Template Mining for Information Extraction from Digital Documents

published or submitted for publicatio

Cultural Heritage Information Practices and iSchools Education for Achieving Sustainable Development

Since 2015, UNESCO began the process of inculcating culture as part of the UN’s post-2015 Sustainable (former Millennium) Development Goals, which member countries agreed to achieve by 2030. By conducting a thematic analysis of the 25 UN commissioned reports and policy documents, this research identifies 14 broad cultural heritage information themes that need to be practiced in order to achieve cultural sustainability, of which information platforms, information sharing, information broadcast, information quality, information usage training, information access, information collection, and contribution appear to be the significant themes. An investigation of education on cultural heritage informatics and digital humanities at iSchools (www.ischools.org) using a gap analysis framework demonstrates the core information science skills required for cultural heritage education. The research demonstrates that: (i) a thematic analysis of cultural heritage policy documents can be used to explore the key themes for cultural informatics education and research that can lead to sustainable development; and (ii) cultural heritage information education should cover a series of skills that can be categorized in five key areas, viz., information, technology, leadership, application, and people and user skills

Correction: Metric-based vs peer-reviewed evaluation of a research output: lesson learnt from UK's national research assessment exercise

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0179722

Building the iSchools searchable online database: Issues and experience

The iSchools Searchable Online Database is a recently built centralized and searchable database containing collective information on the people as well as the teaching and research activities that are carried out at the various iSchool institutions around the world. The project was initiated principally with a view to facilitating information search and discovery about the iSchools, enhancing the visibility of the iSchools both individually and as a body, and promoting research collaborations among them. This paper presents an overview of the searchable online database, showcasing its features and functionalities, but more particularly discussing the issues and challenges which arose or were encountered in the process of building the service. Other important questions concerning the long-term maintenance and sustainability of the database are also discussed

Eradicating information poverty : an agenda for research

Information poverty remains a critical issue for societies today. The literature of information poverty is reviewed tracking its origins in library and information science and the various approaches that have been taken to tackling information poverty, including international development programmes such as the Global Libraries Initiative, working response to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the importance of access to health information and so on. The paper sets out themes that emerged in a roundtable discussion of library and information science academics in 2017. Discussion centred on: definitions of information poverty which reflect the wide variety of ways in which it is possible to be information poor; literacy and information literacy; the ways in which information can reduce poverty and disadvantage; library and information science initiatives to tackle information poverty; and information poverty in the context of social justice. The group agreed that there was a major piece of work to be done in reframing the library and information science discipline in terms of information poverty. Four key dimensions of information poverty for collaborative future research are: (1) information as an agent to eradicate poverty; (2) the causal factors resulting in information poverty; (3) creation and production activities to combat information poverty; and (4) better understanding of areas of extreme disadvantage and aspects of information need. A list of the key causal factors in creating information poverty which came out of the discussion is presented. Further research initiatives are underway for setting up a partnership/consortium that would lay the foundations for a multidisciplinary network on information poverty, sharing expertise internationally

Digital Cultural Heritage and Social Sustainability

This research investigated factors that were perceived to contribute to the social sustainability of cultural heritage information services. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with sixteen users, guided by three broad questions: 1. Which factors they consider are important for DCH services to be socially sustainable or to achieve social sustainability? 2. What indicators they perceive from current DCH services that suggest social sustainability? 3. What they believe to be the main challenges for DCH services to achieve or maintain social sustainability? Social sustainability of DCH information services was associated with: strategy and policy, advocacy and community engagement, equity, cultural sensitivity and literacy, assessment and evaluation

Usuários da recuperação da informação

Users of information retrievalUsuários da recuperação da informaçã

Exploring The Collaborative Activities Of Home-Based Businesses In OECD Countries

Collaboration is frequently cited as a driver for sustainable success, and yet despite over half of all small businesses in OECD countries being run from the home, within the existing literature little attention is paid to how these businesses work with others. This article therefore presents a quantitative study into the collaborative behaviours exhibited by home-based businesses located within OECD countries. Based on a large, cross sectional data set collected by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, this exploratory study outlines the extent of collaboration among home-based businesses, the nature of their collaborative activities and the relationships which exist between the different behaviours that are exhibited. The study finds that collaboration is a widespread occurrence among home-based businesses, with over 75% of home-based businesses collaborating in some way. Furthermore, home-based business collaboration is diverse in its nature and is present across all industries. Moreover, it is found that collaboration among home-based businesses is distinct enough from the current findings of collaboration among SMEs that it warrants further investigation

NetDiploma International Networking Project. Final Report.

NetDiploma is an international networking project funded by the UK Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) under the GCRF (Global Challenges Research Fund) scheme (Grant Ref: AH/R004277/1). The NetDiploma network’s aim has been to build a global multi-stakeholder network to mobilize and share knowledge and identify future collaborative research required to build a Digital Public Library of Africa (DPLAf) that will promote access to African indigenous information for everyone and support economic and cultural development. The project has taken a bottom-up approach to stakeholder engagement to understand the various research, development, engagement and advocacy activities required to build the future DPLAf

Eradicating information poverty: an agenda for research.

Information poverty remains a critical issue for societies today. The literature of information poverty is reviewed tracking its origins in library and information science in the 1970s and the various approaches that have been taken to tackling information poverty, including international development programmes such as the Global Libraries initiative, work in response to the U.N.'s sustainable development goals, the importance of access to health information and so on. The paper sets out themes that emerged in a roundtable discussion amongst 11 LIS academics and practitioners in 2017. Discussion centred on: definitions of information poverty which reflect the wide variety of ways in which it is possible to be information poor; literacy and information literacy; the ways in which information can reduce poverty and disadvantage; LIS initiatives to tackle information poverty; and information poverty in the context of social justice. The group agreed that there was a major piece of work to be done in reframing the LIS discipline in terms of information poverty. Four key dimensions of information poverty for collaborative future research are identified which are: (i) information as an agent to eradicate poverty; (ii) the causal factors resulting in information poverty; (iii) creation and production activities to combat information poverty; and (iv) better understanding of areas of extreme disadvantage and aspects of information need. A list of the key causal factors in creating information poverty which came out of the discussion is presented. Further research initiatives are underway for setting up a partnership/consortium that would lay the foundations for a multidisciplinary network on information poverty, sharing expertise internationally