Search results

In August 2007 the Mainsail II SIV-Lite was frozen by its trustee as a result of the ongoing credit crisis. The state of Maine held $20 million of Mainsail commercial paper in its Cash Pool portfolio, a short-term portfolio that puts temporary, excess state revenues to work. When word of the potential loss became public, the Treasurer came under attack. The case introduces the functions of a state Treasury department, with particular emphasis on the investment objectives and guidelines for the cash pool as well as its composition. The case reviews the events leading up to and including August 2007, the month when the credit markets first began to seize and when the financial crisis effectively began. It examines securitization, structured finance, and the Mainsail SIV-Lite structure in some detail.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role and economic impact that the internet, specifically websites and social media, have on small businesses. It aims to investigate the benefits available from the use of the internet and social media sites for small businesses that operate in underserved regions.

The research utilizes a case study methodology based on two surveys and semi-structured interviews with the owners or managers of five small companies in the western mountain region of Maine, a region described as underserved by the state departments of tourism and economic development – generally economically depressed, where the businesses are often struggling to survive.

Benefits from the use of websites and social media sites include an increase in awareness and inquiries, enhanced relationships with customers, an increase in the number of new customers, enhanced ability to reach customers on a global scale, and co-promotion of local businesses that enhance the image of small businesses in the region.

The small number of firms from a specific region in the USA limits generalizations from this study’s findings. However, the findings offer preliminary insights for future studies on the use of the internet and social media sites for small businesses.

The research provides evidence of potential advantages of utilizing web pages and social media sites for small businesses in underserved locations. The findings show that a web presence integrated with meaningful and sustained social media promotion can have a positive impact on business success in terms of increased traffic, awareness and revenues. This study has the potential to shed light on how internet technologies and social media can help struggling small businesses to communicate cost effectively with customers on a global scale, opening new opportunities for sales and growth.

By exploring the value of social media to small businesses, the authors hope to contribute to enhancement of the quality of life in small business and society as a whole.

This paper is among the few reports on how small businesses learn about, utilize, and benefit from the web pages and social media sites.

The purpose of this article is to present an overview of the history and development of transaction log analysis (TLA) in library and information science research. Organizing a literature review of the first twenty‐five years of TLA poses some challenges and requires some decisions. The primary organizing principle could be a strict chronology of the published research, the research questions addressed, the automated information retrieval (IR) systems that generated the data, the results gained, or even the researchers themselves. The group of active transaction log analyzers remains fairly small in number, and researchers who use transaction logs tend to use this method more than once, so tracing the development and refinement of individuals' uses of the methodology could provide insight into the progress of the method as a whole. For example, if we examine how researchers like W. David Penniman, John Tolle, Christine Borgman, Ray Larson, and Micheline Hancock‐Beaulieu have modified their own understandings and applications of the method over time, we may get an accurate sense of the development of all applications.

This paper presents an evaluation of three Web based prototypes for bibliographic displays developed as part of an ongoing research project at the Faculty of Information Studies of the University of Toronto. The development of these prototypes builds upon results obtained in earlier phases of the project that addressed issues of both the content and form of bibliographic displays in Public Access Catalogues (Chan 1995; Luk 1996). Anticipation of continued growth in the number of catalogues available through the World Wide Web, combined with evidence (Cherry and Cox 1996) that existing Web based displays have not shown improvement over their text‐based counterparts, motivated the development of these prototypes for use on the Web. The findings from a focus group evaluation of the three prototypes are also reported, and suggestions made for future research.

Libraries and librarians have long been early adopters of information technologies. For decades, librarians have applied computerization to library operations. Standardization and computerization of bibliographic records decades ago made possible automation of library systems, the creation and utilization of giant bibliographic utilities such as OCLC with its 52 million records. Collaborative adoption of information technologies decades ago brought shared cataloging, on-line public access catalogs, bibliographic databases, enhanced interlibrary loan and document delivery, and acquisition of information in digital formats, resulting in worldwide access to library resources. Nonetheless the revolution in information technologies that produced the World Wide Web in the mid-1990s hit the information profession of librarianship and the educational establishment like an earthquake.

The aim of this paper is to empirically examine the usability of the Koha OPAC from a user perspective.

A series of usability tests with Koha were carried out at a private university in Bangladesh. Both experienced and novice users participated in these tests. Experienced users participated only once, whereas novices took part in three successive sessions. At first, novices’ initial performance was recorded. Then, they performed the same tasks after a short training tutorial. Novices again participated in the retention experiment with the same tasks after four weeks. A set of seven tasks was given to the users to see their performance in terms of time taken, number of errors made and success scores. Performance data were captured through a computer screen recording software, and satisfaction scores were obtained using a modified version of Questionnaire on User Interface Satisfaction (QUIS). Comparisons of performance and satisfaction with Koha OPAC were made between experienced users and novices’ initial, learning and retention experiments and amongst novices’ three test sessions.

The results showed significant performance difference between experienced and novices’ initial session. Novices could easily pick up the functionality of Koha OPAC when a brief training was provided. The comparative analysis of performance between experienced users and novices’ learning showed no significant difference between these sessions. There was a significant difference between experienced and novices’ retention in terms of success scores. The comparison amongst novices’ initial, learning and retention sessions showed significant performance differences in time taken and errors made. The QUIS results also showed significant differences in subjective satisfaction for several items between experienced users and naïve sessions, and for one item amongst novices’ three experiments.

This is a pioneering study of the task-based usability of Koha OPAC. The findings from this study will encourage researchers to empirically examine the usability of other open-source ILSs, which might result in improved user performance and satisfaction with these systems.

The paper aims to report on a research project that explores the extent and scope of scientific publishing, communication, and collaboration amongst Libyan scientists.

The paper commences with a literature review on scientific communication and publishing, including a specific focus on such activities in developing countries. A bibliometric analysis of the papers published by scientists in research centres affiliated to Libya's National Centre for Scientific Research was conducted in order to investigate the extent and nature of scholarly communication of Libyan scientists.

Libyan scientists are a community that works in research teams, largely comprised of scientists in Libya, but, which, on the other hand, is actively disseminating the findings of its research to a wider international audience. This is evident from the publications of 45 per cent of papers in English, and a significant level of publication in countries outside Libya. Further, the extent to which publication is through conferences and symposia is evidence of engagement in informal communication within and beyond the scientific community in Libya.

This is the first study of scientific publishing and communication activities in Libya. It offers useful insights into a variety of aspects of communication and dissemination of research findings. As such it provides a useful contribution towards understanding the potential impact of new models of scholarly publishing, both in Libya, and in other developing countries.

This exploratory study sets out to describe the ways in which end‐users exchanged information between the web and a web online catalog, how they searched one device based on what they knew about the other, and their experiences in navigating between the two devices.

Thirty‐one participants were observed searching the web or a web online catalog. After the observations, an interview guide was used to ask targeted questions.

The findings suggest that people familiar with the use of traditional online catalogs were more comfortable using web tools than those who lacked online catalog experience. People who had recent web experience expected online catalog searching to be similar to web searching. However, drawing too close an association between the two systems sometimes caused difficulties when the searching protocols varied, like keyword searching versus selecting an index.

Some limitations of the study include a small sampling size, varied responses to interview questions, obtrusive procedures, and lack of generalizability to groups or settings dissimilar from the one in this study.

This study provides a rare look into the challenges faced by a diverse group of public library users on the web. It is instructive for practicing librarians and researchers.

This paper aims to report on the China‐North America Library Conference held in Beijing, China. The conference theme is Sharing Digital Resources: Challenges and Opportunities. Six sub‐themes are also intertwined with the conference theme: Resource sharing policies and perspectives; Digital infrastructure and repository technology; Research data sharing; Sharing digital preservation methods; and Shared digital access, retrieval and use.

The paper summarizes several important presentations at the conference.

The shared projects in this report include: National Cultural Information Resource Sharing Project; Multicultural Canada Project; Data Conservancy; National Library Digital Exchange Services; and Digital Museum Platform.

This is an original conference report which would help those who are interested in sharing digital resources on a global scale to understand the challenges, issues, and opportunities on that aspect.