George Macgregor

Collaborative tagging as a knowledge organisation and resource discovery tool

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to provide an overview of the collaborative tagging phenomenon and explore some of the reasons for its emergence.Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the related literature and discusses some of the problems associated with, and the potential of, collaborative tagging approaches for knowledge organisation and general resource discovery. A definition of controlled vocabularies is proposed and used to assess the efficacy of collaborative tagging. An exposition of the collaborative tagging model is provided and a review of the major contributions to the tagging literature is presented.Findings – There are numerous difficulties with collaborative tagging systems (e.g. low precision, lack of collocation, etc.) that originate from the absence of properties that characterise controlled vocabularies. However, such systems can not be dismissed. Librarians and information professionals have lessons to learn from the interactive and social aspects exemplified by colla...

Exploratory evaluation of audio email technology in formative assessment feedback

Formative assessment generates feedback on students’ performance, thereby accelerating and improving student learning. Anecdotal evidence gathered by a number of evaluations has hypothesised that audio feedback may be capable of enhancing student learning more than other approaches. In this paper we report on the preliminary findings of a quasi-experimental study employing qualitative techniques for triangulation, conducted to evaluate the efficacy of formative audio feedback on student learning. We focus on the delivery of ‘voice emails’ to undergraduate students (n = 24) and evaluate the efficacy of such feedback in formative assessment and ergo students’ learning, as well as achieving a better understanding of students’ feedback behaviour post-delivery. The results indicate that audio feedback better conforms to existing models of ‘quality’ formative feedback, can enhance the student learning experience and can be more efficient in feedback delivery. Despite this, and high levels of feedback re-use by student participants, the audio treatment group underperformed in learning tasks when compared with the control group. Differences between the groups were not statistically significant and analyses of individual and mean learning gains across the treatment group provide little indication of improvements in learning.

The nature of information in the 21st century: conundrums for the informatics community?

Purpose – With the proliferation of electronic information via the web a further distension of the unique characteristics of information has been witnessed. With seismic developments occurring in such a short period of time, it seems prudent to consider the very nature of information and to assess whether this accelerated growth has implications for the work of the informatics community and the information society.Design/methodology/approach – The paper begins by revisiting and refreshing the unique characteristics of information via a reappraisal of the relevant literature. These characteristics are then contextualised within the new economy and traditional economic theory. Once these unique characteristics have been examined, the author discusses how the nature of information in the twenty‐first century presents the informatics community with new and difficult challenges.Findings – The challenges posed by the unique nature of information demand a definite response on the part of the informatics communit...

Revisiting e‐learning effectiveness: proposing a conceptual model

Purpose – The use of e‐learning is largely predicated upon the assumption that it can facilitate improvements in student learning and therefore can be more effective than conventional techniques. This assumption has been supported by some in the literature but has been questioned by a continuing body of contrary or indifferent evidence. The purpose of this paper is to improve the theoretical understanding of the variables influencing e‐learning effectiveness, the manner in which these variables have been studied to date, and to propose a suitable conceptual model of e‐learning effectiveness to aid its evaluation.Design/methodology/approach – The paper revisits and critically reviews major contributions to the e‐learning effectiveness literature.Findings – Owing to a variety of issues prevalent in the literature, it is clear that the variables influencing effectiveness are multifarious and few researchers impose adequate controls or factor them into research designs. Drawing on the work of Dewey, Englebart...

Collection‐level descriptions: metadata of the future?

The potential for digital library growth has recently drawn into question the ability of users to navigate large distributed and heterogeneous collections. This column attempts to summarise some of the potential benefits to be derived through the implementation of collection‐level descriptions for both user resource discovery and institutional collection management. In particular, the concept of “functional granularity” is introduced and some related issues are briefly explored.

Analysis of equivalence mapping for terminology services

This paper assesses the range of equivalence or mapping types required to facilitate interoperability in the context of a distributed terminology server. A detailed set of mapping types were examined, with a view to determining their validity for characterizing relationships between mappings from selected terminologies (AAT, LCSH, MeSH, and UNESCO) to the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) scheme. It was hypothesized that the detailed set of 19 match types proposed by Chaplan in 1995 is unnecessary in this context and that they could be reduced to a less detailed conceptually-based set. Results from an extensive mapping exercise support the main hypothesis and a generic suite of match types are proposed, although doubt remains over the current adequacy of the developing Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) Core Mapping Vocabulary Specification (MVS) for inter-terminology mapping.

Introduction to a special issue on digital libraries and the semantic web : context, applications and research

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to introduce the papers in the special issue which explores some of the potential, opportunities and challenges to be found in greater library and information science alignment with semantic web developments.Design/methodology/approach – The article is a general review of the papers in the issue.Findings – For many digital libraries or cultural institutions, the semantic web offers an opportunity to better expose valuable digital resources pertaining to research, culture or history, using common standards and technologies in a collaborative and “joined up” way. The papers in this issue “paint a rainbow”, exploring the issues through elements of case studies, reviews research and conceptual expositions and viewpoints.Originality/value – The article emphasises how the practical implications of semantic web research or developments for digital libraries and repositories is important for LIS professionals.

Clumps and collection description in the information environment in the UK with particular reference to Scotland

The role, potential and interaction of networked catalogues and collection-level description have recently been given emphasis in order that efficient resource discovery mechanisms, and the effective organisation of such resources, be facilitated within the UKs developing JISC information environment (IE). This article describes the work of CC-interop, a JISC project, and related projects that inform the development of the IE and its ability to instantiate the functional model of online resource discovery to which JISC aspires. The article reviews the evolution of Z39.50 virtual union catalogue services and collection description services that preceded CC-interop. The paper also discusses how such work is informing regional information environments, with particular reference to Scotland, and reveals how such local arrangements will benefit the wider JISC IE.

'NOF-Digi' : putting UK culture online

This article describes a major digitisation programme aimed at improving online access to UK cultural resources from the UK’s museums, libraries and galleries for lifelong learners and others. The programme is supported by lottery funding of £50 million and provides free access to important areas of the country’s diverse cultural, artistic, and community resources. The article describes the programme, highlights some of the projects, and looks at areas where improvements to programme coordination might have been made. At time of writing, most of the projects are still in progress.

Towards improved performance and interoperability in distributed and physical union catalogues

Purpose – Detail research undertaken to determine the key differences in the performance of certain centralised (physical) and distributed (virtual) bibliographic catalogue services, and to suggest strategies for improving interoperability and performance in, and between, physical and virtual models.Design/methodology/approach – Methodically defined searches of a centralised catalogue service and selected distributed catalogues were conducted using the Z39.50 information retrieval protocol, allowing search types to be semantically defined. The methodology also entailed the use of two workshops comprising systems librarians and cataloguers to inform suggested strategies for improving performance and interoperability within both environments.Findings – Technical interoperability was permitted easily between centralised and distributed models, however, the various individual configurations permitted only limited semantic interoperability. Significant prescription in cataloguing and indexing guidelines, great...