Investigating the information-seeking behaviour of academic lawyers: From Ellis's model to design.

Information-seeking is important for lawyers, who have access to many dedicated electronic resources.However there is considerable scope for improving the design of these resources to better support information-seeking. One way of informing design is to use information-seeking models as theoretical lenses to analyse users’ behaviour with existing systems. However many models, including those informed by studying lawyers, analyse information-seeking at a high level of abstraction and are only likely to lead to broad-scoped design insights. We illustrate that one potentially useful (and lowerlevel) model is Ellis’s - by using it as a lens to analyse and make design suggestions based on the information-seeking behaviour of twenty-seven academic lawyers, who were asked to think aloud whilst using electronic legal resources to find information for their work. We identify similar information-seeking behaviours to those originally found by Ellis and his colleagues in scientific domains, along with several that were not identified in previous studies such as ‘updating’ (which we believe is particularly pertinent to legal information-seeking). We also present a refinement of Ellis’s model based on the identification of several levels that the behaviours were found to operate at and the identification of sets of mutually exclusive subtypes of behaviours

Interactive lectures: Clickers or personal devices?

Audience response systems (‘clickers’) are frequently used to promote participation in large lecture classes, and evidence suggests that they convey a number of benefits to students, including improved academic performance and student satisfaction. The limitations of these systems (such as limited access and cost) can be overcome using students’ personal electronic devices, such as mobile phones, tablets and laptops together with text message, web- or app-based polling systems. Using questionnaires, we compare student perceptions of clicker and smartphone based polling systems. We find that students prefer interactive lectures generally, but those that used their own device preferred those lectures over lectures using clickers. However, device users were more likely to report using their devices for other purposes (checking email, social media etc.) when they were available to answer polling questions. These students did not feel that this distracted them from the lecture, instead, concerns over the use of smartphones centred around increased battery usage and inclusivity for students without access to suitable technology. Our results suggest that students generally preferred to use their own devices over clickers, and that this may be a sensible way to overcome some of the limitations associated with clickers, although issues surrounding levels of distraction and the implications for retention and recall of information need further investigation

User - Thesaurus Interaction in a Web-Based Database: An Evaluation of Users' Term Selection Behaviour

A major challenge faced by users during the information search and retrieval process is the selection of search terms for query formulation and expansion. Thesauri are recognised as one source of search terms which can assist users in query construction and expansion. As the number of electronic thesauri attached to information retrieval systems has grown, a range of interface facilities and features have been developed to aid users in formulating their queries. The pilot study reported here aimed to explore and evaluate how a thesaurus-enhanced search interface assisted end-users in selecting search terms. Specifically, it focused on the evaluation of users' attitudes toward both the thesaurus and its interface as tools for facilitating search term selection for query expansion. Thesaurusbased searching and browsing behaviours adopted by users while interacting with a thesaurus-enhanced search interface were also examined

Ariadne: An interface to support collaborative database browsing:Technical Report CSEG/3/1995

This paper outlines issues in the learning of information searching skills. We report on our observations of the learning of browsing skills and the subsequent iterative development and testing of the Ariadne system – intended to investigate and support the collaborative learning of search skills. A key part of this support is a mechanism for recording an interaction history and providing students with a visualisation of that history that they can reflect and comment upon

A Novel Application: Using Mobile Technology to Connect Physical and Virtual Reference Collections

This chapter describes an innovative implementation of the use of iPad kiosks to blur the lines between physical and virtual library collections. Providence College’s Phillips Memorial Library + Commons began lending iPads to students, faculty, and staff in 2012. In addition to lending the devices, library staff dedicated time to learning about both task-based and subject-based mobile applications that would be of use to our community. A small group of library staff tested, discussed, and vetted a variety of apps that would be deployed on the iPads to be lent out. Efforts were made to promote the use and discovery of various apps on the devices through thoughtful organization of the apps on the devices themselves, programming around applications, and the creation of an online research guide designed to teach more about the apps. Despite these initiatives, assessment data from the iPad lending program collected over the course of five semesters suggests that patrons borrowing the iPads are using them primarily for accessing the Internet (Safari, Chrome, etc.), social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), and consuming media (YouTube, Netflix, Pandora, Spotify, etc.). With this data in mind, library staff began to think of alternative ways to connect our patrons with useful, content-based, mobile applications. Drawing on research around the Internet of Things and the integration of digital technologies with our physical lives, the Digital Publishing Services Coordinator suggested positioning iPad kiosks strategically within the library’s physical book collection as a means to connect patrons browsing a given area of the stacks with the library’s online resources related to that subject area. The library’s Commons Technology Specialist had experience with iPad kiosks and programming the iPads as he had managed the logistics of the iPad lending program since its inception. Working collaboratively, these colleagues devised a way to image the iPads for public use and load them with subject-specific apps as well as links to library databases and open web resources. The team chose to use Scalar as the primary content management tool for kiosk content. This chapter provides details about the selection and deployment of content for the Theology Kiosk, signage and communications created to attract patrons to the kiosk, and initial data about kiosk use. The piece concludes with a review of the kiosk project and an outline of future planning related to the project (staff time, hardware and software requirements, usability testing, scaling the project, etc.)

An exploration of ebook selection behavior in academic library collections

Academic libraries have offered ebooks for some time, however little is known about how readers interact with them while making relevance decisions. In this paper we seek to address that gap by analyzing ebook transaction logs for books in a university library

Tutors as learners: overcoming barriers to learning ICT skills

This paper explores the use of ICT to provide distance training for UK Open University (OU) Associate lecturers (ALs) and identifies the range of outcomes and issues which emerged. There is an increasing demand from many of our students for the University to provide more facilities and functions (both administrative or course-related) online or by electronic mail. To this end the University has attempted to increase the awareness of these computing-related issues with ALs by offering various methods of increasing ICT skills. One programme involved a contingent of ALs participating in an online short course. This paper will summarise some of the qualitative feedback along with the quantitative results in order to establish whether this course did indeed assist in tutors gaining some new computing skills. Furthermore, tutors made many additional comments about the process of learning and the experience of being a learner. Many of the issues raised were found to be important when designing a programme of study for those who take courses as a form of staff development

Finnish consumers' expectations on developments and changes in payment habits. Survey in connection with the research project 'Finnish payment habits 2010'

The Bank of Finland’s Finnish Payment Habits 2010 project predicts that Finnish payment habits will face substantial changes. The causes for these changes include: the standardisation and integration of European payment systems, development of payment services-related legislation and regulation at EU level, changes in payment services-related cost factors and pricing, and new opportunities offered by technological advances. The last few years have seen a surge in new payment instruments and services. Increasing reliance on information and communication technology is characteristic to the development of these payment instruments, the vast majority of which have however failed to entice consumers. To increase our understanding of changes in payment patterns, this report analyses consumer needs, tastes and payment habits as new payment systems are adopted. Research data was collected in September 2005 using a mail-survey covering the central payment methods and addressed to 2,000 randomly-sampled Finnish consumers. According to our findings, security and trustworthiness are the most important characteristics of any new payment instrument. Other essential characteristics are the ability to produce good transaction-related information, compatibility with shopping and payment habits, accessibility, ease of use, time and cost savings, as well as time and place independence. New payment instruments – electronic billing and paying for shopping by mobile phone – are not likely to supersede conventional payment methods by 2010 when judged by the aforementioned characteristics: Trust and cost factors do not separate consumers well-disposed towards electronic bills and mobile payments from those set against these payment methods. A relatively restricted group of differentiating factors was found. Ease of use is a common differentiating factor for both electronic bills and mobile payments adoption. Additionally, accessibility is a differentiating characteristic in mobile payments adoption.payment habits; payment services to consumers; consumer behaviour; diffusion of innovations; theory of planned behaviour (TPB)

Balancing the power of multimedia information retrieval and usability in designing interactive TV

Steady progress in the field of multimedia information retrieval (MMIR) promises a useful set of tools that could provide new usage scenarios and features to enhance the user experience in today s digital media applications. In the interactive TV domain, the simplicity of interaction is more crucial than in any other digital media domain and ultimately determines the success or otherwise of any new applications. Thus when integrating emerging tools like MMIR into interactive TV, the increase in interface complexity and sophistication resulting from these features can easily reduce its actual usability. In this paper we describe a design strategy we developed as a result of our e®ort in balancing the power of emerging multimedia information retrieval techniques and maintaining the simplicity of the interface in interactive TV. By providing multiple levels of interface sophistication in increasing order as a viewer repeatedly presses the same button on their remote control, we provide a layered interface that can accommodate viewers requiring varying degrees of power and simplicity. A series of screen shots from the system we have actually developed and built illustrates how this is achieved