Search results

An online library catalogue served as a testbed to evaluate an interactive query expansion facility based on relevance feedback for the Okapi probabilistic term weighting retrieval system. The facility was implemented in a graphical user interface (gui) environment using a game‐board metaphor for the search process, and allowed searchers to select candidate terms extracted from relevant retrieved items to reformulate queries. The take‐up of the interactive query expansion option was found to be lower, and its retrieval performance less effective, compared to previous tests featuring automatic query expansion. Contributory factors including the number, presentation and source of terms are discussed.

Describes the Okapi projects and Okapi′s development as an experimental online catalogue system over ten years. The first Okapi project in 1984 introduced “best match” retrieval and focused on the user interface design. The second investigated word stemming, spelling correction and cross‐reference tables as retrieval aids. A comparative study of two library catalogues was undertaken in 1987, while in 1988 query expansion and relevance feedback were introduced and evaluated by laboratory tests. Live evaluation of automatic query expansion in an online catalogue and an online database was carried out in 1990. In 1993, subject enhancement of bibliographic records was investigated. The latest project has examined the design of a graphical user interface to support interactive query expansion. Discusses the research and evaluation of each project.

Educational standards debates are a promising area of investigation for transnational study by historians of education. Drawing upon the work of Foucault, Kliebard, and Aldrich, the paper critically examines some of the outstanding features of the emerging debate over literacy and numeracy standards that sharply divided teachers, educational officials, parents, and employers in New Zealand during the mid-to-late 1950s. These included the polarisation of opinion across the nation, the involvement of the national media, and the tactics of mass persuasion adopted by the various protagonists.

The paper utilises contemporary theory to critically interrogate an historical episode in which controversy over literacy and numeracy standards in schools led first to an in-house report, and finally to a national inquiry. The paper draws upon contemporary newspaper commentary, professional journals and parliamentary debates, as well as a considerable amount of archival material held at Archives New Zealand repositories in both Wellington and Auckland.

The paper contributes to the field by illustrating the way in which historical debates over literacy and numeracy lie at the intersection of completing claims to truth. Behind such claims lie rival conceptions of education that make it unlikely that standards issues will ever be resolved satisfactorily. Hence the title of the paper, which refers to a jocular suggestion by a newspaper editor of the time that only an “August Assembly of Suave Venusians” could adjudicate in the debate.

The value of the paper is that it links current theories on transnationality with archival research in order to critically examine a national case study. Much of the primary source material has never been utilised previously for research as Archives New Zealand has only just released the relevant files for research purposes.

While many researchers have commented on the relationship between men and food, most empirical research has focused on men′s dietary beliefs and practices as perceived by women. Yet the consumption of food is a process instilled with cultural values and meanings that offers an insight into the workings of society, in particular household relations. In addition, research exploring the link between diet and health has emphasized the need to identify and work with the dietary beliefs of men in the design and implementation of health promotion programmes. Outlines the origins of a research project which seeks to identify and examine the dietary beliefs and practices of 30 men drawn from the service sector. The research will be conducted in both the workplace and the home of respondents, over the next two years.

The information needs and practices of part‐time and distancelearning students in higher education (HE) in the UK outside the Open University (OU) have been evaluated. In recent years, the government has pointed out the importance of individuals engaging in lifelong learning initiatives, in order to remain competitive in a globalised economy which draws increasingly on cumulative knowledge creation. In response, the HE sector in the UK offers a growing number of its programmes on a part‐time and/or distance‐learning basis for students who can remain in full‐ or part‐time employment while studying for their qualifications. We trace the history of adult education with its corresponding study modes, and set the experience of students within the wider framework of educational change in the information society. We distributed a questionnaire and conducted telephone and face‐to‐face interviews with a substantial sample of part‐time and distance learners. Based on our research findings, we question whether the information‐gathering practices of part‐time and distance‐learning students best reflect the pedagogical concept of lifelong learning. Our results show that university libraries considered in our sample often do not cater for the specialised needs of part‐time and distance learners, which leads to an increasing use of the Internet and employer resources as a substitute for traditional information channels. Students have major problems coping with the complexity of the WWW, and we make recommendations on how to improve existing information services in HE.

Suggests that sociological and social anthropological studies of food‐related behaviour can provide information that is the “missing link”, essential if nutritional health promotion is to achieve its goals. Nutritional health promotion messages need to work within, or change existing tastes, and this requires an understanding of how social roles are expressed through food, and how cultural values and associations shape taste.

Taste is defined in a variety of ways, and arises from physiological processes which are influenced by social factors. Explanations of taste therefore require information from biological, sociological and cultural perspectives. Discusses the contribution made to our understanding of taste by the biological and social sciences, with reference to recent sociological and social anthropological research and writing. It argues that food is a particularly powerful medium for the realization of social relationships and the creation of individual identity. The social context therefore has an indirect but causal relationship with individual tastes. The cultural context is also crucial, as the socially constructed meaning of a food can influence taste perception itself. Explanations of taste therefore require an understanding of the social and cultural contexts of food‐related behaviour.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

We feel that librarians may congratulate themselves upon the growing sureness of the position of the Library in the life of the community. One of the legacies of the Great War, or, at any rate, one of the conditions clearly discernible in post‐war days, is an increased intellectual inquisitiveness in the people. There have been those who prophesied that first the Cinema, and then Wireless, would tend to reduce the use of books, even to the vanishing point. No prophesy has been more false. Either the nation's mental appetite has absorbed these new things and like Oliver Twist wants “more,” or these things themselves have been incitements to further reading. The cause is obscure, but the facts are plain enough, and these prove that in every town where the library provision is reasonably adequate, the increase in the issue of books is little less than phenomenal.