Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Curious Instance Of The Library's Travelling Poll: Determining Obstacles In The Research Process, Lucia Schoombee

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

The role of libraries in co-facilitating timeous and successful completion of postgraduate studies and increased research output is accentuated in the current, competitive academic environment. Faced with this challenge, libraries need to probe new territory, expand boundaries of service delivery and collaborate with academic support services. This paper describes an unconventional, visual method to explore service needs of researchers and research students. The method consists of an interactive poll which visually depicts the research lifecycle and allows respondents to point out arduous aspects in the research process. The poll is a collaborative project between the Library and the Information Technology …

Common Metrics For Web-Based Mapping Applications In Academic Libraries, Ningning Kong, Tao Zhang, Ilana Stonebraker

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Purpose – This study aims to establish common metrics for web-based mapping applications to facilitate user decision making and enhance information providers’ product design.

Design/methodology/approach – The metrics were developed from a combination of literature review and case studies. From the literature review, we identified three major areas of assessment for web-based mapping applications. We then studied six online applications to refine the metrics.

Findings – Our results suggest that web-based mapping applications can be evaluated from three major aspects: data content, GIS functionality, and usability. We have developed detailed measures for each factor through our evaluation of the six …