This item is not the definitive copy. Please use the following citation when referencing this material: Dillon, A., Richardson, J. and McKnight, C. (1989) The human factors of journal usage and the design of electronic text. Interacting with Computers, 1(2), 183- 189. Abstract: The present paper reports on a study of journal usage amongst human factors researchers. The aim of the study was to shed light on how journals are used with a view to making recommendations about the development of a full-text, searchable database that would support such usage. The results indicate that levels of usage vary over time, the range of journals covered is small and readers overlook a large proportion of the contents of articles. Furthermore, three reading strategies are observed which indicate that the presentation of journal articles is not ideally suited to their uses. The implications of these findings for developing suitable computer-based applications are discussed.

It has become increasingly difficult to locate relevant information on the Web, even with the help of Web search engines. Two approaches to addressing the low precision and poor presentation of search results of current search tools are studied: meta-search and document categorization. Meta-search engines improve precision by selecting and integrating search results fromgeneric or domain-specific Web search engines or other resources. Document categorization promises better organization and presentation of retrieved results. This article introduces MetaSpider, a meta-search engine that has real-time indexing and categorizing functions. We report in this paper the major components of MetaSpider and discuss related technical approaches. Initial results of a user evaluation study comparing Meta- Spider, NorthernLight, and MetaCrawler in terms of clustering performance and of time and effort expended show that MetaSpider performed best in precision rate, but disclose no statistically significant differences in recall rate and time requirements. Our experimental study also reveals that MetaSpider exhibited a higher level of automation than the other two systems and facilitated efficient searching by providing the user with an organized, comprehensive view of the retrieved documents.

Information and knowledge management in a knowledge-intensive and time-critical environment presents a challenge to information technology professionals. In law enforcement, multiple data sources are used, each having different user interfaces. COPLINK Connect addresses these problems by providing one easy-to-use interface that integrates different data sources such as incident records, mug shots and gang information, and allows diverse police departments to share data easily. User evaluations of the application allowed us to study the impact of COPLINK on law-enforcement personnel as well as to identify requirements for improving the system. COPLINK Connect is currently being deployed at Tucson Police Department (TPD).

The disciplinary culture theory presumes that if a scholar has been familiar with self-archiving through an existing subject-based repository, this scholar will be more enthusiastic about contributing his/her research to an institutional repository than one who has not had the experience. To test the theory, this article examines self-archiving practices of a group of physicists in both a subject repository and an institutional repository. It does not find a correlation between a disciplinary culture and self-archiving practices.

This item is not the definitive copy. Please use the following citation when referencing this material: Dillon, A. (1991) New technology and the reading process. Computers in Libraries, 11(6) 23-26. Abstract: The present paper discusses some the important issues involved in presenting text on screen. It is argued that reading is a complex cognitive and physical skill that requires careful analysis if technology is going to support rather than hinder the user. The need to consider texts individually in terms of how and why they are read as well as the type of information they contain is discussed. On the basis of a study of journal usage the implications of this approach for the presentation of electronic journals is described.

The present paper reviews the general usability framework that has dominated discussion in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI) and finds it wanting. An alternative view of the important determinants of user experience of interactive devices is presented with examples.

This paper describes an Afghanistan digital library initiative of building an Integrated Library System (ILS) for Afghanistan universities and colleges based on open source software. As one of the goals of the Afghan eQuality Digital Libraries Alliance, the authors applied systems analysis approach, evaluated different open source ILS, and customized the selected software to accommodate users' needs. Improvements include Arabic/Persian language support, user interface changes, call number label printing and new ISBN-13 support. To our knowledge, the ILS is the first big academic libraries in the the world running on open source software.

This study evaluates the data sources and research methods used in earlier studies to rank the research productivity of Library and Information Science (LIS) faculty and schools. In doing so, the study identifies both tools and methods that generate more accurate publication count rankings as well as databases that should be taken into consideration when conducting comprehensive searches in the literature for research and curricular needs. With a list of 2,625 items published between 1982 and 2002 by 68 faculty members of 18 American Library Associationâ (ALA-) accredited LIS schools, hundreds of databases were searched. Results show that there are only 10 databases that provide significant coverage of the LIS indexed literature. Results also show that restricting the data sources to one, two, or even three databases leads to inaccurate rankings and erroneous conclusions. Because no database provides comprehensive coverage of the LIS literature, researchers must rely on a wide range of disciplinary and multidisciplinary databases for ranking and other research purposes. The study answers such questions as the following: Is the Association of Library and Information Science Educationâ s (ALISEâ s) directory of members a reliable tool to identify a complete list of faculty members at LIS schools? How many and which databases are needed in a multifile search to arrive at accurate publication count rankings? What coverage will be achieved using a certain number of databases? Which research areas are well covered by which databases? What alternative methods and tools are available to supplement gaps among databases? Did coverage performance of databases change over time? What counting method should be used when determining what and how many items each LIS faculty and school has published? The authors recommend advanced analysis of research productivity to provide a more detailed assessment of research productivity of authors and programs.

Tamil Nadu will soon become the first state in India to provide telemedicine in the public sector when the local hospital in Thiruvallur is connected to the Chennai Medical College (about 40 km away) through an integrated services digital network (ISDN) line and linked terminals. Tamil Nadu cannot yet connect every district and taluk hospital to the nearest medical college because the ISDN facility is not available in many places outside Chennai. This reflects misplaced priorities in a country which has developed technologies for launching missiles and satellites and for producing nuclear bombs; provides cellular telephones, colour televisions, and luxury cars for the rich; and sends thousands of computer professionals to the United States every year. The story is the same everywhere in the developing world.

Much of the work in business and academia is performed by groups of people. While significant advancement has been achieved in enhancing individual productivity by making use of information technology, little has been done to improve group productivity. Prior research suggests that we should know more about individual differences among group members as they respond to technology if we are to develop useful systems that can support group activities. We report results of a cognitive study in which researchers were observed performing three complex information entry and indexing tasks using an Integrated Collaborative Research System. The observations have revealed a taxonomy of knowledge and cognitive processes involved in the indexing and management of information in a research collaboration environment. A detailed comparison of knowledge elements and cognitive processes exhibited by senior researchers and junior researchers has been made in this article. Based on our empirical findings, we have developed a framework to explain the information management process during research collaboration. Directions for improving design of Integrated Collaborative Research Systems are also suggested.