Hyperlinking to Academic Websites: Salient Features Examined

OBJECTIVE: To explore in depth and comprehensively features of inlinks (incoming links) as opposed to that of citations so that better understanding can be achieved with regard to the limitations and implications in using links for evaluative webometric research. DESIGN & MEASUREMENTS: A total of 446 randomly selected cases of hyperlinking to 15 medical schools’ websites were analyzed and then classified into a revised version of a taxonomy created in a previous study for identifying linking motivations. The classification of the linking data was accomplished within the context of linking and linked sites as well as based on reasons for hyperlinking. RESULTS: This research shows that only 5% and 7% of all the inlinks analyzed were made for reasons relating respectively to teaching/learning and research whereas 88% of the hyperlinks the target sites received were created for motivations germane to service and general nature. These findings demonstrate that inlinking is not the same as citing since inlinks exhibit features considerably different from that of citations in at least several aspects: 1) Inlinks mainly point to the ofness of target sites rather than their aboutness. 2) Inlinks cannot achieve the same level of quality in referencing as citations. 3) It is more difficult to determine reasons for hyperlinking given its unique nature. CONCLUSION: Inlink counts alone cannot serve as quality indicators for scholarly and evaluation purposes. Other factors (e.g., authors and intellectual contents of linked entities) have to be considered in evaluative, link-based webometric research

Current Awareness Service of the RePEc Digital Library: Progress, Performance and Potentials

NEP (New Economics Papers) is a current awareness service for the RePEc (Research Papers in Economics) digital library. Since its initiation in April 1998, over 50 individual lists have been created to loosely represent subfields within economics. Those lists in total made more than 37,000 announcements of about 28,000 working papers that were added to RePEc in the past five years. This article examines the growth and development of the NEP service. The performance of NEP is measured in terms of timeliness, coverage ratio, and usage. In exploring the various NEP parameters and their relationships, we discuss the potentials and other perspectives of the NEP service. Although it can be further improved, NEP could become an innovative model for current awareness services of digital libraries technically as well as organizationally

Information representation and retrieval in the digital age

xiv, 306 hlm. ; 22 c

Curricula of LIS programs in the USA: A content analysis

Close to 3,000 courses, both required and elective, listed in each curriculum of the 45 ALA-accredited LIS masterâ s programs in the USA are analyzed qualitatively as well as quantitatively. Based on the changes observed in the core, electives and particularly courses that appear being created recently, this study finds that more and more elective courses are offered in LIS education while the number of core requirements is reduced to as few as two courses. In either case, a wider range of subject topics seem being covered nowadays than in the pre-Internet era. On the other hand, approximately 10 percent of all the LIS courses sound new in that they are designed to deal with emerging subjects and latest de-velopments in the field besides reflecting the growing interdisciplinary nature of LIS. This research also shows that catalysts for LIS curricular transformations do not come from technology alone, but also originate from the cultural and societal dimensions. In other words, a holistic approach should be taken for enhancing LIS curricular contents to prepare information professionals for leadership in the time to come

Web Search Tools: Recent Development

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Information representation and retrieval in the digital age

Ada dua aspek yang berbeda yang dicakup oleh buku ini: Informasi representasi dan temu kembali informasi. Dua bab dari buku ini ditujukan khusus untuk representasi informasi, langkah yang harus diambil sebelum informasi menjadi dapat diketemukan. Kedua bab tersebut tentu membawa perspektif segar untuk pertimbangan pencarian informasi, datang seperti yang mereka lakukan pada awal buku dan mempengaruhi diskusi nanti

of Communication & Information, Nanyang Technological University. CURRICULA OF LIS PROGRAMS IN THE USA: A CONTENT ANALYSIS

Abstract. Close to 3,000 courses, both required and elective, listed in each curriculum of the 45 ALAaccredited LIS master’s programs in the USA are analyzed qualitatively as well as quantitatively. Based on the changes observed in the core, electives and particularly courses that appear being created recently, this study finds that more and more elective courses are offered in LIS education while the number of core requirements is reduced to as few as two courses. In either case, a wider range of subject topics seem being covered nowadays than in the pre-Internet era. On the other hand, approximately 10 percent of all the LIS courses sound new in that they are designed to deal with emerging subjects and latest developments in the field besides reflecting the growing interdisciplinary nature of LIS. This research also shows that catalysts for LIS curricular transformations do not come from technology alone, but also originate from the cultural and societal dimensions. In other words, a holistic approach should be taken for enhancing LIS curricular contents to prepare information professionals for leadership in the time to come

Chu & Krichel, p. 1 Current Awareness Service of the RePEc Digital Library: Progress, Performance and Potentials Abstract

NEP (New Economics Papers) is a current awareness service for the RePEc (Research Papers in Economics) digital library. Since its initiation in April 1998, over 50 individual lists have been created to loosely represent subfields within economics. Those lists in total made more than 37,000 announcements of about 28,000 working papers that were added to RePEc in the past five years. This article examines the growth and development of the NEP service. The performance of NEP is measured in terms of timeliness, coverage ratio, and usage. In exploring the various NEP parameters and their relationships, we discuss the potentials and other perspectives of the NEP service. Although it can be further improved, NEP could become an innovative model for current awareness services of digital libraries technically as well as organizationally