FOXEA@VTVAX3.BITNET (02/02/88)
IRList Digest Sunday, 31 January 1988 Volume 4 : Issue 7 Today's Topics: Abstracts - New Dissertations (part 3 of 3) News addresses are Internet or CSNET: fox@vtopus.cs.vt.edu BITNET: foxea@vtvax3.bitnet ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 28 Jan 88 22:42:30 EST From: "Susanne M. HUMPHREY" <humphrey@MCS.NLM.NIH.GOV> Subject: new dissertations [Note - this is last of 3 parts - Ed] AN This item is not available from University Microfilms International ADG05-61230. AU SAMARAJIWA, ROHAN AINSLEY. IN Simon Fraser University (Canada) Ph.D 1986. TI PROPERTY RIGHTS AND INFORMATION MARKETS: POLICY ISSUES AFFECTING NEWS AGENCIES AND ONLINE DATABASES. SO DAI v48(08), SecA. DE Information Science. AB This thesis examines how the production of new and better information can be encouraged in a market economy while preserving a public interest in unfettered access to factual information essential to political and economic processes. The question is studied in relation to the market in news and market-information, an area of economic activity transformed by the application of advanced information/communication technology. The market is analyzed within the broad framework of the structure-conduct-performance paradigm drawn from the industrial organization field. The news and market-information market is in the midst of a period of dynamic growth. There is no evidence of market failure or the unambiguous exercise of market power that would require immediate government intervention in the form of strengthening private property rights, regulation, or structural reform. A number of tendencies that may result in future market concentration and adverse impacts on access to public-domain information are identified. Private property rights to news and market-information are examined in relation to historical evolution in common-law jurisdictions as well as the current Canadian copyright revision process. The common-law tradition is found to be one of interpreting the scope of statutory copyright law parsimoniously with respect to news and market-information and related factual information. The courts have attempted to devise limited forms of property rights for these products. The copyright revision proposals under consideration by the Canadian Parliament on computer-based information storage and retrieval systems have the potential of strengthening private property rights to all factual information, including news and market-information. This form of government intervention is inappropriate for the news and market-information market and can only have negative implications for end-users, market structure and public-domain information. It is proposed that factual information be excluded from copyright protection, and that public policy be directed to the design of property rights that allow unhindered use and further processing, yet preserve sufficient incentives for the production of new and better information. The relevance of the study and its findings to the general inquiry on the nature and implications of the information society is briefly discussed. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG87-18181. AU THOMPSON, PAUL. IN University of California, Berkeley Ph.D 1986, 184 pages. TI SUBJECTIVE PROBABILITY, COMBINATION OF EXPERT OPINION, AND PROBABILISTIC APPROACHES TO INFORMATION RETRIEVAL. SO DAI v48(05), SecA, pp1044. DE Information Science. AB This dissertation is a study of probability and its application to the problem of information retrieval. It opens with a survey and examination of current work on probabilistic indexing, probabilistic queries, and rules for how these can be combined and used in order to rank output documents by computed values of probability of relevance. In these current approaches to probabilistic information retrieval (PIR), probability is interpreted as a relative frequency or as a person's estimate of a relative frequency. There are three major conceptual difficulties with current theories, or models of PIR: (1) Independence/dependence of individual term probabilities; (2) The small sample problem; (3) The validity of probabilities used. There is also the question of how to interpret the probability of a single case, i.e., the relevance of a specific document to a specific retrieval system user. This dissertation divides into three main sections. One is a study of the psychological literature on human probability assessment. It is motivated by a concern with how well humans can be expected to perform in assessment of term probabilities. The second is a computer simulation study which examines how errors in estimation of term probabilities propagate into the combined probability for each document and how this affects the ranked output of documents. It is motivated by the question of determining the impact of various levels of input term probability errors on retrieval effectiveness. Finally, the third (and major section) is the development of a new mathematical model for PIR which uses a subjective interpretation of probability, probability distributions (as opposed to point estimates of probabilities), and the technique of combination of expert opinion. It is argued that such an approach shows promise of largely overcoming the obstacles to PIR mentioned above. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG87-21782. AU WARNER, AMY. IN University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Ph.D 1987, 240 pages. TI QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE ASSESSMENTS OF THE IMPACT OF LINGUISTIC THEORY ON INFORMATION SCIENCE. SO DAI v48(07), SecA. DE Information Science. AB A citation analysis was performed on a subset of the information science literature to determine the impact of linguistic theory on information science. Both quantitative and qualitative measures were employed to show the relationship between the two fields. The overall findings indicate that this portion of the information science literature has made almost no use of linguistic theory. The small number of citations to linguistic theory did show some patterns, indicating that small numbers of citing and cited authors account for most of the activity; that syntax and semantics have occupied more attention from information scientists than other branches of linguistic theory; that information scientists have cited older works over time; and that most of the citations to linguistic theory belong to qualitative "non-use" categories. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG87-21619. AU CRAVER, KATHLEEN WOODS. IN University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Ph.D 1987, 241 pages. TI THE INFLUENCE OF THE AVAILABILITY OF AN ACADEMIC ONLINE CATALOG ON THE USE OF ACADEMIC LIBRARIES BY COLLEGE-BOUND HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS. SO DAI v48(07), SecA. DE Library Science. AB Five hypotheses were formulated to test the effect access to an academic online catalog in a school library had on the use of various library facilities and materials by college-bound high school seniors. Data for the analysis of this problem consisted of: (1) research assignment bibliographies gathered from 73 seniors without access to an academic online catalog in the school library (pre-online catalog students); (2) research assignment bibliographies collected from 80 seniors with access to an academic online catalog in the school library (post-online catalog students); and (3) 114 questionnaires gathered from students in both groups. The bibliographies were subjected to citation analysis to verify the library used for each reference. Aggregate totals were computed for each group and t-tests and analyses of variance were employed to determine if any statistically significant differences existed between pre-online catalog and post-online catalog students with respect to their use of academic libraries. The questionnaires were used: (1) to help verify the location source for questionable references; (2) to ascertain the degree of online catalog use between groups; and (3) to indicate the amount of student use of various library facilities and materials. The significant findings were: (1) Computerized access to an academic online catalog in the school library significantly influenced the use of academic libraries by college-bound high school seniors. Post-online catalog students cited more sources from academic libraries than pre-online catalog students. (2) Students with access to an academic online catalog in the school library cited more periodicals from academic libraries in their research assignment than students without access. (3) Post-online catalog students used a greater number of sources from the academic undergraduate library compared to pre-online catalog students. (4) Post-online catalog students cited fewer books and periodicals from one public library than did pre-online catalog students. The findings of this study suggest that school librarians should seriously consider: (1) joining a multitype network with computerized access to bibliographic materials and (2) modifying their bibliographic instruction units to include use of an online catalog and other types of libraries. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG87-17950. AU CROWE, JAN DEE. IN University of California, Berkeley Ph.D 1986, 134 pages. TI STUDY OF THE FEASIBILITY OF INDEXING A WORK'S SUBJECTIVE VIEWPOINT. SO DAI v48(05), SecA, pp1045. DE Library Science. AB Book selection policy places an obligation on the librarian to represent differing viewpoints in its collection. Yet viewpoint information is not systematically recorded in the catalogue or index record and is not accessible to researchers who might find such information relevant to their choice of research materials. This is because the library profession resists 'labeling,' is concerned about level of analysis, and maintains a self-image of 'neutrality,' which, it is feared, might be compromised by attempts to index a work's subjective viewpoint. A solution is offered throughout the study in a definition of 'viewpoint' which is developed in three stages. In the first stage, two types of viewpoint are recognized. The first type of viewpoint, as a dimension of the author's belief system, presents the librarian with an ethical dilemma and is eliminated from consideration. The second is a dimension of the subject matter and is expressed textually in two forms: the first is in the open position taken by the author and supported by a deliberate line of argument which is usually easily recognizable; the second is in the underlying assumptions made by the author regarding his topic and is not so easily recognizable. In the final stage of viewpoint definition, these crucial assumptions are made practically recognizable as 'closed questions'. In order to create a suitable climate for recognizing these closed questions, a change in index theory is suggested. 'Traditional' indexing has as its focus the summarization of content for the text in hand. It is suggested instead that the focus of the indexer should be upon the particular problem situation (i.e. topic plus questions addressed in the work on that topic) addressed by the author. Current procedures would not necessarily change a great deal. This new focus, if adopted, would improve many weak aspects of current theory and would, almost by the way, provide a natural and unforced space for a consideration of author viewpoint. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG87-16512. AU DALRYMPLE, PRUDENCE WARD. IN The University of Wisconsin - Madison Ph.D 1987, 326 pages. TI RETRIEVAL BY REFORMULATION IN TWO LIBRARY CATALOGS: TOWARD A COGNITIVE MODEL OF SEARCHING BEHAVIOR. SO DAI v48(07), SecA. DE Library Science. AB The study was designed to test hypotheses derived from a psychological theory of remembering. An analogy between patterns of retrieval from human long-term memory and information retrieval from bibliographic databases was proposed. The model, known as retrieval by reformulation, was first articulated by Williams and Tou in 1982. The setting for the research was the public catalog at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where a substantial portion of the library's bibliographic records is available in two formats, a card catalog and an online catalog. Forty university students in two groups were randomly assigned to the two catalogs and completed a series of five searches on specified topics. It was hypothesized that the two searching environments were sufficiently different, particularly in the degree and kind of feedback provided to searchers, to allow observation of differences on four classes of variables: search outcome, attitude toward the search experience and assessment of search results, perseverance, and number of reformulations. Findings indicated that greater perseverance and more frequent query reformulations were associated with the online searching context. Larger retrieval sets and more favorable search assessments were associated with the card catalog context. No significant differences were found between groups on the attitudinal measures; however, initial steps were taken toward identifying three effective constructs: "affability," "frustration," and "expectation." In order to observe the cognitive processes used in searching, subjects were asked to "think aloud" while they searched. Transcripts of these verbal protocols were used to identify reformulations and to further operationalize the theoretical construct "reformulation." Observations were made regarding the utility of protocol analysis in information retrieval research. Additional post hoc analyses included overlap of sets of retrieved items and investigation of variance associated with the use of test questions. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG87-20581. AU WALLS, FRANCINE ELIZABETH. IN Seattle University Ed.D 1987, 152 pages. TI CURRENT PERSPECTIVE AND ETHICAL CONCERNS OF INFORMATION INTERMEDIARIES IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST. SO DAI v48(06), SecA, pp1345. DE Library Science. AB This study examines the current perspective and ethical concerns of information intermediaries in the Pacific Northwest. Information intermediaries search for, prepare or analyze information for others, on demand, and for a fee. They have also been called information brokers, information consultants, information specialists and, fee-based information services. The study was based on the results of a mail questionnaire sent to the population of information intermediaries in the Pacific Northwest, and a telephone interview conducted with a random sample of the population. The two research instruments were used during November and December, 1986, and resulted in forty usable mail questionnaires and twelve completed interviews. The respondents were predominantly females, business owners, and holders of master's degrees in library science. The results of the study indicate that the majority of information intermediary firms in the Pacific Northwest are sole proprietorships located in British Columbia or Washington State. The primary focus of the firms is searching for information for others using online and manual literature searches although a variety of other services are offered. For the majority of the firms, the initial monetary outlay and the income are modest. Information intermediaries want their behavior to be ethical. Some are concerned about online searchers who are not adequately skilled in searching, and the lack of standards of performance for those in the field, in general. Little concern for legal liability is expressed; few firms have written codes of ethics, written contracts with disclaimers for inaccurate secondary information provided to a client, or liability insurance. ------------------------------ END OF IRList Digest ********************