The communication and exchange of information between state and stakeholders.

This thesis presents a critical review of the candidates Portfolio of Public Output, which is based on research conducted in the period November 2000 to date, and which consists of 21 peer-reviewed, publicly available papers published since 2001. The subject area which forms the basis of the thesis is the communication and exchange of information between the state (i.e. parliaments and governments at the local, devolved, national and European levels, as well as those who aspire to become part of the state during parliamentary elections) and its stakeholders (i.e. citizens, businesses, interest groups, etc.). Within this overarching theme, the thesis focuses on three distinct but interrelated sub-themes: 1) the provision and communication of information by, and within, parliaments; 2) the use of the Internet for information provision and exchange by political parties and candidates during parliamentary election campaigns; and 3) the exchange of information between government and stakeholders during formal public consultation processes. Within all three sub-themes, the thesis demonstrates the candidates contribution to the advancement of knowledge in two key and closely linked areas: the investigation of users information needs and informationseeking behaviour; and the critical evaluation of information service provision. The thesis begins by placing the Portfolio of Public Output in an historical, political context, by discussing the various parliamentary and government openness, transparency and consultative agendas that have influenced or driven the research on which the 21 papers are based. It continues by describing some of the candidates earlier research work, to illustrate his long-standing interest in state-stakeholder information provision and exchange, before outlining the various research projects from which the Portfolio outputs have emerged. In the core part of the thesis the 21 Portfolio outputs are synthesised and considered as part of a narrative whole, which reflects critically on their contents and which illustrates the candidates empirical, methodological and theoretical contribution to the field of library and information science (LIS). Here, the candidate argues that he has contributed significantly towards developing a better understanding of the information behaviour of stakeholders when engaging with the state, and a greater awareness of the ways in which government and parliamentary information systems and services might be more responsive to their stakeholders information needs, thus theoretically enabling a more informed, engaged and participatory body politic. In terms of the candidates empirical contribution, the thesis demonstrates that his papers have largely been unique, relevant and timely additions to the literature, written in a conscious effort to address gaps in our knowledge of: parliamentary information services and the ways in which citizens, elected members and officials engage with parliamentary information; the nature and the extent of online information provision and exchange by political actors during parliamentary election campaigns, as well as the online behaviour of voters when attempting to determine their democratic choice; and the accessibility and communication of information during government consultative processes. With regard to the candidates methodological contribution, the thesis records his key role in the design of innovative and effective data collection and analytical techniques, including: a series of protocol analysis codes to record citizens use of parliamentary websites; frameworks and schemata for the content analyses of political actors election campaign websites and social media sites; the use of covert research to measure politicians responsiveness online; and, perhaps most significantly, the interactive, electronicallyassisted interview in a roadshow setting. In terms of his theoretical contribution, the thesis discusses the candidates part in the development of the theory of Information Interchange, which considers the roles and aims of both the information provider and the information user in assessing the effectiveness of the information communication process, and which is built upon the dichotomy that appears to exist between the two perspectives. The theory recognises the significance of the different agendas and objectives of the actors involved in information interchange, in what can be a complex interaction between two or more parties with potentially conflicting conceptions of the purpose of the interchange process. Throughout the thesis, the candidate considers the actual and potential impact of his work on the LIS academic and practitioner communities. His 21 Portfolio outputs have created considerable academic interest internationally, and have been discussed and critiqued in numerous text books, journal articles, conference papers, research reports and doctoral theses; although there is only minimal evidence of others adopting, or adapting, his data collection and analytical techniques. While interest has been most significant amongst those in the LIS field, the multidisciplinary relevance of the candidates work has resulted in it being cited by authors from a wide range of other disciplines, from business administration to computing, and from engineering to public relations. In terms of the more practical impact of the candidates research work, on government and parliamentary information services and practices, the picture has been mixed. Research commissioned by the European Parliament has had the clearest and most significant impact, on its Librarys marketing and service strategies. In some cases, although a number of the candidates recommendations - relating to parliamentary public information services in the UK, and Scottish Government website deficiencies - have subsequently been addressed by these bodies, no direct causal relationship can be established. In other cases - particularly in relation to Scottish Government consultative processes, and the online electioneering of parliamentary candidates in Scotland - his recommendations have been ignored completely, and information practices have remained idiosyncratic, inconsistent and flawed. The thesis concludes by considering some of the candidates future research plans and opportunities in the specific field of state-stakeholder information provision and exchange

A study into the availability of and access to electronic journals for teaching and research by the academic staff at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zimbabwe

Includes bibliographical references.Researchers have relied on journals as a source of current research information for more than 350 years. In sub-Saharan Africa, researchers and libraries complain about a lack of access to subscription electronic journals despite an increase in electronic journals access schemes for developing countries. Furthermore, African researchers lag behind in publishing their work when compared to their counterparts in the developed world. Research was carried out in the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Zimbabwe, which sought to investigate electronic journal availability from the researchers’ perspectives; to discover how electronic journals are used for teaching and research; and how faculty use journals in their publications. To explore this multi-faceted objective, four key sub-objectives emanated from the main research objective. The first sub-objective was to determine to what extent the available electronic journal collections met faculty’s electronic journal teaching and research needs. The second was to establish journal usage through analysing journals cited in faculty research papers and reading lists given to graduate students. The third was to understand the problems if any, encountered in accessing electronic journals –establishing the nature and frequency of these problems. The last was to explore if academic staff desire and publish their research and in the process, to understand the obstacles they face. This study used methodological triangulation, and data was gathered through three main research methods. These were an electronic journal availability study, a 26 question- 7 survey, and a citation analysis. Each respective method addressed a respective sub-objective, with an overlap of methods for the fourth objective. The findings revealed that 85.5% of the required journals were available across the available electronic journals collections. Faculty members use electronic journals for their work; however, they need training to access and to be aware of what journal content is available. While faculty members aim to be published, evidence indicated that they use less recent journals in their published works. There was no evidence that suggested that access to electronic journals alone leads to increased publications

Expanding perspective on open science: communities, cultures and diversity in concepts and practices

Twenty-one years ago, the term ‘electronic publishing’ promised all manner of potential that the Web and network technologies could bring to scholarly communication, scientific research and technical innovation. Over the last two decades, tremendous developments have indeed taken place across all of these domains. One of the most important of these has been Open Science; perhaps the most widely discussed topic in research communications today. This book presents the proceedings of Elpub 2017, the 21st edition of the International Conference on Electronic Publishing, held in Limassol, Cyprus, in June 2017. Continuing the tradition of bringing together academics, publishers, lecturers, librarians, developers, entrepreneurs, users and all other stakeholders interested in the issues surrounding electronic publishing, this edition of the conference focuses on Open Science, and the 27 research and practitioner papers and 1 poster included here reflect the results and ideas of researchers and practitioners with diverse backgrounds from all around the world with regard to this important subject. Intended to generate discussion and debate on the potential and limitations of openness, the book addresses the current challenges and opportunities in the ecosystem of Open Science, and explores how to move forward in developing an inclusive system that will work for a much broader range of participants. It will be of interest to all those concerned with electronic publishing, and Open Science in particular

B!SON: A Tool for Open Access Journal Recommendation

Finding a suitable open access journal to publish scientific work is a complex task: Researchers have to navigate a constantly growing number of journals, institutional agreements with publishers, funders’ conditions and the risk of Predatory Publishers. To help with these challenges, we introduce a web-based journal recommendation system called B!SON. It is developed based on a systematic requirements analysis, built on open data, gives publisher-independent recommendations and works across domains. It suggests open access journals based on title, abstract and references provided by the user. The recommendation quality has been evaluated using a large test set of 10,000 articles. Development by two German scientific libraries ensures the longevity of the project

2018 FSDG Combined Abstracts

https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/fsdg_abstracts/1000/thumbnail.jp

Re-engineering research and innovation information in university libraries in Uganda for small and medium enterprises.

Doctor of Philosophy in Information Studies. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2019.Globally, enormous amounts of research are generated in universities; however, in Uganda, not much of this research cascades to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) which contribute 75% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Since university libraries are expected to support teaching, learning, research and community engagement in the surrounding communities, these libraries ought to reposition themselves to become conduits of disseminating Research and Innovation (R&I) to SMEs and other partners in development. The purpose of this study was to investigate how university libraries in Uganda can repackage R&I information and disseminate it to SMEs. The study addresses two broad objectives namely: 1) To investigate how University libraries in Uganda are facilitating access to R&I information for use by SMEs in the agricultural sector in Uganda; and 2) To find out the extent to which University libraries in Uganda repackage R&I information for use by SMEs in the agricultural sector. This study was underpinned by three theories namely: LibQUAL+TM, Modern theories of management and Wilson’s 1999 model of Information seeking behaviour. The study adopted a post-positivist research paradigm and an exploratory research design. Mixed methods epistemology was employed. Quantitative and qualitative data were therefore collected from a large sample of respondents from 6 universities that offer graduate agricultural programmes and from 231 SMEs in the agricultural sector. The respondents consisted of university librarians, heads of library research and innovation units, university heads of IT, Agricultural academic staff, graduate agricultural students and proprietors of SMEs in the agricultural sector in the central region of Uganda. Quantitative data was analysed using SPSS to generate descriptive and inferential statistics where frequencies, percentages and chi square were used, while the qualitative data was analysed through content analysis. The findings revealed that the research carried out in universities was beneficial to SMEs, mainly in areas of increasing the SMEs productivity, identifying training opportunities, and starting up new business ventures. A third of the respondents disclosed that currently Ugandan university libraries do not have an enabling environment for SMEs to access R&I information mainly because of inaccessible format in which R&I information is packaged. However, university libraries could re-engineer their R&I information services to serve SMEs mainly through digitisation, carrying out community engagement programmes targeting SMEs, and repackaging R&I information. The study among others recommended that R&I information should be repackaged from print to short documentaries, newsletters, using social media, translating it from English to local languages and broadcasting it on radios and televisions to make it suitable for SMEs

CURATION AND MANAGEMENT OF CULTURAL HERITAGE THROUGH LIBRARIES

Libraries, museums and archives hold valuable collections in a variety of media, presenting a vast body of knowledge rooted in the history of human civilisation. These form the repository of the wisdom of great works by thinkers of past and the present. The holdings of these institutions are priceless heritage of the mankind as they preserve documents, ideas, and the oral and written records. To value the cultural heritage and to care for it as a treasure bequeathed to us by our ancestors is the major responsibility of libraries. The past records constitute a natural resource and are indispensable to the present generation as well as to the generations to come. Libraries preserve the documentary heritage resources for which they are primarily responsible. Any loss of such materials is simply irreplaceable. Therefore, preserving this intellectual, cultural heritage becomes not only the academic commitment but also the moral responsibility of the librarians/information scientists, who are in charge of these repositories. The high quality of the papers and the discussion represent the thinking and experience of experts in their particular fields. The contributed papers also relate to the methodology used in libraries in Asia to provide access to manuscripts and cultural heritage. The volume discusses best practices in Knowledge preservation and how to collaborate and preserve the culture. The book also deals with manuscript and archives issues in the digital era. The approach of this book is concise, comprehensively, covering all major aspects of preservation and conservation through libraries. The readership of the book is not just limited to library and information science professionals, but also for those involved in conservation, preservation, restoration or other related disciplines. The book will be useful for librarians, archivists and conservators. We thank the Sunan Kalijaga University, Special Libraries Association- Asian Chapter for their trust and their constant support, all the contributors for their submissions, the members of the Local and International Committee for their reviewing effort for making this publication possible

Legal Design Perspectives

Over the last few years, Legal Design has grown as a field of research and practice. The potential of design in the legal domain has been investigated and experimented in various sectors such as access to justice, dispute resolution, privacy indicators, policy prototyping, contractual negotiation. Being an interdisciplinary area of study, Legal Design combines different disciplines and methodologies and relies on insights from legal practice. This book intends to contribute to the study and advancement of Legal Design by presenting different voices and perspectives from scholars and practitioners active in this field. The volume brings together critical essays on the nature and methods of Legal Design and illustrations from the practice. The contributions provide the readers with the state of the art of Legal Design and a prospective outline of its future development.illustrato

Legal Design Perspectives : Theoretical and Practical Insights from the Field

This publication and its release in gold open access has been made possible thanks to the support of the Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Module grant 599987-EPP-1-2018-1-BE-EPPJMO-MODULE for the course “European IT Law by Design”. The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.Publisher PD

Accounts From an Online Reading Group for English Language Teachers Worldwide: A Case Study on Dialogue and Online Interaction

New technologies have increased access to written texts, while creating new ways of reading and of sharing responses. Yet, despite the centrality of reading in language learning, and the expanding use of computer technology in English Language Teaching (ELT), many questions concerning the integration of these two fields of knowledge remain unanswered. This study explores a global online discussion forum which links over 1,400 ELT professionals and students of TESOL (Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages). The ELT Online Reading Group makes literary works in English available to participants in over 75 countries and, by facilitating asynchronous discussion, contributes to their professional development. This study investigates readers’ responses to literary texts and their comments on such texts. It adopts Bakhtin’s concepts of dialogue and heteroglossia as the theoretical framework for the analysis of data collected from the forum. The forum posts are complemented by an online survey and by semi-structured narratives provided by selected Group members. The data are analysed in terms of compositional features, interactive patterns, and participants’ accounts of group participation. The findings suggest that readers engage in dialogue with literary texts by making use of the language and features of the fictional narrative in the composition of their comments. The findings also suggest that the internal dialogue that Bakhtin observes in the novel is also present in the fabric of the texts which participants create in order to discuss literary works in the Group online environment. The thesis concludes with some reflections on the validity and limitations of this study, and a discussion of its possible implications for ELT professionals, educators and researches working on various disciplines in social sciences, arts and humanities