Thesis (Ph. D.)--Texas Woman's University, 1990. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-120).

Thesis (Doctor of Library Science)--Columbia University, 1992. / Cover title. Includes bibliographical references (p. 216-224).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Texas Woman's University, 1990. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-120).

Thesis (MTech (Business Information Systems)--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017. / The Internet has become a useful instrument in connecting users, regardless of their geographical locations, and has thus has made the world a small village where users can interact and search for information. Another aspect that has made the Internet popular amongst users, is its growing popularity as a global resource connecting millions of users surfing the Web daily, searching for and sharing information. A successful search for information depends on the user’s ability to search effectively, and this ability is based on computer competency, knowledge of Information Technology (IT), perceptions of IT usage, and the demographics of the user. These user’s characteristics tend to influence the overall user experience. Although the Internet is used by different groups of users to achieve different objectives of information search, not all of them achieve these objectives. The main aim of this study was to determine the success rate of post-graduate students using free-form information searching to find academic reference materials.

The central theme of this study revolves around information delivery in a developing community. The notion of appropriate, accessible information networks is scrutinised. The Okavango region in Namibia is used as a case study of a developing, rural community. The region is underdeveloped in important spheres such as health, agriculture and education. Library and related information services are either underdeveloped or undeveloped. The region has a favourable rainfall pattern and a viable agricultural resource base. This is important for Namibia, because the country has large areas of semi-desert and desert. Although the Okavango region is vast ( some 4.6 million hectares), the majority of the population (137,000 at the 1991 census), are settled in a narrow 5-10 kilometre strip along the south bank of the Okavango river. This in itself offers challenging opportunities to improve connectivity and access to appropriate information for community development. The current situation with regard to information delivery and information literacy levels in Namibia is sketched and a detailed description of two projects striving towards appropriate, accessible information delivery given. Both projects are based in a tertiary environment, one at the University of Namibia and the other at five Western Cape tertiary institutions in South Africa. Although, essentially these projects aim at improving information delivery at a tertiary level, community outreach components are woven into the long term vision of both projects. The information literacy components of the projects described are of special significance. The concept of information literacy and the potential of information literacy projects and programmes to facilitate the delivery of appropriate, accessible information to developing communities are probed

Refinding electronic information is a common problem, yet it has received less study than the problem of how to find information for the first time. In this dissertation, I examine how people approach tasks to refind information they have seen on the Web and factors that may affect refinding. I conducted a controlled, laboratory study in which participants participated in two sessions: one to find information for a set of 18 tasks and a second session, about a week later, to attempt a set of counterpart refinding tasks. Results indicate that finding and refinding do have differences, but not for all types of tasks. The use of Web search engines was not observed to change significantly from the first session to the second. However, for tasks that participants were more familiar with, search engines were used less. Tasks that involved refinding a subset of the information that was found in the first session took longer to complete and were perceived as more difficult. Participants often went directly to known resources on the Web to start their searches. These sets of known resources included many on-line counterparts of paper resources such as telephone directories, dictionaries, and newspapers. For many tasks, participants used the same starting strategy to refind the information that they used find it, indicating strong patterns of access. This work contributes to the base of knowledge about how people refind information and the factors that affect refinding. It also contributes to the research field of information refinding and personal information management by identifying dimensions and factors that affect refinding. The results reported have implications for the design of Web sites and information repositories, the design of tools to help users find and refind information, and for the research community studying personal information management. / Ph. D.

<p> The readability of networks how different visual design elements affect the understanding of network data has been central in network visualization research. However, existing studies have mainly focused on readability induced by topological mapping (based on different layouts) and overlooked the effect of visual aesthetics. Here is proposed a novel experimental framework to study how different network aesthetic choices affect users' abilities of understanding the network structures. The visual aesthetics are grouped in two forms: 1) visual encoding (where the aesthetic mapping depends on the underlying network data) and 2) visual styling (where the aesthetics are applied independent of underlying data). Users are given a simple task identifying most connected nodes in a network in a hybrid experimental setting where the visual aesthetic choices are tested in a within-subject manner while the network topologies are tested in a between-subject manner based on a randomized blocking design. This novel experimental design ensures an efficient decoupling of the influence of network topology on readability tests. The utility of different visual aesthetics is measured comprehensively based on task performance (accuracy and time), eye-tracking data, and user feedback (perceived affordance). The results show differential readability effects among choices of visual aesthetics. Particularly, node based visual encoding significantly enhances network readability, specifically glyphs based on their ability to be utilized as a means to allow participants to create more robust strategies in their utilization. The study contributes to both the understanding of the role of visual aesthetics in network visualization design and the experimental design for testing the network readability.</p>

<p> This paper compares the performance of a wired and a partial wireless network sending storage data from client&rsquo;s end to the server&rsquo;s end. The purpose of this project is to observe if a wireless network can be an efficient alternative to a wired network to send storage specific protocols and data. The comparison has been made on the basis of throughput i.e., number of bits being transferred per second, and delay i.e., time taken by one bit to transfer from one end to another. For a wired network, delay can be added to the transmission at each node depending on their processing speed as well as the distance between two nodes. For a wireless network other factors like channel bandwidth and buffer size play an important role. In this paper, we have also observed the effect of buffer size on a wireless network and how it can be manipulated to minimize delay and packet loss in the network. We have implemented and simulated our network scenario in Opnet Modeler by Riverbed. </p>

<p> This dissertation presents a case study of collaborative research through design with Floracaching, a gamified mobile application for citizen science biodiversity data collection. One contribution of this study is the articulation of collaborative research through design (CRtD), an approach that blends cooperative design approaches with the research through design methodology (RtD). Collaborative research through design is thus defined as an iterative process of cooperative design, where the collaborative vision of an ideal state is embedded in a design. Applying collaborative research through design with Floracaching illustrates how a number of cooperative techniques&mdash;especially contextual inquiry, prototyping, and focus groups&mdash;may be applied in a research through design setting. Four suggestions for collaborative research through design (recruit from a range of relevant backgrounds; take flexibility as a goal; enable independence and agency; and, choose techniques that support agreement or consensus) are offered to help others who wish to experiment with this new approach. Applying collaborative research through design to Floracaching yielded a new prototype of the application, accompanied by design annotations in the form of framing constructs for designing to support mobile, place-based citizen science activities. The prototype and framing constructs, which may inform other designers of similar citizen science technologies, are a second contribution of this research.</p>

Guide to research for Traditions and Cultures 103: The Making of American Cultures, a General Education course at the University of Arizona.