Information seeking retrieval, reading and storing behaviour of library users

In the interest of digital libraries, it is advisable that designers be aware of the potential behaviour of the users of such a system. There are two distinct parts under investigation, the interaction between traditional libraries involving the seeking and retrieval of relevant material, and the reading and storage behaviours ensuing. Through this analysis, the findings could be incorporated into digital library facilities. There has been copious amounts of research on information seeking leading to the development of behavioural models to describe the process. Often research on the information seeking practices of individuals is based on the task and field of study. The information seeking model, presented by Ellis et al. (1993), characterises the format of this study where it is used to compare various research on the information seeking practices of groups of people (from academics to professionals). It is found that, although researchers do make use of library facilities, they tend to rely heavily on their own collections and primarily use the library as a source for previously identified information, browsing and interloan. It was found that there are significant differences in user behaviour between the groups analysed. When looking at the reading and storage of material it was hard to draw conclusions, due to the lack of substantial research and information on the topic. However, through the use of reading strategies, a general idea on how readers behave can be developed. Designers of digital libraries can benefit from the guidelines presented here to better understand their audience

Supporting Collocation Learning

Collocations are of great importance for second language learners. Knowledge of them plays a key role in producing language accurately and fluently. But such knowledge is difficult to acquire, simply because there is so much of it. Collocation resources for learners are limited. Printed dictionaries are restricted in size, and only provide rudimentary search and retrieval options. Free online resources are rare, and learners find the language data they offer hard to interpret. Online collocation exercises are inadequate and scattered, making it difficult to acquire collocations in a systematic way. This thesis makes two claims: (1) corpus data can be presented in different ways to facilitate effective collocation learning, and (2) a computer system can be constructed to help learners systematically strengthen and enhance their collocation knowledge. To investigate the first claim, an enormous Web-derived corpus was processed, filtered, and organized into three searchable digital library collections that support different aspects of collocation learning. Each of these constitutes a vast concordance whose entries are presented in ways that help students use collocations more effectively in their writing. To provide extended context, concordance data is linked to illustrative sample sentences, both on the live Web and in the British National Corpus. Two evaluations were conducted, both of which suggest that these collections can and do help improve student writing. For the second claim, a system was built that automatically identifies collocations in texts that teachers or students provide, using natural language processing techniques. Students study, collect and store collocations of interest while reading. Teachers construct collocation exercises to consolidate what students have learned and amplify their knowledge. The system was evaluated with teachers and students in classroom settings, and positive outcomes were demonstrated. We believe that the deployment of computer-based collocation learning systems is an exciting development that will transform language learning

How to Meet the Diverse Needs of Consumers: Big Data Mining based on Online Review

This article applied Word2vec and image mining on OCRs analysis. Data from Dianping.com showed that in Beijing, good taste is the primary factor for customers to choose a restaurant. Unlike the general opinion, careers and locations have little influence on cuisine choice in Beijing. Hot pot is the most popular one all over the city. Warm color, medium dark light and saturation with certain amount of grey are three key aspects for an enjoyable dining environment. Offline mouth to mouth recommendation is the most useful way to spread a restaurants reputation. So making the antecedent consumer satisfy is the most applied way to appeal new ones. This findings can help restaurant owners to run a better business and promote the satisfactory

Information seeking behavior of scientists in Venezuela

Information is one the essential elements of science. It is an imperative condition that researchers review antecedent works as they advance and create new knowledge. Knowledge creation in science is a process of adding and refining new pieces of data, information, and knowledge to what has already been accomplished by others. Few scientific communities have unlimited access to scientific information sources. Most communities’ access to information is limited by economic, social, cultural, and technological conditions. This study investigates information seeking behavior and information dissemination practices of the Venezuelan scientific community. A model of scholarly communication in a context of dependency emerges from the following major themes: persisting interpersonal communication with the international scientific community; publication in international journals; prestige and name recognition; and contacting the authors to access full-text journal articles. A qualitative approach is used to illuminate the information seeking behavior of scientists in Venezuela, to discover the barriers experienced by the Venezuelan scientific community when accessing scientific information, and to explore their scientific information dissemination practices. Interviews were conducted in July 2009 with thirteen Venezuelan scientists from the fields of biology, chemistry, or physics. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed in Spanish. Coding, categories, data analysis, and theory building followed a general inductive approach

Cultural influences on consumer interactions in the context of electronic commerce

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Researchers and academics from diverse disciplines have highlighted the role of 'trust' for establishing and strengthening existing relationships between individuals and organisations in the commercial and the social context. Trust in the cultural context specifically, is credited with being the social 'glue' for sustaining bonds between members of cultural groups. The 'trust' phenomenon has become a 'hallmark' of success for organizations as they become more involved with Information Technology (IT). A precondition for trust to manifest is the natural presence of risk or uncertainties in a potential decision. Since the fears and risks associated with online transactions in the context of ecommerce are high, gaining a customer's trust becomes a must. Some studies have found the ingrained cultural values, which form an essential part of the cultural heritage of a person, to be influential in evoking an individual's trust. Various sources in the marketing and consumer behaviour literature have highlighted the role that religious subcultures play in the purchase decisions of their members. The customs, values, and norms set by a religious group are highly esteemed by its members. The objective of this thesis is to investigate if religious Web sites are more likely to instil trust in online fellow-members than their generic counterparts. From a HCI point of view, we can say that our research will investigate an "abstract" interface of e-commerce systems: the 'theological' interface of a commercial Web site. Consequently, we can also ascertain if religious consumers basing their purchasing decisions on 'religious' trust alone overlook more important issues such as the privacy and security problems associated with financial transactions performed over the Internet. Our empirical findings have discovered that conservative Muslims, who are not very familiar with the Internet, trust a Muslim Web site more than a Christian Web site and a generic Web site. In contrast, conservative Muslims with higher Internet experience were found to be more cautious. They based their 'trust' on more appropriate criteria such as the extent of privacy and security safeguards adopted by a Web site. A qualitative analysis of the post-experimental interviews that we conducted purports that Web-based trust develops with a company's good reputation, previous personal purchasing experiences, and through word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family or peers. In light of our findings, we argue that the time experience gained in using the Internet plays a major role on how consumers perceive culturally or religiously oriented Web sites. We believe that less experienced Internet users are unaware of the security vulnerabilities inherent in the Internet environment. Therefore, we assume that they are context-blind: they do not differentiate between traditional and the digital marketing environments. Consequently, they would trust purchasing from an electronic store (Web site) in the same manner they would trust purchasing from a 'brick-and mortar' store. In contrast, experienced Internet users deem reputable Web sites adopting good security and privacy safeguards for online transactions to be trustworthier than Web sites designed with a 'religious' interface. We conclude that in the context of e-commerce, one cannot expect to establish a trustworthy commercial relationship based on religious trust alone. From the findings of this study, it has become apparent that the trait of strict religious affiliation seems to disappear in the context of e-commerce. The threats and risks inherent in online transactions seem to restructure the religious community by merging it into a traditional global community of e-consumers. When contemplating a purchase from a Web site, traditional e-consumers pay more attention to the company's reputation and the extent of data security measures adopted by a Web site rather than basing their purchase decisions on the religious affiliations and cultural values taught by parents and ancestors. Thus, Web sites aiming to sell products behind a 'religious' interface could become disappointed. Having said that, we reiterate that the time experience in using the Internet seems to play an influential role in how users' perceive cultural or religious Web sites.Funding was obtained from the Lybian Interest Section

Exploring determinants of attraction and helpfulness of online product review:a consumer behaviour perspective

To assist filtering and sorting massive review messages, this paper attempts to examine the determinants of review attraction and helpfulness. Our analysis divides consumers’ reading process into “notice stage” and “comprehend stage” and considers the impact of “explicit information” and “implicit information” of review attraction and review helpfulness. 633 online product reviews were collected from Amazon China. A mixed-method approach is employed to test the conceptual model proposed for examining the influencing factors of review attraction and helpfulness. The empirical results show that reviews with negative extremity, more words, and higher reviewer rank easily gain more attraction and reviews with negative extremity, higher reviewer rank, mixed subjective property, and mixed sentiment seem to be more helpful. The research findings provide some important insights, which will help online businesses to encourage consumers to write good quality reviews and take more active actions to maximise the value of online reviews