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Information Science (information + science)
Selected AbstractsKey words and their role in information retrievalHEALTH INFORMATION & LIBRARIES JOURNAL, Issue 3 2010Maria J. Grant As any good library or information worker knows the accurate and consistent application of keywords can serve to enhance the content representation and retrieval of literature. Research has demonstrated that this aspect of the library and information science evidence base is particularly well represented. Drawing on the thesauri of the Library & Science Abstracts, Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts and medline databases, the Health Information and Libraries Journal (HILJ) has recently updated and expanded the HILJ keyword list. Based on the content of reviews and original articles published in HILJ over the past 4 years, the keyword list will be used by submitting authors to represent the content of the manuscripts and enable more accurate matching of manuscript to HILJ referees. [source] Learning from research on the information behaviour of healthcare professionals: a review of the literature 2004,2008 with a focus on emotionHEALTH INFORMATION & LIBRARIES JOURNAL, Issue 3 2009Ina Fourie Objective:, A review, focusing on emotion, was conducted of reported studies on the information behaviour of healthcare professionals (2004,2008). Findings were intended to offer guidelines on information services and information literacy training, to note gaps in research and to raise research interest. Method:, Databases were searched for literature published from January 2004 to December 2008 and indexed on eric, Library and Information Science Abstracts, medline, PsycINFO, Social Services Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts, Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition; Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts; Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection; Social Work Abstracts; SocINDEX with Full Text; SPORTDiscus; cinhal; and the ISI Web of Knowledge databases. Key journals were manually scanned and citations followed. Literature was included if reporting on issues concerning emotion. Results:, Emotion in information behaviour in healthcare contexts is scantily addressed. This review, however, offers some insight into the difficulty in identifying and expressing information needs; sense making and the need to fill knowledge gaps; uncertainty; personality and coping skills; motivation to seeking information; emotional experiences during information seeking; self-confidence and attitude; emotional factors in the selection of information channels; and seeking information for psychological or emotional reasons. Conclusion:, Suggestions following findings, address information literacy programs, information services and research gaps. [source] Information Science in TransitionJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 7 2010Michael Buckland No abstract is available for this article. [source] Citation levels and collaboration within library and information scienceJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 3 2009Jonathan M. Levitt Collaboration is a major research policy objective, but does it deliver higher quality research? This study uses citation analysis to examine the Web of Science (WoS) Information Science & Library Science subject category (IS&LS) to ascertain whether, in general, more highly cited articles are more highly collaborative than other articles. It consists of two investigations. The first investigation is a longitudinal comparison of the degree and proportion of collaboration in five strata of citation; it found that collaboration in the highest four citation strata (all in the most highly cited 22%) increased in unison over time, whereas collaboration in the lowest citation strata (un-cited articles) remained low and stable. Given that over 40% of the articles were un-cited, it seems important to take into account the differences found between un-cited articles and relatively highly cited articles when investigating collaboration in IS&LS. The second investigation compares collaboration for 35 influential information scientists; it found that their more highly cited articles on average were not more highly collaborative than their less highly cited articles. In summary, although collaborative research is conducive to high citation in general, collaboration has apparently not tended to be essential to the success of current and former elite information scientists. [source] Erratum re: "The DCI-index: Discounted cumulated impact-based research evaluation", Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 59(9), 1433-1440JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 14 2008Kalervo Järvelin The article by K. Järvelin & O. Persson published in JASIST 59(9), "The DCI-Index: Discounted Cumulated Impact-Based Research Evaluation," (pp. 1433,1440) contains an unfortunate error in one of its formulas, Equation 3. The present paper gives the correction and an example of impact analysis based on the corrected formula. [source] Conceptual approaches for defining data, information, and knowledgeJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 4 2007Chaim Zins The field of Information Science is constantly changing. Therefore, information scientists are required to regularly review,and if necessary,redefine its fundamental building blocks. This article is one of a group of four articles, which resulted from a Critical Delphi study conducted in 2003,2005. The study, "Knowledge Map of Information Science," was aimed at exploring the foundations of information science. The international panel was composed of 57 leading scholars from 16 countries, who represent (almost) all the major subfields and important aspects of the field. This particular article documents 130 definitions of data, information, and knowledge formulated by 45 scholars, and maps the major conceptual approaches for defining these three key concepts. [source] Mooers' law: In and out of contextJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 8 2001Brice Austin Mooers' Law, widely referenced in the literature of Library and Information Science, has generally been misinterpreted as concluding that customers will tend not to use Information Retrieval systems that are too difficult or frustrating, when in fact the law addresses the reluctance of customers to use any type of IR system, regardless of its faults or merits, within an environment in which having information requires more effort than not having it. An expansion of Mooers' original law is proposed, based upon a "Scale of Information Retrieval Environments," which includes not only those types of environments addressed by Mooers, but those in which a premium is placed upon having information, as well as those in which the effort required from having information vs. not having it is fairly evenly balanced. [source] Pioneering women of the information agePROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2008Michael Buckland This session will feature six speakers, each of whom is among the contributors to two special issues of Libraries & the Cultural Record on women pioneers in the information sciences. This session will be the third in a series presented by the Special Interest Group on History and Foundations of Information Science (HFIS). It will spotlight the lives and contributions of remarkable women pioneers in information science. The individual presentations will be about women whose fields of specialty and accomplishments fall in a wide variety of areas-practice, research, education for the profession, or information policy. Each paper will address the pioneer's leadership, innovation, and advocacy, as well as the historical context and social and professional milieu in which she worked and made her contributions. Each presentation will be about 15 minutes long, and enhanced with slides to show photographs or other relevant historical materials. [source] Departmental websites and female student recruitmentPROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2008Kristin Hanks Female recruitment and retention in technology related fields is still low, despite numerous attempts to reverse this trend. As a recruitment device, a school's webpage may be the only visual representation a student will see before deciding whether or not to apply. Thus, understanding the possible implications of this medium is important within the larger conversation on gender equity and opportunities. This research addresses several questions: At first glance, do websites give gender cues, whether intentional or not? Is there a relationship between certain web content and the number of women recruited into technology related schools and departments? Do applied fields (Informatics, Information Science, Instructional Technology, Information Systems) differ in their online recruitment practices from more traditional Computer Science and Engineering departments? It is important to note that this research is not an attempt to find the best web practices to recruit female students or an attempt to punish or blame specific institutions regarding their recruitment practices. [source] Using field co-citation analysis to assess reciprocal and shared impact of LIS/MIS fieldsPROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2007Cassidy R. Sugimoto This study utilizes bibliometric tools in order to analyze the relationship between two separate but related fields-Library and Information Science (LIS) and Management Information Systems (MIS). Using field co-citation analysis, the study evaluates the knowledge imported/exported between the fields and also the body of knowledge that is influenced by both fields. [source] The Role of Information Science in Gathering Biodiversity and Neuroscience DataBULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2003Geoffrey A. Levin director First page of article [source] State and output feedback design for robust tracking of linear systems with rate limited actuatorsOPTIMAL CONTROL APPLICATIONS AND METHODS, Issue 1 2002Zongli Lin Abstract A design technique (Control of Uncertain Systems with Bounded Inputs, Tarbouriech S, Garcia G, (Eds), Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences, vol. 227, Springer: Berlin, 1997; 173,186) recently proposed for stabilization of a linear system with rate-limited actuators is utilized to design feedback laws that cause the system output to track a desired command signal. This design technique combines two design techniques recently developed for linear systems with position limited actuators, piecewise-linear LQ control (Automatica, 1994; 30: 403,416) and low-and-high gain feedback (IEEE Trans. Automat. Control, 1996; 41: 368,378), and hence takes advantage of both design techniques, while avoiding their disadvantages. In the case that only the output is available for feedback, the performance of the state feedback law is preserved by the use of a fast observer. An open-loop exponentially unstable fighter aircraft is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control design method. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Free space quantum key distribution: Towards a real life applicationFORTSCHRITTE DER PHYSIK/PROGRESS OF PHYSICS, Issue 8-10 2006H. Weier Abstract Quantum key distribution (QKD) [1] is the first method of quantum information science that will find its way into our everyday life. It employs fundamental laws of quantum physics to ensure provably secure symmetric key generation between two parties. The key can then be used to encrypt and decrypt sensitive data with unconditional security. Here, we report on a free space QKD implementation using strongly attenuated laser pulses over a distance of 480 m. It is designed to work continuously without human interaction. Until now, it produces quantum keys unattended at night for more than 12 hours with a sifted key rate of more than 50 kbit/s and a quantum bit error rate between 3% and 5%. [source] Concepts and semantic relations in information scienceJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 10 2010Wolfgang G. Stock Concept-based information retrieval and knowledge representation are in need of a theory of concepts and semantic relations. Guidelines for the construction and maintenance of knowledge organization systems (KOS) (such as ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005 in the U.S.A. or DIN 2331:1980 in Germany) do not consider results of concept theory and theory of relations to the full extent. They are not able to unify the currently different worlds of traditional controlled vocabularies, of the social web (tagging and folksonomies) and of the semantic web (ontologies). Concept definitions as well as semantic relations are based on epistemological theories (empiricism, rationalism, hermeneutics, pragmatism, and critical theory). A concept is determined via its intension and extension as well as by definition. We will meet the problem of vagueness by introducing prototypes. Some important definitions are concept explanations (after Aristotle) and the definition of family resemblances (in the sense of Wittgenstein). We will model concepts as frames (according to Barsalou). The most important paradigmatic relation in KOS is hierarchy, which must be arranged into different classes: Hyponymy consists of taxonomy and simple hyponymy, meronymy consists of many different part-whole-relations. For practical application purposes, the transitivity of the given relation is very important. Unspecific associative relations are of little help to our focused applications and should be replaced by generalizable and domain-specific relations. We will discuss the reflexivity, symmetry, and transitivity of paradigmatic relations as well as the appearance of specific semantic relations in the different kinds of KOS (folksonomies, nomenclatures, classification systems, thesauri, and ontologies). Finally, we will pick out KOS as a central theme of the Semantic Web. [source] Applying centrality measures to impact analysis: A coauthorship network analysisJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 10 2009Erjia Yan Many studies on coauthorship networks focus on network topology and network statistical mechanics. This article takes a different approach by studying micro-level network properties with the aim of applying centrality measures to impact analysis. Using coauthorship data from 16 journals in the field of library and information science (LIS) with a time span of 20 years (1988,2007), we construct an evolving coauthorship network and calculate four centrality measures (closeness centrality, betweenness centrality, degree centrality, and PageRank) for authors in this network. We find that the four centrality measures are significantly correlated with citation counts. We also discuss the usability of centrality measures in author ranking and suggest that centrality measures can be useful indicators for impact analysis. [source] Google book search: Citation analysis for social science and the humanitiesJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 8 2009Kayvan Kousha In both the social sciences and the humanities, books and monographs play significant roles in research communication. The absence of citations from most books and monographs from the Thomson Reuters/Institute for Scientific Information databases (ISI) has been criticized, but attempts to include citations from or to books in the research evaluation of the social sciences and humanities have not led to widespread adoption. This article assesses whether Google Book Search (GBS) can partially fill this gap by comparing citations from books with citations from journal articles to journal articles in 10 science, social science, and humanities disciplines. Book citations were 31% to 212% of ISI citations and, hence, numerous enough to supplement ISI citations in the social sciences and humanities covered, but not in the sciences (3%,5%), except for computing (46%), due to numerous published conference proceedings. A case study was also made of all 1,923 articles in the 51 information science and library science ISI-indexed journals published in 2003. Within this set, highly book-cited articles tended to receive many ISI citations, indicating a significant relationship between the two types of citation data, but with important exceptions that point to the additional information provided by book citations. In summary, GBS is clearly a valuable new source of citation data for the social sciences and humanities. One practical implication is that book-oriented scholars should consult it for additional citations to their work when applying for promotion and tenure. [source] Citation levels and collaboration within library and information scienceJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 3 2009Jonathan M. Levitt Collaboration is a major research policy objective, but does it deliver higher quality research? This study uses citation analysis to examine the Web of Science (WoS) Information Science & Library Science subject category (IS&LS) to ascertain whether, in general, more highly cited articles are more highly collaborative than other articles. It consists of two investigations. The first investigation is a longitudinal comparison of the degree and proportion of collaboration in five strata of citation; it found that collaboration in the highest four citation strata (all in the most highly cited 22%) increased in unison over time, whereas collaboration in the lowest citation strata (un-cited articles) remained low and stable. Given that over 40% of the articles were un-cited, it seems important to take into account the differences found between un-cited articles and relatively highly cited articles when investigating collaboration in IS&LS. The second investigation compares collaboration for 35 influential information scientists; it found that their more highly cited articles on average were not more highly collaborative than their less highly cited articles. In summary, although collaborative research is conducive to high citation in general, collaboration has apparently not tended to be essential to the success of current and former elite information scientists. [source] Trust in digital informationJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 3 2008Kari Kelton Trust in information is developing into a vitally important topic as the Internet becomes increasingly ubiquitous within society. Although many discussions of trust in this environment focus on issues like security, technical reliability, or e-commerce, few address the problem of trust in the information obtained from the Internet. The authors assert that there is a strong need for theoretical and empirical research on trust within the field of information science. As an initial step, the present study develops a model of trust in digital information by integrating the research on trust from the behavioral and social sciences with the research on information quality and human, computer interaction. The model positions trust as a key mediating variable between information quality and information usage, with important consequences for both the producers and consumers of digital information. The authors close by outlining important directions for future research on trust in information science and technology. [source] Relevance: A review of the literature and a framework for thinking on the notion in information science.JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 13 2007Part II: nature, manifestations of relevance Relevant: Having significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at hand., Relevance: The ability as of an information retrieval system to retrieve material that satisfies the needs of the user. ,Merriam-Webster Dictionary 2005 Relevance is a, if not even the, key notion in information science in general and information retrieval in particular. This two-part critical review traces and synthesizes the scholarship on relevance over the past 30 years and provides an updated framework within which the still widely dissonant ideas and works about relevance might be interpreted and related. It is a continuation and update of a similar review that appeared in 1975 under the same title, considered here as being Part I. The present review is organized into two parts: Part II addresses the questions related to nature and manifestations of relevance, and Part III addresses questions related to relevance behavior and effects. In Part II, the nature of relevance is discussed in terms of meaning ascribed to relevance, theories used or proposed, and models that have been developed. The manifestations of relevance are classified as to several kinds of relevance that form an interdependent system of relevances. In Part III, relevance behavior and effects are synthesized using experimental and observational works that incorporate data. In both parts, each section concludes with a summary that in effect provides an interpretation and synthesis of contemporary thinking on the topic treated or suggests hypotheses for future research. Analyses of some of the major trends that shape relevance work are offered in conclusions. [source] Conceptual approaches for defining data, information, and knowledgeJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 4 2007Chaim Zins The field of Information Science is constantly changing. Therefore, information scientists are required to regularly review,and if necessary,redefine its fundamental building blocks. This article is one of a group of four articles, which resulted from a Critical Delphi study conducted in 2003,2005. The study, "Knowledge Map of Information Science," was aimed at exploring the foundations of information science. The international panel was composed of 57 leading scholars from 16 countries, who represent (almost) all the major subfields and important aspects of the field. This particular article documents 130 definitions of data, information, and knowledge formulated by 45 scholars, and maps the major conceptual approaches for defining these three key concepts. [source] Using the h -index to rank influential British researchers in information science and librarianshipJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 2 2007Charles Oppenheim The recently developed h -index has been applied to the literature produced by senior British-based academics in librarianship and information science. The majority of those evaluated currently hold senior positions in UK information science and librarianship departments; however, a small number of staff in other departments and retired "founding fathers" were analyzed as well. The analysis was carried out using the Web of Science (Thomson Scientific, Philadelphia, PA) for the years from 1992 to October 2005, and included both second-authored papers and self-citations. The top-ranking British information scientist, Peter Willett, has an h -index of 31. However, it was found that Eugene Garfield, the founder of modern citation studies, has an even higher h -index of 36. These results support other studies suggesting that the h -index is a useful tool in the armory of bibliometrics. [source] Foundations of library and information science, 2nd editionJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 9 2006Lydia Eato Harris [source] Automated identification of technologically similar organizationsJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 10 2005Anthony Breitzman This article introduces and validates a method for identifying technologically similar organizations, industries, or regions by applying the techniques from information science for term similarity to international patent classifications. Several applications of the method are explored, including identifying hidden competitive threats, finding potential acquisition targets, locating university expertise within a technology, identifying competitor strategy shifts, and more. One advantage of the method is that it is size invariant, meaning, for example, that it is possible for a huge corporation to identify smaller firms in its space before they become significant competitors. Another advantage is that technologically similar organizations can be identified on a large scale without any particular knowledge of the technology or business of either source organizations or target organizations. [source] Arguments for epistemology in information scienceJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 8 2003Birger Hjørland [source] Epistemology and the socio-cognitive perspective in information scienceJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 4 2002Birger Hjørland This article presents a socio-cognitive perspective in relation to information science (IS) and information retrieval (IR). The differences between traditional cognitive views and the socio-cognitive or domain-analytic view are outlined. It is claimed that, given elementary skills in computer-based retrieval, people are basically interacting with representations of subject literatures in IR. The kind of knowledge needed to interact with representations of subject literatures is discussed. It is shown how different approaches or "paradigms" in the represented literature imply different information needs and relevance criteria (which users typically cannot express very well, which is why IS cannot primarily rely on user studies). These principles are exemplified by comparing behaviorism, cognitivism, psychoanalysis, and neuroscience as approaches in psychology. The relevance criteria implicit in each position are outlined, and empirical data are provided to prove the theoretical claims. It is further shown that the most general level of relevance criteria is implied by epistemological theories. The article concludes that the fundamental problems of IS and IR are based in epistemology, which therefore becomes the most important allied field for IS. [source] Information discovery from complementary literatures: Categorizing viruses as potential weaponsJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 10 2001Don R. Swanson Using novel informatics techniques to process the output of Medline searches, we have generated a list of viruses that may have the potential for development as weapons. Our findings are intended as a guide to the virus literature to support further studies that might then lead to appropriate defense and public health measures. This article stresses methods that are more generally relevant to information science. Initial Medline searches identified two kinds of virus literatures,the first concerning the genetic aspects of virulence, and the second concerning the transmission of viral diseases. Both literatures taken together are of central importance in identifying research relevant to the development of biological weapons. Yet, the two literatures had very few articles in common. We downloaded the Medline records for each of the two literatures and used a computer to extract all virus terms common to both. The fact that the resulting virus list includes most of an earlier independently published list of viruses considered by military experts to have the highest threat as potential biological weapons served as a test of the method; the test outcome showed a high degree of statistical significance, thus supporting an inference that the new viruses on the list share certain important characteristics with viruses of known biological warfare interest. [source] GIS and spatial data analysis: Converging perspectivesPAPERS IN REGIONAL SCIENCE, Issue 1 2004Michael F. Goodchild GIS; spatial data analysis; spatial modelling; geostatistics; point processes Abstract. This article identifies some of the important developments in GIS and spatial data analysis since the early 1950s. Although GIS and spatial data analysis started out as two more or less separate areas of research and application, they have grown closer together over time. We argue that the two areas meet in the field of geographic information science, with each supporting and adding value to the other. The article starts off providing a critical retrospective of developments over the past 50 years. Subsequently, we reflect on current challenges and speculate about the future. Finally, we comment on the potential for convergence of developments in GIS and spatial data analysis under the rubric of geographic information science (GIScience). [source] Pioneering women of the information agePROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2008Michael Buckland This session will feature six speakers, each of whom is among the contributors to two special issues of Libraries & the Cultural Record on women pioneers in the information sciences. This session will be the third in a series presented by the Special Interest Group on History and Foundations of Information Science (HFIS). It will spotlight the lives and contributions of remarkable women pioneers in information science. The individual presentations will be about women whose fields of specialty and accomplishments fall in a wide variety of areas-practice, research, education for the profession, or information policy. Each paper will address the pioneer's leadership, innovation, and advocacy, as well as the historical context and social and professional milieu in which she worked and made her contributions. Each presentation will be about 15 minutes long, and enhanced with slides to show photographs or other relevant historical materials. [source] Wiki a la carte: Understanding participation behaviorsPROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2007Pnina Shachaf Organizer This panel focuses on trends in research on Wikis. Wikis have become prevalent in our society and are used for multiple purposes, such as education, knowledge sharing, collaboration, and coordination. Similar to other popular social computing tools, they raise new research questions and have attracted the attention of researchers in information science. While some focus on the semantic web, the automatic processing of data accumulated by users, and tool improvements, others discuss social implications of Wikis. This panel presents five studies that address the social uses of Wikis that support information sharing. In their studies, the panelists use a variety of novel applications of research methods, such as action research, and online ethnography, site observation, survey, and interviews. The panelists will present their findings: Shachaf and Hara will discuss Wikipedians' norms and behaviors; Bonk will present collaborative writing on Wikibook; Mackey will discuss authorship and collaboration in PBwiki.com; Hemminger will share results from the early use of wikis for conference communications; and Stvilia will outline the community mechanism of information quality assurance in Wikipedia. [source] Information behavior in developing countries: Research, issues, and emerging trendsPROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2007Dania Bilal Moderator The field of library and information science (LIS) has historically been a leading discipline in studying human information behavior (Spink & Cole, 2006). Information seeking in industrialized nations is grounded in theories and moving towards new directions and evolutionary approaches that often challenge the established paradigms of information behavior studies (see Case, 2007; Spink & Cole, 2006; Fisher, Erdelez, & Mckechnie, 2005; Chelton & Cool, 2004. Information behavior has been conceptualized in a holistic context that draws upon theories from various disciplines such as cognitive science, communication, psychology, and computer science (Nahl & Bilal, 2007; Spink & Cole, 2006). Compared to industrialized nations, most developing countries relegate towards the bottom heap of research on information behavior (Coleman, 2005; Britz, 2005). A panel of researchers, educators, and consultants will address research in information behavior in various contexts in developing countries, particularly in India, South Africa, and the Arab world. Based on their research findings and experiences, the speakers will trace themes, map the intellectual terrain, identify emerging trends and approaches, and frame issues related to information behavior research in these countries. Moreover, they will identify significant knowledge domains, concepts, and topics of application in information behavior research where there can be mutual exchange between developing countries and the industrialized nations (including the United States) to nurture and further growth in this area of study. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||