Yukiko Watanabe

Identifying Key Elements of Search Results for Document Selection in the Digital Age: An Observational Study

Academic database systems are vitally important tools for enabling researchers to find relevant, useful articles. Identifying how researchers select documents from search results is an extremely useful measure for improving the functions or interfaces of academic retrieval systems. This study aims to reveal which elements are checked, and in what order, when researchers select from among search results. It consists of two steps: an observational study of search sessions performed by researchers who volunteered, and a questionnaire to confirm whether extracted elements and patterns are used. This article reports findings from the observational study and introduces questions we developed based on the study. In the observational study we obtained data on nine participants who were asked to search for documents using information retrieval systems. The search sessions were recorded using a voice recorder and by capturing screen images. The participants were also asked to state which elements they checked in selecting documents, along with the reasons for their selections. Three patterns of order of checking were found. In pattern 1, seven researchers used titles and abstracts as the primary elements. In pattern 2, the others used titles and then accessed the full text before making a decision on their selection. In pattern 3, one participant searched for images and accessed the full text from the link in those pictures. We also found participants used novel elements for selecting. We subsequently developed items for a questionnaire reflecting the findings.

Staff Development of Academic Librarians to Improve Information Literacy Education in the Digital Age

Digital game-based learning has grown rapidly in recent years, including in information literacy (IL) education. However, many efforts have failed because users are not involved in the design process. The present study adopts a user-centered design approach to evaluate an educational IL game prototype, with data analyzed based on Pedagogical Playability Heuristics.The proposed study is in the area of data curation and knowledge representation. It focuses on the issues and methods of curating quantitative social science data, to advance the methodology of data curation, and data reuse and integration in the social sciences. Socio-economic data will be the object of the study. They are defined as data that is related to people, organization and society which can be stored in a tabular format.Museums are highly specialized cultural institutions. Obstacles exist between the knowledge and terminology of the museum professionals and that of the general public. Topical analysis of museum collections can reveal topical similarities and differences among museums and facilitate museum tours with recommended professional guides. In this study, 7177 French artworks collected by 90 art museums worldwide were investigated. The Self-Organizing Map (SOM) technique, an unsupervised artificial neural network method, was applied to visually analyze similarities and differences among the museums. The Treemap technique was also employed on a large dataset to reveal the distribution of the specific themes among the investigated museums. Finally, a comprehensive museum tour recommendation mechanism is established for tourists.For enhancing skills related to information literacy instruction in the digital age, we developed an education program for academic librarians, based on knowledge of learning science and educational technology. We evaluated the program in practice and discovered that: 1) academic librarians want to acquire basic knowledge of learning science and instructional design, 2) lectures about theory alone are insufficient, but the combination of theory with practical workshops is effective for promoting the integration of participants’ knowledge, and 3) some practical examples support understanding of the theory.Web 2.0 technologies have paved the way for self-directed online learning. YouTube, in particular, is a viable Web 2.0 platform that can be used to disseminate educational content and in the process empower users to take charge of their own learning. Through the lens of self-directed learning theory, we perform qualitative content analyses on comments contributed by learners after watching educational videos on YouTube. Results indicate that YouTube can play important roles in facilitating a self-directed learning platform.

The Viewpoint of Library Directors on the Introduction of E-book Services in Japanese Public Libraries

In this paper, we aim to make clear what problems might occur when public libraries in Japan introduce e-books. We conducted semi-structured interviews with nine public library directors. These interviews revealed a wide range of opinions about e-book use in public libraries. Seven main factors emerged: a) necessity of e-book introduction, b) recognition of e-books, c) budget for e-books, d) management of ebooks, e) difference between public library users and e-book users, f) accessibility of e-books, and g) digitalization of library resources. We also analyzed the differences in perspectives on e-books between two kinds of public library management styles.

The ratio of conference papers in citations of engineering dissertations at Kyushu University

Conference proceedings are important research resources, especially for researchers and graduate students in the science, technology, and medicine disciplines. For the development of comprehensive conference proceedings collections in academic libraries, we focused on three objectives: (1) identifying the number of items cited in doctoral dissertations, (2) examining the contents of each citation, and (3) determining the number of conference proceedings accessible from the Kyushu University library. We analyzed 148 dissertations produced by doctoral students at the faculty of engineering in Kyushu University, and 13,177 citations were classified on the basis of citation type, such as journal article, book, and conference proceeding. Among these citations, 1,458 (11.2%) were papers from conference proceedings. The conference proceedings available in the library were then examined to determine the number of items available in electronic format: 28.1% of the proceedings were available as printed materials, 9.0% could be accessed online, and 16.1% were available in both formats.