David Bawden

Thesaurus construction and use : a practical manual

Nature, purposes and uses of thesauri planning and design of thesauri standards for thesaurus construction and development vocabulary control specificity and compound terms structure and relationships auxiliary retrieval deviced thesaurus displays multilingual thesauri construction techniques thesaurus management thesaurus reconciliation and integration AAT compound term rules.

Is Google enough? Comparison of an internet search engine with academic library resources

Purpose – The purpose of the study was to compare an internet search engine, Google, with appropriate library databases and systems, in order to assess the relative value, strengths and weaknesses of the two sorts of system.Design/methodology/approach – A case study approach was used, with detailed analysis and failure checking of results. The performance of the two systems was assessed in terms of coverage, unique records, precision, and quality and accessibility of results. A novel form of relevance assessment, based on the work of Saracevic and others was devised.Findings – Google is superior for coverage and accessibility. Library systems are superior for quality of results. Precision is similar for both systems. Good coverage requires use of both, as both have many unique items. Improving the skills of the searcher is likely to give better results from the library systems, but not from Google.Research limitations/implications – Only four case studies were included. These were limited to the kind of q...

Perspectives on information overload

Information overload is by no means a new concept, but has come to prominence during the last decade. This paper reviews the nature and causes of overload, and considers possible solutions, both organisational and technical, and its relevance to the information professional.

Introduction to information science

Foreword 1. Information science and 21st century information pratices: creatively engaging with information - Theresa Dirndorfer Anderson Foreword 2. The emerging discipline of information - Andrew Dillon Foreword 3. The scope of information science - Jonathan Furner Foreword 4. A fascinating field and a pragmatic enterpirse - Birger Hjorland Foreword 5. A slippery and ubiquitous concept - Fidelia Ibekwe-SanJuan Foreword 6. The future of information science - Maja A umer 1. What is information science? Disciplines and professions 2. History of information: the story of documents 3. Philosophies and paradigms of information science 4. Basic concepts of information science 5. Domain analysis 6. Information organization 7. Information technologies: creation, dissemination and retrieval 8. Infometrics 9. Information behaviour 10. Communicating information: changing contexts 11. Information society 12. Information management and policy 13. Digital literacy 14. Information science research: what and how? 15. The future of the information sciences.

Pharmacophoric pattern matching in files of 3d chemical structures: evaluation of search performance

Abstract A computerized retrieval system is described which allows the interactive identification of pharmacophoric patterns in 3D chemical structures. A query pharmacophore in the system is matched against a file of structures using a three-stage retrieval mechanism. The initial search involves a rapid bit-string matching operation using screens denoting the presence or absence of interatomic distances that lie within certain predefined ranges. These ranges are selected by an analysis of the frequencies of occurrence of interatomic distances in the data file that is being searched. The second stage involves the generation of all interatomic distances in potentially matching structures in the file to ascertain whether all of the query distances are present. If this is the case, a final search is carried out to determine whether these distances are in the correct geometric orientation to each other; this search involves a novel matching algorithm based upon the set reduction techniques used for substructure searching in files of 2D chemical structures. The evaluation of the system has involved the searching of several pharmacophoric patterns against a 12 728-compound subset of the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Bank. Measurements of the numbers of structures matching at each of the three levels of search show that the system provides a highly efficient means of identifying structures containing a query pharmacophore.

Conceptions of “information poverty” in LIS: a discourse analysis

Purpose – To provide an analysis of the notion of “information poverty” in library and information science (LIS) by investigating concepts, interests and strategies leading to its construction and thus to examine its role as a constitutive element of the professional discourse.Design/methodology/approach – Starting from a Foucauldian notion of discourse, “information poverty” is examined as a statement in its relation to other statements in order to highlight assumptions and factors contributing to its construction. The analysis is based on repeated and close reading of 35 English language articles published in LIS journals between 1995 and 2005.Findings – Four especially productive discursive procedures are identified: economic determinism, technological determinism and the “information society”, historicising the “information poor”, and the library professions moral obligation and responsibility.Research limitations/implications – The material selection is linguistically and geographically biased. Most...

Managing the paradox: the valuation of knowledge and knowledge management

The valuation of knowledge, and hence the assessment of the usefulness of approaches and programmes for managing knowledge, is a difficult, yet vital, task. This paper reviews some recent approaches, setting them in a context of wider philosophical and pragmatic issues. It identifies some paradoxical qualities of information and knowledge at the heart of this topic, and considers their implications.

Users, user studies and human information behaviour: A three‐decade perspective on Tom Wilson's “On user studies and information needs”

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review Wilsons (1981) seminal article, “On user studies and information needs” (Journal of Documentation, 1981, Vol. 37 No. 1, pp. 3‐15) as part of a series celebrating the Journals 60th anniversary.Design/methodology/approach – This paper adopts a literature‐based conceptual analysis, taking Wilsons paper as the starting point, and evaluating the significance of, and later developments in, the issues dealt with in that article.Findings – Wilsons article has had a significant effect on the development of information science. It dealt with several fundamental issues, including the nature of information itself and of information need, models of information seeking and information behaviour, particularly those based on phenomenological or “whole life” concepts, appropriate research methods for these areas, and the nature of information science as an academic discipline.Originality/value – The paper provides a perspective on the development of information science ...

Smoother pebbles and the shoulders of giants: the developing foundations of information science

Some developments in the information science discipline over a period of 30 years are discussed, by selecting topics covered in the early issues of Journal of Information Science, and tracing their influence on subsequent developments, largely though by no means exclusively through JIS papers. Five main themes are covered: the information discipline per se; the foundations of that discipline; the nature of information; relations between discipline and profession; and education for information science. The continuing resonance of the writings of Farradane and Brookes is noted.

Digital libraries: to meet or manage user expectations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the nature of, and rationale for, user expectations in the digital library setting, and ways in which they may best be met and/or managed.Design/methodology/approach – An analysis of the literature, focusing on empirical studies, and bringing out main themes and issues.Findings – User expectations of digital libraries are often unrealistic, usually unrealistically high, mainly due to the ubiquity of the web search engine as an information environment. Expectations differ between user groups. Both meeting and managing expectations have been promoted as a solution; it is likely that a mix of the two will be most effective. More empirical and conceptual studies are needed. Ways of making the nature of digital library collections and their organisation “visible”, embedded in a natural way within their interfaces, are desirable.Originality/value – This is the first paper to review the literature of this topic.