Kenning Arlitsch and Patrick S. O'Brien
Google Scholar has difficulty indexing the contents of institutional repositories, and the authors hypothesize the reason is that most repositories use Dublin Core, which cannot…
Abstract
Purpose
Google Scholar has difficulty indexing the contents of institutional repositories, and the authors hypothesize the reason is that most repositories use Dublin Core, which cannot express bibliographic citation information adequately for academic papers. Google Scholar makes specific recommendations for repositories, including the use of publishing industry metadata schemas over Dublin Core. This paper aims to test a theory that transforming metadata schemas in institutional repositories will lead to increased indexing by Google Scholar.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted two surveys of institutional and disciplinary repositories across the USA, using different methodologies. They also conducted three pilot projects that transformed the metadata of a subset of papers from USpace, the University of Utah's institutional repository, and examined the results of Google Scholar's explicit harvests.
Findings
Repositories that use GS recommended metadata schemas and express them in HTML meta tags experienced significantly higher indexing ratios. The ease with which search engine crawlers can navigate a repository also seems to affect indexing ratio. The second and third metadata transformation pilot projects at Utah were successful, ultimately achieving an indexing ratio of greater than 90 percent.
Research limitations/implications
The second survey is limited to 40 titles from each of seven repositories, for a total of 280 titles. A larger survey that covers more repositories may be useful.
Practical implications
Institutional repositories are achieving significant mass, and the rate of author citations from those repositories may affect university rankings. Lack of visibility in Google Scholar, however, will limit the ability of IRs to play a more significant role in those citation rates.
Social implications
Transforming metadata can be a difficult and tedious process. The Institute of Museum and Library Services has recently awarded a National Leadership Grant to the University of Utah to continue SEO research with its partner, OCLC Inc., and to develop a toolkit that will include automated transformation mechanisms.
Originality/value
Little or no research has been published about improving the indexing ratio of institutional repositories in Google Scholar. The authors believe that they are the first to address the possibility of transforming IR metadata to improve indexing ratios in Google Scholar.
Details
Keywords
Abstract
Details
Keywords
Abstract
Details
Keywords
Patrick Collins, Emer Mulligan and Mary Cawley
This paper sets out to contribute to the growing literature analysing the broader impacts of event hosting. The purpose of this paper is twofold: the first is to add to the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper sets out to contribute to the growing literature analysing the broader impacts of event hosting. The purpose of this paper is twofold: the first is to add to the growing literature concerned with the spatial impact of immediate (economic) impacts on host locations; the second, in line with the dynamic element introduced by Chalip (2004), is to identify the implications for business leveraging of mega events in the more medium term.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodological approach involved analysis of documentary evidence and observational analysis on site before and during the event. The findings are primarily derived from a survey of 150 businesses located across Galway city and its suburbs alongside a thematic analysis of six interviews with the organisers of the event and survey responses.
Findings
The authors find that the aspirations to spread the benefits of hosting ultimately proved unsuccessful. Key to this is the power held by global event organisers relative to local organisers. The authors also identify a degree of mismanagement and a lack of adequate support for the organisation of leveraging activities. The authors note a unique geography of impact that does not follow a linear path of decrease from the event site.
Originality/value
The work highlights the tensions that can exist between the aspirations of hosting cities and their local organisers against those of international brands responsible for the organisation of global events. The results on the geography of impact also highlight a unique spatial trend, one that sees economic impact increase on the outer limits of the city.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to examine the capacity for trade unions to mobilise internationally by considering how stevedores in Australia successfully internationalised a major…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the capacity for trade unions to mobilise internationally by considering how stevedores in Australia successfully internationalised a major dispute.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reports the findings of a single case study of the “waterfront dispute” of 1998, an industrial dispute in the Australian stevedoring industry which included the mobilisation of unions internationally. This case study is one of the four cases in a PhD research project, which examined international trade union activity in the mining, manufacturing, banking and stevedoring industries. The methodology included semi‐structured interviews with trade union leaders and activists, as well as document analysis, and involved comparative analysis across the four case studies.
Findings
Australian stevedores or “wharfies” were well placed to mobilise internationally due to a combination of internal and external factors. In particular, the Maritime Union of Australia's long‐standing support for international causes, largely due to its left‐wing, internationalist politics, resulted in the union gaining significant support from unions internationally. Important external factors included the nature of the stevedoring industry, with its organic link to other industry sectors, combined with the neo‐liberal approach adopted in Australia which also influenced the internationalisation of the union campaign.
Research limitations/implications
The study provides the opportunity to consider capacity for international mobilisation in the stevedoring industry and the contingent nature of international campaigns, with wider implications for union strategies in other industry sectors.
Originality/value
The paper contains an in‐depth analysis of a major dispute in the Australian stevedoring industry and makes a significant contribution to the expanding literature on the internationalisation of union campaigns and union strategy.
Details
Keywords
Patrick O’Brien, Scott W.H. Young, Kenning Arlitsch and Karl Benedict
The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which HTTPS encryption and Google Analytics services have been implemented on academic library websites, and discuss the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which HTTPS encryption and Google Analytics services have been implemented on academic library websites, and discuss the privacy implications of free services that introduce web tracking of users.
Design/methodology/approach
The home pages of 279 academic libraries were analyzed for the presence of HTTPS, Google Analytics services and privacy-protection features.
Findings
Results indicate that HTTPS implementation on library websites is not widespread, and many libraries continue to offer non-secured connections without an automatically enforced redirect to a secure connection. Furthermore, a large majority of library websites included in the study have implemented Google Analytics and/or Google Tag Manager, yet only very few connect securely to Google via HTTPS or have implemented Google Analytics IP anonymization.
Practical implications
Librarians are encouraged to increase awareness of this issue and take concerted and coherent action across five interrelated areas: implementing secure web protocols (HTTPS), user education, privacy policies, informed consent and risk/benefit analyses.
Originality/value
Third-party tracking of users is prevalent across the web, and yet few studies demonstrate its extent and consequences for academic library websites.
Details
Keywords
The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and…
Abstract
The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and ideology of the FTC’s leaders, developments in the field of economics, and the tenor of the times. The over-riding current role is to provide well considered, unbiased economic advice regarding antitrust and consumer protection law enforcement cases to the legal staff and the Commission. The second role, which long ago was primary, is to provide reports on investigations of various industries to the public and public officials. This role was more recently called research or “policy R&D”. A third role is to advocate for competition and markets both domestically and internationally. As a practical matter, the provision of economic advice to the FTC and to the legal staff has required that the economists wear “two hats,” helping the legal staff investigate cases and provide evidence to support law enforcement cases while also providing advice to the legal bureaus and to the Commission on which cases to pursue (thus providing “a second set of eyes” to evaluate cases). There is sometimes a tension in those functions because building a case is not the same as evaluating a case. Economists and the Bureau of Economics have provided such services to the FTC for over 100 years proving that a sub-organization can survive while playing roles that sometimes conflict. Such a life is not, however, always easy or fun.