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A case study in designing Chinese metadata Metadata are fundamental in establishing a digital library and museum while domain communities describe, interpret and manage different digital objects. Although many metadata formats and sets have been developed, it is difficult to choose an appropriate format and conversion is problematical, especially for the Chinese materials. This paper is a progress report from the Metadata Taskforce Group designing Chinese metadata for the digital library and museum project (DLMP) at Academia Sinica in Taiwan. The group's top priority is to construct goals, principles and procedures while designing the metadata format for Chinese contents. Not only does the Metadata Taskforce Group present the analysis of content attributes of Formosan Plain indigenous people, but also several marked achievements and findings are suggested, such as the metadata record structure and criteria of selecting and evaluating the current metadata formats.
Keywords: Metadata formats, Taiwan, Chinese materials
The emergence of business information resources and services on the Internet and its impact on business librarianship The emergence of business information resources and services on the Internet is discussed and its impact on business librarianship. Important resources in various business areas are identified, such as economics, finance, marketing, international business, and real estate. It is argued that business information on the Internet has become a very important part of business information services and that it poses great challenges to business librarianship. Subject knowledge in business has become increasingly crucial for business librarians to effectively identify, evaluate, select, and organise business information on the Internet. Without subject knowledge, or with a lack of subject knowledge in business, business librarians will not be able to maintain the quality of business information services. The article further argues that, given the fact that a large percentage of business librarians in the USA do not have formal training in business, it is time for library and information science schools and libraries to address this issue by setting high standards for recruiting instructors in business information and by setting high standards for employing business librarians.
Keywords: Business information, Internet, Information services, Professional education
Using education indexes to map research trends This paper primarily examines the potential of the Australian Education Index (AEI) as a tool to map and monitor educational research. The authors provide a range of analyses that identify the thrust of research publications in Australia between 1984 and 1997. Key findings pertain to differences in the thrust of theses compared to other publications and to the overall stability in the pattern of research at the global or macro level. The authors also identify the strengths and weaknesses of the AEI with respect to its immediate use in monitoring research trends.
Keywords: Australian Education Index, Indexing services, Educational research, Online searching
Ease of use versus user control: an evaluation of Web and non-Web interfaces of online databases This paper reports on an investigation comparing searcher experiences with Web and non-Web interfaces to online databases. The study was designed to address the following questions: what is the nature of searcher preferences for Web versus non-Web interfaces to online databases and, more specifically, what are the characteristics of Web and non-Web based interfaces that help or hinder effective searching? Two samples of students enrolled in a graduate level Advanced Databases Searching course were used as participants in the research. In this class, the students used several Web and non-Web based online databases. The data collected from self-administered open-ended questionnaires were employed in the analysis to address the research questions posed above. Results of the study indicate that some of the functions of Web interfaces outperform non-Web interfaces; but at the same time they are not universally preferred. An important dynamic that surfaced in this study which helped to explain searcher preference for one type of interface over another was that of user control versus ease of use in the search process. This study concludes with an argument for greater attention to the tension between user control and ease of use in the design of effective and useful interactive online retrieval systems.
Keywords: Online retrieval, Databases, Information retrieval, Internet
The evolution of Web searching The interrelation between Web publishing and information retrieval technologies is explored. The different elements of the Web have implications for indexing and searching Web pages. There are two main platforms used for searching the Web - directories and search engines - which later became combined to create one-stop search sites, resulting in the Web business model known as portals. Portalisation gave rise to a second-generation of firms delivering innovative search technology. Various new approaches to Web indexing and information retrieval are listed. PC-based search tools incorporate intelligent agents to allow greater manipulation of search strategies and results. Current trends are discussed, in particular the rise of XML, and their implications for the future. It is concluded that the Web is emerging from a nascent stage and is evolving into a more complex, diverse and structured environment.
Keywords: Information retrieval, Electronic publishing, Internet
Australian subject gateways: political and strategic issues The key political and strategic issues which need to be addressed for the future development of the Australian subject gateways are: continued quality of content creation, integration of access to print and electronic resources, archiving and persistent identification, sustainability of services and service integration. These isssues will be more effectively tackled internationally, and the Australian subject gateways are keen to work with international collaborators to achieve a mutually beneficial outcome.
Keywords: Strategy, Internet, Libraries, Co-operation, Online retrieval, Australia
Information gateways: collaboration on content Information gateways provide targeted discovery services for their users, giving access to Web resources selected according to quality and subject coverage criteria. Information gateways recognise that they must collaborate on a wide range of issues relating to content to ensure continued success. This report is informed by discussion of content activities at the 1999 Imesh Workshop. The author considers the implications for subject based gateways of co-operation regarding coverage policy, creation of metadata, and provision of searching and browsing across services. Other possibilities for co-operation include working more closely with information providers, and disclosure of information in joint metadata registries.
Keywords: Information services, Internet, Information retrieval
Quieting the crowd: the clamour for full text One of the themes of this paper is the clamour for full text. As of today, the three basic models of full text that seemed to be lining up a year ago have become a reality. These are publisher-supplied full text; third-party, or aggregator-supplied full text; and distributed, "linked" full text - in which a bibliographic database provider links to (usually) publisher-supplied full text. This paper looks at each model in detail, with particular emphasis on the challenges they face.
Keywords: Electronic publishing, Information retrieval, Journal publishing, Databases
World wide web robots: an overview This paper traces the development of World Wide Web Robots and provides an overview of their main functions and workings. The focus is on search robots and illustrations will be drawn from two major search engines: AltaVista and Excite. In the concluding section, problems associated with the use of Web Robots and their implications for electronic publishing will be examined.
Keywords: World Wide Web, Internet, Information retrieval, Indexes, Search engines
A classification-matching combination for image retrieval Nowadays, applications dealing with information extracted from images are commonplace. The widespread use of multimedia information (images, video, audio etc.) makes necessary applications capable of storing, and therefore retrieving, it. Information extracted from images is usually complex and high dimensional. The extraction of non-textual low-level indexing features from images is now a research field, and this process principally suffers because of the computational cost of the high dimensionality of those features. A new way to classify and match low-level features extracted from images, for retrieval purposes, is presented in this paper. M-tree and R-tree structures are used, as well as an incremental version of the k-means classification alogrithm. This set of alogrithms is used to solve the problem of low performance when retrieving previously catalogued images.
Keywords: Image Processing, Information retrieval, Alogorithms, Classification, Archives
As always we have only skimmed the surface of relevant articles this week and only those that are particularly relevant for Asia-Pacific managers. Many other articles are available as well including those focusing on other countries and international perspectives.
TQM: Total Quality Management Dec 1999 |
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