This research investigated the library end-users' perceptions of their training needs in relation to using the electronic information resources in selected public universities in Malaysia. It also investigated the training methods preferred by end-users in learning how to use electronic information resources. The subjects of the study were university students and academic staff from three selected public universities in Malaysia. They comprised 433 students and 223 academic staff. This study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods. The main data was gathered through self-administered questionnaires, while the supplementary data was gathered through face-to-face semi-structured interviews. Opinions from the librarians responsible for end-user training at the three university libraries were also sought through face-to-face semi-structured interviews. Comparisons were made between the two groups of end-users, namely, students and academic staff in areas related to the problems of the study. Appropriate non-parametric statistical techniques such as cross-tabulation, chisquare test, Mann-Whitney U test and Spearman correlation test were applied in analysing the data measured at both nominal and ordinal scales. Among the major findings were: (1) a statistically significant differences were found between students and academic staff in terms of knowledge and ability in using electronic information resources. Many academic staff were more knowledgable and able to use electronic information resources than students. However, concerning knowledge in using certain IT facilities, many more students than academic staff knew how to use them; and (2) both students and academic staff preferred one-to-one training methods as their first choice. With regard to the second choice of training method, students preferred computerassisted instruction (CAI), while academic staff preferred library workshops with hands-on training. Recommendations based on the research findings were made.

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of a degree of Masters of Arts in Library and Information Science from the Department of Information Studies at the University of Zululand, 2009. / Today’s online experience has literally added a new dimension to our information seeking activities, presenting users with a vast array of options. A considerable amount of information has migrated from the print world and is now available electronically. Thus a lot of people immediately associate the World Wide Web (WWW) with information and its related activities. This association partly prompted this study on the web information seeking behaviour of students and staff at the University of Zululand and the Durban University of Technology. Web information seeking generally raises new challenges within academic dispensations in different settings and in different ways. The selected institutions were assumed to be at different levels of development because of the country’s (apartheid) history; the former institution is rural-based and the latter, urban based, and it was thought that this would affect the uptake of ICTs. The objectives of the study were: i) To identify the web information needs of students and staff; ii) To determine how, when and where web information is sought; iii) To establish the channels used when searching the web for information; iv) To identify the challenges faced when searching for information online; and v) To recommend the best ways to improve web information seeking and use within the two institutions. Both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies were employed in a survey. The main research instrument was a questionnaire, supported by limited interviews. The results show that the web is a platform that people in academia have come to rely on, although only a few of its numerous channels are used significantly. A wholesale swing in the pattern of use from reliance on traditional information providers to this new medium was not evident; however, the old and the new appear to coexist. Many claimed that although the web is now their first choice as an information source, they have not discarded the ‘old ways’ - they still visit the library and feel it plays a vital role in meeting their information needs. A number of challenges were identified, chief among them being connectivity problems. Bandwidth was particularly problematic and made worse by the two institutions’ large student populations. Relevant infrastructure (computer laboratories, computers, etc.) seemed available, although inadequate. The results shed light on the general retrieval difficulties students’ face. Most of these appeared to stem from poor training or lack of skills. Many users, students in particular, appeared to be familiar with how web technology works but not with how to use the technology to achieve results. The study recommends comprehensive training programs that address the skills’ deficiencies noted. It is also necessary to institute mechanisms that improve both physical and intellectual access to web resources.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences. / Department of Sociology

D.Litt. et Phil. / This study investigated the impact of the Web on the information-seeking and citation behaviour of Unisa academics. The research study was executed in two phases. Phase 1 consisted of a Web citation analysis and phase 2 a questionnaire. Phase 1 explored how the availability of Web information resources affected the scholarly citation behaviour of Unisa academics by determining the relationship between Web-based references and non-Web-based references in the reference lists of Unisa academics. In phase 1 it was established how frequently Web-based information resources were cited (reference lists) compared to traditional print sources. Furthermore, the variation in Web citation patterns between academics from different subject disciplines was identified. The main source of data was 20 825 citations contained in reference lists, endnotes and footnotes of 458 accredited research journal articles submitted in 2004 by Unisa to the Department of Education for subsidy purposes. The data were gathered by calculating the total number of references that appeared in the reference lists. Thereafter a citation count was done of the total number of Web references cited in the article by checking each article for references containing Web-based information resources such as URLs of webpages or websites. Collectively the reference lists consisted of 3.5% references to Web-based information resources and 96.5% to non-Web-based information resources. The findings of the 2005 citation study indicate that academics tended to rely on static, academic library, print-based resources when citing the literature, not Web-based information resources. Furthermore, academics from the five Unisa Colleges displayed different Web citation patterns. Phase 2 of the study, a questionnaire survey, provides insight into the relative significance of the open Web as an information resource and Web search engines as research tools among academics. The aim of the questionnaire was to record the preferences, usage and perceptions of the freely available open Web information resources, as compared to the academic library information resources (print and electronic). In addition, the factors that influence the choice of the academic when iv selecting the open Web or the academic library as an information resource were investigated. The entire Unisa academic staff establishment was invited via e-mail and the Unisa intranet to participate in the survey. The survey instrument consisted of 32 questions via the Web and/or print-based format. The findings reported are based on a survey of 187 Unisa academics with a response rate of 15.74%.

When learning mathematics, deaf children of primary school age experience difficulties due to their disability. In Jordan, little research has been undertaken to understand the problems facing deaf children and their teachers. Frequently, children are educated in special schools for the deaf; the majority of deaf children tend not to be integrated into mainstream education although efforts are made to incorporate them into the system. Teachers in the main stream education system rarely have knowledge and experience to enable deaf students to reach their full potential. The methodological approach used in this research is a mixed one consisting of action research and Human Computer interaction (HCI) research. The target group was deaf children aged nine years (at the third grade) and their teachers in Jordanian schools. Mathematics was chosen as the main focus of this study because it is a universal subject with its own concepts and rules and at this level the teachers in the school have sufficient knowledge and experience to teach mathematics topics competently. In order to obtain a better understanding of the problems faced by teachers and the deaf children in learning mathematics, semi-structured interviews were undertaken and questionnaires distributed to teachers. The main aim at that stage of research was to explore the current use and status of the e-learning environment and LMS within the Jordanian schools for the deaf in Jordan. In later stages of this research, semi-structured interviews and questionnaires were used again to ascertain the effectiveness, usability and readiness of the adopted e-learning environment “Moodle. Finally pre-tests and post-tests used to assess the effectiveness of the e-learning environment and LMS. It is important to note that it was not intended to work with the children directly but were used as test subjects. Based on the requirements and recommendations of the teachers of the deaf, a key requirements scheme was developed. Four open source e-learning environments and LMS evaluated against the developed key requirements. The evaluation was based on a software engineering approache. The outcome of that evaluation was the adoption of an open source e-learning environment and LMS called “Moodle”. Moodle was presented to the teachers for the purpose of testing it. It was found it is the most suitable e-learning environment and LMS to be adapted for use by deaf children in Jordan based on the teachers requirements. Then Moodle was presented to the deaf children’s to use during this research. After use, the activities of the deaf and their teachers were used and analysed in terms of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) analysis. The analysis includes the readiness, usability, user satisfaction, ease of use, learnability, outcome/future use, content, collaboration & communication tools and functionality.

This study assesses information-seeking and perceptions of expertise in Electronic Networks of Practice (ENoPs). ENoPs are a particular type of online community focused on sharing information related to a specific work-related profession (Wasko and Faraj, 2005). To date, there has been little empirical work on the dynamics of information exchange in ENoPs (Whelan, 2007). The little we do know is based on face-to-face communities, which cannot be generalized to online interactions due to changes in size, purpose, and method of communication. Understanding the type and perceived value of information is an important line of theoretical inquiry because it has the potential to identify the specific informational needs these communities fulfil and the types of people most likely to fulfil them. This research was conducted in an ENoP focusing on the exchange of information related to the practice of engineering. The community studied, Eng- Tips, is a thriving network focusing on the practice of engineering that has produced over 150,000 posts, and is comprised of engineers from twenty-one different specialties. Interactions take place solely through the use of virtually mediated technology, and focus primarily on practice-related issues. The format of interaction is typically based on a query and a stream of ensuing replies. Data were collected through metrics and a coding procedure that allowed me to identify the most common queries in the ENoP. My data revealed queries in the ENoP tended to focus on obtaining solutions, meta-knowledge, or validation. The high emphasis on validation was similar to that found in face-to-face friendship networks, and was contrary to Cross et al.’s (2001) anticipated results, most likely due to the presence of anonymity. I also found that experience of interacting with multiple specialties (i.e. interactional expertise) was positively associated with perceived expertise. Finally, I discovered that replies, giving out nominations, and frequently logins were positively associated with the number of expert nominations one received in the community. This research makes contributions to both theory and practice. I contribute to theory on information-seeking by extending Cross et al.’s (2001) research to the online environment, and articulating the type of informational benefits sought in the ENoP. I contribute to theory on expertise by exploring the characteristics associated with perceived expertise, and exploring the reasons why interactional expertise may be particularly valued in ENoPs. My work in this area reveals that—in the context of the ENoP studied—a ‘common practice’ is highly fragmented and loosely knit, further distinguishing this entity as a unique organizational form. My findings in this area call into question the validity of a practice-based approach for examining these entities, and for these reasons, I suggest they may be better conceptualized as Electronic Networks of Discourse. Practical ramifications focus on describing the type of information members want to obtain from their involvement in the community, which may benefit members, organizations, and managers of the ENoP.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Computer Science / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This thesis presents an automated framework for quantitative vascular shape analysis of the coronary arteries, which constitutes an important and fundamental component of an automated image-based diagnostic system. Firstly, an automated vessel segmentation algorithm is developed to extract the coronary arteries based on the framework of active contours. Both global and local intensity statistics are utilised in the energy functional calculation, which allows for dealing with non-uniform brightness conditions, while evolving the contour towards to the desired boundaries without being trapped in local minima. To suppress kissing vessel artifacts, a slice-by-slice correction scheme, based on multiple regions competition, is proposed to identify and track the kissing vessels throughout the transaxial images of the CTA data. Based on the resulting segmentation, we then present a dedicated algorithm to estimate the geometric parameters of the extracted arteries, with focus on vessel bifurcations. In particular, the centreline and associated reference surface of the coronary arteries, in the vicinity of arterial bifurcations, are determined by registering an elliptical cross sectional tube to the desired constituent branch. The registration problem is solved by a hybrid optimisation method, combining local greedy search and dynamic programming, which ensures the global optimality of the solution and permits the incorporation of any hard constraints posed to the tube model within a natural and direct framework. In contrast with conventional volume domain methods, this technique works directly on the mesh domain, thus alleviating the need for image upsampling. The performance of the proposed framework, in terms of efficiency and accuracy, is demonstrated on both synthetic and clinical image data. Experimental results have shown that our techniques are capable of extracting the major branches of the coronary arteries and estimating the related geometric parameters (i.e., the centreline and the reference surface) with a high degree of agreement to those obtained through manual delineation. Particularly, all of the major branches of coronary arteries are successfully detected by the proposed technique, with a voxel-wise error at 0.73 voxels to the manually delineated ground truth data. Through the application of the slice-by-slice correction scheme, the false positive metric, for those coronary segments affected by kissing vessel artifacts, reduces from 294% to 22.5%. In terms of the capability of the presented framework in defining the location of centrelines across vessel bifurcations, the mean square errors (MSE) of the resulting centreline, with respect to the ground truth data, is reduced by an average of 62.3%, when compared with initial estimation obtained using a topological thinning based algorithm.

Written by a full-time clinician, this thesis explores an example of ‘Big IT’ in healthcare, the National Programme for IT in the United Kingdom National Health Service. It is unique in exploring the interaction between people and information technology in the healthcare workplace, from an engaged standpoint within one of the National Programme’s implementation sites, in order to provide a critical and a socio-technical appreciation.

In the last few years, the world has been gripped by a crisis of forced migration and displaced persons. Being forced migrants, asylum-seekers are a unique and diverse population, originating from many countries with different backgrounds and experiences. This makes fulfilling the information needs of the asylum community difficult. Online participatory platforms, such as blogs and discussion forums, are flexible, adaptive information resources that could be used to meet the diverse needs of this population. In this study, I compare two online resources used by asylum-seekers, a blog and discussion forum, using social network analysis and topic modeling techniques. Through these analyses, I have determined the conversational archetype the best reflects both websites and discovered the information needs expressed and, in many cases, resolved through conversations in these online spaces. The core finding of this study is that providing direct access to an expert, such as through an interactive blog, promotes dialogue on a greater variety of topics and increases the likelihood of a thorough response. Furthermore, blog posts may inform participants' comments by providing them with the necessary vocabulary to participate fully in the online setting.