Purpose – This paper seeks to discuss reliability problems associated with questionnaires, commonly employed in library and information science. It aims to focus on the effects of “common method variance” (CMV), which is a form of bias, and ways of countering these effects....

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of a number of human individual differences on the web searching of a sample of the general public. Design/methodology/approach – In total, 91 members of the general public performed 195 controlled searches. Search activity and...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report research that sought to understand the requirements of information systems designed to support people engaged in creative intellectual activity. The research aimed to provide empirical evidence based on a case study of a particular arena of...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a study of knowledge management understanding and usage in small and medium knowledge‐intensive enterprises. Design/methodology/approach – The study has taken an interpretitivist approach, using two knowledge‐intensive South Yorkshire...

Purpose Academic contention occurs when research evidence is amenable to more than one interpretation. China has a long tradition of Shang Que (商榷), in which authors argue for their preferred interpretation. The modern form of this tradition is the Shang Que article, which often takes the...

This paper reports the results of a study funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Board which sought to investigate links between Web search strategies and retrieval effectiveness. A total of 68 students, enrolled on masters programmes in librarianship, information management and information...

“Serendipity” has both a classical origin in literature and a more modern manifestation where it is found in the descriptions of the problem solving and knowledge acquisition of humanities and science scholars. Studies of information retrieval and information seeking have also discussed the...

Based on a review of constructs that have been the subject of both educational and information science research, a model of learning‐related information behaviour is developed. The model details components of such behaviour, including: basic information processes, information processing types...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review recent developments in educational informatics relating to the provision by information systems of pedagogical support to web‐based learners, and to propose further investigation of the feasibility and potential value of web‐based...