Tagging has proven attractive to art museums as a means of enhancing the indexing of online collections. This paper examines the state of the art in tagging within museums and introduces the steve.museum research project, and its study of tagging behaviour and the relationship of the resulting folksonomy to professionally created museum documentation. A variety of research questions are proposed and methods for answering them discussed. Experiments implemented in the steve.museum research collaboration are discussed, preliminary results suggested, and further work described.

The author conducted a study comparing of two lists of full-text content available in Academic Search Full-Text Elite. EBSCO provided the lists to the University College of the Fraser Valley. The study was conducted to compare the accuracy of the claims of full-text content, because the staff and library users at University College of the Fraser Valley depend on this database as part of the librariesâ journal collection. Interlibrary loan staff routinely used a printed list of Academic Search Full Text Elite to check whether the journal was available at UCFV in electronic form; therefore, an accurate supplemental list or lists of the libraries electronic journals was essential for cost conscious interlibrary loan staff. The study found inaccuracies in the coverage of 57 percent of the journals sampled.

This is an exploratory study of public library services in Singapore for young people (defined as those people between thirteen to nineteen years of age) who are wheelchair bound. Three main research questions are explored: * What are the information needs of wheelchair-bound young people? * What are their perceptions of libraries and library services? * What are the problems they face in using library facilities and services? The study involves eleven wheelchair-bound people between the ages of twelve and twenty who were selected by means of a purposive sample. Findings indicate that most participants enjoyed reading books but did not read newspapers. The computer was used primarily as a recreational tool, and the convenience of the Internet appealed to them. There were, however, problems in using computer equipment in the libraries. School libraries were generally inaccessible, and. there were also problems in using public library services and facilities as well as being in public places. Their use of public libraries was infrequent. They were unaware of the full range of library facilities and services. The study concluded that there was a need and demand for library services by wheelchair-bound young people. Their information needs and reading habits were no different from those of any young person. Current library promotions were inadequate in stimulating or sustaining their awareness and interest. Transportation was the main obstacle in getting to libraries. The problems faced in using libraries were mainly related to architectural and physical access to library facilities and services.

This article takes campus libraries and computer labs as some of the physical standards in the evaluation of LIS programs. It uses both outputs and inputs of a program to measure its presentations.

The main objective of this study was to develop an understanding of how Singapore's managers behave as information users and determine if their behavioural patterns are similar to their counterparts in other countries (as disclosed in the literature) or if it differs, in what ways. A total of 369 questionnaires were mailed to individual members of Singapore's Institute of Management. Only twenty members responded. The main focus of the survey was the relative uses of the different types of information sources. The survey also touched briefly on the relative importance of domains, and the correlation between hierarchical and functional levels. Results indicated that the types of information considered very important for decision making included Competitor Trends followed by Regional Economic Trends. Types of information considered important included Business news followed by Political, Social, and Supplier trends, Regulatory information, Use of Information Technology, Demographic Trends and New Management methods. Sources given a very high preference rating were Personal Contact for Competitor Trends and the use of Government Publications for obtaining regulatory information. Respondents also preferred use of Government Publications for Local Economic information and the use of Newspapers for Political Trends and Business News. Internal computer printouts were used for forecasting information and company performance. Subordinate managers were referred to for information on the use of technology, Forecasting, and Company Performance. Because the Company Library provided access to newspapers (very high usage) and business news, information about Political Trends, International and Local Economic Information and Competitor Trends were associated with it. However, the Company Library was perceived as a storage facility rather than a dynamic information resource. Local libraries were also used for Regional and International Economic information. Radio and television were used to obtain regional and Local Economic Information in Singapore, but were rated low in accessibility. Very high preference was given to personal contacts as a source of information. Managers in Singapore did not exploit all types of information sources available to them, mainly due to lack of awareness, lack of information skills and lack of accessibility to world news channels.

This article discusses how the accessibility of information through the Internet and other communication means can help improve life quality, especially the quality of health care in developing areas.

Several philosophers have used the framework of means/ends reasoning to explain the methodological choices made by scientists and mathematicians (see, e.g., Goldman 1999, Levi 1962, Maddy 1997). In particular, they have tried to identify the epistemic objectives of scientists and mathematicians that will explain these choices. In this paper, the framework of means/ends reasoning is used to study an important methodological choice made by mathematicians. Namely, mathematicians will only use deductive proofs to establish the truth of mathematical claims. In this paper, I argue that none of the epistemic objectives of mathematicians that are currently on the table provide a satisfactory explanation of this rejection of probabilistic proofs.

How do technological innovations change the patterns of their cultural diffusion in socio-economic networks? Cellular automata enable us to show Arthur's (1988) model of a potential 'lock-in' of a new technology in terms of dominant colours on the screen. The 'lock-in' effects can be combined with local learning, network effects, and more complex dynamics. Recursive and interaction terms can thus be declared separately in the construction of a simple, but non-linear model of technological development and innovation. This enables us to specify conditions for a 'break-out' or a 'deadlock' between competing technologies. Using Axelrod's (1997) simulation model of 'cultural dissemination' as another network effect, it will be shown that the cultural assimilation of a new technology can co-evolve with the 'lock-in' of a dominant technology. This effect can be annihilated by the further development of the communication with an emerging dimension. Implications for technology and innovation policies will be specified.

Digital libraries with multimedia geographic content present special challenges and opportunities in today's networked information environment. One of the most challenging research issues for geospatial collections is to develop techniques to support fuzzy, concept-based, geographic information retrieval. Based on an artificial intelligence approach, this project presents a Geospatial Knowledge Representation System (GKRS) prototype that integrates multiple knowledge sources (textual, image, and numerical) to support concept-based geographic information retrieval. Based on semantic network and neural network representations, GKRS loosely couples different knowledge sources and adopts spreading activation algorithms for concept-based knowledge inferencing. Both textual analysis and image processing techniques have been employed to create textual and visual geographical knowledge structures. This paper suggests a framework for developing a complete GKRS-based system and describes in detail the prototype system that has been developed so far.

In order to guide the decisions of real people who want to bring about good epistemic outcomes for themselves and others, we need to understand our epistemic values. In Knowledge in a Social World, Alvin Goldman has proposed an epistemic value theory that allows us to say whether one outcome is epistemically better than another. However, it has been suggested that Goldmanâ s theory is not really an epistemic value theory at all because whether one outcome is epistemically better than another partly depends on our non-epistemic interests. In this paper, I argue that an epistemic value theory that serves the purposes of social epistemology must incorporate non-epistemic interests in much the way that Goldmanâ s theory does. In fact, I argue that Goldmanâ s theory does not go far enough in this direction. In particular, the epistemic value of having a particular true belief should actually be weighted by how interested we are in the topic.