Masters of Art / The study investigated the bookmobile library service of the City of Cape Town libraries as an information ground and the information seeking behaviour of Manenberg adult library users. The study explored the use of bookmobile services by identified information needs and information seeking behaviour of community members to identify whether the bookmobiles were able to meet them. The study underpinned the Information Grounds Theory by Pettigrew to understand how individuals visiting the mobile library seek, acquire and exchange information while waiting for the bus as well as when they are in the mobile library.

In this two-years masters thesis the information practices of former interns are examined in relation to a possible lack of certain kinds of information in the prison environment. The essay is positioned in the research field of information practices which means its looking at all kinds of information, formal and informal. Since the essay is in the field of information practices it means the focus lies in how information is taught whithin contexts and groups. Information is not looked at solely as an individual process but is seen as a collective experience. The method of the essay is that of the qualitative research interview. Besides taking an interest in information practices i investigate whether access of information in prisons could be improved and whether the library organisations could be a part of those improvements. The result of my research shows that information in the prison coming from the correctional institution is not perceived as well functioning. Some exceptions where found but these where described by the informants as instances where staff had been extra helpful, as opposed to there being a functioning system of information practices in place in the organisation of the prison. Several of the informants thought information within groups of inmates could be motivating. A reason for this could be that groups of inmates are in the same situation, the power differences of the situated identities inmate and prison guard does not exist among inmates. In order of accessing relevant information from prison staff the inmates had to be driven and determined. The result of this essay further shows that it is too late to plan the release after the release has taken place. Several of the informants recounted increased difficulties in adjustment to the new social situation, having gone through psychological breakdown subsequent to their release. Many practical problems like for example homelessness also occurred. The research points to the prison libraries as a place where steps in coping with the release could successfully have been taken. This being so because the libraries are a place where the situated prisoner identity can be dissolved. Where one can remember ones interests and which books one used to read. in which sense there is already in the library room, an opening to the outside world. During the prison stay many find it difficult thinking about the world outside. It can be explained in terms of an adjustment to the social practices in the institution having taken place and in that the contrasts between the correctional institution and the world outside being to wide.

The 2010 earthquake in Haiti, which killed an estimated 316,000 people, offered many lessons in mass-fatality management (MFM). The dissertation defined MFM in seeking information and in recovery, preservation, identification, and disposition of human remains. Specifically, it examined how mass fatalities were managed in Haiti, how affected individuals sought information about fatalities, and what needs motivated them. Data from 28 in-depth, partially structured interviews, conducted during two field visits ending 21 weeks after the earthquake, were included in a case study. The data analysis revealed the MFM was severely inadequate. One interviewee, a senior UN official, stated, "There was no fatality management." The analysis also indicated a need to learn whereabouts of the deceased motivated individuals to visit spots the deceased were last seen at. It sought to illumine information-seeking practices, as discussed in the works of J. David Johnson and others, by developing a new model of information flow in MFM. In addition, it reaffirmed Donald Case and Thomas Wilson's theoretical proposition – that need guides any seeking of information – in the case of Haiti. Finally, it produced recommendations regarding future directions in MFM for emergency managers and information scientists, including possible use of unidentified body parts in organ transplants. Overall, the dissertation, which was supported by two grants of the National Science Foundation, attempted to add to relatively scanty literature in information seeking in MFM.

This thesis deals with the theory of information within the framework of the socio-economic systems. The first part includes consultation of theories that relate to information and other information needs, including drawing implications for the chosen target segment of microfirms. The practical part is devoted to the design and creation of advanced software module for the information management and documents of the selected small company. The resulting application is put into practice, the benefits are measured and recommendations for further development are identified.

Syfte: Bristerna på informationsöverföringen mellan de olika faserna i en byggnads livscykel har en negativ inverkan på förvaltningen. På grund av de komplexa informationsmängderna bör förvaltningen specificera vilken information de vill få levererad från projekteringen. Den negativa inverkan kan minskas med hjälp av BIM, då BIM underlättar samverkan mellan olika discipliner. Därför är målet med denna undersökning att underlätta implementeringen av BIM inom den offentliga tekniska fastighetsförvaltningen på landstingsnivå, och följande frågeställningar ställs: (1) Hur ser processen kring tillsyn och skötsel ut inom teknisk fastighetsförvaltning på landstingsnivå? (2) Vilken information behövs i anknytning till denna process, för att en teknisk fastighetsförvaltning skall kunna genomföras effektivt? (3) Hur kan man med BIM tillhandahålla denna information? (4) Hur bör man gå tillväga för att lyckas med implementeringen av BIM inom fastighetsförvaltning?  Metod: Angreppssättet för undersökningen är en fallstudie, med en teknikavdelning inom en offentlig fastighetsförvaltning i ett landsting, som studerat fall. Samtliga frågeställningar bygger på varandra: datainsamling och analys har skett i växelverkan. Frågeställningarna besvaras till största del av litteraturstudier och semistrukturerade intervjuer, men även observationer och dokumentanalyser har genomförts.  Resultat: Den första frågeställningens resultat visar på att processen tillsyn och skötsel är komplex och innefattar många olika discipliner. Processen innehåller en administrativ del där åtgärder och intervall kopplas till installationer i fastighetsförvaltningssystemet. Vidare innefattar processen att åtgärderna utförs av driftpersonalen, och om problem uppstår skapas beslutspunkter där teknikförvaltare och driftingenjörer konsulteras för att lösa problemet.  Resultatet på frågeställning 2 visar på ett stort behov av informationsmängder. Den information som behövs av flest personer är; placering, installationens komponenter och fabrikat/leverantör. Det är viktigt att poängtera att även om viss information inte behövs av lika många personer, innebär det inte att informationen är av mindre värde.  Vidare visar resultatet på frågeställning 3 att informationsmängderna som framkommit i frågeställning 2 kan tillhandahållas med BIM genom att koppla informationen till objekt via property sets, databaser eller portaler.  Resultatet på frågeställning 4 visar tillvägagångssättet vid implementering av BIM i förvaltning; processkartläggning, informationsanalys och koppling av informationen.  Konsekvenser: Studien visar att det finns goda möjligheter att använda BIM för att tillhandahålla den information som behövs inom en offentlig fastighetsförvaltning. Vid implementering är det viktigt att kartlägga processer och informationsbehov som finns i organisationen. Implementeringen bör ske i anknytning till ny- eller ombyggnation.  Begränsningar: Studien beaktar endast tillsyn och skötsel inom teknisk fastighetsförvaltning och undersöker varken ekonomiska eller tekniska aspekter. Resultatet anses generellt giltigt, men ett än mer komplett resultat kan erhållas vid en större undersökning av förvaltningsorganisationen samt med fler intervjurespondenter. / Purpose: The shortcomings of information transfer between the different building phases has a negative impact on facility management (FM). Because of the complex information needs it is important that the FM specifies which information they want delivered from the design and construction phases. The negative impact can be reduced with BIM because of its ability to ease communication between the disciplines. Therefore, the aim of the thesis is to ease the implementation of BIM within the technical FM of the public sector, and following questions are asked: (1) What does the process of operation and maintenance in a technical department of FM in a public sector look like? (2) Which information is needed in this process, to effectively accomplish the FM activities? (3) How can you, with BIM, provide this information? (4) How should you do to succeed with the implementation of BIM in FM?  Method: The approach of the thesis is a case study, studying the technical department of a public FM. All questions are based on each other, which means that the data collection and the analysis have been done in interaction. Mostly, the questions have been answered by literature studies and interviews, but observations and document analysis has also been done.  Findings: The result of the first question shows that the process of operation and maintenance is complex and includes many different disciplines. The process includes an administrative part where actions and intervals are connected to the installations in the FM system. The process also includes that the maintenance personnel performs the actions, and if problems occur, the technical manager and the operating engineer are being consulted for a solution.  The result of question 2 shows a big need of different information. The information needed by the most people are; placement, the installation’s component and manufacturer/supplier. Although some information might not be needed by a lot of people, it is important to point out that the information does not have lower value.  The result of the third question shows that the information that emerged from question 2 could be provided with BIM by connecting the information to an object through property sets, databases or portals.  The result of the fourth question shows the way to implement BIM in FM; process mapping, information analysis and connect the information.  Implications: The study shows that there are good opportunities to use BIM to provide relevant information needed by the FM. It is important to analyse the processes and information needs within the organisation. The implementation should be done in connection to a new construction or a reconstruction.  Limitations: The study only observes operation and maintenance within the technical department of FM and does not investigate either economical nor technical aspects. The result is considered to be generally valid, however, a more complete result can be achieved with a bigger research of the FM organisation and several interview respondents.

Devant des collections massives et hétérogènes de données, les systèmes de RI doivent désormais pouvoir appréhender des comportements d'utilisateurs aussi variés qu'imprévisibles. L'objectif de notre travail est d'évaluer la façon dont un même utilisateur verbalise un besoin informationnel à travers un énoncé de type « expression libre » (appelé langage naturel) et un énoncé de type mots-clés (appelé langage de requêtes). Pour cela, nous nous situons dans un contexte applicatif, à savoir des demandes de remboursement des utilisateurs d'un moteur de recherche dédié à des études économiques en français. Nous avons recueilli via ce moteur, les deux types d'énoncés sur 5 années consécutives totalisant un corpus de 1398 demandes en langage naturel et de 3427 requêtes. Nous avons alors comparé l'expression en tant que tel du besoin informationnel et mis en avant ce qu'apportait, en termes d'informations et de précisions, le recours à l'un ou l'autre du langage utilisé. / With the massive and heterogeneous web document collections, IR system must analyze the behaviors of users which are unpredictable and varied. The approach described in this thesis provides a comparison of the verbalizations for both natural language and web query for the same information need by the same user. For this, we used data collected (i.e. users' complaints in natural language and web queries) through a search engine dedicated to economic reports in French over 5 consecutive years totaling a corpus of 1398 natural language requests and 3427 web queries. Then, we compared the expression of the information need and highlighted the contributions in terms of information and clarification, the use of either language used.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-16T15:23:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ArquivoTotal.pdf: 2954210 bytes, checksum: ef1b4fe8f0e6f0f1a375e83510e7a8ac (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-03-25 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The use of information is an indispensable practice to any individual and as such, it is also essential to the professionals of education, especially teachers. Hence the importance of the issue here exposed being made clear by the fact of these professionals need of information for the development of their teaching practices. The present research on "Needs and use of information in the practice of science teachers" aims to analyze the needs and use of information of teachers from the urban area of the municipality of Santa Rita - PB. In that sense, the following question arises: What are the needs and use of information for science teachers in their teaching practices? An alternative approach of the Users´ Studies was used in this research, and the Sense-Making model was prioritized for offering through universal categories of cognitive metaphor, the situation (need for information), gap (cognitive emptiness), and use (informational help to bridge the cognitive emptiness), the logical way for meeting the research objectives. This is a descriptive field research, with a propositional nature. The population is consisted of 28 science teachers, distributed in schools in the urban areas of the municipality of Santa Rita. As an instrument of data collection, the mixed questionnaire was used. Data analysis, of qualitative and quantitative basis, shows that the study group is composed of qualified teachers who prioritize the post-graduation demonstrating interest in being updated for the practice of teaching. Although acknowledging the difficulties of the profession, most teachers manifest satisfaction and teach for pleasure in self-fulfillment. With emphasis on the categories of the Sense-Making, situation-gap-use, the situation reveals that teachers are constantly seeking to meet their information needs through the Internet, books, and educational videos, among others. In the gaps, barriers of time, language, terminology and quality of information were the most displayed, but they developed strategies that minimized the difficulties and could make use of the information. The use of information was centered on the development of teaching activities and the teachers were satisfied with it because it solved their informational problem. Actions to contribute to a better performance of the studied teachers about those questions in their teaching and pedagogical practices were proposed. We conclude that the development of the research contributed to the basis of the Science of Information, which is to provide information and impart knowledge to those who need it, making this the social responsibility in this area of knowledge, as well as in Education, when it makes itself responsible for the challenge of educating a society. Studying the teachers´ information needs and how they guide the search process and the use of information to satisfy their informational needs towards teaching practice, was assigned as a process of great value. / O uso da informação é uma prática indispensável a qualquer indivíduo e não poderia deixar deser aos profissionais da educação, sobretudo, os professores, logo, a importância da temáticaem questão evidencia-se pelo fato desses profissionais necessitarem, de informação para odesenvolvimento de suas práticas docentes. A presente pesquisa, sobre Necessidades e usode informação na prática dos professores de Ciências , tem como objetivo analisar asnecessidades e uso de informação dos professores da zona urbana do município de Santa Rita PB. Nesse sentido, surge o seguinte questionamento: Em suas práticas pedagógicas, quaissão as necessidades e uso de informação dos professores de Ciências? Para a pesquisautilizou-se a abordagem alternativa dos Estudos de Usuários e priorizou-se o modelo Sense-Making , por oferecer através das categorias universais da metáfora cognitiva, da situação(necessidade de informação), da lacuna (vazio cognitivo) e do uso (ajuda informacional paratranspor o vazio cognitivo), o caminho lógico para o atendimento dos objetivos da pesquisa.Trata-se de uma pesquisa de campo, descritiva e de caráter propositivo. A população écomposta por 28 professores de Ciências, distribuídos nas escolas da zona urbana domunicípio de Santa Rita. Como instrumento de coleta de dados utilizou-se o questionáriomisto. A análise dos dados, de base qualitativa e quantitativa, mostra que o grupo estudado écomposto por professores qualificados, que priorizam a pós-graduação, demonstrandointeresse por se manterem atualizados para o exercício da docência. Embora admita asdificuldades da profissão, a maioria dos professores demonstra satisfação e ensina por prazerem se autorrealizar. Com ênfase nas categorias do Sense-Making, situação-lacuna-uso, temseque a situação revela que os professores estão em constante busca para suprir suasnecessidades de informação, através da internet, dos livros, vídeos educativos, entre outros.Nas lacunas, as mais apontadas foram as barreiras de tempo, de idioma, terminológicas e dequalidade da informação, mas os mesmos desenvolveram estratégias que minimizaram asdificuldades e conseguiram usar a informação. O uso da informação esteve centrado nodesenvolvimento das atividades docentes e os professores saíram satisfeitos com o uso porresolverem seu problema informacional. Sobre essas questões propõem-se ações que podemcontribuir para melhor desempenho dos professores estudados, em suas práticas docente epedagógica. Conclui-se que o desenvolvimento da pesquisa contribuiu para o fundamento daCiência da Informação, que é disponibilizar a informação e transmitir o conhecimento àquelesque dele precisam, constituindo a responsabilidade social dessa área do conhecimento, comotambém da Educação, quando se responsabiliza pelo desafio de educar uma sociedade.Estudar as necessidades de informação dos professores, e como estes conduzem o processo debusca e uso da informação para satisfazer suas necessidades informacionais direcionadas àprática docente, configurou-se como processo de grande valia.

L'objet de notre étude est la requête adressée à un moteur de recherche Web par un usager dans le cadre d'une recherche d'information. Nous souhaitons mieux comprendre l'étape de la recherche d'information située entre le besoin d'information et la formulation / reformulation de la requête. Notre thèse est articulée autour de deux hypothèses de recherche. D'abord, nous avons émis l'hypothèse qu'une requête adressée à un moteur de recherche Web peut receler de l'implicite. Ensuite, nous avons considéré que ce contenu implicite peut être utilisé par les usagers dans des tactiques de formulation / reformulation de la requête. Nous avons notamment analysé le discours de 61 étudiants que nous avons interrogés sur leur intention de recherche. Ce discours était principalement constitué d'un niveau sémantique (qui décrit le thème de la recherche) et d'un niveau pragmatique (composé d'un but seul ou d'un but ou plusieurs sous-but(s)). Les termes représentant le niveau sémantique pouvaient être complètement ou partiellement formulés dans la requête, mais ceux représentant le niveau pragmatique n'étaient généralement pas formulés. Cette situation de communication s'apparente à une négociation entre le moteur de recherche et l'usager. Le moteur de recherche tente de disposer d'éléments sur le besoin d'information de l'usager et ce dernier tente d'obtenir à partir d'un contenu explicitement formulé dans sa requête, un ensemble d'information afin de progresser sur la résolution de son problème / The object of our study is the query, sent to a Web search engine, by an Internet user. We aim to reach a better understanding of the phase of information seeking located between the information need and the query formulation. Our thesis is based on two core hypotheses, all related to the query. Firstly, we considered that the query expressed partially the user’s information need and therefore contain an implicit part. Secondly, we also considered that the implicit part can be used by the users in their query formulation tactics. We notably analyzed 61 students’ speech about their search intent. The speech was based mainly on a semantic level (the terms representing the topic of the research) and a pragmatic level (composed of an only purpose or purpose and of many under purposes). The terms representing the semantic level could be rather completely or partially formulated in the query but those representing the pragmatic level weren’t formulated. This situation of communication is similar to a negotiation between the Web search engine and the user. The search engine Web tries to have elements on user’s information need and the user tries to obtain, from a contents explicitly formulated in his query, a set of information in order to progress on his resolution of its problem

Nowadays information is considered as an essential company source, which is crucial for attaining a competitive advantage. The competitive advantage can be achieved by the acquisition of the relevant information, which is a prerequisite for knowledge creation. Acquired knowledge gives businesses an opportunity to improve their position against competitors quickly by finding the information required for the decision making. Hence the aim of this thesis is to examine the problem of acquisition of the relevant information, where this problem relates to the practice in a leasing company. In order to find the relevant information, the leasing company must precisely define its information needs so that it can obtain the relevant information more efficiently, in particular by using current information management tools. At present, information management is strongly affected by contemporary trends, such as Big Data, mobility, Cloud Computing, social media etc. As a consequence of these trends, volume of electronically processed information increases every day. Due to information oversaturation, information users may face the difficult information search problem. Using both modern information management tools and exactly defined information needs, the company shall obtain the relevant information in less time, or more information in the same time compared to the other firms. This might allow the company to make decisions more rapidly. In addition, information management tools are likely to uncover new contexts, of which the company was not aware.

This study comprised an information audit of certain micro enterprises of Umkhanyakude District Municipality in northern KwaZulu-Natal. The purpose of this study was to investigate the information needs, information resources available and the information gaps that exist in these enterprises. The Umkhanyakude District Municipality consists of five local municipalities, but this study focused mainly on two, Jozini and Mtubatuba, because of their large number of local economic activities compared with the other local municipalities. The study primarily used questionnaires to collect data. These questionnaires were administered in the two municipalities identified. The results of the study revealed that technical information relating to business and financial management were the highest ranking information needs indicated by the sampled enterprises. Legal and business management information was the second most-needed information for these enterprises. The study also revealed a correlation between the academic level of the entrepreneurs, the type of business that the entrepreneurs operate and the kind of information they needed. The information resources that these enterprises had and used included newspapers, business magazines, market research documents and government documents. Based on the responses of the respondents, a gap was identified. This includes the lack of relevant sources of information that meet the respondents' information needs. This study also revealed that there are a number of institutions that provide information for these enterprises, such as community libraries, government information centres, bookshops, government offices and so on. Although these information resource institutions exist within the district municipality, these enterprises also have other information needs. This therefore led the researcher to conclude that these information resource structures are not providing their services according to the needs of the community at large. Based on the identified gaps the researcher recommends a participatory proactive approach. This approach uses participatory development communication platforms for the district municipality, the information resource institutions and local enterprises. The district municipality needs to have a platform which will identify information needs, gaps and pportunities for local enterprises. The information resource institutions need to provide platforms where they can assess the information needs of their customers and also have a customer management feedback system where they can assess whether they are responding to the customer needs. Finally, the micro enterprises need to use existing platforms to make the municipality and information resource institutions aware of their information needs. These platforms could include local and presidential izimbizo where the government comes to the people to address their concerns and issues. The approach recommended by this study is part of a development communication approach where participatory two-way communication platforms are used to bring about development. Copyright / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Information Science / unrestricted