The study aimed to examine high school student usage of licensed databases available through public libraries in Atlanta-USA. A descriptive quantitative survey was conducted via a web-based questionnaire among 135 East Cobb high school students. The findings revealed that most students are aware of these licensed databases, but their usage is low (1:10) compared to Google. However, as students advance in grade levels, their database usage increases and GALILEO is the most-used licensed resource. Factors that influence student database usage include: specific academic needs; teacher instruction to use specific databases and frequent Digital Information Literacy (DIL) instruction. Most students receive DIL instruction at school, but their DIL skills are still inadequate. To increase usage of licensed databases as reliable information resources, the study recommends collaboration between public libraries and high schools, including incorporation of Generation Y's digital information preferences such as Google-type simplified interfaces, cutting-edge technology and time-saving search features. / Information Science / M.A. (Information Science)

Als zeitgeschichtliche und kulturhistorische Quellen können Nachlässe für die Forschung nur relevant werden, wenn sie erschlossen und damit recherchierbar sind. Diese Grundvoraussetzung kann von vielen verwahrenden Institutionen nicht mehr in ausreichender Weise geschaffen werden, Bestandszugang und Erschließungsleistung stehen häufig in einem Missverhältnis. Auch die Situation der Nachlasssammlung des Deutschen Exilarchivs 1933 – 1945 der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek, auf die sich die vorliegende Untersuchung bezieht, stellt sich entsprechend dar. Für die Definition einer minimalen, aber dennoch nutzbringenden Erschließungsleistung ist die Bewertung von Erschließungsalternativen durch die Benutzer von großer Relevanz. Anhand von Auswertungen von Benutzeranfragen und Vor-Ort-Benutzungen sowie persönlichen Interviews und einer Onlinebefragung wurden die Bedürfnisse der Benutzer des Deutschen Exilarchivs 1933-1945 und deren Bewertung des Informationsangebots erfragt. Die vorliegende Untersuchung hat Ansätze zur Vereinfachung und damit zur Beschleunigung der Nachlasserschließung ergeben. Vereinfachte, auch stark vereinfachte Konvolutbeschreibungen wurden von den Probanden sehr positiv bewertet. Detailangaben als Bestandteil der aktuell praktizierten Formalerschließung wurden dagegen nicht als unbedingt notwendige Erschließungsinformation bestätigt; zudem waren Teile der Erschließungsdaten aus Benutzersicht nicht ausreichend verständlich. Für die Präsentation von Erschließungsdaten und Digitalisaten ist im Bereich der Nachlasserschließung die Forderung nach einer „kulturgutaffinen“ Umsetzung zu unterstützen. Der geeigneten Präsentation von Nachlassgliederungen und der Möglichkeit der Navigation in Bestandsstrukturen kommt dabei besondere Bedeutung zu. Groberschließung bedeutet die Entscheidung für eine bewusste Qualitätsminderung bei der Nachlasserschließung. Zumindest temporär müssen der Zeitfaktor und die Verständlichkeit und Auffindbarkeit von Erschließungsinformationen vor der Forderung nach einer möglichst genauen Beschreibung rangieren. / Literary estates can only be used as contemporary sources for historical and cultural research when they are indexed and searchable. In many archives and libraries this basic prerequisite can no longer be provided sufficiently, since additions to the collections and indexing activity often grow disproportionately. The situation of the collection of literary estates of the Deutsches Exilarchiv 1933-1945 of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, subject of this survey, reflects this divergence. The evaluation of alternative indexation by users themselves is very important for the definition of a reduced but nevertheless useful indexation. An analysis of users’ inquiries, on-site usage, personal interviews and an online questionnaire of Deutsche Exilarchiv 1933-1945 users and their appraisal of the offered information was the basis of ascertaining user needs. The presented study resulted in approaches towards simplification that will result in speeding-up indexation of the bequests. Simplified and even starkly simplified descriptions of convolutes were evaluated very positively by the interviewed users. On the contrary, detailed entries which are part of the current descriptive indexing were not confirmed as absolutely necessary information. Apart from this, from the users’ perspective part of the indexation data were not sufficiently comprehensible. The presentation of indexing data and digitized orginals should be oriented on the specification presets by the material. Of special importance in the presentation of literary estates are appropriate outlines and tools for navigating the structures. Rough indexing implies the conscious decision for quality reduction when indexing literary estates. At least for the time being the time factor for indexation, comprehensibility and retrieval, will have preference at the cost of descriptive indexation as exact as possible.

This thesis presents work done during the last ten years on developing five multimodal spoken dialogue systems, and the empirical user studies that have been conducted with them. The dialogue systems have been multimodal, giving information both verbally with animated talking characters and graphically on maps and in text tables. To be able to study a wider rage of user behaviour each new system has been in a new domain and with a new set of interactional abilities. The five system presented in this thesis are: The Waxholm system where users could ask about the boat traffic in the Stockholm archipelago; the Gulan system where people could retrieve information from the Yellow pages of Stockholm; the August system which was a publicly available system where people could get information about the author Strindberg, KTH and Stockholm; the AdAptsystem that allowed users to browse apartments for sale in Stockholm and the Pixie system where users could help ananimated agent to fix things in a visionary apartment publicly available at the Telecom museum in Stockholm. Some of the dialogue systems have been used in controlled experiments in laboratory environments, while others have been placed inpublic environments where members of the general public have interacted with them. All spoken human-computer interactions have been transcribed and analyzed to increase our understanding of how people interact verbally with computers, and to obtain knowledge on how spoken dialogue systems canutilize the regularities found in these interactions. This thesis summarizes the experiences from building these five dialogue systems and presents some of the findings from the analyses of the collected dialogue corpora. / QC 20100611

The aim of this study was to, through a qualitative method, investigate students’ participation in a specific library blog to find out what motivate them to create and share digital book recommendations through videos. It also intended to describe the students’ own views of their participation.We conducted interviews with eight students in the ages 12 and 13, who all had similar experiences regarding the blog creation but diverse attitudes concerning the blog production and intentions to participate.The results showed that the strongest motivating forces behind the students' participation in the blog creation was that they enjoyed the making of the videos and also because they wanted to inspire others to read more and create resembling blogs.

Popular science fiction often proffers the Holodeck vision for future immersive media: a seamless and transparent interface connecting users to a virtual world where they transform into a story character and influence unfolding events. In my dissertation, I offer empirical observations on a discussion that has been largely theoretical to this point. I explore the psychological concept of user engagement through an immersive and interactive story experience called AR Façade. In the experience, the "player" interfaces with an animated married couple through an augmented reality (AR) interface that allows for unconstrained body movement and speech communication. The player finds herself in the middle of a marital conflict and can influence how the social scenario plays out through her actions and statements. I have studied the AR Façade experience from the user perspective by conducting mixed-method investigations in two instantiations: our proof of concept lab demo at Georgia Tech and an eleven-week gallery installation at the Beall Center for Art and Technology in Irvine, CA. My thesis challenges the assumptions ingrained in the Holodeck vision by offering empirical evidence that immersive display technology both supports and counteracts the experiential pleasures sought by proponents of the Holodeck medium. Focusing on the experiential aspects of the human-computer interface, I examine how a media experience changes when going from traditional desktop interaction to immersive augmented reality. While the goal of many presence researchers is to strive for an "illusion of non-mediation", I conclude that explicit mediation may be required for reaching embodied narrative engagement. An immersive interface should be mediated to provide clear mechanics to support player agency (the feeling of empowerment over events) and allow the player to manage their distance from the designated character role. In the process of presenting evidence for my claim, I clarify the terminology across the stakeholder disciplines and present an empirical case study that spans media theory, design practice, and computer science.

The study aimed to examine high school student usage of licensed databases available through public libraries in Atlanta-USA. A descriptive quantitative survey was conducted via a web-based questionnaire among 135 East Cobb high school students. The findings revealed that most students are aware of these licensed databases, but their usage is low (1:10) compared to Google. However, as students advance in grade levels, their database usage increases and GALILEO is the most-used licensed resource. Factors that influence student database usage include: specific academic needs; teacher instruction to use specific databases and frequent Digital Information Literacy (DIL) instruction. Most students receive DIL instruction at school, but their DIL skills are still inadequate. To increase usage of licensed databases as reliable information resources, the study recommends collaboration between public libraries and high schools, including incorporation of Generation Y's digital information preferences such as Google-type simplified interfaces, cutting-edge technology and time-saving search features. / Information Science / M.A. (Information Science)

Made available in DSpace on 2015-10-19T11:50:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 fonseca2012.pdf: 1503515 bytes, checksum: 598b272f4aa2f20b7b0a36372f9a404f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-28 / This work discusses usability features that can be applied on interfaces for virtual libraries, to meet differences in interaction and information needs of different users. It presents the emergence and popularization of the Internet and presents it as a determining factor for the development of thematic virtual libraries. It presents the history of libraries and proposes subsidies for the creation of thematic virtual libraries issues aimed to meet the needs of users. It introduces the concept of information and health information. It discusses the interdisciplinary relations of Information Science with Cognitive Science. It demonstrates, through a focus group study on information needs of potential users of a thematic virtual library. It talks about usability in virtual libraries and usability features as parameters for meeting the needs of users. We conclude that the heuristic evaluation and usability principles raised in the literature and the current technical standards on the subject present subsidies for improvement of thematic virtual libraries and we consider the views gathered in focus groups are important contributions to the improvement of processes in a thematic virtual library in health. / Aborda o levantamento de características de usabilidade que possam ser aplicadas em interfaces de bibliotecas virtuais, para atender diferenças de interação e necessidades informacionais de usuários distintos. Demonstra o surgimento e a popularização da Internet e o apresenta como fator determinante para o desenvolvimento das bibliotecas virtuais. Discorre sobre a história das bibliotecas e propõe subsídios para a criação de bibliotecas virtuais temáticas voltadas para atender as necessidades dos usuários. Apresenta o conceito de informação e informação em saúde. Aborda as relações interdisciplinares da Ciência da Informação com as Ciências Cognitivas. Demonstra, através de grupo focal, estudo sobre necessidades informacionais de usuários potenciais de biblioteca virtual temática em saúde. Discorre a respeito de usabilidade em bibliotecas virtuais e apresenta a usabilidade como parâmetro para atendimento às necessidades dos usuários. Conclui que a avaliação heurística e os preceitos de usabilidade levantados na literatura e as normas técnicas vigentes sobre o tema apresentam subsídios para aprimoramento de bibliotecas virtuais temáticas e considera que as opiniões colhidas no grupo focal são contribuições importantes para a melhoria de processos de uma biblioteca virtual temática em saúde

Digital games and simulations are receiving considerable notice within the Library and Information Science (LIS) community. This study adds to the depth of knowledge in this area by providing research on the likelihood a hypothetical digital game delivery method for library instruction achieves sufficient adoption to justify its development. Furthermore, this knowledge will assist decision making processes for individuals debating the current or potential role of digital gaming at their institutions. In this mixed methods study, over 300 undergraduates were surveyed about their technology preferences, including digital gaming, for delivery of two forms of academic library instruction. The two forms of library instruction were (a) providing users with spatial information on physical library layout, and (b) educating users on information literacy topics and skills. Observational data was collected during the survey sessions, occurring at face-to-face library instruction sessions. Self-selected survey participants were also interviewed to further probe their survey responses. Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations was the theoretical foundation to this research. The primary innovation of study was the digital game delivery method. Detailed analysis of the survey-based data set included three nonparametric scaling methods: 1) rank-sum scaling; 2) circular triad analysis; and 3) multidimensional preference mapping. Content analysis of the observations and semi-structured interviews also occurred. Major outcomes were 1) the digital game delivery method achieved mediocre preference across both questions; 2) the audiovisual delivery method received the highest overall preference ranking; and 3) overall preference for the audio-only delivery method was remarkably low. The most important theme across the observational data was the participants' waning attention during the face-to-face library instruction sessions. The most important outcome from the semi-structured interviews was interviewees' stated appreciation for useful technologies. Over 95% of participants were so-called digital natives, that is, born post-1980. Rogers' assertion that age plays a minor role in predicting technology adoption appears warranted, since the more innovative digital game delivery method achieved mediocre overall preference.

<div>Large datasets related to Indiana’s Education and Workforce development are used by various demographics such as stakeholders and decision makers in education and government, parents, teachers and employees of various companies to find trends and patterns in the data to better guide decision-making through statistical analysis. However, most of this data is scattered, textual and available in the form of excel sheets which makes it harder to look at the data from different perspectives, drill down and roll up the data and find trends and patterns in the data. Such data representation does not take into account the inherent characteristics of the user which can affect how well the user understands, perceives and interprets the data.</div><div>Information dashboards used to view and navigate between visualizations of different datasets, provide a coherent, central access to all data, and make it easy to view different aspects of the system. The purpose of this research is to create a new data visualization dashboard for visualizing education and workforce data and find which design principles are applicable while designing such a dashboard for the target demographic in the education and workforce domain. This study also aims at assessing how the introduction of such a data dashboard affects the work processes and decision making of stakeholders involved in education and workforce development in the state of Indiana.</div><div>User studies consisting of usability testing and semi-structured interviews with the stakeholders in education and workforce development in the state of Indiana is conducted to test the effectiveness of the dashboard. Finally, this research proposes how a regional map-based dashboard can be used as an effective method to design a data dashboard for education and workforce data for other states and other domains as well.</div>

Die Benutzerforschung zu digitalen Bibliotheken sieht sich aktuell zwei Herausforderungen gegenüber: dem Bestreben, Studien vermehrt über das Internet durchzuführen, und dem Wunsch, Benutzerverhalten in natürlichen Umgebungen statt in Laborsituationen zu erforschen. Asynchrone Remote-(Usability-)Tests sind eine methodische Herangehensweise, die möglicherweise die Lösung beider Bedürfnisse sind. Sie erlauben Personen die Teilnahme an einer Studie zu einem Zeitpunkt und an einem Ort ihrer Wahl; der Ort der Wahl entspricht dabei i.d.R der natürlichen Nutzungsumgebung der Teilnehmer. Da die Validität einer Studie von der Qualität der Daten abhängt, ist es für die Forschung sehr wichtig, die möglichen Einflüsse von Ablenkungen in der natürlichen Umgebung auf das Nutzerverhalten in der Testsituation zu bedenken. Das Dissertationsprojekt untersuchte, inwieweit asynchrone Remote-Studien aufgrund von störenden Ablenkungsfaktoren systematischen Fehler bei der Evaluierung digitaler Bibliotheken produzieren. In einem Experiment wurde das Vorhandensein von Ablenkung während der Testdurchführung in natürlichen Umgebungen ermittelt sowie der Einfluss dieser Ablenkung auf das Nutzungsverhalten analysiert. Experimentell wurde die Zeit gemessen, die Teilnehmer in einem Labor und Teilnehmer in ihrer natürlichen Umgebung zur Fertigstellung des Tests benötigten. Die Ergebnisse des Experiments zeigen, dass die Teilnehmer während der Studie stark abgelenkt waren und dass sie in ihrer natürlichen Umgebung deutlich mehr Zeit für denselben Test benötigten. Der Ort der Testdurchführung beeinträchtigte jedoch statistisch gesehen weder die Erledigung der Aufgaben noch die abgegebenen Bewertungen der Teilnehmer noch ihren Entscheidungsprozess. Aus den Ergebnissen folgt, dass der Ort der Testdurchführung nicht relevant ist, aber dass es von großer Bedeutung für die Validität der Daten ist, im Test zu erheben, was während der Durchführung in der natürlichen Umgebung des Teilnehmers geschieht. / User studies in digital libraries face two fundamental challenges. The first is the necessity of running more user studies in an online environment. Users can access digital library collections and services worldwide and the services should be usable at any time. This need for more online studies is coupled with a second need, a demand to test under realistic conditions outside of laboratories in users’ natural environment. Asynchronous remote usability tests are a methodological approach that might answer both needs: they allow participants to take part in a study at a time and place of their choice, often in the participants’ natural environment. Any chosen place, however, might be noisy. Distractions are ubiquitous in a user’s natural environment. An awareness of the potential influences of distractions on users’ behavior during test situations is of great importance, because the validity of a study depends on the quality of the data. If an instrument allows systematic mistakes in measurements because of distractions, the validity is at risk. This dissertation examined if distraction in the users’ natural environment produces a systematic mistake in digital library studies that take place at a time and location of participants’ choice. In order to investigate the existence of distractions during online user studies in digital libraries and to analyze the influence(s) of that distraction, a psychological experiment was set up. It ex¬amined completion time scores between participants in a laboratory and participants in their natural environment. The results of the experiment showed that participants were highly distracted and that participants in their natural environment needed more time to complete the same test. The setting did not affect successful task completions, the participants’ judgments of sites or their decision-making processes. This work can conclude that it does not matter where we test, but it matters what happens during the test.