Volume 28, Issue 1

Background. Services for older adults are becoming accepted as a separate user service category at Japanese public libraries. From the perspective that older adults are themselves supposed to support the community in this super-aged society, there is a growing need to give positive assistance to older adults as library patrons and information seekers.
Objective. This paper examines the information seeking behavior of older adults at a public library, including how they select information search tools, as well as their reasons and perception underlying such behavior.
Methods. Experiments were conducted at a public library to investigate actual information behavior, and interviews were carried out to clarify user perceptions of public libraries and user needs.
Results. The information seeking behavior of older adults at public libraries can be categorized into three patterns: Case 1 where the Library Usage Frequency is High; Case 2 where the Library Usage Frequency is Low and There is Preference for Search Method; and Case 3 where the Library Usage Frequency is Low and There is No Preference for Search Method.
Contributions. The study has identified some information seeking behavior patterns of older adults at public libraries. Some challenges in current services are identified, and directions for future services to older adults are proposed.

Background. The Duke Law Scholarship Repository is a successful digital repository of an American law school, with over 1 million downloads per year. A series of studies were conducted to understand the relationship between metadata work and downloads.
Objective. The paper reports an analysis of the relationships between certain metadata elements and repository downloads.
Methods. Quantitative statistical methods, specifically correlation, t-test and multiple regression analysis, were used.
Results. Statistically significant relationships were found between download frequency and factors relating to abstract, co-authors, page count and discipline. Negative statistically significant relationships were found between download frequency and free text keywords, as well as controlled vocabulary subject terms.
Contributions. This study is an example of how in-use repository system administrators can demonstrate the impact of metadata work for institutional scholarly outreach. Also, this study adds another dimension to the keyword and searching/download literature that has been building since the 1970s.

Background. Providing appropriate library services to students is a challenging task for university librarians. The library at Loei Rajabhat University has some concerns about its small number of visitors. The question of “what is known about the situation?” was raised. As an attempt to answer this question, data mining was employed to gain insights into library and student data.
Objective. This study used two data mining algorithms—Naïve Bayes and C4.5 decision tree induction—to analyze the data. The results of the data mining were intended to be used in promoting undergraduate students to physically visit the library.
Method. Data include students’ library gate entry collected from the library database and student data collected from the university registrar’s office.
Results. The data mining yielded interesting results. Senior students were found to use the library less than younger students. There were two faculties whose students come to the library less than 50%. Current GPA was found to be an influential attribute for predicting library visit.
Contributions. The research identified useful student attributes for predicting library visit. The results of the data mining can be used to increase the rate of library use by organizing activities that target those attributes. For example, the library can collaborate with the instructors to organize programs for students with low GPA.

Background. There is growing expectation at university campuses for interdisciplinary research that combines multiple spheres of knowledge to deal with increasingly complex social issues. However, few studies have focused on researchers’ attributes because of the challenge of disambiguating researchers’ names.
Objective. We analyze the interdisciplinarity of six fields from two points of view focusing on the diversity of researchers’ specializations: the number of researchers’ fields of specialization; and the dispersion of the number of researchers among the fields of specialization.
Methods. We investigated the number of different fields of specialization for not only the targeted field as a whole but also for each researcher and article. As for dispersion among the fields of specialization, we calculated Simpson’s D and Shannon’s H’.
Results. The findings indicate that the targeted 6 fields were progressing in interdisciplinarity. On the other hand, for individual researchers, the number of different fields of specialization tends to decrease with years.