The web is central to many human activities and infringes on many others: at home, and at work, including education and research. Links between web sites can be used in information science and social science research as a valuable source of evidence about online phenomena, and about online components of offline phenomena. Given a set of websites, the links between them many reveal interesting patterns of connectedness that could reflect issues of underlying human communication or information value. Link analysis is therefore a valuable tool for information science and social science...

This book describes informetric results from the point of view of Lotkaian size-frequency functions, i.e. functions that are decreasing power laws. Explanations and examples of this model are given showing that it is the most important regularity amongst other possible models. This theory is then developed in the framework of IPPs (Information Production Processes) hereby also indicating its relation with e.g. the law of Zipf.Applications are given in the following fields: three-dimensional informetrics (positive reinforcement and Type/Token-Taken informetrics), concentration theory...

This revised Second Edition addresses developments that have transformed library operations in the recent past. In the technical services administration chapter, there is a new section on leadership and management style, strategic planning, managerial accounting, and output measures. The bibliography has been expanded to include more management literature. At the same time, in the automation chapter, expanded sections on downloading bibliographic data into personal files, full text-access, and implications for libraries of the emerging high-speed electronic highways for scholarly information,...

This will be the third edition of the highly successful "Text Information Retrieval Systems." The book's purpose is to teach people who will be searching or designing text retrieval systems how the systems work. For designers, it covers problems they will face and reviews currently available solutions to provide a basis for more advanced study. For the searcher its purpose is to describe why such systems work as they do. The book is primarily about computer-based retrieval systems, but the principles apply to nonmechanized ones as well. The book covers the nature of information, how it is...

The goal of this book is to improve reference service in libraries and information centers, by improving the accuracy of answering capabilities. The authors provide a detailed analysis of the question-answering process and methods of evaluating the completeness, usefulness, user satisfaction, and accuracy of the information provided. This is an important contribution to library studies, and it will be a useful textbook for teaching references courses in library schools. Powerful research models help explain what is happening in the reference transaction. It encompasses a comprehensive review...

Computer technology together with political and economic pressures for interlibrary cooperation are having far-reaching effects on online systems for bibliographic control. This work is a compendium of the current thought on how catalogs of the future can best take advantage of machine capabilities in a networking environment. "The Conceptual Foundations of Descriptive Cataloging" comprises the proceedings of a conference of the same name held at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1987. The conference stimulated visionary thinking about the future direction of systems for the...

New Research in Information Behaviour, co-edited by Professor Amanda Spink and Dr. Jannica Heinstrom provides an understanding of the new directions, leading edge theories and models in information behaviour. Information behaviour is conceptualized as complex human information related processes that are embedded within an individual's everyday social and life processes. The book presents chapters by a range of scholars who show new research directions that often challenge the established views and paradigms of information behaviour studies. Beginning with an evolutionary framework, the book...

This book brings together a range of chapters about the trends in education and research in the field of library and information science (LIS) in the Asia-Oceania region of the world. Why a book about LIS in the Asia-Oceania region? One key reason for a book on the topic is the huge growth of the field in terms of students and schools particularly in Asia. Information is an important part of the human condition and critical to the development of the Asia-Oceania region.

"Web Search Engine Research," edited by Dirk Lewandowski, provides an understanding of Web search engines from the unique perspective of Library and Information Science. The book explores a range of topics including retrieval effectiveness, user satisfaction, the evaluation of search interfaces, the impact of search on society, reliability of search results, query log analysis, user guidance in the search process, and the influence of search engine optimization (SEO) on results quality. While research in computer science has mainly focused on technical aspects of search engines, LIS research...

"Library and Information Science Trends and Research: Europe," co-edited by Professor Amanda Spink and Dr. Jannica Heinstrom provides an understanding of the new directions in library and information science/management, education and research in Europe. The volume focuses on new research directions within the field but will also discuss curriculum changes due to the rapidly developing information world. Europe has developed substantially both socially and economically in the last ten years with a growing population and economy. The field of library and information science/management has also...