Library Resources: Procurement, Innovation and Exploitation in a Digital World

The possibilities of the digital future require new models for procurement, innovation and exploitation. Emma Crowley and Chris Spencer describe the skills staff need to deliver resources in hybrid and digital environments. The chapter demonstrates the innovative ways that librarians use to procure and exploit the wealth of resources available in a digital world. They also describe the technological developments that can be adopted to improve workflow processes and they highlight the challenges faced on this fascinating journey

Users' trust in information resources in the Web environment: a status report

This study has three aims; to provide an overview of the ways in which trust is either assessed or asserted in relation to the use and provision of resources in the Web environment for research and learning; to assess what solutions might be worth further investigation and whether establishing ways to assert trust in academic information resources could assist the development of information literacy; to help increase understanding of how perceptions of trust influence the behaviour of information users

Data-Seeking Behaviour in the Social Sciences

Purpose: Publishing research data for reuse has become good practice in recent years. However, not much is known on how researchers actually find said data. In this exploratory study, we observe the information-seeking behaviour of social scientists searching for research data to reveal impediments and identify opportunities for data search infrastructure. Methods: We asked 12 participants to search for research data and observed them in their natural environment. The sessions were recorded. Afterwards, we conducted semi-structured interviews to get a thorough understanding of their way of searching. From the recordings, we extracted the interaction behaviour of the participants and analysed the spoken words both during the search task and the interview by creating affinity diagrams. Results: We found that literature search is more closely intertwined with dataset search than previous literature suggests. Both the search itself and the relevance assessment are very complex, and many different strategies are employed, including the creatively "misuse" of existing tools, since no appropriate tools exist or are unknown to the participants. Conclusion: Many of the issues we found relate directly or indirectly to the application of the FAIR principles, but some, like a greater need for dataset search literacy, go beyond that. Both infrastructure and tools offered for dataset search could be tailored more tightly to the observed work processes, particularly by offering more interconnectivity between datasets, literature, and other relevant materials

Examining the Impact of Design Features of Electronic Health Records Patient Portals on the Usability and Information Communication for Shared Decision Making

The use of the Electronic Health Records (EHR) patient portal has been shown to be effective in generating positive outcomes in patients’ healthcare, improving patient engagement and patient-provider communication. Government legislation also required proof of its meaningful use among patients by healthcare providers. Typical patient portals also include features such as health information and patient education materials. However, little research has examined the specific use of patient portals related to individuals with specific diseases such as inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs). IBDs are life-long, not curable, chronic diseases that can impact the whole population. Individuals with IBDs may have higher needs to acquire health information from their EHR portals to properly self-manage their health conditions. The research aims of the present dissertation are to understand the online health information-seeking behaviors of a target group (IBDs) of patients, the use of EHR patient portals, and the impact of design features of EHR patient portals on the usability and information communication for shared decision making. Through this dissertation, I conducted four studies to address the above research aims. First, I identified how individuals with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) used the internet for health information seeking, the factors impacting their use of the internet to obtain health information, and how they used the internet for health-related tasks. The purpose of this study is to get a general understanding of the online health information-seeking behaviors and to guide the study of health information presentation of EHR portals in the following research. Second, I examined what factors influenced an EHR patient portal user to believe that the portal is a valuable part of their health care. This part of the dissertation aimed to reveal the critical design factors that help design an EHR portal perceived as valuable in managing health. Third, I looked at how patients used EHR patient portals, what features of the portals facilitated their use and encouraged Shared Decision Making (SDM) and engagement in health management and what features acted as barriers to SDM and their engagement in health management. This part of my dissertation focused on a broad understanding of EHR portals usage by introducing more specific factors such as features of EHR portals. Fourth, I conducted an eye-tracking study to examine how information presentation methods and chatbots impact the use and effect of patient portals. This part of my dissertation built on the other studies within my dissertation and deepened the understanding of the influence of different EHR portal designs on their effectiveness and people’s willingness to participate in SDM. The results of this dissertation contribute to the literature of understanding the information-seeking behaviors of IBD patients and the use of portals, as well as the design considerations of how to make a suitable EHR portal to support the information-seeking needs of IBD patients. The results of this dissertation can be used to guide building proper patient education materials to support their health information needs of their specific health condition, especially for individuals with chronic diseases that require a certain amount of self-management. Meanwhile, examining artificial intelligence (AI) based chatbots use in EHR portals reveals a potential path of AI use in healthcare, such as information acquisition and patient education. Designing good usable EHR may also facilitate the process of informing patients of the advantages and disadvantages of treatment plans for their disease and, therefore, may increase their willingness to participate in SDM

Information Outlook, April 2003

Volume 7, Issue 4https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_io_2003/1003/thumbnail.jp