Academics' knowledge and use of electronic information resources (EIR) at the University of Bahrain

Electronic Information Resources (EIR) can be seen as invaluable teaching and research tools, which complement print-based resources and enhance the learning and research processes in any academic institution. The aims of this research were to investigate, analyse and discuss the use of and needs for EIR and existing training in promoting and enhancing the quality of teaching and research activities amongst academic staff at the University of Bahrain. Extensive quantitative, qualitative and theoretical methods were used to identify and analyse academic staff EIR skills, knowledge and awareness. The population of the study is made up of all the full-time faculty members working at the University of Bahrain. A total of 593 questionnaires were distributed and 466 completed ones were returned, giving an overall response rate of 78.5%, and these were used for the purpose of the study. The result of the study revealed that printed resources are the sources of information most used for teaching and research. The colleges of Law, Art and Education had the lowest percentages of usage of EIR compared with other colleges. Work overload, lack of awareness, low skill levels, slow servers, ineffective communication systems, language barriers and a preference for print resources were among the primary constraints that affected academic staff uptake and use of electronic resources in teaching and research. One-to-one training was the preferred training method for those academics wishing to enhance their EIR skills. It was recommended that there is a need for greater promotion from the upper level decision-makers at the university if they wish to see greater use of electronic resources in teaching and research. Strategic conceptual models designed to provide solutions to the current problems and to help in setting policies and decisions for the effective use of EIR in teaching and research are given

Managing Your Library

Managing Your Library Hiring a Librarian Selecting Materials Managing Your Library: A Selected Bibliography Library Support Services in King County Document Delivery Services Legal Publishers and Distributors: A Selected List of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho Legal Publishers Publishers of Current Washington Legal Periodicalshttps://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/librarians-chapters/1012/thumbnail.jp

Administrative Decisions and Materials

Introduction Administrative Agencies\u27 Functions and Procedures Multi-Agency Sources of Administrative Decisions Agency-Specific Sources Databases Administrative Agency Decisions at a Glancehttps://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/librarians-chapters/1009/thumbnail.jp

Does public consultation truly end? the Murray-Darling Basin experience

Over the last decade Australian governments at all levels have been changing governance arrangements for the management of natural resources and the environment. Government has been devolving some of its power and responsibility to the community to manage regionally significant ecological regions. Communities have, through their actions, demanded this power from their government with the establishment of movements such as Landcare. Individual community members now have an opportunity to make real, observable environmental changes to their region. Where a centralised Federal or State government does not address local issues with the same sense of ownership or sensitivity. With the partial sale of Telstra the Federal government established the Natural Heritage Trust, which in its first incarnation was designed to fund small on-ground natural resource management projects. This action has empowered the community to undertake the work that it feels is appropriate in its region. It removed government from the delivery function of small environmentally beneficial works and given the community greater responsibility. It is within this changing attitude by government that the Murray-Darling Basin Commission (MDBC) 1 operates to manage natural resources throughout the Murray- Darling Basin. The MDBC acknowledges that natural resource management is about people and their acceptance of suitable management regimes. To ensure that the community has a voice the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council established a Community Advisory Committee to keep it informed of current community thinking on issues of natural resource management and provide recommendations on potential activities. This involvement of the community in the governance of natural resources is a recurring theme of the work of the MDBC. The community is involved to varying degrees of formality (and success) in the development of numerous crossborder, Basin wide strategies and operational plans. The two case studies contained in this report which were run via the MDBC on behalf of its partner governments show how the community can be engaged and what are the long term effects of engaging the community on issues of interest. The case studies show that the government when engaging the community will need to consider what happens with an engaged community once the ‘consultation’ has finished

Harnessing Information Technology to Improve the Environmental Impact Review Process

In 1970, when the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was enacted, the new and exciting information management technologies were the handheld four-function calculator and the eight-track tape cassette. Three decades later, after the personal computer, the digital revolution, and the World Wide Web, the implementation of NEPA is still stuck in the world of 1970. Other aspects of the bureaucracy have seen reform-the E-Government Strategy, an E-Government Act, the creation of a new Office of Electronic Government within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and, to focus on the environmental arena, the breathtaking success of the web-based Toxic Release Inventory. Yet the storage and dissemination of environmental impact review documents continue on the original, emphatically non-electronic, model. This Article suggests several improvements that can and indeed must be made to the environmental impact review process in light of both the technological and legal developments of the last thirty years

Information Across the Atlantic: a bibliography for company information in the US and UK

Laws in various countries demand a variety of information to be provided. This bibliography presents a variety of sources necessary to a researcher seeking information on United States and/or United Kingdom companies. It was created to aid library or information professionals in need of company information from these two countries. Research was conducted both in the US and the UK. Materials or resources were examined primarily in Oxford University libraries and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The bibliography is annotated and arranged by the following categories: basic company directories, company ownership and personnel, company financial information, Internet resources, and newspapers and periodicals. Its purpose is to identify key sources for finding both public and private company information in both countries

1994 Annual report.

This is an annual report containing vital statistics for a town/city in the state of New Hampshire

National freight transport planning: towards a Strategic Planning Extranet Decision Support System (SPEDSS)

This thesis provides a `proof-of-concept' prototype and a design architecture for a Object Oriented (00) database towards the development of a Decision Support System (DSS) for the national freight transport planning problem. Both governments and industry require a Strategic Planning Extranet Decision Support System (SPEDSS) for their effective management of the national Freight Transport Networks (FTN). This thesis addresses the three key problems for the development of a SPEDSS to facilitate national strategic freight planning: 1) scope and scale of data available and required; 2) scope and scale of existing models; and 3) construction of the software. The research approach taken embodies systems thinking and includes the use of: Object Oriented Analysis and Design (OOA/D) for problem encapsulation and database design; artificial neural network (and proposed rule extraction) for knowledge acquisition of the United States FTN data set; and an iterative Object Oriented (00) software design for the development of a `proof-of-concept' prototype. The research findings demonstrate that an 00 approach along with the use of 00 methodologies and technologies coupled with artificial neural networks (ANNs) offers a robust and flexible methodology for the analysis of the FTN problem domain and the design architecture of an Extranet based SPEDSS. The objectives of this research were to: 1) identify and analyse current problems and proposed solutions facing industry and governments in strategic transportation planning; 2) determine the functional requirements of an FTN SPEDSS; 3) perform a feasibility analysis for building a FTN SPEDSS `proof-of-concept' prototype and (00) database design; 4) develop a methodology for a national `internet-enabled' SPEDSS model and database; 5) construct a `proof-of-concept' prototype for a SPEDSS encapsulating identified user requirements; 6) develop a methodology to resolve the issue of the scale of data and data knowledge acquisition which would act as the `intelligence' within a SPDSS; 7) implement the data methodology using Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) towards the validation of it; and 8) make recommendations for national freight transportation strategic planning and further research required to fulfil the needs of governments and industry. This thesis includes: an 00 database design for encapsulation of the FTN; an `internet-enabled' Dynamic Modelling Methodology (DMM) for the virtual modelling of the FTNs; a Unified Modelling Language (UML) `proof-of-concept' prototype; and conclusions and recommendations for further collaborative research are identified