Purpose – The purpose of this study is to develop a multiple regression model that can be used to predict the number of patrons that seek assistance at the reference desk of the library. This will facilitate the scheduling of the reference desk librarians. Design/methodology/approach – A...

Purpose – This study aims to provide insight on the meaning of communication overload as experienced by modern academic librarians. Communication is the essence of reference librarianship, and a practically endless array of synchronous and asynchronous communication tools (ICTs) are available...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to use the sociology of time to understand how time is perceived by academic librarians who provide reference and information service (RIS). Design/methodology/approach This study is a qualitative secondary analysis (QSA) of two phenomenological studies about...

The integration of the Internet has affected all functions of the library, particularly reference services. In the reference department, this integration has led to the utilisation of new tools and methods for providing information to library users. This study investigates the effect of the...

We propose a model of search term selection process based on our empirical study of professional searchers during the pre-online stage of the search process. The model characterizes the selection of search terms as the navigation of different discourses. Discourse refers to the way of talking...

Urban sensing systems that use mobile phones enable individuals and communities to collect and share data with unprecedented speed, accuracy and granularity. But employing mobile handsets as sensor nodes poses new challenges for privacy, data security, and ethics. To address these challenges,...

For decades, the Codes of Fair Information Practice have served as a model for data privacy, protecting personal information collected by governments and corporations. But professional data management standards such as the Codes of Fair Information Practice do not take into account a world of...

This chapter critically analyses and assesses the concept and development of Web 2.0 within small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Web 2.0 is changing the way that business can be conducted, offering SMEs opportunities for developing strategies, business models and supply chains whilst adding...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to suggest an alternative to the widely used Times Cited criterion for analysing citation networks. The approach involves taking account of the natures of the papers that cite a given paper, so as to differentiate between papers that attract the same...