Online discussion forums have become popular in recent times. They provide a platform for people from different parts of the world sharing a common interest to come together and topics of mutual interest and seek solutions to their problems. There are hundreds of thousands of internet forums containing tens of millions of discussion threads and…

Shelf reading the stacks is very often not seen as scholarly work in library circles and is therefore overlooked. However, there is a very real frustration of a patron who cannot find the material they need. There are very few studies that provide a working model for shelf reading. The authors suggest a collaborative shelf reading model based on…

This study examines research that is part of an alternative paradigm in information needs and uses assessment. Approaches in the alternative paradigm include Sense-Making, Value-Added, and Anomalous States of Knowledge. From an analysis of these approaches and related research, a conceptual model has been developed. The model focuses on several…

In this article, we describe TM4L, an environment for building, maintaining and using standards-based, ontology-aware e-learning repositories. It is based on the idea that concept-driven access to learning material implemented as a topic map can bridge the gap between a learner and targeted knowledge. One of the driving goals of this work is to…

Issues involved in integrating new methods of bibliographic and physical access with old ones to create a unified system of periodical article access and identification are identified. Desirable characteristics of a system, a possible model, and suggestions for further research are presented. (Author/JKP)

Two major trends in eLearning are the shift from presentational towards activating learning objects and the shift from proprietary towards SCORM conformant delivery systems. In a large program on the design, development and use of digital learning material for food and biotechnology in higher education, a large amount of experience has been gained…

This paper describes experiences in gathering together metadata from heterogeneous sources for the American Memory project of the Library of Congress, particularly for the collections digitized and cataloged at other institutions. It also reflects on several initiatives to develop rich structured metadata schemes for specific domains and to find…

Surveys theoretical and practical issues associated with pictorial information retrieval. Concentrating on still and moving pictorial forms of the visual image, this paper focuses on indexing pictorial material and discusses four models of pictorial information retrieval corresponding with permutations of the verbal and visual modes for the…

Proposes the adoption of a new research paradigm that takes advantage of the digital world and may provide greater insight into how young people seek information. This involves a closer collaboration with youth as partners in constructing research and probing the different criteria of youth for determining the success of a search. (AEF)

Students often fail to store new information in memory in a way that is accessible or useful. The information they have acquired is inert. This paper examines the inert knowledge problem in the context of learning from informational expository text. Kintsch and van Dijk (1978) have suggested a framework for understanding learning from expository…

Discusses the shift of information access from a data-centered to a user-centered model and describes the Daltext system, a prototype user-centered information system that allows the user to determine how the data will be viewed (i.e., within a datastream model, a set model, a relational model, and/or a hierarchical model). (Contains 30…

Presents a broad view of information access, drawing from philosophy and semiology in constructing a framework for comparative discussion that is used to examine the information representations that underlie four approaches to information access--information retrieval, workflow, collaborative filtering, and the path model. Contains 32 references.…

A group of research projects based at HP-Labs Bristol, the University of Bristol (England) and ARKive (a new large multimedia database project focused on the worlds biodiversity based in the United Kingdom) are working to develop a flexible model for the indexing of multimedia collections that allows users to annotate content utilizing extensible…

Discusses demands users face when searching for information in online libraries of product documentation. Demonstrates how physical libraries provide a helpful metaphor for design. Offers heuristics and a conceptual prototype for facilitating electronic document retrieval. Argues that the search form itself should communicate the way materials are…

Creating archival descriptions in a digital environment and communicating across the Internet is not the same as traditional paper-based communication. As in other cultural domains, in archival description the medium influences the structure and content of information. The SIASFI Project and the Online Guide to the State Archives of Florence are…