Exploring the information behaviour of users of Welsh Newspapers Online through web log analysis

Purpose – Webometric techniques have been applied to many websites and online resources, especially since the launch of Google Analytics (GA). To date, though, there has been little consideration of information behaviour in relation to digitised newspaper collections. The purpose of this paper is to address a perceived gap in the literature by providing an account of user behaviour in the newly launched Welsh Newspapers Online (WNO). Design/methodology/approach – The author collected webometric data for WNO using GA and web server content logs. These were analysed to identify patterns of engagement and user behaviour, which were then considered in relation to existing information behaviour. Findings – Use of WNO, while reminiscent of archival information seeking, can be understood as centring on the web interface rather than the digitised material. In comparison to general web browsing, users are much more deeply engaged with the resource. This engagement incorporates reading online, but users’ information seeking utilises website search and browsing functionality rather than filtering in newspaper material. Information seeking in digitised newspapers resembles the model of the “user” more closely than that of the “reader”, a value-laden distinction which needs further unpacking. Research limitations/implications – While the behaviour discussed in this paper is likely to be more widely representative, a larger longitudinal data set would increase the study’s significance. Additionally, the methodology of this paper can only tell us what users are doing, and further research is needed to identify the drivers for this behaviour. Originality/value – This study provides important insights into the underinvestigated area of digitised newspaper collections, and shows the importance of webometric methods in analysing online user behaviour

Evolutionary Subject Tagging in the Humanities; Supporting Discovery and Examination in Digital Cultural Landscapes

In this paper, the authors attempt to identify problematic issues for subject tagging in the humanities, particularly those associated with information objects in digital formats. In the third major section, the authors identify a number of assumptions that lie behind the current practice of subject classification that we think should be challenged. We move then to propose features of classification systems that could increase their effectiveness. These emerged as recurrent themes in many of the conversations with scholars, consultants, and colleagues. Finally, we suggest next steps that we believe will help scholars and librarians develop better subject classification systems to support research in the humanities.NEH Office of Digital Humanities: Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant (HD-51166-10

Exploring Low-Cost, Internet-Free Information Access for Resource-Constrained Communities

Rural developing regions are often defined in terms of their resource constraints, including limited technology exposure, lack of power, and low access to data connections (leading to an inability to access information from digital or physical sources), as well as being amongst the most socio-economically disadvantaged and least literate in their countries’ populations. This article is focused around information access in such regions, aiming to build upon and extend the audio-based services that are already widely used in order to provide access to further types of media. In this article, then, we present an extended exploration of AudioCanvas —an interactive telephone-based audio information system that allows cameraphone users to interact directly with their own photos of physical media to receive narration or description. Our novel approach requires no specialist hardware, literacy, or data connectivity, making it far more likely to be a suitable solution for users in such regions. </jats:p

Report of the Global Strategy Task Force

The Global Strategy Task Force created a final report documenting its findings and recommendations. The intent of this report is to provide a framework through which the University can articulate and pursue an ambitious set of institutional goals that will increase its global connectivity and impact.To guide our work, the Task Force articulated a Global Vision for 2020:To establish Northwestern as one of the world's premier universities. To develop a culture and an infrastructure that link our intellectual communities to larger international idea and innovation networks and enable our faculty, students, and staff to lead and to learn from global advancements in research and teaching critical to human development and understanding.The Task Force identified three guiding principles for how we enact our vision.An ambitious intellectual agenda, not an economic one, must drive Northwestern's global investments. Northwestern should hire new faculty and staff, open new facilities, and initiate new dialogues and collaborations to the extent that it has a clear and compelling intellectual mission guiding each decision.Northwestern must focus on excellence to gain greater prominence in the world's leading innovation and idea networks, by identifying and investing deeply in select areas of strength and impact.Being global requires a bi-directional orientation. Northwestern must, with equal focus and vigor, expand its outward horizons while integrating global perspectives into the rich intellectual life of its US campuses and activities

Water governance and poverty: a framework for analysis

YesIn this paper we present a framework for understanding water governance, through which we critique some of the assumptions underlying the current consensus on good governance. Specifically, we suggest that current approaches are based on incomplete or partial understandings of the concepts of governance. We question the idea that governance can be identified as an abstract set of principles, without the need for contextualisation and localisation. In particular, we suggest that there is a general lack of understanding of the way local interactions shape and influence governance processes. Finally, and with specific reference to the MDGs and the water sector, we question the implicit assumption that `good¿ governance is necessarily pro-poor governance. The paper addresses these issues through a critical discussion of governance, from which we develop a framework for conceptualising water governance. The framework draws on theories of governance, institutions and structuration, but is also informed by recent empirical research and experiences from the field. We apply the framework to a specific case in Southwestern Tanzania and raise a number of issues and challenges for further research

Learners - should we leave them to their own devices?

Emerging technologies for learning report - Article exploring learner owned devices and their potential for edcuatio

Leveraging Semantic Web Technologies for Managing Resources in a Multi-Domain Infrastructure-as-a-Service Environment

This paper reports on experience with using semantically-enabled network resource models to construct an operational multi-domain networked infrastructure-as-a-service (NIaaS) testbed called ExoGENI, recently funded through NSF's GENI project. A defining property of NIaaS is the deep integration of network provisioning functions alongside the more common storage and computation provisioning functions. Resource provider topologies and user requests can be described using network resource models with common base classes for fundamental cyber-resources (links, nodes, interfaces) specialized via virtualization and adaptations between networking layers to specific technologies. This problem space gives rise to a number of application areas where semantic web technologies become highly useful - common information models and resource class hierarchies simplify resource descriptions from multiple providers, pathfinding and topology embedding algorithms rely on query abstractions as building blocks. The paper describes how the semantic resource description models enable ExoGENI to autonomously instantiate on-demand virtual topologies of virtual machines provisioned from cloud providers and are linked by on-demand virtual connections acquired from multiple autonomous network providers to serve a variety of applications ranging from distributed system experiments to high-performance computing

Collaborative practices using computers and the internet in science classrooms.

Investigations that allow for students to self-direct their inquiries in science classrooms involve building on existing understanding, problem solving and reasoning. The process of explaining complex problems means that students work with multiple sets of data including online resources and information from the Internet. Outcomes of such activities are often in written form, frequently prepared on the computer, representing a collage of negotiated ideas. This article presents primary science classroom investigations about changes of state and landforms and argues that inscription practices were shaped by the functional and social affordances students imbued with the computer and information from the Internet. Findings from the qualitative study with a year 7 teacher, Clara, and her students illustrate how the Internet provided social and collaborative opportunities for scientific meaning making. The argument is made that access to the computer and information from the Internet can open up and constrain opportunities for social thinking and inscription practices. Talking, thinking and composing were observed to constitute the nature of science inquiries as a collaborative effort of meaning making