School librarians create an atmosphere where learners feel empowered. Moreover, school library programming should support diversity, equity, and inclusive learning opportunities to facilitate student success. Thus, school librarians are expected to model and advocate for equitable learning spaces while considering the universal design for learning approach to improving accessibility, utilization, and relevance for all library patrons. Although it has been established that school library standards support diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), more is needed to know about the impact of a crisis on school library programming and services. In addition, extensive research has not been conducted to determine school librarians' responsiveness and strategies to provide services for their school communities during disruptive times. This study examines school librarians' perceptions of the opportunities and challenges encountered while endeavoring to engage in DEI practices during crises.

This study identified the information seeking behavior and networking practices used by members of a specific marginalized population, that of adult female probationers (AFPs) in a rural county in Texas. The study focused on how they seek out information when faced with a self-identified need in their lives. Beyond the basic "food, shelter and clothing" that comes to mind, the respondents find themselves faced with questions not only about the judicial system but also ones involving health care, employment, transportation, child-care, and other. The study utilized a qualitative research approach to gather data about the AFPs' information behavior and networking activities. The AFPs were asked about their information behavior during their time in the judicial system and after that involvement ended, and about their use of three points of information access: personal social network, physical resources, and electronic resources. Data was also gathered from community members (CMs) who have a role either within the judicial system or external to the judicial system. In its findings, the study determined there is no single point of access to a comprehensive listing of resources for the AFPs to utilize, and that AFPs reported seeking information via two ways as based on the type …

Web archiving is the practice of preserving websites as a historical record. It is a technologically-challenging endeavor that has as its goal the creation of a high-quality archived website that looks and behaves exactly like the original website. Despite the importance of the notion of quality, comprehensive definitions of Information Quality (IQ) in a web archive have yet to be developed. Currently, the field has no single, comprehensive theory that describes what is a high-quality or low-quality archived website. Furthermore, most of the research that has been conducted on web archives has been system-centered and not user-centered, leading to a dearth of information on how humans perceive web archives. This dissertation seeks to remedy this problem by presenting a user-centered grounded theory of IQ for web archives. It answers two research questions: 1) What is the definition of information quality (IQ) for web archives? and 2) How can IQ in a web archive be measured? The theory presented is grounded on data obtained from users of the Internet Archive's Archive-It system, the largest web-archiving subscription service in the United States. Also presented are mathematical definitions for each dimension of IQ, which can then be applied to measure the quality of …

This study analyzes the sociocultural factors that affect Saudi students in the U.S. as they seek information and explores to what extent these factors impact their everyday life information seeking (ELIS) behavior and their information technology behavior (ITB). The factors in this study illustrate the unique sociocultural values that distinguish Saudi students from other international student groups: gender segregation, emphasis on religion, social support, and utilization of the consultation concept. After collecting data from an online survey, the data from linear regression analyses revealed that only one culture factor (the language barrier) showed a significant impact on Saudi student ELIS in the U.S., while the other factors were not statistically significant. Also, the findings indicated that perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEU) were statistically significant to the ELIS of Saudi students. Furthermore, the study showed that after academic information, food and drink, entertainment, and health were the top student needs, the top ranking sources for everyday life seeking information were social media and the Internet. The findings of the study help to shed light on a sizable user group. As the fourth largest group of international students in the U.S., Saudi students have been underrepresented in research. …

Health officials estimate that the 2014 Ebola crisis disproportionately victimized women, who made up 75% of the disease's victims. This interdisciplinary study has two main goals. The first is to evaluate the news media's performance in relation to their representation of women caught up in the Ebola crisis because the media play an important role in influencing public responses to health. This study sought to understand the information behavior patterns of journalists who covered the Ebola crisis by analyzing how job tasks influence a journalist's information behavior. This study employed qualitative methods to study the perceptions of journalists who covered the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with Liberian and American journalists who covered the outbreak to understand the choices that guided their reporting of the Ebola crisis. A content analysis of The New York Times, The Times, and The Inquirer was also conducted to examine the new media's representation of women in an outbreak which mostly victimized women. The findings suggest that covering a dangerous assignment like Ebola affected the information behavior patterns of journalists. Audience needs, the timing of coverage, fear, and the accessibility of sources, were some of the factors that influenced the news gathering decisions …

Makerspaces are a popular, new concept being implemented in public, academic, and school libraries, and as stand-alone spaces. The literature reflects the newness of the topic with a limited number of articles and studies and even less about the users of makerspaces themselves. This study explored information sharing behaviors in the Dallas Makerspace as an informal learning environment and described their preferred method of information transfer from one member to another. It employed a mixed methods methodology using surveys, interviews and observations. The study identified how the rules and policies in place at the makerspace influence the information seeking process and how the Dallas Makerspace exchanges information effectively. Dallas Makerspace is one of the largest non-profit work groups in its size, and this research study answers how information is exchanged in an informal environment.

No published studies to date examined the practices in creation or adoption of metadata in cultural heritage institutions or evaluated metadata in bibliographic databases in the Arabian Gulf counties and assessed its potential interoperability in the aggregation that would provide a central point of access to bibliographic databases of cultural heritage institutions. This exploratory study aimed to address this gap with the goal of: (1) developing understanding of the current state of information representation and knowledge organization in cultural heritage collections in Arabian Gulf countries, and (2) exploring perspectives for future developments such as creating regional large-scale portals similar to Digital Public Library of America, Europeana etc. that facilitate discovery by aggregating metadata and possible barriers to these developments.. The study is focused on a Kuwaiti, Qatari, and Omani libraries, museums, and archives. The mixed-methods research combined semi-structured interviews of the bibliographic database managers at 15 cultural heritage institutions and in-depth content analysis of a sample of 412 metadata records that represent items in these bibliographic databases for accuracy, completeness, consistency, use of knowledge organization systems, etc. This study findings make a research contribution important for evaluating the feasibility and planning of future aggregations of cultural heritage bibliographic databases. Results …

The arrival of the Big Data era has become a major topic of discussion in many sectors because of the premises of big data utilizations and its impact on decision-making. It is an interdisciplinary issue that has captured the attention of scholars and created new research opportunities in information science, business, heath care, and many others fields. The problem is the Big Data is not well defined, so that there exists confusion in IT what jobs and skill sets are required in big data area. The problem stems from the newness of the Big Data profession. Because many aspects of the area are unknown, organizations do not yet possess the IT, human, and business resources necessary to cope with and benefit from big data. These organizations include health care, enterprise, logistics, universities, weather forecasting, oil companies, e-business, recruiting agencies etc., and are challenged to deal with high volume, high variety, and high velocity big data to facilitate better decision- making. This research proposes a new way to look at Big Data and Big Data analysis. It helps and meets the theoretical and methodological foundations of Big Data and addresses an increasing demand for more powerful Big Data analysis from the …

The exponential growth in medical pharmaceuticals and related clinical trials have created a need to better understand the decision-making factors in the processes for developing hospital medication formularies. The purpose of the study was to identify, rank, and compare major factors impacting hospital formulary decision-making among three prescriber groups serving on a hospital's pharmacy and therapeutics (P&T) committee. Prescribers were selected from the University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center which is a large, multi-facility, academic oncology hospital. Specifically, the prescriber groups studied were comprised of physicians, midlevel providers, and pharmacists. A self-administered online survey was disseminated to participants. Seven major hospital formulary decision-making factors were identified in the scientific literature. Study participants were asked to respond to questions about each of the hospital formulary decision-making factors and to rank the various formulary decision-making factors from the factor deemed most important to the factor deemed least important. There are five major conclusions drawn from the study including three similarities and two significant differences among the prescriber groups and factors. Similarities include: (1) the factor "pharmacy staff's evaluation of medical evidence including formulary recommendations" was ranked highest for all three prescriber groups; (2) "evaluation of medications by expert physicians" was ranked …

Using a case study approach this study investigated how college students in Vlore, Albania seek and use information resources for academic and personal needs and whether they follow a pattern similar to Brenda Dervin's sense-making, or Marcia Bates' berry-picking information seeking models. Influencing factors studied were economic factors, information communication technologies and information culture/policy. A literature review showed that no previous published research has studied information seeking behavior of college age students and faculty in Albania. Thirty-four college students and two full time faculty completed a survey and a smaller group were interviewed. The results of the study indicate that Google is the main source for seeking information for both academic and personal purposes. College students are not introduced or taught on how to evaluate information sources. The information communication technology needs improvement to support information needs. The library as a major information resource was not apparent to most students. College students utilize berry-picking as the information seeking model and faculty use sense-making, as a model of information seeking. This study adds to the knowledge of the information seeking behavior of college students in a developing country, the need for information literacy courses at the university level, and the identification …

Cloud-based assistants like the Google Home and the Amazon Alexa have become ubiquitous in our homes. Users can simply communicate with the devices using a smartphone application. There are privacy concerns associated with cloud-based assistants. For example, users do not know what type of information is being sent to the device manufacturer, if the device is stealthily listening to conversations, data retention, or who else has access to the data. Privacy is about perception. The goal of this study is to determine user privacy concerns regarding cloud-based assistants by adopting a quantitative research method. The study used a privacy decision framework that lists three core components, which are technology controls, understanding user privacy preference, and government regulations. The research used Dervin's sensemaking model to describe users' privacy perception using the privacy decision framework and improved on a privacy perception survey instrument from previous dissertations. An understanding of user privacy concerns with cloud-based assistants is required to provide a comprehensive privacy guidance to stakeholders. The significance of this study is in the identification of the privacy perception of users of cloud-based assistants and the extent to which the components of the theoretical framework can impact user privacy perception. The results of …

Social media information behavior is increasingly critical, impacting not only individuals and groups but the beliefs, values, and direction of society and culture. The purpose of this study was to investigate how persistent observation by members of the online network influences social media users' information behavior, resulting in the phenomenon of social noise. Data analytics, including LDA, LSA, and clustering methodologies, were performed but could not provide information about the users' motivations. Using an ethnographic approach, participant observations and interviews were conducted with Facebook users as they interacted with informational posts, and the data collected was coded using a recursive method. Four key constructs of social noise were identified, and sub-codes were assigned within each construct as patterns emerged, providing insight into the different facets of social noise. Additionally, in most instances more than one of the four constructs were present, layering their influence on the information behavior. Based on these findings, social media users are not always interacting with information based on true personal beliefs or desires; instead, concerns surrounding their personal image, relationships with others, core beliefs, and online conflict are influencing their observable information behavior. The results of this exploratory study provide a basis to further develop …

Subject of information entity is one of the fundamental concepts in the field of information science. Subject of any document represents its intellectual potential -- 'aboutness' of the document. Traditionally, subject (along with title and author) is the one of three major ways to access information, so subject metadata plays a central role in this process and the role is constantly growing. Previous research concluded that the larger bibliographic database is, the richer subject vocabularies and classification schemes are needed to support information discovery. Further, a high proportion of information objects are unretrievable without subject headings in metadata records. This exploratory study provides the analysis of the subject metadata in MARC 21 bibliographic records created in 2020; and develops understanding of the level and patterns of 'aboutness' representation in the MARC 21 bibliographic records. Study also examines how these records apply the recent RDA and MARC21 guidelines and features intended to support functionality in a Linked Data environment. Methods of Social Network Analysis were applied along with content analysis, to answer research questions of this study. Suggestions for future research, implications for education, and practical recommendations for library metadata creation and management are discussed.

This study applies the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA) framework for eScience professionals to data service positions in academic libraries. Understanding the KSAs needed to provide data services is of crucial concern. The current study looks at KSAs of data professionals working in the United States academic libraries. An exploratory sequential mixed method design was adopted to discover the KSAs. The study was divided into two phases, a qualitative content analysis of 260 job advertisements for data professionals for Phase 1, and distribution of a self-administered online survey to data professionals working in academic libraries research data services (RDS) for Phase 2. The discovery of the KSAs from the content analysis of 260 job ads and the survey results from 167 data professionals were analyzed separately, and then Spearman rank order correlation was conducted in order to triangulate the data and compare results. The results from the study provide evidence on what hiring managers seek through job advertisements in terms of KSAs and which KSAs data professionals find to be important for working in RDS. The Spearman rank order correlation found strong agreement between job advertisement KSAs and data professionals perceptions of the KSAs.

This research study is conducted to test Workman, Fiszman, Rindflesch and Nahl's information flow-serendipitous knowledge discovery (IF-SKD) model of information behavior, in a clinical care context. To date, there have been few attempts to model the serendipitous knowledge discovery of physicians. Due to the growth and complexity of the biomedical literature, as well as the increasingly specialized nature of medicine, there is a need for advanced systems that can quickly present information and assist physicians to discover new knowledge. The National Library of Medicine's (NLM) Lister Hill Center for Biocommunication's Semantic MEDLINE project is focused on identifying and visualizing semantic relationships in the biomedical literature to support knowledge discovery. This project led to the development of a new information discovery system, Spark. The aim of Spark is to promote serendipitous knowledge discovery by assisting users in maximizing the use of their conceptual short-term memory to iteratively search for, engage, clarify and evaluate information presented from the biomedical literature. Using Spark, this study analyzes the IF- SKD model by capturing and analyzing physician feedback. The McCay-Peet, Toms and Kelloway's Perception of Serendipity and Serendipitous Digital Environment (SDE) questionnaires are used. Results are evaluated to determine whether Spark contributes to physicians' serendipitous …

Information-seeking behavior is a mixture of activities and attitudes, oftentimes motivated by an individual's need to make a decision. One underlying element of this mixture is cognitive authority - which sources (e.g., individuals, institutions, texts, etc.) can be trusted to fulfil the information needs? In order to gain insight into the dynamics of cognitive authority selection behavior which is an information seeking behavior, this study explored primary source text data (316 text records) that reflected selection in the mundaneness of life (advice column submissions and responses). Linguistic analysis was performed on the data using the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC2015) software package. Pearson correlation and 1-sample T tests revealed the same 45 statistically significant relationships (SSRs) in the word usage behavior of all subgroups. As a result of the study, the gap in research formed from the lack of quantitative models of cognitive authority relationships was addressed via the development of the Wordprint Classification System which was used to generate a cognitive authority relationship model in the form of a cognitive authority intra-segment wordprint. The findings and implications of this study may provide a contribution to the body of work in the area of information literacy and information seeker behavior …

Event-based mediated participatory archives, in which communities of ordinary people contribute their records to archives during collection day events represent a paradigm shift within the archival field. Applying a qualitative approach, this study investigates event-based mediated participatory archives using Bastian's communities of records and memory as a guiding framework. Using the Mass. Memories Road Show as a case study, data collection and analysis took place over three phases. In Phase I, archive supporting documents were collected and analyzed using "against the grain" historical analysis methods. In Phase II, data from the Mass. Memories Road Show digital collections were collected and analyzed using grounded theory analysis methods. In Phase III, ethnographic research data, including a direct observation and semi-structured interviews, was collected and analyzed using ethnographic analysis methods. The results of this study suggest that community participants' motivations to contribute to participatory archives are rooted in self-fulfillment while institutional archives personnel members' intentions are based in inclusive community-building. Furthermore, the contribution of records to the archives allows community participants to share personal stories that serve as evidence of their historical legacies and as affirmation of their roles in their communities. Throughout the findings, moments of connection which enable the sharing of …

Most training performance measurement tools rely heavily on quantitative metrics that do not consider factors impacting knowledge transfer and behavioral change such as social relationships and company culture. This study observed a training performance measurement tool for a major U.S.-based airline. Analysis of the measurement tool consists of: a pilot study providing a baseline for the current gaps in training performance measurement, a survey of flight attendants to understand how company cultural and social factors impact learning and knowledge transfer, and focus groups to provide an in-depth analysis of what the underlying company cultural and social factors are. Both quantitative and qualitative analysis were utilized to identify the impact of cultural factors and social relationships on performance measurement to provide in-depth understanding of the role of tacit knowledge transfer in the training environment. Results show that cultural factors such as empathy, coaching, and on-the-job training, negatively impact the accuracy of flight attendants' ability to measure learning and knowledge transfer. A second finding shows social factors, personality, and agreement, show a strong trend towards negatively affecting the ability to accurately measure learning and knowledge transfer. The proposed knowledge transfer measurement model was further modified to reflect the findings and the results …

This study explored the acceptance of cloud computing (CC) services by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Lagos, Nigeria, which has been missing from CC services literature. It aimed to understand the motivations for adoption, the uses of the services, and the benefits they derive from it. The uses and gratification theory was applied as the theoretic framework for this endeavor. An online survey with close-ended and open-ended questions was distributed to 1200 randomly selected participants through email. In total, 392 valid responses were collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics and categories. The results found that SMEs in Lagos, Nigeria had a low level of awareness and appreciation of CC services. The adoption rate was also low. Unlike their counterparts in other regions, SMEs primary concerns were service downtime, stable power supply, and better internet access. The study found that SMEs were not taking full advantage of the capabilities of CC services. Some sections, however, were doing better than others, such as the information and communications sub-sector. This study suggested that targeted interventions should be conducted to raise the awareness of CC services in SMEs, and to improve their efficient and effective use of CC services. The uses and gratification …

Very few studies have examined information sentiment and explored other factors that contribute to health information dissemination and sharing. In particular, there is a lack of studies that performed these combined analyses in the modern social network environment during the disease outbreaks, such as with zika, ebola, SARS, or COVID-19. This study aimed to fill the gap in the literature by investigating what drives social media users to widely disseminate health-related information during a pandemic. Diffusion of innovation theory and theory of planned behavior were the basis of the theoretical approach utilized to answer the research questions. The two theories identified antecedents of sharing online health information. Data was collected through an online survey distributed to students in a higher education institution in the United States of America. The study revealed the extent of the relationships between the four major factors derived from the previous literature—attitudes toward sharing, beliefs toward source, peer influence, and information sentiment—and the behavioral intention to share information. The results would support the information science literature by offering and testing a new model that identifies the factors that affect users' intentions to share health information in the social network environment. This study will further the understanding …

This dissertation addresses research questions related to defining a smart city and the associated activities. The general research question is explored in the dissertation via the conduct of three related studies. The finding from these three investigations are presented in the results section as 3 essays that collectively examine the smart city phenomena as it has emerged within the City. Essay 1 assesses building municipal open data capability. The study proposed an Opendata Roadmap Framework to enhance the organization's dynamic capability. The results provide a valuable practical framework to help cities develop open data capability. The results also provide a comparative study or benchmark for similar initiatives with other regional cities and within the nation. Essay 2 measures the residents' understanding and beliefs about smart cities. This portion of the research used a qualitative method that included interviewing residents and city officials to understand their definition of a smart city and what they believe makes a city smart. The interviews focused on understanding resident engagement because it is an important characteristic of a smart city. The gap between the city officials and residents understanding was examined. In addition, the interviews help identify essential factors associated with smart cities like trust …

Why is the term information in English an uncountable noun, whereas in information theory it is a well-defined quantity? Since the amount of information can be quantified, what is the meaning of a fraction of that amount? This dissertation introduces a quasi-entropy matrix which developed from Claude Shannon's information measure as an analytical tool for behavioral studies. Such matrix emphasizes the role of relative characteristics of individual level data across different collections. The real challenge in the big data era is never the size of the dataset, but how data lead scientists to individuals rather than arbitrarily divided statistical groups. This proposed matrix, when combining with other statistical measures, provides a new and easy-to-do method for identifying pattern in a well-defined system because it is built on the idea that uneven probability distributions lead to decrease in system entropy. Although the matrix is not superior to classical correlation techniques, it allows an interpretation not available with traditional standard statistics. Finally, this matrix connects heterogeneous datasets because it is a frequency-based method and it works on the modes of data rather than the means of values. It also visualizes clustering in data although this type of clustering is not measured by …

This study explores employees' desire to embrace both a legacy operating system and a new workflow engine utilized in the workplace. The goal is to better understand the partnership and relationship the users build with the technologies and how that impacts usage behavior. The research is centered on a mixed-method case study using survey and episodic interview techniques of data collection. Models and methodologies providing the foundation for this study include Venkatesh and Davis's technology acceptance model 2 (TAM 2) and Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, and Davis' unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model, coupled loosely with concepts from Brooks and Atkinson's StructurANTion Theory. A new, adapted model is created to capture and understand the anthropomorphic characteristics users apply to the technology. This study yields important information for the future theoretical frameworks as elements such as trust and control, and descriptive variables like age and tenure have not factored into existing theoretical frameworks and models. Users can often anthropomorphize technology, viewing it as part of the social team to help improve their work. Through this lens, users expect information systems to be controllable and trustworthy to respond to their needs both alone and within the function of the …

This study explored issues related to the adoption and implementation of electronic health record (EHR) systems including building the awareness, knowledge, and experience of physicians toward cyber hygiene. This study used a qualitative research method to assess (a) the barriers to EHR systems adoption and implementation in Kuwait and (b) the level of awareness, knowledge and experiences related to cyber hygiene practices in Kuwait. The findings of the study supported the conceptual framework used to guide the research of the factors impacting the adoption and implementation of EHR systems in Kuwait as well as explore the level of awareness, knowledge, and experience of physicians about both EHR systems and cyber hygiene. The results from the systematic literature review analysis identified seven major barriers. These are financial barriers, time, difficulty of using technology, lack of support, negative attitude, legal and ethical (policies), and cultural barriers. The findings from the semistructured interviews supported the literature findings and provided more in-depth insights into the structural and social issues affecting the adoption and implementation of EHR systems. Given that Kuwait is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC), the results from the literature analysis showed that the problems in Kuwait are similar to …