bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Knowledge sharing in online communities of practice: Digital trends
Authors: Hara Noriko , Shachaf Pnina , Haigh Thomas , Mackey Thomas P. , Sandusky Robert J. , Davenport Elisabeth
Published: October 2007

With the advent of the Internet, there has been an increase in interest in examining how information and communication technologies might support distributed communities of practice (Wenger, 2001). However, empirical studies of online communities of practice (CoPs) are sparse. Moreover, the majority of these studies are conducted within organizational context and only a few recent studies of CoPs crosses organizational boundaries. To address this disparity, this panel will compare and contrast different types of online CoPs that cross organizational boundaries.

The panelists will present four case studies of online CoPs: College students, frequent flyer mileage collectors, virtual reference librarians, webmasters, and open source software developers. Each presenter will share findings from their empirical studies of specific online CoPs and will discuss implications and challenges for research and practice. Noriko Hara and Pnina Shachaf will aim to empirically ground a typology of online CoPs (Debé, Bourhis, & Jacob, 2003), which was used to analyze leadership in online CoPs (Bourhis, Debe, & Jacob, 2005). They will use this typology to analyze variations of each of the dimensions of two online CoPs. Thomas Haigh will present a study of frequent flyer online communities and how they share informal knowledge and empower themselves. Thomas Mackey will present a study of students using blogs in a class setting and discuss the impact of social software on authorship and collaboration in online communities. Robert Sandusky will present a study of knowledge sharing in an open‐source software project's bug report repository. The panel moderator, Elisabeth Davenport, is an expert in social informatics and has published in the area of online communities of practice. The panel as a whole will demonstrate how the five cases that are described in the four presentations represent variations of formality of CoPs‐how formal and informal CoPs are created and institutionalized. In addition, the panelists will discuss how a typology of CoP is influenced by formality and sources of power.
eBat: A Technology‐enriched Life Sciences Research Community
Authors: Nordt Marlo , Meisner Josh , Dongaonkar Ranjeet , Quick Christopher , Gatson Sarah , Karadkar Unmil P. , Furuta Richard
Published: October 2007

We are leveraging Web‐based technology to create an online community for Life Science research. Our prototype community for cardiovascular research with live bats, called eBat, consists of local researchers as well as remote collaborators. The eBat project offers scientists and students a remote‐controlled microscope for conducting experiments, a message board and a chat system for scheduled as well as spontaneous communication, and an online peer‐reviewed manuscript repository. In this paper, we report our observations of the use of the eBat infrastructure by local researchers over a period of six months. Resident researchers quickly adopted the eBat infrastructure. eBat technology has now become an indispensable part of the local research group and is used extensively for co‐ordination, communication, and awareness. eBat complements face‐to‐face interactions well and has resulted in improved communication amongst lab members. We are currently exploring the extension of eBat technology to include distant researchers in live cardiovascular research experiments. We discuss our initial experiences with adapting the eBat infrastructure for research‐at‐a‐distance and the lessons learned from these initial interactions.
Developing a Meaningful Digital Self‐Archiving Model: Archival Theory vs. Natural Behavior in the Minds of Carolina Research Project
Authors: Winget Megan A. , Ramirez Marisa
Published: October 2007

This paper will review the findings from a research project concluded in 2004, which had the primary goal of learning more about the natural behaviors of people choosing materials for inclusion in a digital archive. Project participants, retiring faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill had a number of tasks to perform. They had to 1) survey and choose the materials to include in the archive; 2) develop a “collection development plan” defining the nature of their materials, their intended audience, and the organizational scheme of their collection; 3) provide materials for digitization; 4) supply metadata for the digitized materials; and 5) write a “finding aid” for their collection. The research team digitized the materials and developed a demonstration repository website for the participants. This paper will focus on the disconnect between traditional archival theory and the users' natural behavior; and the challenges of developing an archival collection given current digital repository software.
Patterns of research collaboration in a digital library for Economics
Authors: Bakkalbasi Nisa , Krichel Thomas
Published: October 2007

RePEc (Research Papers in Economics) has been conceived and developed to promote scholarly communication and to enhance the dissemination of research findings in the field of economics. RePEc offers the RePEc Author Service (RAS) where economics authors can claim authorship of the research papers that are described in RePEc archives. The data from this service forms a high‐quality authorship database. We investigate the structure of research collaborations within RePEc by applying social network analysis to the co‐authorship network formed by the RAS registrants. We perform a component size analysis and calculate centrality metrics. Our findings imply that the RAS registrant population is made up of highly active academics that are well connected to each other. In addition, RAS registrants appear to have a broad range of coauthors, with most individuals having only a few coauthors, whereas a few have many. We compare and contrast results from a number of recent studies of similar scope on co‐authorship networks.
Planning personal projects and organizing personal information
Authors: Jones William , Bruce Harry , Foxley Austin , Munat Charles F.
Published: October 2007

In a given week, an active person may be working on, or at least thinking about, several different projects. Some are work‐related (“prepare annual report”); others are not (“plan family ski vacation”). Projects have duration (several days to several months) and a structure that includes basic tasks (“book plane tickets”) and subprojects (“decide on hotel”). This article describes exploratory research that looks at the kinds of projects people manage in their daily lives, the problems they encounter and the kinds of support people need to manage better. The personal project is advanced as a tractable unit of analysis for the study of personal information management (PIM). Over time, a personal project often involves several forms of information (paper and digital documents, email, web pages, handwritten notes, etc.) and several supporting applications. People face problems of information fragmentation that are more widely experienced in their practice of PIM. A Project Plannerprototype explores an exciting possibility that an effective, integrative organization of project‐related information can emerge as a natural by‐product of efforts to plan and structure the project.
Citation Analysis: A Comparison of Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science
Authors: Yang Kiduk , Meho Lokman I.
Published: October 2007

When faculty members are evaluated, they are judged in part by the impact and quality of their scholarly publications. While all academic institutions look to publication counts and venues as well as the subjective opinions of peers, many hiring, tenure, and promotion committees also rely on citation analysis to obtain a more objective assessment of an author's work. Consequently, faculty members try to identify as many citations to their published works as possible to provide a comprehensive assessment of their publication impact on the scholarly and professional communities. The Institute for Scientific Information's (ISI) citation databases, which are widely used as a starting point if not the only source for locating citations, have several limitations that may leave gaps in the coverage of citations to an author's work. This paper presents a case study comparing citations found in Scopus and Google Scholar with those found in Web of Science (the portal used to search the three ISI citation databases) for items published by two Library and Information Science full‐time faculty members. In addition, the paper presents a brief overview of a prototype system called CiteSearch, which analyzes combined data from multiple citation databases to produce citation‐based quality evaluation measures.
Theoretical topics in FRBR
Authors: Renear Allen H. , Choi Yunseon , Furner Jonathan , Lagoze Carl , McDonough Jerome
Published: October 2007

IFLA's Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) presents a compelling and influential conceptual model of the “bibliographic universe”. Given FRBR's scope and influence it is surprising that it has received so little attention from the information science research community. This panel is intended to convene that discussion. Four panelists will raise a variety of issues, focusing primarily on theoretical topics.
Quantifying literature citations, index terms, and Gene Ontology annotations in the Saccharomyces Genome Database to assess results‐set clustering utility
Authors: MacMullen W. John
Published: October 2007

A set of 37,325 unique literature citations was identified from 120,078 literature‐based annotations in the Saccharomyces Genome Database (SGD). The citations, gene products, and related Gene Ontology (GO) annotations were analyzed to quantify unique articles, journals, genes, and to rank by publication year, language, and GO term frequency. GO terms, MeSH indexing terms, MeSH Journal Descriptors, and SGD Literature Topics were quantified and analyzed to assess their potential utility for results set clustering. Results: Bradford's Law of Scattering was shown to hold for the citations, journals, gene products, and GO annotations. Only the MeSH terms and article title/abstract pairs had significant numbers of term co‐occurrence. Multiple term types may be useful for faceted searching and clustered results set browsing if the strengths of each are leveraged.
Web portal design guidelines as identified by children through the processes of design and evaluation
Authors: Large Andrew , Beheshti Jamshid , Nesset Valerie , Bowler Leanne
Published: October 2007

The Web is an important source of information for school projects, but young users do not always find it easy to locate relevant material. A critical factor in success is the portal through which they search or browse web content. Traditionally web portals have been designed by adults with young users in mind, but there is very little evidence that the latter make use of them. In this paper design guidelines are elaborated for such portals that are based upon focus group and operational evaluations by elementary school students of two prototype web portals designed by two intergenerational teams, each comprising elementary school students and adult designers. The evaluations offer strong support for involving children throughout the design process for portals that both in presentation and functionality reflect the cognitive and affective needs of young users rather than adults.
Digital libraries for general audiences: Usage patterns and trends in Wisconsin's BadgerLink
Authors: Xie Hong (Iris) , Wolfram Dietmar
Published: October 2007

Digital libraries represent a recent advancement for information access. They may meet the needs of specialized audiences or, increasingly, general audiences in the form of state digital libraries. Covi & Kling (1996) broadly defined digital libraries “as a collection of electronic resources and services for the delivery of materials in a variety of formats. Digital libraries include personal, distributed, and centralized collections such as online public access catalogs and bibliographic databases, distributed document databases, scholarly and professional discussion lists and electronic journals, other online databases, forums, and bulletin boards”(p. 672). A growing number of examples of state digital libraries exist including Wisconsin's BadgerLink, the Colorado Virtual Library, and the Kentucky Commonwealth Virtual Library. Initial evaluations of the Washington (Efthimiadis & Bruce, 2000) and Wisconsin systems (Wolfram & Xie, 2000) show the positive impact of these services to residents of their respective states. BadgerLink has become a vital information resource for residents of Wisconsin since becoming available in 1998. It provides access to a range of regional and national information resources via the Internet and serves as a gateway to other remote resources. Of particular value to both libraries and residents have been the full text database products produced by EBSCO and ProQuest. EBSCO provides access to a wide range of full text resources of both a general and specialized nature.
Approaching our patrons: From passive to active virtual reference
Authors: Mu Xiangming
Published: October 2007

Targeting the goal of increasing virtual reference (VR) usage, a novel interactive virtual reference (iVR) model is proposed. In contrast to the traditional passive one‐way model, iVR encourages active VR service by dynamically watching patrons' information‐seeking behaviors using the VR assistant. A prototype iVR system with one dimension VR assistant triggering metric was designed as a research platform based on the iVR model. A pilot user study was conducted and the initial results indicated that users did not reject the active VR services in general and this warranted us to continue our exploration.
Exploring co‐citation chains
Authors: Buzydlowski Jan W.
Published: October 2007

The game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” is played by naming an actor and then, by thinking of other actors in movies such that a chain of connections can be made, linking the named actor with Kevin Bacon. The number of different movies that are used to link the actor to Bacon indicate the degree with which the two are linked. For example, using John Travolta as the named actor, he appeared in the movie Look Who' s Talking with Kirstie Alley, who was in She' s Having a Baby with Kevin Bacon. So, John Travolta has a Bacon number or degree of two, as connected via Kirstie Alley. (For a more thorough discussion, see (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Degrees_of_Kevin_Bacon). The example is taken from (http://www.geocities.com/theeac/bacon.html)). Based on the above, perhaps another title for this paper could be the “Six Degrees of Sir Francis Bacon,” as it indicates the framework for this paper by relating it to the above technique but placing it in an academic domain through the use of a scholarly bibliographic database. Additionally, the bibliometric technique of author co‐citation analysis (ACA) will be used to help by automating the process of finding the connections.
Defining annotations: a visual (re)interpretation
Authors: Ruvane Mary B.
Published: October 2007

A variety of research has focused on annotations and methods for incorporating ‘them’ into digital formats. Absent from most is a clear definition of what is meant by the term ‘annotation’ and the characteristics they embody. In the digital world it is often perceived as a synonym for metadata, but in the analog world it may refer to a reader's scribbled notes in the margins. These are both types of annotation, but at opposing ends of the scale; one formal the other informal. Marshall's (1998b) seven dimensions of annotation are (re)presented here in a new visual format (figure 1) for comparison to an historical geographers information needs and note taking behavior. One of the geographer's objectives was to reconstruct a digital map of 18th century North Carolina settlement patterns. The findings point to an untapped avenue for improving access to our nations cultural heritage.
Mapping the field of human‐computer interaction (HCI)
Authors: Wania Christine E. , Atwood Michael E. , McCain Katherine W.
Published: October 2007

Human‐Computer Interaction (HCI) is a multidisciplinary field which combines the theories and practices from a number of fields including computer science, cognitive and behavioral psychology, anthropology, sociology, ergonomics, industrial design, and more. We use author cocitation analysis to explore the interrelationships between the specialties or sub‐communities within the field of HCI.
Evaluating digital libraries: A sociotechical approach
Authors: Khoo Michael
Published: October 2007

The National Science Digital Library (NSDL:http://www.nsdl.org) is an NSF‐funded program that supports the creation and dissemination of digital educational resources for all levels of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. NSDL is conducting a program‐wide evaluation of all its activities since the program's inception in 2000, with the aim of inventorying achievements to date, and identifying directions for future development. The scale, complexity and distributed nature of the NSDL program pose significant challenges for this evaluation work. This poster outlines a sociotechnical theoretical framework, the ‘resource lifecycle,’ that is being used to guide the evaluation of the NSDL program, and to represent evaluation findings to internal community members and to external partners such as NSF. The poster describes the theoretical underpinnings of the model and outlines some of the early evaluation results obtained from using the framework.
Sensemaking: Bringing theories and tools together
Authors: Sharma Nikhil
Published: October 2007

This work is an attempt to reconcile three separate but influential threads in study of sensemaking. The first two of these are theories from different domains, human computer interaction (HCI) and social/organizational psychology. The last thread is that of design, of sensemaking support tools. Integrated, these three threads form a strong foundation for researchers, tool‐designers and ultimately sensemakers themselves. Understanding and supporting the special role of people‐people interaction can help us tie these separate threads together. This synthesis also suggests further research that can expand our understanding of sensemaking.
A critical theoretical model for library‐led technological development: A case of open source software and libraries
Authors: Pyati Ajit
Published: October 2007

The public discourse of libraries is increasingly aligned with the development of a global “information society.” This current research study critiques the global policy discourse of the information society, building upon the critiques of Webster (2002) and arguing that a global information society may serve to undermine library service goals and accelerate processes of information commoditization and the privatization of library services in an increasingly commercial environment. Countering these ideologies and policy goals requires developing critical theoretical frameworks and modes of action. In response to this idea, this study, building upon technology studies and critical theory, proposes a theoretical model for library‐led technological development. Using a critical theoretical framework and an in‐depth, qualitative case‐study methodology, prominent open source software initiatives in libraries around the world are analyzed, with a particular focus on library consortia activity in Western Canada. The open source movement has generated a great deal of attention for its challenges to proprietary models of software development, as well as to traditional notions of property (Weber,2004). An emerging movement within the library profession is considering open source software as a way to reduce dependence on proprietary software vendors, and to have more control in the development of technology in libraries (Frumkin,2002). However, little work has been done in theorizing and understanding how and/or whether open source software can enhance library service ethics and goals. This case study of open source software development will thus serve as an exploration in the development of a theoretical model for library‐led technological development. Findings from this research will contribute to an understanding of the open source movement within libraries, and can provide a theoretical lens for analyzing other forms of library‐led technological development in different contexts, both local and global, such as the growing open access publishing movement.
The influence of a sign system on the sense of presence in a desktop virtual environment
Authors: Choi Gilok , Chen Hsin‐liang
Published: October 2007

In a virtual world, users experience compelling illusions, allowing them to become a part of an electronically generated environment. In the world of Virtual Environments, presence refers to such compelling sense of being in a computer generated environment. In spite of the importance of users' perceptual experience, however, only limited consideration has been given to the experiences users encounter when interacting with the virtual interface. This research is therefore to investigate the impact of interface design on the sense of presence. In particular, this study attempts to examine whether the degrees of presence are enhanced by navigational affordances supported by a sign system.

A controlled experiment with between‐subject factorial design will be conducted to examine the effects of a sign system on users' perceptual experience. Forty participants will be asked to accomplish two sets of seven comparable tasks (total 14 tasks) with and without a help of signs. Upon completion, participants will be asked to complete a post‐test questionnaire on the sense of presence on 1‐to‐7 Likert type scales. For the two sessions of trial, two virtual universities were constructed with ActiveWorlds (http://www.activeworlds.com). ANOVA repeated measure and correlation analysis will be used for the data analysis.
New role realities: Avenues for extending the reach of information specialists
Authors: Hall Hazel , Abell Angela
Published: October 2007

As organizations have developed enterprise‐wide electronic information environments, a diverse range of job roles has emerged at a variety of levels. Some of these roles are ear‐marked for “traditional” information specialists, but many are not ‐ and although some information specialists have moved into this kind of work, others from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds occupy many of the newly‐created information‐related positions. This paper reports on a project undertaken by a team of researchers from the corporate and academic sectors in the UK. The project aimed to consolidate, and strengthen, understanding of the emerging information job market, with a view to indicating how those in the “traditional” information profession may extend their occupational reach. The preliminary findings of the work, as presented here, indicate that this job market has grown due to a number of factors. Individuals who can offer skills in particular areas of work that support information delivery, in particular information architecture and content management, are well‐positioned to take up the opportunities that this market offers, whether or not they hold formal information qualifications. The research approaches adopted have taken this discussion beyond the natural constituency of earlier work that predicts the nature of information profession in the digital future. This paper, which furnishes an overview of main messages from the preliminary findings of the project under discussion, will be of particular interest to those keen to explore the existing scope of work opportunities for information professionals in electronic environments, and to those whose ambitions lie in preparing for, responding to, and leading the future information world.
Digital libraries and design for social engagement
Authors: Moore Tony A.
Published: October 2007

New information and communication technologies are fundamentally changing social engagement. Through an evaluation of literature, I critique digital library research in the context of consumer health information. This paper first explains the concepts of digital libraries and healthcare informatics. An example of design for social engagement is presented. This paper concludes with themes for future research on the grounds of designing for social engagement through digital libraries. Social engagement should become a key component of the emerging Digital Library discussions.
Quantifying quality: Evolution of an instrument to assess website quality
Authors: McInerney Claire R. , Bird Nora J.
Published: October 2007

The development of accurate, reliable instruments to judge the quality of intellectual works requires an understanding of genre, audience, communication, information organization, and design. In the case of Websites it can be useful to have an instrument to help determine the quality of a Website for any number of reasons: 1) Websites are now reviewed in order to be linked to an organization's own Website, and an assessment instrument can serve as a reviewing tool. 2) Librarians “collect” and catalog Websites as they do other materials, and they need quality standards. 3) Students and others need learning tools so that they can understand how to judge Websites to aid in assessing online information. 4) Novice web developers can use quality touchstones in order to create usable Websites. The presenters of this session have developed a Website evaluation tool that has evolved from a qualitative instrument to a quantitative one. They will show how the instrument developed and how it is used today.
A comparative study on publicly hosted blog sites in the U.S., China, and Korea
Authors: Park S. Joon , Zhang Qiping , Ma Shanshan
Published: October 2007

In the context of blogs, online trust can play an important role in connecting the author and readers. Trust is known to be one of the primary psychological aspects influencing online user profiling. In blogs, trust is reflected by how much personal information a user reveals. Trusting someone or something may be an entirely different matter in the United States than it is in China or Korea because trust affects actions that could be highly dependent on users' respective cultural context. This paper presents the preliminary results of our cross‐cultural research on blogs and online trust in U.S., Chinese, and Korean cultures. Results suggest that bloggers from the U.S. reveal more personal information in self‐reported user profiles than bloggers from China and Korea. However, similar percentages of U.S. and Korean bloggers are willing to reveal their locations and hobbies, and post self‐photos. Additionally, we found interesting cultural insights regarding gender, age, location, hobbies, and self‐photos in the user profiles of blogs across the three cultures.
Personal pregnancy health records (PregHeR): Facets to interface design
Authors: Oh Sanghee , Sheble Laura , Choemprayong Songphan
Published: October 2007

Interest and research in personal health record (PHR) systems has recently increased, leading to the availability of a variety of PHR systems on the market that target everyone from the general public to disease‐specific patient groups. Few studies, have dealt with PHR needs of families. No studies have specifically targeted pregnant women regarding PHR systems design despite increased interest in health matters exhibited by pregnant women. In this project, we first developed five facets ‐ Appointment, Diary, Health Data, Finance, and Resources ‐ of personal health information organization and management. We then incorporated two time visualization tools ‐ calendars and timelines ‐ to provide access to information based on time and content. The Agileviews framework of Marchionini, Geisler and Brunk was adapted to structure agile, multiple point access to information in the interface designs. The result is three distinct interface prototypes of the PregHeR system: Calendar View, Timeline I, and Timeline II. This project adds to current research in PHR systems design through the organization of information into content‐based facets and by emphasizing personal user needs in the design of personal health record systems interfaces.
Infrastructure for the representation of events and their contexts
Authors: Buckland Michael K. , Larson Ray R.
Published: October 2007

The design of information storage and retrieval systems has traditionally privileged persons and topics (“subjects”). Persons are important both as creators and as topics, but the focus has been personal identity and, through Name Authority Files, the disambiguation of different persons with the same name and different names for the same person. Topics tend to include any concept that has not given separate treatment (as persons and places often are). The treatment of events has received less attention. In this short paper / poster we examine the characteristics of events, both in general and, more specifically, biographical events, the episodes in persons' lives.
Sustaining and bridging sense‐making across multiple interaction spaces
Authors: Sarmiento Johann W. , Stahl Gerry
Published: October 2007

With “social” technology tools becoming more and more pervasive, new technology‐enhanced interaction spaces provide researchers rich opportunities to go beyond studies of “solo” action and investigate the complex and distributed networks of thought, activity, and learning. Supporting fluid knowledge building within these distributed activities ‐e.g. “bridging” past, present and envisioned interactions, quasi‐synchronous and asynchronous communication, and activity across multiple small‐groups and larger electronic collectivities‐ represents a significant challenge for the design of effective online environments. This paper focuses on a preliminary investigation of the dynamics of sustained, technology‐enhanced mathematical problem‐solving in small online groups of secondary students. In addition, we explore issues related to the design of computer supports for bridging multiple interactional spaces and for distributed knowledge building. This inquiry is contextualized within the Virtual Math Teams (VMT) project at the Math Forum online community (mathforum.org).
Looking for a good book: Searching for fiction using computer‐mediated retrieval mechanisms
Authors: Adkins Denice , Bossaller Jenny E.
Published: October 2007

Informational works are “about” something, and with subject classification and indexing, finding an appropriate informational work is relatively easy. Finding a “good” work of fiction is less so. Factors beyond subject influence the appropriateness and appeal of a work of fiction for any particular seeker. In the past 100 years, many fiction classification schemes have been proposed and some have been tested (e.g., Beghtol, 1994; Pejtersen, 1983). Recent research (e.g., Ross 1991) suggests that beyond factual data, readers seek particular emotional experiences from fiction. Schemes have included subject classification, inclusion of literary elements such as characters and setting, and identifying subjective elements of appeal.
Context as a factor in categorization of personal documents
Authors: Weinberger Jessie Syd , Quiroga Luz M. , Crosby Martha E.
Published: October 2007

The aim of this research is to look for a theoretical basis for the observed behavior of users organizing their digital documents. Participants (academics who do not work as classifiers or indexers) are asked to categorize their documents while describing their thought processes. Interviews are used to add additional data, and subjects' file structures are examined. Analysis may show the influence of situational context on categorization behavior.
Trends in the use of digital libraries by scientists in 2000‐2005: A case study of finelib
Authors: Vakkari Pertti
Published: October 2007

This study explores the trends in the use of electronic material and digital libraries by university faculty between the years 2000 and 2005. The data consist of nationwide web‐based surveys of the end‐users of FinELib, Finnish Electronic Library, at all Finnish universities. Although material provision has grown tremendously and consequently the use of electronic literature and of FinELib, the clients were polarizing into frequent and infrequent users. Perceived availability of the material provided was a major factor influencing this polarization. Availability was significantly stronger predictor of the use than users' discipline. It seems that availability underlies the disciplinary variation in the use of digital libraries.
Making a dent? Information literacy instruction in Canada's public libraries
Authors: Julien Heidi
Published: October 2007

This poster presents results of Canada's only recent study of information literacy (IL) practices in public libraries. The overall objective of this project was to explore the actual and potential role of public libraries in Canada in developing the public's information literacy skills. A skills deficit exists among the general population, ironically in parallel with much (misplaced) confidence about those skills; that deficit is a kind of second‐level digital divide (Hargittai, 2002). Thus, access to digital information in particular is compromised in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. Despite an urgent need to develop IL skills, and expectations that public libraries fulfill that role (Canadian Library Association, 1998) (imposed by the federal government ‘Connecting Canadians’ initiative, particularly via the Community Access Program) (Government of Canada, 2006), the author's previous research suggested that the real experiences of public librarians and of public library customers may not bear out this expectation. Public libraries are challenged to fulfill the policy roles imposed by the federal government, because of a systemic lack of resources, because public libraries attempt to fulfill a range of roles (e.g, social gathering place, developers of early literacy, supporters of life‐long learning, supporters of recreational needs), and because library staff are conflicted about imposed mandates in the face of these historical roles.
Taking leisure seriously: Information realities in leisure time
Authors: Hartel Jenna , Stebbins Robert A. , Fulton Crystal , Chang Shan Ju , Case Donald O.
Published: October 2007

This panel presents the information realities that exist within leisure time. It introduces a conceptual model of leisure, called serious leisure (Stebbins,1982), that affirms the role of information in enabling leisure experience. Our panel offers a theoretical perspective and case studies of a meaningful area of everyday life that has not been a subject of much information research. The specific goals are threefold:

To present state of the art theorizing and research underway into the information seeking and use that occurs in the everyday life realm of leisure

To introduce serious leisure, a concept that serves as a unifying umbrella and theoretical frame for such work, and

To showcase fruitful international collaboration underway between leisure science and information studies
An adaptive user profile for filtering news based on a user interest hierarchy
Authors: Singh Sarabdeep , Author) Michael Shepherd (Corresponding , Duffy Jack , Watters Carolyn
Published: October 2007

A prototype system for the filtering and ranking of news items has been developed and a pilot test has been conducted. The user's interests are modeled by a user interest hierarchy based on explicit user feedback with adaptive learning after each session. The system learned very quickly, reaching normalized recall values of over 0.9 within three sessions. When the user's interests “drifted”, the system adapted but the speed with which it adapted seemed dependent on the amount of feedback provided by the user.
Forgetting and (Not) forgotten in the digital future
Authors: Rosenbaum Howard , Blanchette Jean‐François , Curry Michael R. , Lievrouw Leah A. , Day Ronald E.
Published: October 2007

Why does information force us to remember and to be remembered in certain ways? If we do have an information (particularly, digital information) future, and this is a future of being always present as, and to, information, then what are the political, social, and psychological risks involved? When, today, do we want‐and have the right‐‐to be forgotten? And when is remembering a form of forgetting, according to the times of our particular information day and age?

This panel addresses the issue of forgetting and the right to be forgotten in the midst of information presents and futures, which remember us and make us remember at times and in ways that we don't always desire. Information presents and futures that sometimes force us to be remembered when we don't want to be remembered and sometimes construct the future, informationally, that is, as presents already said to be.

The panel examines laws of forgetfulness, cultural technologies and techniques of remembering/forgetfulness, and the rights of readers and speakers to remain anonymous. It is important to sketch out the laws of forgetting, the technologies and techniques of forgetting, and the places or zones of forgetting, in order to see where information, as a form of presence and recall, has not yet been or is being barred from, sometimes by the strategic use of information itself. Sometimes such places or zones occur by legislation, sometimes by tradition and in practices (such as reading) and sometimes they ironically occur by the very overload of information itself, forming a type of forgetting that is not a relief, but rather, numbing. The occurrence of digital information has intensified these questions, as digital information increasingly occurs in multimedia, mobile, manners.

Indeed, a history of modernity could be sketched out by examining not the founding, protection, and loss of private space‐‐that is, as a history of being remembered‐‐, but rather as a history of trying to be forgotten and of forgetting amidst an overabundance of information, and with this, the rights, spaces, difficulties and impossibilities today of being a person that is forgotten, solitary, or even inattentive and bored. Why, for example, can we no longer read today, but rather, are we more inclined to skim documents‐‐and everything else for that matter‐‐for information? What is the relation between the forgetting of reading, the overabundance of traditional and digital information, and our inability, today, to simply be bored; while instead of boredom today we are filled with anxiety for attention? Is this anxiety fueled by laws, technologies, and social practices which demand and engage our constant attention as information sources and as information “seeking” beings? In sum, what is the relation between information and forgetting today, and what does it mean if we cannot stop remembering and being remembered in a certain way (i.e., informationally), now and into our particular, digital, “information future”?
Visualizing meta search results: Evaluating the metacrystal toolset
Authors: Spoerri Anselm
Published: October 2007

MetaCrystal aims to help users find the documents that are most likely to be relevant. It compares the results returned by multiple search engines and displays the documents based on the number of engines that found them and their rank positions in the result lists. First, this paper examines the validity of the MetaCrystal design approach by calculating the probability that a document is relevant based on the number of engines that found it and its rank positions in the result lists. Using TREC data, it is shown that MetaCrystal's visual design is sound because it visually emphasizes documents based on their likelihood of being relevant. Second, this paper investigates if users are able to use the MetaCrystal's visualizations to find the documents that are most likely to be relevant. The results of a user study are reported that show that novice users are able to accomplish this task.
[Name withheld]: Anonymity and its implications
Authors: Weicher Maureen
Published: October 2007

Anonymity allows the individual to have a voice without having a name. Since the word “anonymous” entered the English language with the advent of the printing press, the implications of being anonymous – and its lexical offspring “anonymity” – have shifted with time, place, and circumstance. What are the perceived effects of being anonymous/anonymity on the individual and on society? In this paper, I will explore some of the shifting meanings and implications of this concept, first as it relates to authorship, then (as it came to be viewed) as a signature condition of modern life. The perceived effect of anonymity on the social good includes promoting freedom of expression, enabling the free flow of information, enhancing therapeutic disinhibition, and fostering an atmosphere where ideas are judged on merit. Negative consequences include lack of accountability and credibility, nondisclosure, and deindividuation. The requirements for maintaining anonymity and pseudonymity are discussed and anonymity on the Internet. Finally, I will explore how anonymity/pseudonymity has come to be seen as a key way to protect privacy in an era of ubiquitous surveillance technologies and to promote free expression in cyberspace.
Comparison of anterolateral thigh and radial forearm free flap donor site morbidity
Authors: Novak Christine B. , Lipa Joan E. , Noria Sabrena , Allison Keith , Neligan Peter C. , Gilbert Ralph W.
Published: October 2007

This study evaluated patient‐reported outcome of the donor site in patients following head and neck cancer reconstruction. Patients who had undergone cancer reconstruction using either an anterolateral thigh or a radial forearm free flap and who were at least 6 months postsurgery were included and contacted by telephone. There were 37 patients (mean age 61 years, standard deviation 16 years) with 18 anterolateral thigh flaps and 19 radial forearm flaps. The majority of patients were not bothered by scar appearance, light touch, numbness or pain. Significantly more females (P = 0.038) and more patients with radial forearm flaps (P = 0.045) were bothered by the cold at the donor site and more females reported that the shape of the operated extremity was different (P = 0.009). Donor site morbidity is not significant following a radial forearm or anterolateral thigh free flap and the reconstruction should be based upon individual patient factors and surgeon expertise. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. Microsurgery, 2007.
Differences between the data from free flow and intubated flow in women with urinary incontinence. What do they mean?
Authors: Valentini Françoise , Marti Brigitte , Robain Gilberte , Nelson Pierre
Published: October 2007

Aims

To assess the effects of a urethral catheter on the urodynamic data extracted from uroflow in women, and to interpret the differences from free uroflow using the VBN® mathematical micturition model.

Methods

Urodynamic data of 217 consecutive (June 2002 to December 2004) women with urinary incontinence and without neurological disease or more than grade 2 prolapse were reviewed. Inclusion criteria were to perform one free flow (FF) and one intubated flow (IF) (voided volumes of at least 100 ml and continuous flow curves). Voiding parameters: volumes, maximum flow rate, detrusor pressure and flow time, were analyzed as some characteristic ratios. The VBN® model was used to make simulations of various pathophysiological hypotheses.

Results

Significant increased residual volume and flow time, decreased maximum flow rate were observed during IF. Twenty five patients had a residual volume only during IF; in that group, both decrease of Qmax and increase of flow time were significant. Simulations showed that the geometrical effect of the catheter was not the only cause and allowed to propose the occurrence of a compression‐like effect of the urethra and of a fading of the detrusor excitation after Qmax to explain the results.

Conclusion

Significant differences were found between the data from a FF and an IF in women with urinary incontinence. These findings bring to the fore the impact of the transurethral catheter and underline the necessity to obtain at least one FF and one IF during a urodynamic session. Neurourol. Urodynam. 27:297–300, 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Urea‐based two‐dimensional electrophoresis of beta‐amyloid peptides in human plasma: Evidence for novel Aβ species
Authors: Maler Juan Manuel , Klafki Hans‐Wolfgang , Paul Sabine , Spitzer Philipp , Groemer Teja Wolfgang , Henkel Andreas Wolfram , Esselmann Hermann , Lewczuk Piotr , Kornhuber Johannes , Wiltfang Jens
Published: October 2007

The detailed analysis of β‐amyloid (Aβ) peptides in human plasma is still hampered by the limited sensitivity of available mass spectrometric methods and the lack of appropiate ELISAs to measure Aβ peptides other than Aβ1–38, Aβ1–40, and Aβ1–42. By combining high‐yield Aβ immuno­ precipitation (IP), IEF, and urea‐based Aβ‐SDS‐PAGE‐immunoblot, at least 30 Aβ‐immuno­reactive spots were detected in human plasma samples as small as 1.6 mL. This approach clearly resolved Aβ peptides Aβ1–40, Aβ1‐42, Aβ1‐37, Aβ1‐38, Aβ1‐39, the N‐truncated Aβ2–40, Aβ2–42, and, for the first time, also Aβ1–41. Relative quantification indicated that Aβ1–40 and Aβ1–42 accounted for less than 60% of the total amount of Aβ peptides in plasma. All other Aβ peptides appear to be either C‐terminally or N‐terminally truncated forms or as yet uncharacterized Aβ species which migrated as trains of spots with distinct pIs. The Aβ pattern found in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was substantially less complex. This sensitive method (2‐D Aβ‐WIB) might help clarifying the origin of distinct Aβ species from different tissues, cell types, or intracellular pools as well as their amyloidogenicity. It might further help identifying plasma Aβ species suitable as biomarkers for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD).
Modulation of β‐catenin‐mediated TCF‐signalling in prostate cancer cell lines by wild‐type and mutant p53
Authors: Prowald Alexandra , Cronauer Marcus V. , von Klot Christoph , Eilers Tyark , Rinnab Ludwig , Herrmann Thomas , Spindler Klaus‐Dieter , Montenarh Mathias , Jonas Udo , Burchardt Martin
Published: October 2007

BACKGROUND

Deregulation of the canonical Wnt/β‐catenin‐pathway is known to play an important role in the progression of various tumour cell types including prostate cancer (PCa). Recently, the tumour‐suppressor p53 was shown to down‐regulate β‐catenin‐signalling in colon cancer. As p53 is frequently mutated in late stage PCa we investigated the effect of wild‐type p53 (p53wt) as well as p53‐mutants on β‐catenin‐signalling in PCa‐cell lines.

METHODS

The effects of p53wt and p53‐mutants on Wnt/β‐catenin‐signalling were studied using reporter gene assays. Expression of β‐catenin levels was monitored by Western blotting.

RESULTS

Overexpression of p53wt as well as p53249Ser (a structural mutant) and p53273His (a DNA‐contact‐mutant) almost completely inhibited β‐catenin‐mediated transcriptional activity of the T‐cell factor (TCF) whereas p53175His, a structural mutant, and a p53‐mutant with a C‐terminal deletion in the tetramerization domain (Δp53) were unable to do so. Co‐transfection experiments with p53wt and a dominant negative p53‐mutant reversed the down‐regulation of TCF‐signalling, while Δp53 was unable to interfere with p53wt‐function. Down‐regulation of TCF‐signalling by p53wt and p53273His was accompanied by a reduction in β‐catenin protein level.

CONCLUSIONS

p53wt, p53273His‐ and p53249Ser‐mutants are able to down‐regulate β‐catenin‐signalling in PCa‐cells probably via degradation of β‐catenin. The degradation of β‐catenin in PCa by p53 is not linked to transcriptional activity of p53. So far the mechanism how p53 interferes with β‐catenin‐signalling is unknown. For the first time we provide experimental evidence that the C‐terminus of p53 plays an important role in the down‐regulation of β‐catenin‐mediated TCF‐signalling in PCa‐cell lines possibly via p53 transrepressional function. Prostate 67: 1751–1760, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.