Academics Perceptions of Electronic Resources at the University of Venda, South Africa

This study examined the perceptions of academic researchers regarding electronic resources (e-resources) provided by the library at the University of Venda (UNIVEN), South Africa. The quantitative research approach and survey research design were adopted to conduct the investigation. Data was collected using a self-administered structured questionnaire randomly distributed to 45 UNIVEN academics. The findings of this study revealed that although academics at UNIVEN find e-resources easy to use, believe the resources improve academic performance, and frequently encouraged postgraduate students to use them, the majority of them had plagiarism concerns and were only moderately satisfied with available e-resources at UNIVEN. This study recommends that the university library should train academics on plagiarism detection. In addition, the library should adopt innovative ways of improving e-resource services, such as providing an Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) with advanced and federated search capabilities.

Prospects and Challenges of Web 3.0 Technologies Application in the Provision of Library Services

The chapter examines the prospects and challenges of the application of Web 3.0 technologies as they relate to semantic web, federated search, mobile application, and their impact on library services. The principles, features, application, potentiality, and challenges of the technologies vis-à-vis library services form the broad objectives that guided the chapter. Following a brief retrospective review of the developments of web technologies, the chapter discusses Web 3.0 from the context of semantic web, cloud computing, federated search and virtual reference services. It broadens the prospects of Web 3.0 as it affects the provision of web-based services like its flexibility as solution to digital content volatility and ability to widen cloud-based services using open source electronic library software among others. Having expatiated the challenges Web 3.0 portends for web-based library services, the chapter concludes with the need for librarians and users to co-create value for participatory librarianship.

Physiotherapists’ Use of Web-Based Information Resources to Fulfill Their Information Needs During a Theoretical Examination: Randomized Crossover Trial

Background The widespread availability of internet-connected smart devices in the health care setting has the potential to improve the delivery of research evidence to the care pathway and fulfill health care professionals’ information needs. Objective This study aims to evaluate the frequency with which physiotherapists experience information needs, the capacity of digital information resources to fulfill these needs, and the specific types of resources they use to do so. Methods A total of 38 participants (all practicing physiotherapists; 19 females, 19 males) were randomly assigned to complete three 20-question multiple-choice questionnaire (MCQ) examinations under 3 conditions in a randomized crossover study design: assisted by a web browser, assisted by a federated search portal system, and unassisted. MCQ scores, times, and frequencies of information needs were recorded for overall examination-level and individual question-level analyses. Generalized estimating equations were used to assess differences between conditions for the primary outcomes. A log file analysis was conducted to evaluate participants’ web search and retrieval behaviors. Results Participants experienced an information need in 55.59% (845/1520) MCQs (assisted conditions only) and exhibited a mean improvement of 10% and 16% in overall examination scores for the federated search and web browser conditions, respectively, compared with the unassisted condition (P<.001). In the web browser condition, Google was the most popular resource and the only search engine used, accounting for 1273 (64%) of hits, followed by PubMed (195 hits; 10% of total). In the federated search condition, Wikipedia and PubMed were the most popular resources with 1518 (46% of total) and 1273 (39% of total) hits, respectively. Conclusions In agreement with the findings of previous research studies among medical physicians, the results of this study demonstrate that physiotherapists frequently experience information needs. This study provides new insights into the preferred digital information resources used by physiotherapists to fulfill these needs. Future research should clarify the implications of physiotherapists’ apparent high reliance on Google, whether these results reflect the authentic clinical environment, and whether fulfilling clinical information needs alters practice behaviors or improves patient outcomes.

Embedding based learning for collection selection in federated search

PurposeThere have been many challenges in crawling deep web by search engines due to their proprietary nature or dynamic content. Distributed Information Retrieval (DIR) tries to solve these problems by providing a unified searchable interface to these databases. Since a DIR must search across many databases, selecting a specific database to search against the user query is challenging. The challenge can be solved if the past queries of the users are considered in selecting collections to search in combination with word embedding techniques. Combining these would aid the best performing collection selection method to speed up retrieval performance of DIR solutions.Design/methodology/approachThe authors propose a collection selection model based on word embedding using Word2Vec approach that learns the similarity between the current and past queries. They used the cosine and transformed cosine similarity models in computing the similarities among queries. The experiment is conducted using three standard TREC testbeds created for federated search.FindingsThe results show significant improvements over the baseline models.Originality/valueAlthough the lexical matching models for collection selection using similarity based on past queries exist, to the best our knowledge, the proposed work is the first of its kind that uses word embedding for collection selection by learning from past queries.

A Federated Online Search Tool for Biospecimens (Sample Locator): Usability Study

Background The German Biobank Alliance (GBA) aims to establish a cross-site biobank network. For this endeavor, the so-called Sample Locator, a federated search tool for biospecimens and related data, has been developed, forming the heart of its information technology (IT) infrastructure. Objective To ensure the sustainable use of such a tool, we included researchers as participants in an end user–based usability evaluation. Methods To develop a prototype ready for evaluation, we needed input from GBA IT experts. Thus, we conducted a 2-day workshop with 8 GBA IT team members. The focus was on the respective steps of a user-centered design process. With the acquired knowledge, the participants designed low-fidelity mock-ups. The main ideas of these mock-ups were discussed, extracted, and summarized into a comprehensive prototype using Microsoft PowerPoint. Furthermore, we created a questionnaire concerning the usability of the prototype, including the System Usability Scale (SUS), questions on negative and positive aspects, and typical tasks to be fulfilled with the tool. Subsequently, the prototype was pretested on the basis of this questionnaire with researchers who have a biobank background. Based on this preliminary work, the usability analysis was ultimately carried out with researchers and the results were evaluated. Results Altogether, 27 researchers familiar with sample requests evaluated the prototype. The analysis of the feedback certified a good usability, given that the Sample Locator prototype was seen as intuitive and user-friendly by 74% (20/27) of the participants. The total SUS score by the 25 persons that completed the questionnaire was 80.4, indicating good system usability. Still, the evaluation provided useful advice on optimization potential (eg, offering a help function). Conclusions The findings of this usability analysis indicate that the considerations regarding a user-friendly application that have been made in the development process so far strongly coincide with the perception of the study participants. Nevertheless, it was important to engage prospective end users to ensure that the previous development is going in the desired direction and that the Sample Locator will be used in the future. The user comments and suggestions for improvement will be considered in upcoming iterations for refinement.

Physiotherapists’ Use of Web-Based Information Resources to Fulfill Their Information Needs During a Theoretical Examination: Randomized Crossover Trial (Preprint)

BACKGROUND The widespread availability of internet-connected smart devices in the health care setting has the potential to improve the delivery of research evidence to the care pathway and fulfill health care professionals’ information needs. OBJECTIVE This study aims to evaluate the frequency with which physiotherapists experience information needs, the capacity of digital information resources to fulfill these needs, and the specific types of resources they use to do so. METHODS A total of 38 participants (all practicing physiotherapists; 19 females, 19 males) were randomly assigned to complete three 20-question multiple-choice questionnaire (MCQ) examinations under 3 conditions in a randomized crossover study design: assisted by a web browser, assisted by a federated search portal system, and unassisted. MCQ scores, times, and frequencies of information needs were recorded for overall examination-level and individual question-level analyses. Generalized estimating equations were used to assess differences between conditions for the primary outcomes. A log file analysis was conducted to evaluate participants’ web search and retrieval behaviors. RESULTS Participants experienced an information need in 55.59% (845/1520) MCQs (assisted conditions only) and exhibited a mean improvement of 10% and 16% in overall examination scores for the federated search and web browser conditions, respectively, compared with the unassisted condition (<i>P</i>&lt;.001). In the web browser condition, Google was the most popular resource and the only search engine used, accounting for 1273 (64%) of hits, followed by PubMed (195 hits; 10% of total). In the federated search condition, Wikipedia and PubMed were the most popular resources with 1518 (46% of total) and 1273 (39% of total) hits, respectively. CONCLUSIONS In agreement with the findings of previous research studies among medical physicians, the results of this study demonstrate that physiotherapists frequently experience information needs. This study provides new insights into the preferred digital information resources used by physiotherapists to fulfill these needs. Future research should clarify the implications of physiotherapists’ apparent high reliance on Google, whether these results reflect the authentic clinical environment, and whether fulfilling clinical information needs alters practice behaviors or improves patient outcomes.

Translating Clinical Questions by Physicians Into Searchable Queries: Analytical Survey Study

Background Staying up to date and answering clinical questions with current best evidence from health research is challenging. Evidence-based clinical texts, databases, and tools can help, but clinicians first need to translate their clinical questions into searchable queries. MacPLUS FS (McMaster Premium LiteratUre Service Federated Search) is an online search engine that allows clinicians to explore multiple resources simultaneously and retrieves one single output that includes the following: (1) evidence from summaries (eg, UpToDate and DynaMed), (2) preappraised research (eg, EvidenceAlerts), and (3) non-preappraised research (eg, PubMed), with and without validated bibliographic search filters. MacPLUS FS can also be used as a laboratory to explore clinical questions and evidence retrieval. Objective Our primary objective was to examine how clinicians formulate their queries on a federated search engine, according to the population, intervention, comparison, and outcome (PICO) framework. Our secondary objective was to assess which resources were accessed by clinicians to answer their questions. Methods We performed an analytical survey among 908 clinicians who used MacPLUS FS in the context of a randomized controlled trial on search retrieval. Recording account log-ins and usage, we extracted all 1085 queries performed during a 6-month period and classified each search term according to the PICO framework. We further categorized queries into background (eg, “What is porphyria?”) and foreground questions (eg, “Does treatment A work better than B?”). We then analyzed the type of resources that clinicians accessed. Results There were 695 structured queries, after exclusion of meaningless queries and iterations of similar searches. We classified 56.5% (393/695) of these queries as background questions and 43.5% (302/695) as foreground questions, the majority of which were related to questions about therapy (213/695, 30.6%), followed by diagnosis (48/695, 6.9%), etiology (24/695, 3.5%), and prognosis (17/695, 2.5%). This distribution did not significantly differ between postgraduate residents and medical faculty physicians (P=.51). Queries included a median of 3 search terms (IQR 2-4), most often related to the population and intervention or test, rarely related to the outcome, and never related to the comparator. About half of the resources accessed (314/610, 51.5%) were summaries, 24.4% (149/610) were preappraised research, and 24.1% were (147/610) non-preappraised research. Conclusions Our results, from a large sample of real-life queries, could guide the development of educational interventions to improve clinicians’ retrieval skills, as well as inform the design of more useful evidence-based resources for clinical practice. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02038439; https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02038439

Mason OER Metafinder

The Mason OER Metafinder (MOM) is a federated search tool created by George Mason University Libraries that searches Open Educational Resources (OER) repositories. The tool features an interface that searches 21 resources including major OER sites like OpenStax and digital repositories like Digital Public Library of America. The reviewers noted several issues with the tool and search results including ambiguous search terms and facets, confusion with the date functionality and search results that included copyrighted materials.