Thesis--University of California, Berkeley. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 242-250).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2004. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains iv, 146 p. : ill. (some col.) + computer files. Includes supplementary version computer files in java applets, txt, and MS Word. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 90-91).

Thesis--University of California, Berkeley. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 242-250).

M.A. / The dissemination of relevant information is of critical importance to the success of any organisation that aims at realising its corporate objectives and meeting the requirements of its stakeholders. The emergence of information and communication technologies (ITCs) has had a far-reaching impact on the relationship and power structure between organisations and their audiences, stakeholders and the media. It has become extremely difficult for organisations to define and segment these audiences as, for example, Internet audiences are widely spread across geographical, cultural and economic boundaries. This makes the packaging and dissemination of information a near Herculean task, as information needs to be generic enough to be commonly understood and accessed, yet personalised and customised in such a way that it still addresses the various audience segmentations effectively. The identification and profiling of target audiences, however, are critical for successful information dissemination too, as the information thus gained will guide communicators within organisations to compile relevant (to the specific target audiences) content and to package the information in such a way that it be best suited to the needs and resources of their target groups. Extensive market research should, therefore, be an integrated organisational activity that is performed on an ongoing basis and in a structured manner. The principal aim of this research project is to determine the extent to which information and communication technologies could enable the Alumni Office of the University of Johannesburg (as a newly merged institution) to disseminate information to its alumni effectively. This target audience consists mainly of the merged partners’ alumni groups, namely the RAU and TWR alumni, but also makes provision for the establishment of a third alumni affinity group in the foreseeable future, namely the alumni of the University of Johannesburg. The research consists of an in-depth literature review, followed by an empirical component. The purpose of the literature review is to create a theoretical framework in order to lay a solid foundation from which to conduct the empirical research. The various components of the research problem are discussed, as well as the variables that could possibly influence the outcome of the research. Next, the possible challenges facing the Alumni Office of the University of Johannesburg are investigated, with special emphasis on RAU and TWR alumni, as these two groups would (at least initially) form the basis of the alumni target audience of the University of Johannesburg. The various information and communication technologies that could be employed as information-dissemination tools by the Alumni Office of the University of Johannesburg in order to build and maintain valuable relationships with the alumni target audience are also explored. Following, the so-called “digital divide” is investigated, with an overview of the factors influencing this divide in South Africa, as well as the impact it may have on disseminating and sharing information to and with alumni of the University of Johannesburg. For the empirical study, the sample population for answering the quantitative, close-ended questionnaire by means of telephonic surveys was selected by means of stratified sampling from the RAU and TWR alumni databases respectively. Three hundred RAU alumni and three hundred TWR alumni were sampled from the total target-group population, of which 25% were males older than 35 years, 25% males 35 years and younger, 25% females older than 35 and 25% females 35 years and younger. The research results indicate that information and communication technologies could, to a large extent, enable the Alumni Office of the University of Johannesburg to disseminate information to its alumni effectively. In addition, it indicates that a total of 92.80% of respondents feel that contact between them and the Alumni Office would inspire greater loyalty towards the University. A majority of alumni (86.80%) indicated that they would like to receive information about the benefits to be derived from joining the Alumni Association of the University. A strong correlation exists between the establishment of an alumni benefits programme and the level of alumni involvement with the University. The research findings could provide the Alumni Office with valuable guidelines to plan and implement an interactive information-communication strategy by means of effective information dissemination, which could be to the mutual benefit of both the University and its alumni.

Customized information service is very important for service provider nowadays. Traditional selective dissemination, as widely discussed in library community requires users¡¦ involvement and only serves a limited amount of users. In this thesis, we propose to employ data mining techniques to discover knowledge in circulation databases so as to provide customized service in library new book recommendation. Our research¡¦s data source is from National Sun Yat-Sen University¡¦s library. We follow a standard data mining procedure and report our experience in this thesis. Our research uses patron concept hierarchy and book hierarchy with given support threshold and confidence threshold to derived association rules with patron types being antecedent and book types being subsequent. Four algorithms, namely SBSP, SBMP, LatSBMP, MBMP are proposed to facilitate patron and book hierarchy search. Their complexities are compared analytically.

Abstract Libraries have long been widely recognized as import information-offering institutes. Thousands of new books are acquired per month by our university¡Xa mid-sized university in Taiwan), and patrons may have difficulties identifying the small set of books that really interest them. This gives rise to the problem of finding an effective way to recommend patrons the newly arrived books in a library. In this work, we address this problem in finding generalized association rules between patrons and books. We first discuss how to identify relevant but independent patron attributes in regard of the books they checked out. Then, we propose a set of algorithms for generating large itemsets and evaluate their performance experimentally. In addition, we define interestingness of rules and propose an algorithm for pruning uninteresting rules. Finally, we apply our approach to the circulation data of National SUN Yat-Sen University library and report our experiences.

Os atuais recursos tecnológicos têm favorecido o desenvolvimento de diferentes métodos de disseminação seletiva de informações, permitindo, inclusive, maior autonomia aos usuários. Neste contexto, teve-se como objetivo analisar o processo de disseminação seletiva de informações, por meio de estudo exploratório em uma biblioteca digital federada, visando a valorizar a mediação por intervenção humana. Para tanto, realizou-se uma revisão bibliográfica sobre os temas disseminação seletiva de informações e bibliotecas digitais federadas, assumindo-se a visão de mediação, a partir da perspectiva de Kuhlthau. Realizou-se, ainda, um estudo de caso no NEP (New Economics Papers), um serviço da biblioteca digital RePEc (Research Papers in Economics), sendo a coleta de dados realizada a partir de variadas fontes de evidências. Em relação ao questionário usado na coleta de dados, dos 61 editores temáticos voluntários, que faziam a seleção de informações a serem disseminadas nas categorias temáticas do NEP, contou-se com 41 respondentes. Para a análise dos dados, derivados das respostas do questionário, utilizou-se análise de conteúdo, buscando a identificação de fatores relevantes relacionados às variáveis analisadas (interação entre mediadores e usuários, seleção dos documentos, motivação dos mediadores, impacto do serviço e perfil dos mediadores), promovendo, quando necessário, o agrupamento de respostas semelhantes em categorias, enfatizando a ocorrência de determinado fator e não sua freqüência. Dentre os resultados destacam-se: caracterização de três distintas gerações de serviços de disseminação seletiva de informações, em relação ao desenvolvimento tecnológico; identificação de distintas possibilidades e níveis de mediação nos serviços de disseminação seletiva de informações; identificação de fatores correspondentes às variáveis analisadas em relação à mediação realizada por meio de intervenção humana, em serviços de disseminação seletiva de informações em bibliotecas digitais federadas. Conclui-se que, embora a tecnologia possibilite a autonomia por parte do usuário, em relação aos serviços de disseminação seletiva de informações, é viável um planejamento prévio que reconheça a possibilidade de se atuar em diferentes níveis de mediação a serem adotados, uma vez que a presença da mediação pode agregar valor ao serviço. / Technological advances has facilitated the development of various resources enabling the implementation of selective dissemination of information services which offer autonomy to users. Thus, the objective was to analyze the process of selective dissemination of information, through an exploratory study in a federated digital library, aiming to enhance the mediation by human intervention. For this, a literature review was made comprising the themes: selective dissemination of information and digital libraries, assuming mediation from the perspective of Kuhlthau. Also, it was conducted a case study based on NEP (New Economics Papers), a service of the digital library RePEc (Research Papers in Economics) being the data collection made from various sources of evidence. Regarding the questionnaire used in the data collection, out of 61 volunteers, who were responsible for selecting information on the NEP themes to be disseminated, 41 responded the questionnaire. For data analysis, derived from responses from the questionnaires, it was used content analysis, seeking to identify relevant factors related to the analyzed variables (interaction between mediators and users, documents\' selection, mediators\' motivation, services impact and mediators\' profile), promoting, when necessary, the grouping of similar responses into categories, emphasizing thus, the occurrence of a particular factor and not it\'s frequency. Among the results are: characterization of three different generations of selective dissemination of information services, in relation to technological development; identification of different possibilities and levels of mediation in services of selective dissemination of information; identification of factors related to the variables analyzed, in relation to the mediation made by means of human intervention in services of selective dissemination of information. It is found that, although the technology allows the autonomy of the user, referring to the selective dissemination of information services, it is possible to make a previous planning that recognize the possibility of acting from different levels of mediation to be adopted, since the presence of mediation can add value to the service.

Os atuais recursos tecnológicos têm favorecido o desenvolvimento de diferentes métodos de disseminação seletiva de informações, permitindo, inclusive, maior autonomia aos usuários. Neste contexto, teve-se como objetivo analisar o processo de disseminação seletiva de informações, por meio de estudo exploratório em uma biblioteca digital federada, visando a valorizar a mediação por intervenção humana. Para tanto, realizou-se uma revisão bibliográfica sobre os temas disseminação seletiva de informações e bibliotecas digitais federadas, assumindo-se a visão de mediação, a partir da perspectiva de Kuhlthau. Realizou-se, ainda, um estudo de caso no NEP (New Economics Papers), um serviço da biblioteca digital RePEc (Research Papers in Economics), sendo a coleta de dados realizada a partir de variadas fontes de evidências. Em relação ao questionário usado na coleta de dados, dos 61 editores temáticos voluntários, que faziam a seleção de informações a serem disseminadas nas categorias temáticas do NEP, contou-se com 41 respondentes. Para a análise dos dados, derivados das respostas do questionário, utilizou-se análise de conteúdo, buscando a identificação de fatores relevantes relacionados às variáveis analisadas (interação entre mediadores e usuários, seleção dos documentos, motivação dos mediadores, impacto do serviço e perfil dos mediadores), promovendo, quando necessário, o agrupamento de respostas semelhantes em categorias, enfatizando a ocorrência de determinado fator e não sua freqüência. Dentre os resultados destacam-se: caracterização de três distintas gerações de serviços de disseminação seletiva de informações, em relação ao desenvolvimento tecnológico; identificação de distintas possibilidades e níveis de mediação nos serviços de disseminação seletiva de informações; identificação de fatores correspondentes às variáveis analisadas em relação à mediação realizada por meio de intervenção humana, em serviços de disseminação seletiva de informações em bibliotecas digitais federadas. Conclui-se que, embora a tecnologia possibilite a autonomia por parte do usuário, em relação aos serviços de disseminação seletiva de informações, é viável um planejamento prévio que reconheça a possibilidade de se atuar em diferentes níveis de mediação a serem adotados, uma vez que a presença da mediação pode agregar valor ao serviço. / Technological advances has facilitated the development of various resources enabling the implementation of selective dissemination of information services which offer autonomy to users. Thus, the objective was to analyze the process of selective dissemination of information, through an exploratory study in a federated digital library, aiming to enhance the mediation by human intervention. For this, a literature review was made comprising the themes: selective dissemination of information and digital libraries, assuming mediation from the perspective of Kuhlthau. Also, it was conducted a case study based on NEP (New Economics Papers), a service of the digital library RePEc (Research Papers in Economics) being the data collection made from various sources of evidence. Regarding the questionnaire used in the data collection, out of 61 volunteers, who were responsible for selecting information on the NEP themes to be disseminated, 41 responded the questionnaire. For data analysis, derived from responses from the questionnaires, it was used content analysis, seeking to identify relevant factors related to the analyzed variables (interaction between mediators and users, documents\' selection, mediators\' motivation, services impact and mediators\' profile), promoting, when necessary, the grouping of similar responses into categories, emphasizing thus, the occurrence of a particular factor and not it\'s frequency. Among the results are: characterization of three different generations of selective dissemination of information services, in relation to technological development; identification of different possibilities and levels of mediation in services of selective dissemination of information; identification of factors related to the variables analyzed, in relation to the mediation made by means of human intervention in services of selective dissemination of information. It is found that, although the technology allows the autonomy of the user, referring to the selective dissemination of information services, it is possible to make a previous planning that recognize the possibility of acting from different levels of mediation to be adopted, since the presence of mediation can add value to the service.

Thesis (M.Inf.) --University of Limpopo, 2008 / The aim of the study is to investigate which of the information delivery systems (communication strategies) established at government level are used by rural clinics, and whether such information delivery systems are accessible to rural end-users. A literature review discussing and assessing the use of information delivery systems was conducted. The survey method and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from all Clinics at Ga- Molepo. The study revealed that rural end-users cannot access HIV/AIDS information because clinics use information delivery systems which are not acceptable and accessible to them. Recommendations for further study on the subject under investigation are provided. The study assumes that with the identified barriers and recommendations at their disposal HIV/AIDS campaigners will be in a good position to identify, package and employ information delivery systems which are suitable for end-users.

M.Bibl. / Please refer to full text to view abstract