Library and Information Science Commons^™

Figure And Table Retrieval From Scholarly Journal Articles: User Needs For Teaching And Research, Robert J. Sandusky, Carol Tenopir, Margaret Casado

School of Information Sciences -- Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper discusses user needs for a system that indexes tables and figures culled from scientific journal articles. These findings are taken from a comprehensive investigation into scientists' satisfaction with and use of a tables and figures retrieval prototype. Much previous research has examined the usability and features of digital libraries and other online retrieval systems that retrieve either full‐text of journal articles, traditional article‐level abstracts, or both. In contrast, this paper examines the needs of users directly searching for and accessing discrete journal article components – figures, tables, graphs, maps, and photographs – that have been individually indexed.

Online Issues Are Global, Carol Tenopir

School of Information Sciences -- Faculty Publications and Other Works

THE INFORMATION INDUSTRY is international. With major English-language online publishers based in the Netherlands, Germany, and Canada (not to mention Alabama and New York), the information you lease may be generated and designed anywhere in the world. Likewise, the issues and challenges facing libraries as they move to large-scale digital collections are global in nature.

Conferences about digital libraries are also international; in September I attended "Digilib: Towards a User-Centered Approach to Digital Libraries" in Finland. Two hundred attendees from over 20 countries discussed how to gather user information for the purpose of designing more useful digital libraries. Sessions were …

What User Studies Tell Us, Carol Tenopir

School of Information Sciences -- Faculty Publications and Other Works

Valid conclusions about user behavior should only be made within the research method used by each study. For example, if a researcher interviews academic faculty to determine if they prefer print or electronic sources, the conclusions should only state what faculty prefer, not what faculty actually use.

Virtual Reference Services In A Real World, Carol Tenopir

School of Information Sciences -- Faculty Publications and Other Works

NOW THAT LIBRARIES have substantial digital collections available to users from their homes or offices, it isn't surprising that remote access ("virtual") reference services are the latest trend. LJ recently provided an overview of virtual reference services and reported on local progress and national initiatives to implement online reference help 24 hours a day, seven days a week (see "The Shape of E-Reference," LJ 2/1/01 p. 46ff.).

Recently, I asked the directors of reference in the academic member libraries of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) to describe changes in their reference services over the last three years and how …