Research Methods in Library and Information Science

Library and information science (LIS) is a very broad discipline, which uses a wide rangeof constantly evolving research strategies and techniques. The aim of this chapter is to provide an updated view of research issues in library and information science. A stratified random sample of 440 articles published in five prominent journals was analyzed and classified to identify (i) research approach, (ii) research methodology, and (iii) method of data analysis. For each variable, a coding scheme was developed, and the articles were coded accordingly. A total of 78% of the articles reported empirical research. The rest 22% were classified as non‐empirical research papers. The five most popular topics were “information retrieval,” “information behaviour,” “information literacy,” “library services,” and “organization and management.” An overwhelming majority of the empirical research articles employed a quantitative approach. Although the survey emerged as the most frequently used research strategy, there is evidence that the number and variety of research methodologies have been increased. There is also evidence that qualitative approaches are gaining increasing importance and have a role to play in LIS, while mixed methods have not yet gained enough recognition in LIS research

Factors that Influence Information-Seeking Behavior : The Case of Greek Graduate Students

The purpose of this survey is to determine the information-seeking behavior of graduate students of the Faculties of Philosophy (8 Schools) and Engineering (8 Schools) at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Discipline did not seem to affect information-seeking behavior critically. The Majority of the sample demonstrated a low to Medium level of information-seeking behavior. This survey revealed the need for improving the level of graduate students' information literacy skills

Exploring the information seeking behavior of Greek graduate students : A case study set in the University of Macedonia

This paper describes a survey designed to determine the information seeking behavior of graduate students at the University of Macedonia (UoM). The survey is a continuation of a previous one undertaken in the Faculties of Philosophy and Engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh). This paper primarily presents results from the UoM survey, but also makes comparisons with the findings from the earlier survey at AUTh. The 254 UoM students responding tend to use the simplest information search techniques with no critical variations between different disciplines. Their information seeking behavior seems to be influenced by their search experience, computer and web experience, perceived ability and frequency of use of e-sources, and not by specific personal characteristics or attendance at library instruction programs. Graduate students of both universities similar information seeking preferences, with the UoM students using more sophisticated techniques, such as Boolean search and truncation, more often than the AUTh students

The Organisational Justice as a Human Resources Management Practice and its Impact on Employee Engagement: The case of the Prefecture of Attica (Greece)

Organisational justice is a key component in the practice of human resources management in any work environment. The aim of this research survey is to highlight the meaning and importance of organisational justice and its impact on employee engagement. To achieve this aim, except for the literature review, the survey examines the extent to which the distributive, procedural and interactional justice impact on work and organisational engagement, through a research in a certain Greek public organisation. As regards the statistical analysis of the research hypotheses, we used methods of the SPSS 17.00 statistical package. The results showed that the distributive justice significantly impacts on both types of engagement, while no effect was detected between procedural justice and the two types of engagement. The interactional justice was found to determine, partly, only the organisational engagement. The findings overwhelmingly verified the existing bibliographical references, resulting in a noteworthy empirical precedent which could contribute to the field concerning the impact that organisational justice exerts on certain aspects of organisational behaviour.JEL Codes - M1; M1

Dark DNA and stress

Με την ανακάλυψη του DNA ως του μορίου φορέα της γενετικής πληροφορίας και την αλληλούχισή του, ένα ερώτημα που προέκυψε ήταν το πως τελικά μεταφράζεται η εξελικτική πολυπλοκότητα σε μοριακό επίπεδο. Το μήκος των ζευγών βάσεων και ο αριθμός των γονιδίων φάνηκε πως παρουσιάζουν μεγάλη ποικιλομορφία μεταξύ των ειδών, με τρόπο που να μην αναδεικνύεται κάποια ιεραρχία σε μια εξελικτική κλίμακα. Μια ενδιαφέρουσα απάντηση στο ερώτημα έφερε η ανακάλυψη ενδείξεων μεταγραφής από το έως τότε θεωρούμενο “junk” DNA, του τμήματος εκείνου δηλαδή που δεν περιέχει γονίδια που κωδικεύουν για πρωτεΐνες. Η περιοχή αυτή του γονιδιώματος, το Dark DNA όπως συνηθίζεται πλέον να αποκαλείται, φαίνεται να αυξάνει σε μέγεθος όσο προχωράμε σε εξελικτικά ανώτερους οργανισμούς και τα μη κωδικά RNA μόρια που παράγονται από αυτό είναι ικανά να ορχηστρώσουν την έκφραση της γενετικής πληροφορίας με τον πιο πολύπλοκο, γρήγορο και αναστρέψιμο τρόπο, συμμετέχοντας, κατά αυτόν τον τρόπο, σε κύριες βιολογικές διεργασίες. Μια τέτοια διεργασία είναι και η ομοιόσταση, η οποία αποτελείται από ένα σύνολο μηχανισμών απόκρισης που έχουν ως στόχο τη διατήρηση μιας εσωτερικής φυσιολογικής ισσοροπίας για τη βέλτιστη λειτουργία του οργανισμού, παρά τα εσωτερικά και εξωτερικά στρεσογόνα ερεθίσματα. Τα non coding RNAs ρυθμίζουν άμεσα την έκφραση των γονιδίων, με μεγάλη χωροχρονική εξειδίκευση αποτελώντας ένα εξαιρετικό εργαλείο για την ρύθμιση της απόκρισης κάτω από συνθήκες στρες. Η έκφραση μάλιστα πολλών από αυτών βρέθηκε τροποποιημένη μετά από έκθεση σε οξύ και χρόνιο στρες, σε ασθενείς με αγχώδεις διαταραχές και στα αντίστοιχα ζωικά τους μοντέλα. Τα ncRNAs μπορούν επομένως να χρησιμοποιηθούν είτε ως βιοδείκτες, είτε ως θεραπευτικοί στόχοι έναντι των διαταραχών που προκύπτουν από την ανεξέλεγκτη ενεργοποίηση του HPA άξονα. Το παρόν κείμενο συναθροίζει τα μέχρι στιγμής δεδομένα πάνω στο θέμα.Since the discovery and characterization of DNA as the carrier molecule of genetic information and its consequent sequencing, attempts have been made to understand how evolutionary complexity is ultimately displayed on a molecular level. Surprisingly, both base-pair length and gene number appeared to be very diverse between species, in a way that no hierarchy seemed to emerge on an evolutionary scale. A possible answer to this mystery arose with the discovery of transcriptional activity from what was previously considered “junk” DNA. This region of the genome that does not contain protein-coding genes, now called the “Dark DNA” seems to increase in size as organisms become complex. Non-coding RNA molecules produced by such DNA have been proven to orchestrate the expression of genetic information in a complex, fast, and reversible way. These RNA molecules participate in major biological processes. Homeostasis maintenance is a prime example of such a process. An organism, in order to survive, must be able to meet environmental challenges, termed stressors that may threaten its dynamic internal equilibrium, termed homeostasis. Therefore, a number of adaptive responses must be used for the homeostasis to be re-established after the end of a threat, with the mentioned responses constituting the stress response system. Non-coding RNAs that directly regulate gene expression in a spatiotemporal way constitute an excellent tool for regulating stress responses. Their expression was indeed found modified after exposure to acute and chronic stress in patients with anxiety disorders and their respective animal models. Non-coding RNAs can therefore be used either as biomarkers or as therapeutic targets for disorders resulting from uncontrolled activation of the HPA axis. This text summarizes the data so far

Mapping audiovisual content providers and resources in Greece

In Greece, there are many audiovisual resources available on the Internet that interest scientists and the general public. Although freely available, finding such resources often becomes a challenging task, because they are hosted on scattered websites and in different types/formats. These websites usually offer limited search options; at the same time, there is no aggregation service for audiovisual resources, nor a national registry for such content. To meet this need, the Open AudioVisual Archives project was launched and the first step in its development is to create a dataset with open access audiovisual material. The current research creates such a dataset by applying specific selection criteria in terms of copyright and content, form/use and process/technical characteristics. The results reported in this paper show that libraries, archives, museums, universities, mass media organizations, governmental and non-governmental organizations are the main types of providers, but the vast majority of resources are open courses offered by universities under the “Creative Commons” license. Providers have significant differences in terms of their collection management capabilities. Most of them do not own any kind of publishing infrastructure and use commercial streaming services, such as YouTube. In terms of metadata policy, most of the providers use application profiles instead of international metadata schemas

Copyright implications for the aggregation of audiovisual content in Greece

Purpose: This paper aims to attempt to provide an overview of the copyright legal framework for audiovisual resources in Europe and Greece, how Audiovisual (AV) content is currently licensed by Greek providers and how licenses or copyright exceptions enable its reuse. The motivation for this work was the development of an aggregation service for audiovisual resources in Greece, the Open AudioVisual Archives (OAVA) platform. Design/methodology/approach: Copyright licenses and exceptions in the European Union and in Greek Legislation have been thoroughly reviewed along with the reuse of content, based on the terms of Fair Use, Rights Statements and Creative Commons. Licensing issues for the most well-known aggregation services, such as Europeana, Digital Public Library of America, Trove, Digital New Zealand and the National Digital Library of India, have also been studied and considered. Audiovisual content providers in Greece have been recorded, and their licensing preferences have been analyzed. Pearson’s chi-square test was applied to test the relationship between the provider’s type, resources’ genre and licenses used. Findings: Despite the abundance of copyright legislation in the European Union and in Greece, audiovisual content providers in Greece seem to ignore it or find it difficult to choose the right license. More than half of them choose to publish their resources on popular audiovisual platforms using the default licensing option provided. Creative Commons licenses are preferred for audiovisual content that falls into the following categories: open courses (almost exclusively) and interviews and digital collection/research projects (about half of the content). Originality/value: This paper examines audiovisual content aggregation, in the EU and Greece, from a legal point of view. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first attempt to record and analyze the licensing preferences of Greek AV content providers