UNT Theses and Dissertations - 129 Matching Results

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A mechanism for richer representation of videos for children: Calibrating calculated entropy to perceived entropy

Description: This study explores the use of the information theory entropy equation in representations of videos for children. The calculated rates of information in the videos are calibrated to the corresponding perceived rates of information as elicited from the twelve 7 to 10 year old girls who were shown video documents. Entropy measures are calculated for several video elements: set time, set incidence, verbal time, verbal incidence, set constraint, nonverbal dependence, and character appearance. As hy… more
Date: August 2001
Creator: Kearns, Jodi
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries

Constraints on Adoption of Innovations: Internet Availability in the Developing World.

Description: In a world that is increasingly united in time and distance, I examine why the world is increasingly divided socially, economically, and digitally. Using data for 35 variables from 93 countries, I separate the countries into groups of 31 each by gross domestic product per capita. These groups of developed, lesser developed and least developed countries are used in comparative analysis. Through a review of relevant literature and tests of bivariate correlation, I select eight key variables that … more
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Date: December 2006
Creator: Stedman, Joseph B.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries

News photography image retrieval practices: Locus of control in two contexts.

Description: This is the first known study to explore the image retrieval preferences of news photographers and news photo editors in work contexts. Survey participants (n=102) provided opinions regarding 11 photograph searching methods. The quantitative survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, while content analysis was used to evaluate the qualitative survey data. In addition, news photographers and news photo editors (n=11) participated in interviews. Data from the interviews were analyzed… more
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Date: May 2006
Creator: Neal, Diane Rasmussen
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Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Quality Management in Museum Information Systems: A Case Study of ISO 9001-2000 as an Evaluative Technique

Description: Museums are service-oriented information systems that provide access to information bearing materials contained in the museum's collections. Within museum environments, the primary vehicle for quality assurance and public accountability is the accreditation process of the American Association of Museums (AAM). Norbert Wiener founded the field of cybernetics, employing concepts of information feedback as a mechanism for system modification and control. W. Edwards Deming applied Wiener's principl… more
Date: May 2005
Creator: Karr, Fred H.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Privacy Concerns and Personality Traits Influencing Online Behavior: A Structural Model

Description: The concept of privacy has proven difficult to analyze because of its subjective nature and susceptibility to psychological and contextual influences. This study challenges the concept of privacy as a valid construct for addressing individuals' concerns regarding online disclosure of personal information, based on the premise that underlying behavioral traits offer a more reliable and temporally stable measure of privacy-oriented behavior than do snapshots of environmentally induced emotional s… more
Date: May 2005
Creator: Grams, Brian C.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries

The Effect of Information Literacy Instruction on Library Anxiety Among International Students

Description: This study explored what effect information literacy instruction (ILI) may have on both a generalized anxiety state and library anxiety specifically. The population studied was international students using resources in a community college. Library anxiety among international students begins with certain barriers that cause anxiety (i.e., language/communication barriers, adjusting to a new education/library system and general cultural adjustments). Library Anxiety is common among college student… more
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Date: May 2004
Creator: Battle, Joel C.
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Partner: UNT Libraries
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Computer Support Interactions: Verifying a Process Model of Problem Trajectory in an Information Technology Support Environment.

Description: Observations in the information technology (IT) support environment and generalizations from the literature regarding problem resolution behavior indicate that computer support staff seldom store reusable solution information effectively for IT problems. A comprehensive model of the processes encompassing problem arrival and assessment, expertise selection, problem resolution, and solution recording has not been available to facilitate research in this domain. This investigation employed the fi… more
Date: December 2006
Creator: Strauss, Christopher Eric
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

What makes a quality Ph.D. program in library and information sciences?

Description: The intent of this study was to establish and validate criteria for use to assess the quality of a library and information sciences (LIS) Ph.D. program. The Ph.D. student-centric topology for quality Ph.D. programs was developed from a 2001 position statement by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) regarding the quality indicators in research-focused doctoral programs in nursing. Topology components were tested using a survey instrument to establish their importance to the com… more
Date: December 2006
Creator: Klingler, Scott Lavell
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Online and the Onsite Holocaust Museum Exhibition as an Informational Resource

Description: Museums today provide learning-rich experiences and quality informational resources through both physical and virtual environments. This study examined a Holocaust Museum traveling exhibition, Life in Shadows: Hidden Children and the Holocaust that was on display at the Art Center of Battle Creek, Michigan in fall 2005. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to assess the informational value of a Holocaust Museum exhibition in its onsite vs. online format by converging quantitative and qua… more
Date: December 2006
Creator: Lincoln, Margaret L.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

A Framework of Automatic Subject Term Assignment: An Indexing Conception-Based Approach

Description: The purpose of dissertation is to examine whether the understandings of subject indexing processes conducted by human indexers have a positive impact on the effectiveness of automatic subject term assignment through text categorization (TC). More specifically, human indexers' subject indexing approaches or conceptions in conjunction with semantic sources were explored in the context of a typical scientific journal article data set. Based on the premise that subject indexing approaches or concep… more
Date: December 2006
Creator: Chung, EunKyung
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Usability of a Keyphrase Browsing Tool Based on a Semantic Cloud Model

Description: The goal of this research was to facilitate the scrutiny and utilization of Web search engine retrieval results. I used a graphical keyphrase browsing interface to visualize the conceptual information space of the results, presenting document characteristics that make document relevance determinations easier.
Date: August 2006
Creator: Johnston, Onaje Omotola
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Intangible Qualities of Rare Books: Toward a Decision-Making Framework for Preservation Management in Rare Book Collections, Based Upon the Concept of the Book as Object

Description: For rare book collections, a considerable challenge is involved in evaluating collection materials in terms of their inherent value, which includes the textual and intangible information the materials provide for the collection's users. Preservation management in rare book collections is a complex and costly process. As digitization and other technological advances in surrogate technology have provided new forms representation, new dilemmas in weighing the rare book's inherently valuable charac… more
Date: May 2006
Creator: Sheehan, Jennifer Karr
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Improving Recall of Browsing Sets in Image Retrieval from a Semiotics Perspective

Description: The purpose of dissertation is to utilize connotative messages for enhancing image retrieval and browsing. By adopting semiotics as a theoretical tool, this study explores problems of image retrieval and proposes an image retrieval model. The semiotics approach conceptually demonstrates that: 1) a fundamental reason for the dissonance between retrieved images and user needs is representation of connotative messages, and 2) the image retrieval model which makes use of denotative index terms is a… more
Date: May 2006
Creator: Yoon, JungWon
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Functional Ontology Construction: A Pragmatic Approach to Addressing Problems Concerning the Individual and the Informing Environment

Description: Functional ontology construction (FOC) is an approach for modeling the relationships between a user and the informing environment by means of analysis of the user's behavior and the elements of the environment that have behavioral function. The FOC approach is an application of behavior analytic techniques and concepts to problems within information science. The FOC approach is both an alternative and a compliment to the cognitive viewpoint commonly found in models of behavior in information … more
Date: May 2006
Creator: Anderson, Richard L.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Adoption and Use of Electronic Information Resources by a Non-Traditional User Group: Automotive Service Technicians.

Description: The growing complexity of machines has led to a concomitant increase in the amount and complexity of the information needed by those charged with servicing them. This, in turn, has led to a need for more robust methods for storing and distributing information and for a workforce more sophisticated in its use of information resources. As a result, the service trades have "professionalized," adopting more rigorous academic standards and developing ongoing certification programs. The current pape… more
Date: May 2006
Creator: Almquist, Arne J.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Sanctioned and Controlled Message Propagation in a Restrictive Information Environment: The Small World of Clandestine Radio Broadcasting

Description: This dissertation seeks to identify the elements that inform the model for competing message propagation systems in a restrictive environment. It pays attention to message propagation by sanctioned and clandestine radio stations in pre- and post-independent Zimbabwe. This dissertation uses two models of message propagation in a limiting information environment: Sturges' information model of national liberation struggle and Chatman's small world information model. All the message propagation el… more
Date: December 2007
Creator: Wachanga, David Ndirangu
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The intersection of social networks in a public service model: A case study.

Description: Examining human interaction networks contributes to an understanding of factors that improve and constrain collaboration. This study examined multiple network levels of information exchanges within a public service model designed to strengthen community partnerships by connecting city services to the neighborhoods. The research setting was the Neighbourhood Integrated Service Teams (NIST) program in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. A literature review related information dimensions to the municipal str… more
Date: December 2007
Creator: Schultz-Jones, Barbara Ann
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

An exploratory study of factors that influence student user success in an academic digital library.

Description: The complex nature of digital libraries calls for appropriate models to study user success. Calls have been made to incorporate into these models factors that capture the interplay between people, organizations, and technology. In order to address this, two research questions were formulated: (1) To what extent does the comprehensive digital library user success model (DLUS), based on a combination of the EUCS and flow models, describe overall user success in a prototype digital library environ… more
Date: December 2007
Creator: Rahman, Faizur
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries

Implications of the inclusion of document retrieval systems as actors in a social network.

Description: Traditionally, social network analysis (SNA) techniques enable the examination of relationships and the flow of information within networks of human members or groups of humans. This study extended traditional social network analysis to include a nonhuman group member, specifically a document retrieval system. The importance of document retrieval systems as information sources, the changes in business environments that necessitates the use of information and communication technologies, and the … more
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Date: December 2005
Creator: Macpherson, Janet Robertson
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

A multi-dimensional entropy model of jazz improvisation for music information retrieval.

Description: Jazz improvisation provides a case context for examining information in music; entropy provides a means for representing music for retrieval. Entropy measures are shown to distinguish between different improvisations on the same theme, thus demonstrating their potential for representing jazz information for analysis and retrieval. The calculated entropy measures are calibrated against human representation by means of a case study of an advanced jazz improvisation course, in which synonyms for "… more
Date: December 2005
Creator: Simon, Scott J.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Knowledge management in times of change: Tacit and explicit knowledge transfers.

Description: This study proposed a look at the importance and challenges of knowledge management in times of great change. In order to understand the information phenomena of interest, impacts on knowledge workers and knowledge documents in times of great organizational change, the study is positioned in a major consolidation of state agencies in Texas. It pays special attention to how the changes were perceived by the knowledge workers by interviewing those that were impacted by the changes resulting fro… more
Date: December 2005
Creator: Hall, Heather Leigh
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries

Terrorism as a social information entity: A model for early intervention.

Description: This dissertation studies different social aspects of terrorists and terrorist organizations in an effort to better deal with terrorism, especially in the long run. The researcher, who also worked as a Police Captain at Turkish National Police Anti-Terrorism Department, seeks solutions to today's global problem by studying both literature and a Delphi examination of a survey of 1070 imprisoned terrorists. The research questions include questions such as "What are the reasons behind terrorism?",… more
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Date: August 2005
Creator: Yayla, Ahmet
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Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Makeshift Information Constructions: Information Flow and Undercover Police

Description: This dissertation presents the social virtual interface (SVI) model, which was born out of a need to develop a viable model of the complex interactions, information flow and information seeking behaviors among undercover officers. The SVI model was created from a combination of various philosophies and models in the literature of information seeking, communication and philosophy. The questions this research paper answers are as follows: 1. Can we make use of models and concepts familiar to o… more
Date: August 2005
Creator: Aksakal, Baris
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Partner: UNT Libraries
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A Complex Systems Model for Understanding the Causes of Corruption: Case Study - Turkey

Description: It is attempted with this dissertation to draw an explanatory interdisciplinary framework to clarify the causes of systemic corruption. Following an intense review of political sciences, economics, and sociology literatures on the issue, a complex systems theoretical model is constructed. A political system consists of five main components: Society, interest aggregators, legislative, executive and private sector, and the human actors in these domains. It is hypothesized that when the legitimacy… more
Date: August 2005
Creator: Yasar, Muhammet Murat
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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