individuals who can fulfill the librarian&rsquo;s role as leader, teacher, instructional partner, information specialist, and program administrator. Principals are typically given decision rights for hiring staff, including school librarians. Research shows that principals have limited knowledge of the skills and abilities of the school librarian or the specific needs and functions of the library program. Research also indicates that those with specific knowledge of school library programs, namely school district library supervisors, are only consulted on recruiting and hiring about half the time. School districts entrust library supervisors with responsibilities such as professional development of school librarians only after they are hired. </p><p> This study uses a theoretical lens from research on IT governance, which focuses on the use of knowledge-fit in applying decision rights in an organization. This framework is appropriate because of its incorporation of a specialist with a specific knowledge set in determining the placement of input and decision rights in the decision-making processes. The method used in this research was a multiple-case study design using five school districts as cases, varying by the involvement of the supervisors and other individuals in the hiring process. The data collected from each school district were interviews about the district&rsquo;s recruiting and hiring practices with principals, an individual in HR, library supervisors, and recently hired school librarians. Data analysis was conducted through iterative coding from themes in the research questions, with continuous adjustments as new themes developed. </p><p> Results from the study indicate that governance framework is applicable to evaluating the decision-making processes used in recruiting and hiring school librarians. However, a district&rsquo;s use of governance did not consistently use knowledge-fit in the determination of input and decision rights. In the hiring process, governance was more likely to be based on placing decision rights at a certain level of the district hierarchy rather than the location of specific knowledge, most often resulting in site-based governance for decision rights at the school-building level. The governance of the recruiting process was most affected by the shortage or surplus of candidates available to the district to fill positions. Districts struggling with a shortage of candidates typically placed governance for the decision-making process on recruiting at the district level, giving the library supervisor more opportunity for input and collaboration with human resources. In districts that use site-based governance and that place all input and decision rights at the building level, some principals use their autonomy to eliminate the school library position in the allotment phase or hire librarians that, while certified through testing, do not have the same level of expertise as those who achieve certification through LIS programs. The principals in districts who use site-based governance for decision rights but call on the library supervisor for advisement stated how valuable they found the supervisor&rsquo;s expertise in evaluating candidates for hire. In no district was a principal or school required to involve the library supervisor in the hiring of school librarians. With a better understanding of the tasks involved, the effect of district governance on decision-making, and the use of knowledge to assign input and decision rights, it is possible to look at how all of these factors affect the outcome in the quality of the hire. A next step is to look at the hiring process that school librarians went through and connect those with the measurable outcomes of hiring: school librarian success, retention, and attrition; the quality of school library program services, outreach, and involvement in a school; and the perceptions of the success of the school librarian and the library program as seen from students, teachers, administrators, parents, and other community stakeholders. </p>

<p> The purpose of this research is two-fold: to challenge the assumption that personal digital archiving only occurs when individuals use personally owned devices and to fill a gap in current personal digital archiving research by including public library users who use public access computers. Very little current research exists using qualitative approaches to studying public libraries and almost no research studies examine how the environment of the public library shapes internet access or personal digital archiving. </p><p> The research contributes to theory through the introduction of the concept of migratory archiving. I will define and provide suggestions to resolve the privacy paradox in libraries. Another theoretical contribution of this dissertation is the application of critical realist theory to public libraries and the extension of the Transformational Model of Social Activity (TMSA) as envisioned by Bhaskar (1978, 1979, 1986, 1993, 2010) to include objects, specifically public access computers. </p><p> Through investigation of two case study locations in New York State, the research describes the current status of Internet Use and Acceptable Use Policies across the state and the status of personal digital archiving by public access computer users in libraries. This dissertation also defines and analyzes structures&mdash;including library policies and procedures&mdash;shaping technology access and personal digital archiving in public libraries.</p>

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Union Institute (Randolph County, N.C.), 1989. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

<p> This study explored the roles of graduate theological students' religious faith and degree program affiliation in their information behaviors, particularly their degree-related research behaviors. In 2015, religious intolerance continues to stratify barriers between communities. One domain where faith significantly affects student life is in graduate studies of religion and theology. This study's purpose was to explore problems in information action inherent to the dichotomy between academic study of theology that leads to Master of Arts (MA) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees and professional study of theology that leads to Master of Divinity (MDiv) and Doctor of Theology (ThD) degrees. To locate the most appropriate research subjects for qualitative inquiry, this study first investigated the content of PhD and ThD dissertation acknowledgements using bibliometric analysis. The frequency with which the PhD and ThD dissertations' acknowledgements acknowledge affiliates within their authors' own degree programs and religious faith traditions guided the research design for subsequent interviewing of MA and MDiv students about the roles of their religious faith, degree program affiliation and interpersonal information sources in their research processes. Data were collected, coded and analyzed as a lens into the relationships between authors, affiliations and acknowledgements. The qualitative component - intensive interviewing about Master's students' research processes - qualified the results of the quantitative analysis of PhD and ThD students' interpersonal information source preferences manifest in their dissertations' acknowledgements. The study found that information behavior does relate to degree program affiliations and students' religious faith, thus degree program affiliation and religious faith background should be considered in research consultations and bibliographic instruction in theological libraries.</p>

<p> The advent of Information Communication &amp; Technology (ICT) has resulted into a revolution in the ways of production, dissemination, preservation and accessibility of information. Traditional librarianship has opened its doors and embraced ICT to enhance and improve the quality and quantity of services provided by libraries. Libraries have expanded their scope to Library &amp; Information Centres. With the changing trends of libraries, the users have also moved to advanced stages of accessing the information.</p><p> Theses and dissertations are one of the major sources of authentic in-depth information on a particular topic on which a researcher conducts extensive research work. In spite of being a main source of scholarly communication, the print theses and dissertations is mostly not accessible to outside world. In this way, the important information remains unused and unknown to users. The Electronic format of the theses and dissertations makes it possible for the information content to be used by information seekers.</p><p> &ldquo;Open Access&rdquo; is a boon for the users who strive for information. Policy Guidelines framed by National and International Organizations like UNESCO, BOAI, Berlin Declaration, ECHO Charter, Bethesda Statement, Salvador Declaration, National Open Access Policy and National Knowledge Commission.s Report on Open Access (India) have promoted the benefits of open access for researchers, organizations, public and funding organizations.</p><p> Institutional repositories provide access to various institutional documents through open access. The type of contents vary from books, journals, conference proceedings, theses, dissertations, newspaper clippings, datasets, manuscripts, software, lectures, learning objects, maps, pre-prints, post-prints, research reports, audio-visual material etc.</p><p> The present research work deals with the Electronic Thesis Repositories which are a major form of grey literature of any organization. There are various benefits of ETDs like they help in increasing the citation count of the author and the institution, minimum time required for dissemination of scholarly information, various file formats can be incorporated in the electronic form which is not possible in the print theses and dissertations and they provide a solution of long term preservation of theses and dissertations. In spite of the benefits of ETDs, authors hesitate in depositing their research work in electronic format mainly due to fear of plagiarism.</p><p> There are various concepts in the whole process of setting up of an ETD Program. The present research work aims to study the various concepts of ETDs by analyzing the E-thesis Repositories in the world and collecting data from the Repository administrators through Web Questionnaire. The fourteen research objectives are divided into nine sections of Background Information of E-thesis Repository; Repository Materials; Hardware &amp; Software;Ways of Providing Access to ETDs; Budget &amp; Human Resource; Metadata &amp; Interoperability Standards; Preservation Policies; Copyright Issues;Language Compatibility, Linkages with various National and International ETD Projects &amp; Currency of Information.</p><p> The Review of Literature was conducted exhaustively using various keywords belonging to the area of research from print and non-print sources of information. The major trend observed in the international literature emphasized on importance of ETDs in academic libraries, world wide open access initiatives, overview of country specific ETD Projects, copyright and preservation issues related to ETDs, selection of software and Policy Guidelines framed by international organizations. </p><p> List of E-thesis Repositories was prepared using Registry of Open Access Repositories (ROAR) and Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR). Only those E-thesis repositories were considered whose interface was in English and which contained English language theses and dissertations. Out of total population of 258 repositories in English Language, 154 were finalized using Krejcie &amp; Morgan Table for Determining Sample Size. The selected repositories belonged to 43 countries and had more than 1000 ETDs in their repositories. The Repository Administrators of these repositories were mailed the Web Questionnaire Link through e-mail for data collection. The Web Survey Questionnaire was developed using SurveyMonkey Web Questionnaire Tool.</p><p> NDLTDs support and promotion of the present research work helped the researcher to get a good response rate of 62.33% from across the world. The USA and UK ranked highest in the list of respondents. The researcher received overwhelming response from various developing countries also. This proved that Open Access Movement is gaining momentum not only in developed countries like the USA and UK but also in several developing countries.</p><p> The researcher in the concluding part has suggested some topics related to ETDs in which research can be conducted.</p><p> The present trend of growth and development of E-thesis repositories assure that there is a promising future of the concept and open access will spread its wings in more and more countries across the world. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Drexel University, 2007. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 177-192).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Syracuse University, 2008. / "Publication number: AAT 3323090."

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Drexel University, 2008. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-154).