Searching with Tags: Do Tags Help Users Find Things?

This study examines the question of whether tags can be useful in the process of information retrieval. Participants searched a social bookmarking tool specialising in academic articles (CiteULike) and an online journal database (Pubmed). Participant actions were captured using screen capture software and they were asked to describe their search process. Users did make use of tags in their search process, as a guide to searching and as hyperlinks to potentially useful articles. However, users also made use of controlled vocabularies in the journal database to locate useful search terms and of links to related articles supplied by the database

Item Response Models for Dichotomous and Polytomous Data in the Context of Generalized Linear Models with Applications

Item response theory is a test theory, in contrast to classical test theory, that focuses on the individual items of an exam in order to analyze test accuracy amd reliability, and evaluate examinee ability levels. Developed in the mid 20th century, item response theory, or IRT, is consider superior in a number of ways to many other test theory approaches. Provided here is an overview of basic IRT models using the a test theory approach, as well as the development of IRT models in the context of generalized linear models. Binary, correct/incorrect, response and polytomous, or multiple, response items are considered for item response theory models developed here in the context of generalized linear models. Applications of IRT are also explored using the statistical software R

A PHENOMENOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE SEMANTIC WEB AND USER-CENTERED TAGGING SYSTEMS

This paper uses Husserl’s theory of phenomenology to provide a model for the relationship between user-centered tagging systems, such as del.icio.us, and the more highly structured systems of the Semantic Web. Using three aspects of phenomenological theory—the movement of the mind out towards an entity and then back in an act of reflection, multiplicities within unity, and the sharing of intentionalities within a community—the discussion suggests that both tagging systems and the Semantic Web foster an intersubjective domain for the sharing and use of information resources. The Semantic Web, however, resembles traditional library systems, in that it relies for this intersubjective domain on the conscious implementation of domain-centered standards which are then encoded for machine processing, while tagging systems work on implied principles of emergence

RDA and RDF: A discourse analysis of two standards of resource description

The World Wide Web Consortium’s Resource Description Framework (RDF) and the library community’s new cataloguing standard, Resource Description and Access (RDA), both profess to provide sophisticated and flexible means of describing resources for modern Web environments. But both have attracted scepticism from potential users, who argue that their supposed innovations are overrated. A comparison of the two standards using Michel Foucault’s theory of discourse formations suggests that while the two standards differ in their community contexts and their use of intermediaries, they are similar to each other in their commitment to consistent, rigorously-defined entities and relationships; this shared commitment sets them apart from Web 2.0 developments, and offers the potential for fruitful collaboration

The effect of sewage sludge co-disposal and leachate recycling on refuse stabilization

In the past sanitary landfill sites for solid waste disposal were regarded simply as containment sites so that the waste contents were isolated from the population. Various degrees of effort were made to reduce the impact of the waste in and around the site - in some cases none in other cases considerable but the prevailing attitude was that it was a disposal site - not a treatment site; consequently, the stabilization of waste in the site was largely disregarded and generally little effort was made to promote waste stabilization. Rapidly growing cities as a result of urbanization of the rural communities has placed management and operation of sanitary landfill sites under increasing pressure from two directions in that an increased metropolitan population not only produces more solid wastes but also makes the acquisition of appropriate landfill sites increasingly difficult and expensive. These problems are exacerbated by a heightened environmental awareness in large sectors of the public who are concerned that municipal wastes in general, but solids waste are properly managed so as to maximize safe disposal of the wastes and minimize the environmental impact of these operations. Such developments have considerably increased the responsibilities of the municipal engineers in waste treatment and disposal and has demanded alternative and innovative measures for these operations. As a result, sanitary landfills are becoming regarded as bioreactors in that much greater cognizance of the stabilization of the wastes in the landfill is being taken; also, greater efforts are being made to reduce the impact of the landfill on its surroundings by installing liners to reduce leachate contamination of surrounding groundwater and by burning methane gas to reduce air pollution

Tensions Between Language and Discourse in North American Knowledge Organization

This paper uses Paul Ricoeur's distinction between language and discourse to help define a North American research agenda in knowledge organization. Ricoeur's concept of discourse as a set of utterances, defined within multiple disciplines and domains, and reducible, not to the word but to the sentence, provides three useful tools for defining our research. First, it enables us to recognize the important contribution of numerous studies that focus on acts of organization, rather than on standards or tools of organization. Second, it gives us a harmonious paradigm that helps us reconcile the competing demands of interoperability, based on widely-used tools and techniques of library science, and domain integrity, based on user warrant and an understanding of local context. Finally, it resonates with the current economic, political and social climate in which our information systems work, particularly the competing calls for protectionism and globalization