scholarly journals Web Usability Policies/Standards/Guidelines (PSGs) do not Influence Practices at ARL Academic Libraries

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
Shandra Protzko

A Review of: Chen, Yu-Hui, Carol Anne Germain and Huahai Yang. “An Exploration into the Practices of Library Web Usability in ARL Academic Libraries.” Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 60.5 (2009): 953-68. Objective – To survey the current status of Web usability Policies/Standards/Guidelines (PSGs) found in academic libraries of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). Researchers sought to investigate whether PSGs are in place, the levels of difficulty surrounding implementation, the impact of PSGs on design, testing, and resource allocation, and the relationship between ARL ranking and usability practice or PSGs. Design – Survey. Setting – North America. Subjects – Academic libraries of the ARL. Methods – An 18-question survey consisting of multiple choice, Likert scale, and open-ended questions was sent to all 113 ARL libraries in November 2007. Survey recipients were selected as the person in charge of Web site usability by visiting library Web sites and phone inquiry. The survey was concluded in January 2008 with a response rate of 74% (84 institutions). The researchers used t-test to detect any difference in ARL library ranking between libraries with and without PSGs. Pair-wise t-tests were conducted to identify gaps in difficulty implementing PSGs. In addition, they used Pearson’s Correlation to investigate any significant correlations between variables such as ARL rank and resource allocation. Main Results – Of the 84 respondents, 34 (40%) have general library Web PSGs and 25 (30%) have specific usability PSGs; 41 (49%) have at least one type of in-library PSG. Of the 43 (51%) libraries that do not have PSGs, 30 (36%) are at universities with institutional Web usability PSGs; 26 (87%) follow those guidelines. There was no statistically significant relationship between ARL ranking and PSG status (see Table 1). The authors asked about difficulty in implementing PSGs. Of the 32 libraries responding to a question about general library Web PSGs, most had slight or moderate difficulty. Twenty-three libraries with specific usability PSGs identified difficulty levels; some had no difficulty, but a majority had moderate difficulty. For the 26 libraries using institutional Web usability PSGs, most had no or slight difficulty. Pair-wise t-tests showed that library Web usability PSGs were significantly more difficult to implement than university Web usability PSGs. Enforcement/agreement issues were reported as the primary difficulty in implementing in-library PSGs. Technical issues and ambiguity were obstacles at the institutional level. More than half of the 84 libraries have Web advisory committees and about one third have usability committees or Web usability subcommittees. Several libraries answered that they have none of these committees, but indicated that they have some sort of ad hoc committee or user study group to address usability issues. Of the 84 respondents, 71 (85%) have conducted usability testing. Sixty-two libraries (73.8%) rated usability testing as important, very important, or extremely important: the rate given for the importance of usability testing did not correlate with ARL ranking. Cited most often in open ended questioning were the importance of iterative testing, library wide buy-in, and staff and resource availability. Main web pages were tested most frequently. Fifty-three libraries (74.6%) tested their lower level pages at least once. OPACs were tested the least often. The amount of testing was impacted neither by the existence of library Web PSGs nor usability PSGs. The top two testing methods were in-person observation and think aloud protocol. Of the 84 libraries, 24 (28%) reported having staff dedicated to Web usability issues; twenty full-time staff and four part-time staff. There was a weak association between ARL ranking and hours worked by dedicated staff; no association existed for regular staff who take on Web responsibilities. Fifty-one (60%) of libraries had regular staff whose duties included Web usability; forty-six full-time and five part-time. Training did not correlate to amount of testing methods used. There was a weak link between ALR ranking and availability of resources and, the authors showed, more testing was done as resources increased. In response to a query about future Web usability plans, the focus was on usability testing and site redesign, with only three libraries planning to refine or establish usability PSGs. Conclusion – The authors hypothesized that “web usability PSGs would influence usability practice within libraries and other institutions” (953). The data show that PSGs do not influence practices. The authors conclude that there is no significant relationship between PSGs and testing practices or PSGs and the availability of resources. Likewise, ARL ranking had no effect on the establishment of usability PSGs. Most libraries are conducting usability testing, and there was a weak link between ARL ranking and availability of testing resources. Highlighted in the open-ended questions is the lack of usability expertise among stakeholders. Workload, inadequate human resources, and lack of organizational cohesion are also cited as barriers to the adoption of Web usability PSGs. The authors speculate that Web professionals likely use their own working knowledge and internalized guidelines without having formal documentation. The authors further speculate that the difficulty related to creating mental models that adequately represent library tasks may hinder the use of formal usability PSGs. Additionally, libraries may not regard the lack of usability PSGs as a liability, especially in light of the lack of government mandates or standards. The authors recommend educational efforts for key players on the value of Web usability, support for hiring dedicated staff, and formal documentation to guide design practice. The authors plan to compare the collected PSGs in an upcoming project. Future research could focus on non-ARL libraries, the relationship between PSGs and user experience, and Content Management System (CMS) usability characteristics.

Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 241
Author(s):  
Bencheng Liu ◽  
Yangang Fang

Understanding the relationship between households’ livelihoods and agricultural functions is important for regulating and balancing households’ and macrosocieties’ agricultural functional needs and formulating better agricultural policies and rural revitalization strategies. This paper uses peasant household survey data obtained from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) and statistical analysis methods, to analyze the differences in livelihood assets and agricultural functions of households with different livelihood strategies and the relationship between livelihood assets and agricultural functions. Households are categorized based on their livelihood strategies as full-time farming households, part-time farming I households, part-time farming II households, and non-farming households. The agricultural product supply and negative effects of the ecological service function of full-time farming households are higher than those of part-time farming and non-farming households. Part-time farming I households have the strongest social security function, while non-farming households have the weakest social security function. Non-farming households have the strongest leisure and cultural function, while part-time farming I households have the weakest leisure and cultural function. Households’ demand for agricultural functions is affected by livelihood assets. Effective measures should be taken to address contradictions in the agricultural functional demands of households and macrosocieties.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunhong Hao ◽  
Jie Hao ◽  
Xiaochen Wang

Purpose Focusing on the corporations in China and aiming to figure out the significant connection between organizational justice perception and job satisfaction from Chinese setting, this study aimed to examine the effects of organizational justice upon job satisfaction of the full-time and part-time employees in the state owned enterprise (SOEs) and primate Chinese companies. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted the questionnaire to investigate more than 300 employees, and the empirical data of this paper is based on statistical analysis, such as confirmatory factor analysis, correlational and regression analysis. Findings The paper arrives at the conclusion that in SOEs, the employees’ perception about procedural justice was higher than distributive justice. While in private enterprises, the procedural justice and interactive justice were tested to have similar coefficients. The relationship between organizational justice and job satisfaction differed between full-time employees and part-time employees. Practical implications This study opens a new window for understanding how organizational justice influences employees’ job satisfaction in Chinese context, taking a further step to explore the different impacts of organizational justice on job satisfaction among different types of employees. Originality/value This paper collected data from both SOE and private companies in China, increasing the external validity of the findings. Meanwhile, the authors observed consistent findings with the studies in Western Society, which increase the generalization of our findings as well. The findings highlight the value of integrating literatures on organizational justice and job satisfaction.


2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 771-787 ◽  
Author(s):  
Makiko Hori

Abstract Using the 2006 East Asian Social Survey, the current study examines the relationship between wives’ employment status and their marital satisfaction in China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. The results show that full-time housewives are more satisfied as compared to full-time employed wives in Taiwan, while part-time employed wives are less satisfied than full-time employed wives in China. Wives’ marital satisfaction is also associated with their gender role attitudes, husband’s housework participation, and a number of family members in Japan and South Korea. The relationship between wives’ employment and their marital satisfaction varies even among four East Asian countries, where gender climate is relatively similar.


2008 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Pep Simo ◽  
Jose M Sallan ◽  
Vicenç Fernandez

The importance of part-time work has been growing in recent years, due to its significant increase in today's societies, and higher education institutions have not been alien to this trend. The present research tries to study the relationship between organizational commitment and job satisfaction with the intention to leave the institution, comparing part-time and full-time faculty. An empirical research, grounded in the model proposed by Currivan (1999), has been undertaken, with a sample of faculty of ETSEIAT, a college of the Technical University of Catalonia. Results show the existence of the relationships with organizational commitment, job satisfaction and intention to leave predicted in the literature, and significant differences in job satisfaction and organizational commitment between part-time and full-time faculty. The paper ends with some proposals of further research.


2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nohora Bohórquez Bohórquez

The proposed research aims to determine the relationship between dean´sleadership and organizational commitment among faculty at universities in Colombia. A quantitative research design will guide the study to determine therelationship among leadership style of deans and organizational commitment. The multifactor leadership questionnaire (MLQ) developed by Bass in 1985 andthe organizational commitment questionnaire (OCQ) developed by Meyer andAllen in 1999 will be the instruments administered to collect the data and toexplain the relationship among the proposed variables. The study sample includes part-time and full-time faculty of the National University of Colombia, Sergio Arboleda University and CESA University located in the city of Bogotá,Colombia.


2010 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manjit Singh Sandhu ◽  
Kamal Kishore Jain ◽  
Mohar Yusof

Most past studies on studentsʼ entrepreneurial intention tend to focus on the phenomenon in developed countries.There is limited research on entrepreneurial intention of university students from developing nations. This article intends to close this gap by providing some insights into students℉ entrepreneurial inclination in a developing country, Malaysia. A total of 234 students from three faculties at both graduate and undergraduate levels were surveyed to examine their entrepreneurial inclination and also to examine the relationship between their demographic and social characteristics with entrepreneurial inclination.The study found strong entrepreneurial inclination among the students. Significant difference was found between students studying part time and full time and their entrepreneurial inclination. Significant difference was also found between the type of program enrolled in and students℉ entrepreneurial inclination. Further analysis and other findings were reported and recommendation for future research are been put forth in this article.


1977 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Powell

The relationship of employment status to symptoms was studied in 40 graduates of an Eastern woman's college who had been out of college 35 years and were in their late fifties at the time of the study. All subjects were married women in the “empty nest” stage of life. Women employed full-time were found to have significantly lower symptom scores than women not employed outside the home, with women employed part-time occupying an intermediate position.


Author(s):  
Imene Bendaoud

Objective: (1) Describe the current literature on the relationship between EDS and SEP and (2) provide recommendations for consideration of SEP in sleep medicine and biomedical research. Methods: Databases Medline/Pubmed, Web of Science, Google scholar and Scopus were screened using PRISMA guidelines and 19 articles were included in the final synthesis. Results: All studies were cross-sectional. Among these studies, 21.05% (n = 4) are focused on children and adolescent and the lasting 88.95% (n = 15) focused on adults and old people. Age ranged between 8 and 17 years old for children/adolescent and ranged from 18 until 102 years old for adults. Main SEP measures presented in these studies were education, income, perceived socioeconomic status and employment. Sample size in these studies varied from N = 90 participants until N = 33865 participants. Overall, a lower educational level, a lower income and full-time employment were associated with EDS. EDS symptoms are prevalent in women, especially those with a low income or no job; and children and adolescents with difficult living conditions or people working part-time reported more sleep disturbances. Conclusions: SEP is already considered as an important determinant for many health outcomes, but if SEP is embedded in experimental design in psychosomatic research, biomedical research and clinical practice as a constant variable regardless of outcome; it will move forward future investigations.


2003 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 394-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyungro Chang ◽  
Packianathan Chelladurai

This study investigated the differences in job attitudes between part-time (n= 96) and full-time (n= 82) workers in Korean sports organizations. They responded to a questionnaire including Meyer and Allen's (1984) scales for affective (AC) and continuance commitment (CC), and Smith, Organ, and Neat’s (1983) organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analyses of the data supported the subscale structures and the equivalence of measurement in the two groups. The full-time workers scored significantly higher on AC and OCB while the part-time workers scored higher on CC. While the relationship between AC and OCB was positive and significant in both groups, it was stronger in the full-time group than in the part-time group. The relationship between CC and OCB was significant and negative only in the case of the full-time group. The implication is that part-time work is not as conducive as fall-time work for developing affective commitment or organizational citizenship behavior.


1998 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marjorie Armstrong-Stassen ◽  
Rowaida Al-Ma ◽  
Sheila J. Cameron ◽  
Martha E. Horsburgh

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