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This chapter reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on the concept of credibility and its areas of application relevant to information science and technology, encompassing several disciplinary approaches.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships among sensation seeking, burnout, injury, and job satisfaction among firefighters. Participants included 93 firefighters from a southeastern fire department. Each participant was asked to fill out a packet of self-report surveys including a demographic form, Sensation Seeking Scale Form V, Maslach Burnout Inventory, Job Satisfaction Survey, Absenteeism form, and an On-The-Job Injury form. This exploratory study provided an initial assessment of personality in relation to burnout and injuries in firefighters. The information from this study will hopefully help fire chiefs and administrators to better understand firefighters and the factors influencing their burnout, injuries, and job satisfaction. This information may, in turn, be useful in developing strategies to reduce burnout and better identify risk-factors affecting burnout and job performance in this population.

Abstract Since the outbreak of sever acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The potentially serious impact of SARS on people¡¦s accessibility to medical services should not be overlooking. Many wondered whether the fear of SARS among patient¡¦s alike changed people¡¦s seeking behaviors. Kaohsiung Area remains one of the most severely affected areas of Taiwan. We aimed to identify three problems: 1. Whether the impact of SARS influenced hospital¡¦s ambulatory patient¡¦s seeking behaviors (including overuse, underused, health and preventive behavior, fixed medical care place, and use alternative medicine)? 2. Whether the impact of SARS influenced patient¡¦s selection of hospitals level or clinics? 3. Whether the demographic and health status characteristics affected patient¡¦s seeking behaviors during or after the SARS? Questionnaires were distributed to all willing hospital¡¦s ambulatory patients of Kaohsiung Areas during 2003 Feberry to May. The sampling methodology was stratified, and cluster random sampling. The survey included questions regarding concern about 3-SARS-periods (included pre-SARS, during-SARS, after-SARS) patient¡¦s seeking behaviors (13 items of each period) and selection of hospitals level or clinics (1 item), personal demographic and health status characteristics (12 items). Of the 1834 questionnaires distributed, 1101 (60.03%) were returned. The Cronbach [alpha] for internal consistency reliability was 0.861 for the Questionnaire. We used the repeated measured CATMOD procedure in SAS (Version 8.0, SAS Institute Inc., Gary, NC, 1999-2000) to test the data of 3-SARS-periods patients seeking behaviors. We compared pre-SARS with during-SARS, and compared pre-SARS with after-SARS patient¡¦s seeking behaviors. Comparisons were considered significant at P< or =0.01 and P values were 2-tailed. Combined data for the two comparisons showed that significantly decreased the overuse such as repeated use and go to the medical centers for command cold, decreased the underused such as delay seeking care, increased health and preventive behavior, but fixed health care place deceased, the percentage of use alternative medicine¡¦s didn¡¦t significantly changed. The two comparisons of selection of hospitals level and clinics showed that significantly decreased the percentage of selection of medical center level. Male, single, educational level under high school, family income below 50,000 per month, the chronic disease patient's prescription user, the major illness/injury card user, and high use¡]use above E health care card¡^group patients were statistically significant more percentage of overuse, and less percentage of health behavior, fixed medical care place.

In the past, medical industry is a highly exclusive field, people would overcome a great amount of restriction and obstacle while seeking for medical advice. However, the financial obstacle was much reduced after the National Health Insurance program began in March of 1995. It is now easier and more convenient for people to seeking for medical assistance. By learning more about the key point of what people think before seeking for medical assistance, hospital can make more effective marketing programs. The purpose of this research is to understand the situation of medical care seeking behavior of the public. The structrued survey study sampled 334 patients by quota sampling. Information collected in the questionnaire includes situation of the medical care seeking behavior and medical services utilization. A multiple regression was also performed to examine the factors that influenced the medical care seeking behavior. Some managerial implications were also proposed according to the results.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 85-93). Also available in print.

Amongst the personality dispositions, sensation seeking (SS) has special relevance in explaining and predicting types of risk-related behaviours, such as participation in sports containing high risk and even danger. The prevalence of risk-taking in the context of sport, and the impact of gender, was the objective of the present study. All subjects were administered the Sensation-Seeking Scales of Zuckerman Form II and V (SSS-II & V). The results show that male sports participants are higher risk-takers than female participants, thus concurring with the general profile of male and female tendencies concerning sensation seeking behaviour. The resulting data are discussed and explained within the context of Zuckerman's sensation-seeking model.

This is a preprint of an article published in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 55, pp. 743-753. Abstract: The objective of this study was to characterize the home as an information use environment and to identify a range of information seeking and Web search behaviors at home. The data were analyzed on four levels: home environment, information seeking goals, information retrieval interaction, and search query. Findings indicated that the home, indeed, provided a distinct information use environment beyond physical setting alone in which the subjects used the Web for diverse purposes and interests.

Artificial Intelligence Lab, Department of MIS, University of Arizona / Research was focused on discovering whether two of the algorithms the research group has developed can help improve browsing and/or searching the Internet. Results indicate that a Kohonen self-organizing map (SOM)-based algorithm can successfully categorize a large and eclectic Internet information space into managable sub-spaces that users can successfully navigate to locate a homepage of interest to them.

The Securities Industry Development Centre (SIDC) is the education and training arm of the Securities Commission (SC), and the SIDC Library serves both SC staff and the securities industry. The SIDC Library is a specialised library that has its resources focused on the capital market. Identifying usersâ information needs is a first step towards analysing the information needs of SIDC Library members and the SC staff. The study was motivated by the fact that an analysis of information needs help identify the SIDC Library resources for further development to ensure the delivery of information services matches usersâ needs. In this paper, we would like to share a study that was conducted to analyse how the SIDC Library services were tailored to meet the information needs of users. By studying this aspect, we will be able to see how the library defines and classifies its user types, and addresses issues impacting information services through proper operation planning and practices. The respondents for this paper were mainly SIDC Library members and SC staff. The result of the study is based on a collection of survey questionnaires, personal interviews and records of user requests for documents. From this study, a profile of user information needs was established; enabling the library management to identify, support and provide an efficient delivery mechanism for meeting usersâ information needs. This study helped SIDC librarians identify the kind of information that was needed and generated, and to support those which are not readily available by further developing a comprehensive new subject/collection of SIDC Library information resources. This will also provide an insight into the users' expectations on content resources and services of the SIDC Library, as well as for developing library user education programmes. Thus, the study of usersâ information needs is one tool that enables SIDC Librarians to discover, evaluate, implement, maintain and improve its management of information resources.