Yurdagül Ünal

Scatter of journals and literature obsolescence reflected in document delivery requests

In this paper we investigate the scattering of journals and literature obsolescence reflected in more than 137,000 document delivery requests submitted to a national document delivery service.We first summarize the major findings of the study with regards to the performance of the service.We then identify the “core” journals from which article requests were satisfied and address the following research questions: (a) Does the distribution of (core) journals conform to the Bradford’s Law of Scattering? (b) Is there a relationship between usage of journals and impact factors, journals with high impact factors being used more often than the rest? (c) Is there a relationship between usage of journals and total citation counts, journals with high total citation counts being used more often than the rest? (d) What is the median age of use (half-life) of requested articles in general? (e) Do requested articles that appear in core journals get obsolete more slowly? (f) Is there a relationship between obsolescence and journal impact factors, journals with high impact factors being obsolete more slowly? (g) Is there a relationship between obsolescence and total citation counts, journals with high total citation counts being obsolete more slowly? Based on the analysis of findings, we found that the distribution of highly and moderately used journal titles conform to Bradford’s Law.The median age of use was 8 years for all requested articles. Ninety percent of the articles requested were 21 years of age or younger.Articles that appeared in 168 core journal titles seem to get obsolete slightly more slowly than those of all titles.We observed no statistically significant correlations between the frequency of journal use and ISI journal impact factors, and between the frequency of journal use and ISI- (Institute for Scientific Information, Philadelphia, PA) cited half-lives for the most heavily used 168 core journal titles.There was a weak correlation between usage of journals and ISI-reported total citation counts.No statistically significant relationship was found between median age of use and journal impact factors and between median age of use and total citation counts.There was a weak negative correlation between ISI journal impact factors and cited half-lives of 168 core journals, and a weak correlation between ISI citation halflives and use half-lives of core journals.No correlation was found between cited half-lives of 168 core journals and their corresponding total citation counts as reported by ISI.Findings of the current study are discussed along with those of other studies.

Digital Natives and Specialised Digital Libraries: A Study of Europeana Users

The alignment of user needs with the technical capabilities of modern digital libraries is an area attracting the interest of researchers and practitioners. Europeana, conceived with the intention of offering a single access point to European cultural heritage, has been developed in recent years with a continuous effort to identify and respond to the needs of a range of users. This paper presents a study of two user communities – young people and the general public. The study, conducted between October 2009 and January 2010, comprised a series of focus groups and media labs in Bulgaria, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK. A distinctive aspect of this study is that it combines questionnaire-based and verbal feedback gathered from users with evidence of user actions whilst undertaking a well-defined task. The paper presents the context and the methodology of the study, and some of the data gathered within the study which helps to understand better the attitude of digital natives towards specialised digital libraries. The data analysis supports several conclusions: specialised digital libraries require strong advocacy to target the “digital natives” generation which tends to prefer general purpose search engines to specialised resources; young users are confident that they know how to use advanced search yet there is little evidence of their applying these skills in contrast to general public users; the perception of digital libraries differs in groups from different countries. The study contributes to the better understanding of some behavioural characteristics of users of digital libraries.

Are Turkish universities ready for e-learning: A case of Hacettepe University Faculty of Letters

Universities play an important role in lifelong learning. E-learning is one of the key elements in todays networked and knowledge oriented world. It is crucial to know whether the universities are ready to transform their courses to e-learning systems. In this paper the e-learning readiness of the academic staff of Hacettepe University Faculty of Letters HUFL is investigated. A 37-item questionnaire along with some demographic questions is used for obtaining the data. Results show that title might be a significant factor for e-learning readiness and in general, HUFL academic staff are not ready for the e-learning environment. The findings of this study will help to conduct a larger study throughout Turkey in order to determine a model for course of action for transition to an e-learning system.

Students Readiness for E-Learning: An Assessment on Hacettepe University Department of Information Management

Students are one of the key elements during the implementation of e-learning systems within universities. To be able to build solid and effective e-learning systems, it is important to know the level of students’ readiness. In this paper, e-learning readiness of the Department of Information Management (DIM) students at Hacettepe University will be investigated. A 39-item e-learning readiness questionnaire (along with some descriptive questions, such as gender and grade-level) that was tested in previous studies was used to obtain the data. The results show that, although some improvements are needed, DIM students are at the expected level of e-learning readiness, in general.

Preparedness for Research Data Sharing: A Study of University Researchers in Three European Countries

Many government and funding bodies around the world have been advocating open access to research data, arguing that such open access can bring a significant degree of economic and social benefit. However, the question remains, do researchers themselves want to share their research data, and even if they do how far they are prepared to make this happen? In this paper we report on an international survey involving university researchers in three countries, viz. UK, France and Turkey. We found that researchers have a number of concerns for data sharing, and in general there is a lack of understanding of the requirements for making data publicly available and accessible. We note that significant training and advocacy will be required to make the vision of data sharing a reality.

Does Urquhart’s Law hold for consortial use of electronic journals?

This paper tests the validity of Urquhart’s Law (“the inter-library loan demand for a periodical is as a rule a measure of its total use”). It compares the use of print journals at the Turkish Academic Network and Information Center (ULAKBIM) with the consortial use of the same journals in their electronic form by the individual libraries making up the Consortium of Turkish University Libraries (ANKOS). It also compares the on-site use of electronic journals at ULAKBIM with their consortial use at ANKOS. About 700 thousand document delivery, in-house and on-site use data and close to 28 million consortial use data representing seven years’ worth of downloads of full-text journal articles were used. Findings validate Urquhart’s Law in that a positive correlation was observed between the use of print journals at ULAKBIM and the consortial use of their electronic copies at ANKOS. The on-site and consortial use of electronic journals was also highly correlated. Both print and electronic journals that were used most often at ULAKBIM tend to get used heavily by the member libraries of ANKOS consortium, too. Findings can be used in developing consortial collection management policies and negotiate better consortial licence agreements.