bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
BODY ENGLISH: THE DILEMMA OF THE PHYSICAL IN THE OBJECTIFICATION OF SUBJECTIVE KNOWLEDGE STRUCTURES: THE ROLE OF THE BODY IN THINKING
Authors: NEILL S.D.
Published: January 2008

Evidence is presented to show that the body plays a continuing and fundamental part in the process of thinking and the development of the knowledge used to think. The conclusion is that, if this is true, then there is a crucial part of our subjective knowledge base which cannot be represented in an objectified scheme, whether for artificial intelligence (ai) or information retrieval (ir), and therefore we cannot expect to get a computer to think as a human being thinks.
SEMIOTICS, INFORMATION SCIENCE, DOCUMENTS AND COMPUTERS
Authors: WARNER JULIAN
Published: January 2008

Semiotics studies systems of signs. It regards all sign systems as the product of a single human faculty for creating order. The distinction it provides, of signifier, sign and signified, can give a more sophisticated and incisive way of differentiating aspects of the sign than can be derived from any other known source. Information science would seem to have some unnoticed affinities with semiotics in its concerns with the retrieval and transmission of material products of the semiotic faculty and with meaning to concept relations. The alignment of information science with the physical sciences and technology has been criticised and its disciplinary identity questioned. Information science would seem to derive what identity it has from a widely shared concern with computer based retrieval of documentary information. However, a unifying principle for the document and the computer has not been enunciated. For semiotics, written language, and computer programs can be comprehended within the analytical category of the signifier. Automata theory regards the computer as a universal information machine and replaces ideas of energy and motion by logical operations. At the level of discourse of logical operations, there is no distinction between a written expression, or program, and the particular information machine specified by that written expression. Elements in linguistics, not registered in the literature of information science, have departed from the received position that written language is simply a representation of speech and have preferred to regard it as an autonomous system of signs. A specific unifying principle for the document and the computer is then the presence of writing. Revealing such a unifying principle indicates that semiotics can clarify significant issues within the established domains of information science.
DOCUMENTATION NOTE
Authors: ALEXANDER BARBARA B. , PAGE BILL
Published: January 2008

The Sterling C. Evans Library, Texas A & M University, holds over 3,000,000 microforms. As many of the Evans microform collections are not catalogued, access to them can be perplexing to patrons. To ease that problem, the microtext staff created Guide to the Microform Collections in the Sterling C. Evans Library, which describes the microform materials currently housed in six different departments of the Library. Entries are arranged alphabetically by title and are identified by format. The Guide allows patrons to examine a scope note for each set, to discover indexes which enable efficient use of various sets, and to search for microform materials by subject. Call numbers for microform materials, locations, indexes with appropriate call numbers, and subject headings are integral parts of each listing. In addition to describing the current collection, the Guide provides an effective means of assessing collection strengths or weaknesses. The article presents information on selecting materials for inclusion in the Guide, content and form of entries, and updating the guide.
COMPUTER‐BASED INFORMATION SERVICES FOR EDUCATION AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES IN NEW ZEALAND: A REVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
Authors: PICKENS KEITH
Published: January 2008

The development of information services for education and the social sciences in New Zealand goes on in a policy vacuum. A national mainframe‐based information service has failed, partly because of the fact that mainframe and PC (personal computer) computer technology arrived in New Zealand almost simultaneously. The most obvious feature of the education/social science information system in New Zealand in the late 1980s is its lack of system; the most obvious trend a steady progression towards PC‐based services.
A MODEL OF KNOWLEDGE BASED INFORMATION RETRIEVAL WITH HIERARCHICAL CONCEPT GRAPH
Authors: WHAN KIM YOUNG , KIM JIN H.
Published: January 2008

This paper discusses a knowledge based information retrieval model with hierarchical thesaurus. The model computes the conceptual distance between a query and an object and both are indexed with weighted terms from a hierarchical thesaurus. The hierarchical thesaurus is represented by a hierarchical‐concept graph (HCG) in which nodes represent concepts and directed edges represent generalisation relationships. Rada et al. have developed a similar model. However, their model considered only a binary indexing scheme and revealed some counter‐intuitive results. Our proposed model extends theirs by allowing the index term and the edge of the HCG to be weighted. A new concept mapping method is devised to overcome Rada's counter‐intuitive results. In addition, a scheme for allowing Boolean operators in user queries is provided with a formula for computing conceptual distance from negated index terms. Experimental results have shown that our model simulates human performance more closely than Rada's model.
COMPUTER SEARCHING OF UDC NUMBERS
Authors: BUXTON A.B.
Published: January 2008

The Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) is able to provide a detailed description of the subject content of a document in any area. Its hierarchical and synthetic structure, which is generally reflected in its notation, should enable computer searching for hierarchically‐related subjects and for the individual facets of a complex subject. The possibilities of using these features in automated retrieval are discussed, and attention is drawn to places where the UDC falls short. A number of online catalogues, databases, and information retrieval packages are discussed in terms of their ability to allow searching on UDC numbers. The most sophisticated ones, such as ETHICS at the ETH Library, use a separate file of verbal descriptors linked to the document file through UDC numbers. Suggestions are made for enhancing retrieval performance on UDC numbers in simple systems, and for ways in which the classification might be developed to improve automated searching.
KNOWLEDGE CREATION BY INFORMATION RETRIEVAL
Authors: ROBERTS DAVID
Published: January 2008

Davies' interesting review of the possibilities and methods of deriving new knowledge from bibliographic databases has implications for key factors in the design of such databases. These factors include coverage and retrieval.
CONCISE DISPLAY OF INDEX ENTRIES
Authors: SANO HIKOMARO
Published: January 2008

A computer‐aided method has been devised to display index entries in a concise tabular form. The data studied are index terms and their text modifications in the Analytical Abstracts database. The index entries are articulated subject indexes, in which terms or words are linked with prepositions and punctuation marks. The simple syntactic structures are expressed by BNF (Backus Naur form) notations, from which rules are derived to extract substantive words in accordance with the facets pertinent to analytical chemistry. LISP programs were written for word extraction and facet tabulation and tested on a personal computer. Repetitive expressions are eliminated, while no necessary information is discarded. The tabular format, clear and readable, can expedite scanning of a large number of documents. In addition, it facilitates understanding of the contents of documents, providing facets for easy assimilation.
SCIENTISTS AND INFORMATION: I. USING CLUSTER ANALYSIS TO IDENTIFY INFORMATION STYLE
Authors: PALMER JUDITH
Published: January 2008

Semi‐structured, in‐depth interviews were used to explore the influence of personality, discipline and organisational structure on the information behaviour of biochemists, entomologists and statisticians working at an agricultural research station (n = 67). Cluster analysis was used to reveal groupings in the data. Library and document‐based activities did not differentiate individuals. Computer use, both for scientific work and information handling, and the degree of enthusiasm displayed for actively seeking information divided the population. Discipline, work role and time spent in the subject field and organisation were the most important determinants of information behaviour. There were some indications of male/female differences in information behaviour. A comparison of the groups obtained from the cluster analysis with a subjective classification showed the former to be more robust in later analysis.
A NOTE ON THE LITERAL INTELLIGENCE OF COMPUTERS AND DOCUMENTS
Authors: WARNER JULIAN
Published: January 2008

Speculations on the possibility of computers displaying intelligence are usually traced to Turing's 1950 paper, ‘Computing machinery and intelligence’. Claims for the literal intelligence of an appropriately programmed computer were publicly refuted by Searle in 1980. Optimism about the adequate simulation of intelligence is now further diminished. Analogies between the computer and the brain or mind have persisted. A contrasting perspective which links computers with documents through writing and through the faculty for constructing socially shared systems of signs has also been developed. From this perspective it can be shown that (i) claims for the literal intelligence of a computer rest on a similar basis to claims for the intelligence of a document, the production of depersonalised linguistic output, and (ii) that such claims are subject to an identical objection, that linguistic output is made available without a prior act of comprehension by the artefact. This paper places the Turing test in its intellectual and historical context. A claim that written words can give the appearance of intelligence, without the human capacity for dialectic response, is found in Plato'sPhaedrus. This, too, must be placed in its historical context of a transition from predominantly oral to oral and written communication. Demonstrating that there are extensive similarities between the claims of computers and documents to literal intelligence is part of a progressive demystification of the computer.
CHANCE AND THE NLL
Authors: URQUHART DONALD
Published: January 2008

It is now three decades since the National Lending Library for Science and Technology (the NLL) began operations at Boston Spa. It was only after I had prepared my story of the NLL that it became clear to me that chance had played a major part in the establishment of that library.
LET THE CREDITS ROLL: A PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION OF THE ROLE PLAYED BY MENTORS AND TRUSTED ASSESSORS IN DISCIPLINARY FORMATION
Authors: CRONIN BLAISE
Published: January 2008

Many scholarly articles acknowledge input from colleagues, mentors and trusted assessors. This study explores the social function and cognitive significance of acknowledgements. A six category typology was developed and applied to 444 acknowledgements which were carried by research articles in JASIS (1970–1990). It is proposed that acknowledgements and citations should be used conjointly in the assessment of research performance and in disciplinary exegesis.
CONSUMER HEALTH INFORMATION: THE GROWTH OF AN INFORMATION SPECIALISM
Authors: GANN ROBERT
Published: January 2008

Increasing attention has been given over the last decade to the topic of health care information for patients and the public. This is called consumer health information and it encompasses information about health and illness at a lay level; information about health care services available from the statutory and voluntary sectors; and information about choices in treatment and care. This is not a uniquely modern phenomenon. A study of self care and early lay medical publishing shows a robust and continuing tradition of people looking after themselves, without recourse to health professionals and with advice from various vernacular sources. However it is only since the 1970s that libraries and information services have developed to provide ready access for the public to consumer health information. The first consumer health information (CHI) services were established in the United States. By the late 1970s the first uk services had been established in Stevenage and Southampton. For most of the 1980s these were the only well developed CHI services in the UK library world, with most health information reaching consumers through a variety of non‐library advice agencies. The last two or three years have seen a flowering of CHI services, with the encouragement of official policies on consumer choice and quality assurance. There have been advances in the bibliographic control of the subject with the availability of new CHI databases. This emerging information specialism is now reaching maturity with a new concern with quality of service.
SEARCHING FOR HISTORICAL WORD FORMS IN TEXT DATABASES USING SPELLING‐CORRECTION METHODS: REVERSE ERROR AND PHONETIC CODING METHODS
Authors: ROGERS HEATHER J. , WILLETT PETER
Published: January 2008

An increasing volume of historical text is being converted into machine‐readable form so as to allow database searches to be carried out. The age of the material in these databases means that they contain many spellings that are different from those used today. This characteristic means that, once the databases become available for general online access, users will need to be familiar with all of the possible historical spellings for their topic of interest if a search is to be carried out successfully. This paper investigates the use of computational techniques that have been developed for the correction of spelling errors to identify historical spellings of a user's search terms. Two classes of spelling correction method are tested, these being the reverse error and phonetic coding methods. Experiments with words from the Hartlib Papers Collection show that these methods can correctly identify a large number of historical forms of modern‐day word spellings.
HYPERTEXT AND THE LITERARY DOCUMENT
Authors: MORGAN PAUL
Published: January 2008

The concept of a single, ‘authoritative text’ for literary works has been recognised for some years as unrealistic, and their polytextual nature accepted as a more authentic basis for the study of imaginative literature. At the same time, presentation of scholarly editions in the traditional paper medium continues to privilege one particular text (the ‘copy‐text’), relegating others to subordinate, fragmentary status as footnoted variants. There is, therefore, an inevitable conflict — perceived or not — between the conceptualisation of literary texts and the documentary form they currently take. Hypertext is thus proposed as an alternative medium for the publication and study of scholarly texts, which would provide a more helpful, flexible, and dynamic environment for the advanced study of imaginative literature. The proposition is illustrated by examples from a small‐scale experimental system, based on a seventeenth‐century collection of poetry, and using the Guide hypertext software.
THE IMPORTANCE OF FACTORS THAT ARE NOT DOCUMENT ATTRIBUTES IN THE ORGANISATION OF PERSONAL DOCUMENTS
Authors: KWAZacute;NIK BARBARA H.
Published: January 2008

The purpose of the study was to investigate and describe the way in which people organise documents in their offices. Eight university faculty members were asked to describe their own offices in terms of the organisation of documents. Each respondent was also asked to sort a typical day's mail. Following the data analysis, four of the eight respondents were interviewed again, at which time the researcher used the results of the analysis as a guide and tried to sort and classify each respondent's mail as he or she might have. An inductively created content analysis of the data was performed and the results suggest that the criteria or factors that people take into account when classifying documents consist not only of document factors (such as the document's topic or form) but also, to a very important degree, of situational factors (such as the use to which the document is to be put). In addition, it was shown that people are able to articulate the process by which classification decisions were made, and the data produced by this articulation lend themselves to analysis at a level which can yield genera! rules about the behaviour. One implication of this study is that, in designing systems for organising documents, it might be advantageous to explore ways of modelling typical contexts of document use, since these seem to be very important in classification decisions made within personal information environments.
THE PHYSICAL AND COGNITIVE PARADIGMS IN INFORMATION RETRIEVAL RESEARCH
Authors: ELLIS DAVID
Published: January 2008

This paper explores the role of paradigms in information retrieval research. The nature of a paradigm is outlined and the fundamental sense of a paradigm as an exemplar is identified. The applicability of the paradigm concept to a multi‐disciplinary field such as information science is discussed and it is concluded that paradigms can be a legitimate feature of information science though they may not be connected with the development of normal science. The features of two paradigms operating in information retrieval research, (1) the physical paradigm and (2) the cognitive paradigm are outlined, and their origins, nature and role examined. It is argued that although most work in information retrieval research takes place within the physical and cognitive paradigms, neither provides the basis for a powerful paradigm directed science. An explanation for the failure to develop a powerful body of theory articulated within a well developed paradigmatic framework is offered with reference to the inherent categorial duality of the field.
DESIGN, INSTALLATION AND POST‐IMPLEMENTATION ASSESSMENT OF AN OPTICAL DISC BASED STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM FOR IMAGES OF ENGINEERING CONTRACT DOCUMENTS
Authors: ASHFORD J.H. , MASTERS A.M.
Published: January 2008

A large‐scale image storage system for project records and other contract documentation has been installed in the Engineering Directorate of Thames Water Utilities. The system uses optical disc storage and a relational database for indexing and retrieval of nearly 500,000 pages in compressed image format, and provides end‐user access through seven work‐stations. It has met its design objectives in protection of vital records of engineering projects, fast access to large volumes of project files, and cost savings, mainly through reduced storage space. The REOS installation was intended both as a working system and as a pilot project to gain experience with optical disc storage technology in a technical environment. Areas where the project met real difficulties, underestimated in the feasibility study, were in physical handling and document indexing during retrospective conversion, the amount of training required for staff operating the system and the development of adequate validation processes for data entry to the INFORMIX database. The system delivers good images and is reliable, and has been relocated twice during the life of the installation without difficulty.
TOWARDS THE USE OF SITUATIONAL INFORMATION IN INFORMATION RETRIEVAL
Authors: ODDY ROBERT N. , DUROSS LIDDY ELIZABETH , BALAKRISHNAN BHASKARAN , BISHOP ANN , ELEWONONI JOSEPH , MARTIN EILEEN
Published: January 2008

This paper is an exploratory study of one approach to incorporating situational information into information retrieval systems, drawing on principles and methods of discourse linguistics. A tenet of discourse linguistics is that texts of a specific type possess a structure above the syntactic level, which follows conventions known to the people using such texts to communicate. In some cases, such as literature describing work done, the structure is closely related to situations, and may therefore be a useful representational vehicle for the present purpose. Abstracts of empirical research papers exhibit a well‐defined discourse‐level structure, which is revealed by lexical clues. Two methods of detecting the structure automatically are presented: (i) a Bayesian probabilistic analysis; and (ii) a neural network model. Both methods show promise in preliminary implementations. A study of users' oral problem statements indicates that they are not amenable to the same kind of processing. However, from in‐depth interviews with users and search intermediaries, the following conclusions are drawn: (i) the notion of a generic research script is meaningful to both users and intermediaries as a high‐level description of situation; (ii) a researcher's position in the script is a predictor of the relevance of documents; and (iii) currently, intermediaries can make very little use of situational information. The implications of these findings for system design are discussed, and a system structure presented to serve as a framework for future experimental work on the factors identified in this paper. The design calls for a dialogue with the user on his or her position in a research script and incorporates features permitting discourse‐level components of abstracts to be specified in search strategies.
THE PUBLICATION AND AVAILABILITY OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL PAPERS: AN ANALYSIS OF REQUIREMENTS AND THE SUITABILITY OF DIFFERENT MEANS OF MEETING THEM
Authors: LINE MAURICE B.
Published: January 2008

Any system of making scientific and technical articles available must meet a reasonable number of the requirements of the main players in the system: authors, publishers, libraries and consumers. Among the requirements are high visibility (authors), profit (publishers) and affordable costs (libraries). Consumers need inter alia exposure, ready access and ease and flexibility of use. They have most requirements but least power. Needs differ for current and older journals. Of the various single modes of publication none performs very well for all parties. Combinations of modes are more effective but payment has to be made twice. Much depends on authors' willingness to accept less visible forms of publication, but the ultimate deciding factor is publishers' assessment of the economics.
CHANGING COMMUNICATION ACTIVITIES IN THE BRITISH SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY
Authors: MEADOWS A.J. , BUCKLE P.
Published: January 2008

The last detailed study of trends in science communication in the uk was carried out a decade ago. A new study has therefore been made (via interview and questionnaire surveys) to investigate how the handling of information by scientists in the uk has developed during the 1980s. The most obvious changes have occurred in informal communication between scientists, reflecting the rapid expansion of electronic networking in recent years. Automation has also led to an increasing emphasis on the information role of the end‐user. At the same time, the formal communication system has posed an increasing number of problems (e.g. information overload, rapid increases in costs). There was a fair degree of consensus amongst respondents concerning likely communication trends in the immediate future. Interestingly, it was the opportunities, as much as the problems, that were stressed.
ENHANCING SUBJECT ACCESS TO OPACS: CONTROLLED VOCABULARY VS NATURAL LANGUAGE
Authors: ANNE COUSINS SHIRLEY
Published: January 2008

Experimental evidence suggests that enhancing the subject content of OPAC records can improve retrieval performance. This is based on the use of natural language index terms derived from the table of contents and back‐of‐the‐book index of documents. The research reported here investigates the alternative approach of translating these natural language terms into controlled vocabulary. Subject queries were collected by interview at the catalogue, and indexing of the queries demonstrated the impressive ability of PRECIS, and to a lesser extent LCSH, to represent users' information needs. DDC performed poorly in this respect. The assumption was made that an index language adequately specific to represent users' queries should be adequate to represent document contents. Searches were carried out on three test databases, and both natural language and PRECIS enhancement of MARC records increased the number of relevant documents found, with PRECIS showing the better performance. However, with weak stemming the advantage of PRECIS was lost. Consideration must also be given to the potential advantages of controlled vocabulary, over and above basic retrieval performance measures.
THE TRAJECTORY OF REJECTION
Authors: CRONIN BLAISE , MCKENZIE GAIL
Published: January 2008

Describes the fate of 101 manuscripts rejected by the Journal of Documentation during the years 1981–1989. More than a quarter were subsequently traced in the literature. The majority of re‐submitted articles appeared in journals with a lower impact factor. The limitations of the study and the methodology are acknowledged.
SEQUENCE AND STRUCTURE DATABANKS IN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY: THE REASONS FOR INTEGRATION
Authors: SILLINCE M. , SILLINCE J.A.A.
Published: January 2008

The use of sequence and structure databanks is examined in relation to their application in some of the main branches of protein studies. Also the question of availability is addressed by means of presenting some information on current sequence and structure databanks. Increasingly research in molecular science requires joint access to both sequence and structure databases, and the reasons for this development, together with some of the methods for integrated access, are analysed.
ONLINE SEARCH INTERFACE DESIGN
Authors: VICKERY BRIAN , VICKERY ALINA
Published: January 2008

There is a huge amount of information and data stored in publicly available online databases that consist of large text files accessed by Boolean search techniques. It is widely held that less use is made of these databases than could or should be the case, and that one reason for this is that potential users find it difficult to identify which databases to search, to use the various command languages of the hosts and to construct the Boolean search statements required. This reasoning has stimulated a considerable amount of exploration and development work on the construction of search interfaces, to aid the inexperienced user to gain effective access to these databases. The aim of our paper is to review aspects of the design of such interfaces: to indicate the requirements that must be met if maximum aid is to be offered to the inexperienced searcher; to spell out the knowledge that must be incorporated in an interface if such aid is to be given; to describe some of the solutions that have been implemented in experimental and operational interfaces; and to discuss some of the problems encountered. The paper closes with an extensive bibliography of references relevant to online search aids, going well beyond the items explicitly mentioned in the text. An index to software appears after the bibliography at the end of the paper.
INTERDISCIPLINARY SEARCHING: PROBLEMS AND SUGGESTED REMEDIES A REPORT FROM THE ICSTI GROUP ON INTERDISCIPLINARY SEARCHING
Authors: WEISGERBER DAVID W.
Published: January 2008

In response to its mission of identifying and describing problems of interdisciplinary searching, and of proposing remedies and solutions, the ICSTI Group on Interdisciplinary Searching gathered the relevant information through a questionnaire addressed to the database builders, online system vendors, search intermediaries and end users; analysed and organised the input; and presented a report. The report discusses the problems within six distinct categories: coverage and technical content of the database; bibliographic information; textual content; numeric data; file organisation, and interdisciplinary searching on multiple hosts. Under each category, problems are first listed in a generic way and then described in greater detail. Numerous specific examples are given with explanations, whenever feasible, of the reasons for their occurrence. For each category, possible remedies and solutions are listed. The most essential recommendations that have emerged deal with the need for greater standardisation at every stage in building the databases and in organising access to them. A number of bodies and groups working on international and national standards, and on solving other specific aspects of the problems, have been identified. The needs for close co‐operation, exchange of good documentation, extensive training and mutual understanding are most evident.
AN OVERVIEW OF TRENDS IN THE COLLECTION AND USE OF MOVING IMAGES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
Authors: COCHRANE CLIVE
Published: January 2008

The National Film Archive (NFA) was established in 1935 to collect and preserve film. In the preceding decades the new medium was beginning to make its impact on society and the NFA was faced with the formidable task of preserving the nation's moving image heritage. With the passage of time more formats were developed and production increased, creating problems for the NFA and the other collections, especially regional and special archives, which had been established. As film, television and video grew in importance demands for greater access to archives and libraries increased as new user groups challenged the status quo. This paper reviews the trends in the collection and use of moving images during the fifty year period between 1935 and 1985, concentrating on non‐fiction material.
THE USE OF A FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR IN THE AUTOMATIC PROCESSING OF STYLISED ADMINISTRATIVE DOCUMENTS IN A LAND REGISTRY
Authors: MARZANO GILBERTO
Published: January 2008

This paper presents an approach inspired by the Functional Grammar (fg) of S.C. Dik, which has been rethought to adapt it to the context of automatic analysis of bureaucratic documents. The research is part of a larger ongoing project for the automated processing of land registry documents and the model presented has been demonstrated for automatic content analysis of documents concerning technical operations of real estate (division and regrouping of lots) and is to be extended also to mortgages. The first paragraphs examine the theoretical principles of the application; the process of understanding the document content through the production of predications is then presented and the content analysis strategy briefly sketched.
SOURCES FOR THE BUILDING CONSERVATOR AND HISTORIAN
Authors: YEOMANS D.T.
Published: January 2008

The sources of printed information used by building designers are largely ephemeral and the survival of this material has been rather haphazard. This presents problems for both historians of modern building and building conservators, although the two have different needs. This paper examines the various kinds of printed material used in building and the factors affecting its likely survival. It also notes the extent to which historical material of various kinds has been collected. The vulnerability of many collections and the poor survival rate of many of the different kinds of historical printed material suggest a need for a more positive policy toward its collection. Some recommendations are outlined.
ELECTRONIC MAIL AS AN ACADEMIC DISCUSSION FORUM
Authors: BURTON PAUL F.
Published: January 2008

This paper describes the use of electronic mail as a medium through which discussion of a range of related topics, as distinct from the exchange of research and other information, can be facilitated. Following a review of the principal features of computer mediated communication, with specific reference to electronic mail, a case study is presented of a discussion which lasted for two months, during which twenty‐two topics were raised by contributors, who were mainly academic staff located in a number of countries. The discussion can be compared to that which might occur verbally at a conference or other meeting, but electronic mail provides a number of features which add to the nature of the discussion. Issues stemming from this use of the medium are also considered.
THE SCHOLAR'S COURTESY: A SURVEY OF ACKNOWLEDGEMENT BEHAVIOUR
Authors: CRONIN BLAISE , OVERFELT KARA
Published: January 2008

Scholars in major us research universities were surveyed to explore the normative bases of acknowledgement behaviour. Measures of agreement and divergence were established in respect of five issue sets pertaining to acknowledgement practice: expectations, etiquette, ethics, equity and evaluation. The results confirm the substantive role played by acknowledgements in the primary communication process. Although few formal rules exist, it is clear that many scholars subscribe to the idea of a governing etiquette. The findings also suggest that acknowledgement data could be mined to lay bare the rules of engagement that define the dynamics of collaboration and inter‐dependence among scholars.
DONALD URQUHART, 1909–1994
Authors: VICKERY BRIAN
Published: January 2008

Donald Urquhart, the longest‐serving member of our Editorial Board, died on 2nd December 1994. Physicist, metallurgist, war‐time administrator, he became — much to his own surprise — a librarian at the Science Museum Library in London. He transferred to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research technical information section in 1948, and played a prominent role in the Royal Society Scientific Information Conference held in that year. The most significant event in his professional life occurred one afternoon in November 1956, when he was asked to stop everything he was doing, and to start planning a library. Already discussed for some years, the uk National Lending Library for Science and Technology was now to become more than a dream, achieving full reality at its official opening at Boston Spa in November 1962. He continued as its Director until retirement in 1974. Donald's account of its development is the major concern of his autobiography.
SELF‐CITATIONS IN THE LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE LITERATURE
Authors: DIMITROFF ALEXANDRA , ARLITSCH KENNING
Published: January 2008

The purpose of this study was to determine the rate of self‐citation in the library and information science literature. A sample of 1,058 articles was examined. 50% of the articles examined contained at least one self‐citation. Articles that were reports of research, that were written by a faculty member, that addressed a theoretical topic, or that had multiple authors were all more likely to have to higher self‐citation rates. The self‐citation rate of 50% was higher than that reported in studies of self‐citation rates in the sciences and social sciences. However, the percentage of self‐citations as related to total citations of 6.6% falls between the percentage reported in the sciences and that reported in other social sciences.
HYPERTEXT INTERCHANGE USING ICA
Authors: RADA ROY , BIRD GRAHAM , ZHENG MIN
Published: January 2008

Interchange of text and hypertext between various systems is vital in order to reuse text and hypertext, but the task of generating translators between different representations is often complex and tedious. The Integrated Chameleon Architecture (ICA) is a public domain toolset for generating translators. However, ica can only handle context‐free grammars while the grammar of hypertext is not context‐free. This paper presents an extended ICA (E‐ICA) which is based on ICA with extra pre‐ and post‐processors to handle the context‐sensitive and implicit information of hypertext. A system called SGML‐MUCH has been developed using E‐ICA. The development and use of the SGML‐MUCH system is presented as a case study with converters for the hypertext systems MUCH, Guide, Hyperties, and Toolbook described in detail.
AN EVALUATION OF INTERACTIVE QUERY EXPANSION IN AN ONLINE LIBRARY CATALOGUE WITH A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE
Authors: HANCOCK‐BEAULIEU MICHELINE , FIELDHOUSE MARGARET , DO THIEN
Published: January 2008

An online library catalogue served as a testbed to evaluate an interactive query expansion facility based on relevance feedback for the Okapi probabilistic term weighting retrieval system. The facility was implemented in a graphical user interface (gui) environment using a game‐board metaphor for the search process, and allowed searchers to select candidate terms extracted from relevant retrieved items to reformulate queries. The take‐up of the interactive query expansion option was found to be lower, and its retrieval performance less effective, compared to previous tests featuring automatic query expansion. Contributory factors including the number, presentation and source of terms are discussed.
RESEARCH BRIEF
Authors: FOWELL S. , LEVY P.
Published: January 2008

Changes in teaching and learning in higher education, combined with rapid developments in electronic communications and resources, point to a new role for the information intermediary. This can be identified as a new professional practice which is termed ‘networked learner support’ by the authors of the paper and which is closely associated with the support of learning through computer‐mediated communication. The paper examines the background to this emergent practice, and offers a preliminary model for its development. The model involves practitioners' participation in collaborative networked learning, as a means of exploring and developing relevant resource knowledge and support strategies. Fundamental to the model is the view that the new practice needs to be defined from within the profession, and must be capable of taking into account and responding to the specific demands of local circumstances.
CONSISTENCY IN REFERENCING
Authors: LANGHAM THOMAS
Published: January 2008

This paper argues for precision in citing. It proposes an approach to citation analysis that would encourage that precision, and contrasts this approach with one based on inferred motivations for citing. It argues that it is misguided to classify citation‐signallers by the nature of the motivations inferred to underlie their use, the inference process being both philosophically and methodologically less satisfactory than the approach this paper proposes; and that, moreover, it is unnecessary, since certain formal characteristics of citation‐signallers of themselves provide ample means of classification.
SCHOLARLY FORAGING AND NETWORK DISCOVERY TOOLS
Authors: CRONIN BLAISE , HERT CAROL A.
Published: January 2008

Parallels between subsistence foraging and scholarly information seeking are described in the context of the World‐Wide Web. It is suggested that the prevailing information retrieval paradigm lacks requisite variety to capture the complex of behaviours and stimuli that drives scholars' quests for new ideas and insights. The authors outline a variety of research questions suggested by extended use of the optimal foraging metaphor in relation to distributed multimedia information resources.
GERARD (GERRY) SALTON
Authors: AGOSTI MARISTELLA , BEAULIEU MICHELINE , CLEVERDON CYRIL , FREI HANS‐PETER , FUHR NORBERT , HARPER DAVID , INGWERSEN PETER , KEEN MICHAEL , KUHLEN RAINER , ROBERTSON STEPHEN , SMEATON ALAN , SPARCK JONES KAREN , VAN RUSBERGEN KEITH , WILLETT PETER
Published: January 2008

Sir, We write to record our debt, and that of our colleagues, to one of the founding fathers of information retrieval, Gerard (Gerry) Salton, who died on 28th August 1995 in Ithaca, ny at the age of 68. Information retrieval was established as a new academic discipline by a small number of pioneers, Gerry among them, who recognised the need for, and the research challenges presented by, the automated indexing, storage and retrieval of text documents. He brought academic rigour and scholarship to establishing the foundations of this discipline, and we acknowledge his influential contributions to the theory, experimental methods, and practice of information retrieval.
BIOINFORMATICS IN THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY
Authors: COLE NICHOLAS J. , BAWDEN DAVID
Published: January 2008

A review was carried out of the ‘information landscape’ within the pharmaceuticals‐based molecular biology community, which examined the research problems requiring biological‐sequence data, important sources of information, methods of access, information‐seeking behaviour of end users and the role of libraries and information centres. This work concentrated on the practical aspects of how biological sequence information is managed and used in a research setting and was carried out as part of the MSc in Information Science at the City University. Fifteen questionnaires were sent to information scientists in the UK pharmaceutical industry and a user study was carried out amongst scientists at Celltech. Most of the important primary data are available freely or cheaply via the Internet and molecular biologists were found to be self‐reliant in their use of these resources. Currency of information was found to be very important in the research process and the issue of Internet security was taken very seriously. Most questionnaire respondents saw a productive role in the future for information workers in the field of molecular biology, citing end‐user training and data integration as possible roles, although the degree of involvement will depend on the particular mix of skills and experience that exist within an information department.
A CITATION ANALYSIS OF LIS SERIAL LITERATURE PUBLISHED IN DENMARK 1957–1986
Authors: KAJBERG LEIF
Published: January 2008

The focus of the citation analysis reported is the information exchange between the Danish library‐information profession and LIS communities in other countries. Consideration is given to the diffusion of ideas and innovations from foreign countries into the Danish LIS world. Citation evidence is also used to shed light on structural characteristics of the LIS periodical literature and other communication media and some of the communication patterns characterising the LIS field in Denmark. The raw material for the citation analysis was gathered by the manual citation counting method and not drawn from computerised citation databases. The fact that a surprisingly large proportion of the references cited by Danish LIS authors belong to the so‐called ‘hidden’ category — denoting cited references embedded in the text of journal papers — is noted as a key finding. The observation on the considerable number of ‘hidden’ citations is developed further. Journals and books (monographs) are the publication formats most frequently relied on by LIS authors. It was found that the majority of the citations are to relatively recent materials. Next to Danish material, publications in English and produced in the United States and in Great Britain are those most heavily relied on by the Danish LIS community. Ranking of journals by number of citations shows that a very small number of journals accounts for the majority of journal citations. On the whole, the works cited point to a definite interest in public libraries and issues relating to the planning, structure and legislation of public libraries. Works on research and academic libraries and on theoretical aspects of LIS did not attract the same amount of citations.
AUTOMATION IS THE ANSWER, BUT WHAT IS THE QUESTION? PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS FOR CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPEAN LIBRARIES
Authors: BORGMAN CHRISTINE L.
Published: January 2008

In the former Yugoslavia and Soviet Bloc countries of Central and Eastern Europe most information technology was unavailable, unaffordable or discouraged for forty years. These countries realise that they must improve their internal infrastructures if they are to become integral parts of the global information infrastructure. We report the results of a mail survey conducted in late 1994 and early 1995 of seventy research libraries in Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, building on the findings from interviews conducted with 300 persons in the region in 1993–1994. Results show that these libraries are acquiring automated processing systems, CD‐ROM databases, and connections to computer networks at a rapid rate and that automation activity has increased substantially since 1989; we report specific data on system implementation and network services by country and by type of library. ‘Access’ is their top reason to automate, which appears to mean placing the catalogue online with better search capabilities and putting items on the shelves faster — but does not necessarily mean improvements in self‐service for library users. Co‐operation and standards are highly‐ranked automation goals, yet we find anomalous results on each. Management goals focus more on speed and processing than on management information, staffing or advancing the mission of the parent organisation. Management of human resources ranks low, despite the need for wider staff involvement in the system selection process, education of technically‐trained library professionals, continuing training of staff and training of library users. We conclude with implications of these results for the region.
CYBERSEMIOTICS: A NEW INTERDISCIPLINARY DEVELOPMENT APPLIED TO THE PROBLEMS OF KNOWLEDGE ORGANISATION AND DOCUMENT RETRIEVAL IN INFORMATION SCIENCE
Authors: BRIER SØREN
Published: January 2008

This article is a contribution to the development of a comprehensive interdisciplinary theory of LIS in the hope of giving a more precise evaluation of its current problems. The article describes an interdisciplinary framework for lis, especially information retrieval (IR), in a way that goes beyond the cognitivist ‘information processing paradigm’. The main problem of this paradigm is that its concept of information and language does not deal in a systematic way with how social and cultural dynamics set the contexts that determine the meaning of those signs and words that are the basic tools for the organisation and retrieving of documents in LIS. The paradigm does not distinguish clearly enough between how the computer manipulates signs and how librarians work with meaning in practice when they design and run document mediating systems. The ‘cognitive viewpoint’ of Ingwersen and Belkin makes clear that information is not objective, but rather only potential, until it is interpreted by an individual mind with its own internal mental world view and purposes. It facilitates further study of the social pragmatic conditions for the interpretation of concepts. This approach is not yet fully developed. The domain analytic paradigm of Hjørland and Albrechtsen is a conceptual realisation of an important aspect of this area. In the present paper we make a further development of a non‐reductionistic and interdisciplinary view of information and human social communication by texts in the light of second‐order cybernetics, where information is seen as ‘a difference which makes a difference’ for a living autopoietic (self‐organised, self‐creating) system. Other key ideas are from the semiotics of Peirce and also Warner. This is the understanding of signs as a triadic relation between an object, a representation and an interpretant. Information is the interpretation of signs by living, feeling, self‐organising, biological, psychological and social systems. Signification is created and con‐trolled in a cybernetic way within social systems and is communicated through what Luhmann calls generalised media, such as science and art. The modern socio‐linguistic concept ‘discourse communities’ and Wittgenstein's ‘language game’ concept give a further pragmatic description of the self‐organising system's dynamic that determines the meaning of words in a social context. As Blair and Liebenau and Backhouse point out in their work it is these semantic fields of signification that are the true pragmatic tools of knowledge organ‐isation and document retrieval. Methodologically they are the first systems to be analysed when designing document mediating systems as they set the context for the meaning of concepts. Several practical and analytical methods from linguistics and the sociology of knowledge can be used in combination with standard methodology to reveal the significant language games behind document mediation.