Search Results

open access

Coyote Ugly Librarian: A Participant Observer Examination of Lnowledge Construction in Reality TV.

Description: Reality TV is the most popular genre of television programming today. The number of reality television shows has grown exponentially over the last fifteen years since the premier of The Real World in 1992. Although reality TV uses styles similar to those used in documentary film, the “reality” of the shows is questioned by critics and viewers alike. The current study focuses on the “reality” that is presented to viewers and how that “reality” is created and may differ from what the participants… more
Date: May 2007
Creator: Holmes, Haley K.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Assessment of a Library Learning Theory by Measuring Library Skills of Students Completing an Online Library Instruction Tutorial

Description: This study is designed to reveal whether students acquire the domains and levels of library skills discussed in a learning library skills theory after participating in an online library instruction tutorial. The acquisition of the library skills is demonstrated through a review of the scores on online tutorial quizzes, responses to a library skills questionnaire, and bibliographies of course research papers. Additional areas to be studied are the characteristics of the participants enrolled in … more
Date: May 2007
Creator: Watson, Dana L.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Human concept cognition and semantic relations in the unified medical language system: A coherence analysis.

Description: There is almost a universal agreement among scholars in information retrieval (IR) research that knowledge representation needs improvement. As core component of an IR system, improvement of the knowledge representation system has so far involved manipulation of this component based on principles such as vector space, probabilistic approach, inference network, and language modeling, yet the required improvement is still far from fruition. One promising approach that is highly touted to offer a … more
Date: August 2007
Creator: Assefa, Shimelis G.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Are Online Catalogs for Children Giving Them What They Need? Children's Cognitive Development and Information Seeking and Their Impact on Design

Description: Research shows children in an online environment often search by browsing, which relies heavily on recognition and content knowledge, so catalog systems for children must use effective symbols or pictorial representations, which correspond with children's own cognitive schema and level of recognition knowledge. This study was designed to look at the success of young children (ages 5 to 8) in searching 3 online public library catalogs designed for them, and it focused specifically on the pictori… more
Date: August 2007
Creator: Creel, Stacy
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Officer attitudes toward organizational change in the Turkish National Police.

Description: This dissertation emphasizes the importance of the human factor in the organizational change process. Change - the only constant - is inevitable for organizations and no change program can be achieved without the support and acceptance of organization members. In this context, this study identifies officer attitudes toward organizational change in the Turkish National Police (TNP) and the factors affecting those attitudes. The Officer Attitude Model created by the researcher includes six main f… more
Date: August 2007
Creator: Durmaz, Huseyin
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Widening the lens: An interdisciplinary approach to examining the effect of exposure therapy on public speaking state anxiety.

Description: This study used an interdisciplinary approach to examine an intervention for reducing public speaking state anxiety. A quasi-experiment was conducted to determine if a multiple-exposure treatment technique (TRIPLESPEAK) would help to attenuate public speaking anxiety. The treatment group reported experiencing significantly less state anxiety during their post-test presentation than did the control group. This lead to the conclusion that exposure therapy can be used to help students enrolled in … more
Date: August 2007
Creator: Finn, Amber N.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Respect for human rights and the rise of democratic policing in Turkey: Adoption and diffusion of the European Union acquis in the Turkish National Police.

Description: This study is an exploration of the European Union acquis adoption in the Turkish National Police. The research employed the Diffusion of Innovations, Democratic Policing, and historical background check theoretical frameworks to study the decision-making of the TNP regarding reforms after 2003 as a qualitative case study which triangulated the methodology with less-dominant survey and several other analyzing methods. The data were collected from several sources including semi-structured interv… more
Date: August 2007
Creator: Lofca, Izzet
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

An exploration of the diffusion of a new technology from communities of practice perspective: Web services technologies in digital libraries.

Description: This study explored and described decision factors related to technology adoption. The research used diffusion of innovations and communities of practice (CoP) theoretical frameworks and a case study of Web services technology in the digital library (DL) environment to develop an understanding of the decision-making process. A qualitative case study approach was used to investigate the research problems and data were collected through semi-structured interviews, documentary evidence (e.g., meet… more
Date: August 2007
Creator: Oguz, Fatih
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Reading selection as information seeking behavior: A case study with adolescent girls.

Description: The aim of this research, Reading Selection as Information Seeking Behavior: A Case Study with Adolescent Girls, was to explore how the experience of reading fiction affects adolescent girls aged 13 through 15, and how that experience changes based upon four activities: journaling, blogging, a personal interview, and a focus group session. Each participant reflects upon works of her own choosing that she had recently read. The data is evaluated using content analysis with the goal of developing… more
Date: August 2007
Creator: Reynolds, Stephanie D.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Modeling the role of blogging in librarianship

Description: This phenomenological study examines the motivations and experiences of librarians who author professionally-focused Weblogs. I constructed a model of librarianship based on Wilson and Buckland. The results show a close fit between librarian bloggers and the ideals of the field as expressed by two primary library and information science philosophers. A Web survey generated 239 responses to demographic and open-ended questions. Using the results of the survey, I analyzed demographic data and per… more
Date: August 2007
Creator: Stephens, Michael
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

A Conceptual Map for Understanding the Terrorist Recruitment Process: Observation and Analysis of Turkish Hezbollah Terrorist Organizations.

Description: Terrorism is a historical problem; however, it becomes one of the biggest problems in 21st century. September 11 and the following Madrid, Istanbul and London attacks showed that it is the most significant problem threatening world peace and security. Governments have started to deal with terrorism by improving security measurements and making new investments to stop terrorism. Most of the governments' and scholars' focus is on immediate threats and causes of terrorism, instead of looking at lo… more
Date: August 2007
Creator: Teymur, Samih
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Discovering a Descriptive Taxonomy of Attributes of Exemplary School Library Websites

Description: This descriptive study examines effective online school library practice. A Delphi panel selected a sample of 10 exemplary sites and helped to create two research tools--taxonomies designed to analyze the features and characteristics of school library Websites. Using the expert-identified sites as a sample, a content analysis was conducted to systematically identify site features and characteristics. Anne Clyde's longitudinal content analysis of school library Websites was used as a baseline to… more
Date: August 2007
Creator: Valenza, Joyce Kasman
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Police officers' adoption of information technology: A case study of the Turkish POLNET system.

Description: One of the important branches of government and vital to the community, police agencies are organizations that have high usage rates of information technology systems since they are in the intelligence sector and thus have information incentives. Not only can information technologies develop intra- and inter-relationships of law enforcement agencies, but they also improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the police officers and agencies without adding additional costs. Thus, identifying the … more
Date: August 2007
Creator: Yalcinkaya, Ramazan
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

E-Learning and In-Service Training: An Exploration of the Beliefs and Practices of Trainers and Trainees in the Turkish National Police

Description: This targeted research study, carried out by an officer of the Turkish National Police (TNP), investigated the perceptions and beliefs of TNP trainers and trainees towards the potential adoption and implementation of e-learning technology for in-service police training. Utilizing diffusion and innovation theory (DOI) (Rogers, 1995) and the conceptual technology integration process model (CTIM) (Nicolle, 2005), two different surveys were administered; one to the trainers and one to the trainees.… more
Date: August 2007
Creator: Zengin, Selcuk
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Visual perception in relation to levels of meaning for children: An exploratory study.

Description: This study explores distinct levels of meaning from images of picture books perceived by 3- to 5-year-old children and investigates how the certain visual perception factors influence children's meaning making and if these factors are correlated. The literature review supports associations among visual perception, information, picture books, meaning, and children. Visual perception serves as the first channel that filters and interprets visual information, and picture books provide visual and v… more
Date: August 2007
Creator: Yu, Xinyu
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Perceived value of journals for academic prestige, general reading and classroom use: A study of journals in educational and instructional technology.

Description: Conducting research, evaluating research, and publishing scholarly works all play an extremely prominent role for university faculty members. Tenure and promotion decisions are greatly influenced by the perceived value of publications as viewed by members of faculty evaluation committees. Faculty members seeking tenure may be limited to publishing in a limited group of journals perceived to be valuable by members of an academic committee. This study attempted to determine the value of various k… more
Date: May 2003
Creator: Bray, Kaye Evitt
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Accessing Information on the World Wide Web: Predicting Usage Based on Involvement

Description: Advice for Web designers often includes an admonition to use short, scannable, bullet-pointed text, reflecting the common belief that browsing the Web most often involves scanning rather than reading. Literature from several disciplines focuses on the myriad combinations of factors related to online reading but studies of the users' interests and motivations appear to offer a more promising avenue for understanding how users utilize information on Web pages. This study utilized the modified Per… more
Date: May 2003
Creator: Langford, James David
Partner: UNT Libraries

An Empirical Investigation of Critical Factors that Influence Data Warehouse Implementation Success in Higher Educational Institutions

Description: Data warehousing (DW) in the last decade has become the technology of choice for building data management infrastructures to provide organizations the decision-making capabilities needed to effectively carry out its activities. Despite its phenomenal growth and importance to organizations the rate of DW implementation success has been less than stellar. Many DW implementation projects fail due to technical or organizational reasons. There has been limited research on organizational factors and… more
Access: Restricted to UNT Community Members. Login required if off-campus.
Date: May 2003
Creator: Mukherjee, Debasish
Partner: UNT Libraries

Measuring the accuracy of four attributes of sound for conveying changes in a large data set.

Description: Human auditory perception is suited to receiving and interpreting information from the environment but this knowledge has not been used extensively in designing computer-based information exploration tools. It is not known which aspects of sound are useful for accurately conveying information in an auditory display. An auditory display was created using PD, a graphical programming language used primarily to manipulate digital sound. The interface for the auditory display was a blank window. Whe… more
Access: Restricted to UNT Community Members. Login required if off-campus.
Date: May 2003
Creator: Holmes, Jason
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Children's Color Association for Digital Image Retrieval.

Description: In the field of information sciences, attention has been focused on developing mature information retrieval systems that abstract information automatically from the contents of information resources, such as books, images and films. As a subset of information retrieval research, content-based image retrieval systems automatically abstract elementary information from images in terms of colors, shapes, and texture. Color is the most commonly used in similarity measurement for content-based image … more
Date: August 2003
Creator: Chang, Yun-Ke
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Information systems assessment: development of a comprehensive framework and contingency theory to assess the effectiveness of the information systems function.

Description: The purpose of this research is to develop a comprehensive, IS assessment framework using existing IS assessment theory as a base and incorporating suggestions from other disciplines. To validate the framework and to begin the investigation of current IS assessment practice, a survey instrument was developed. A small group of subject matter experts evaluated and improved the instrument. The instrument was further evaluated using a small sample of IS representatives. Results of this research inc… more
Date: August 2003
Creator: Myers, Barry L.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Physiology of Collaboration: An Investigation of Library-Museum-University Partnerships

Description: Collaboration appears to be a magical solution for many problems when there is scarcity of resources, lack of knowledge or skills, and/or environmental threats. However, there is little knowledge about the nature of collaboration. A holistic conceptual framework was developed for the collaborative process, and the conceptualization process used systems thinking approach. The author has selectively chosen conceptualizations and/or research by a limited subset of scholars whose ideas appeared to … more
Date: August 2003
Creator: Morales Arroyo, Miguel Angel
Partner: UNT Libraries

An Evaluation of the Effect of Learning Styles and Computer Competency on Students' Satisfaction on Web-Based Distance Learning Environments

Description: This study investigates the correlation between students' learning styles, computer competency and student satisfaction in Web-based distance learning. Three hundred and one graduate students participated in the current study during the Summer and Fall semesters of 2002 at the University of North Texas. Participants took the courses 100% online and came to the campus only once for software training. Computer competency and student satisfaction were measured using the Computer Skill and Use Asse… more
Access: Restricted to UNT Community Members. Login required if off-campus.
Date: August 2003
Creator: Du, Yunfei
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The gathering and use of information by fifth grade students with access to Palm® handhelds.

Description: Handheld computers may hold the possibility for a one-to-one computer: student ratio. The impact of the use of Palm® (Palm, Inc.) handhelds on information acquisition and use by 5th grade students in a North Texas school during a class research project was investigated. Five research questions were examined using observation, interviews, surveys, and document analysis. Are there differences in information gathering and use with the Palm between gifted, dyslexic, and regular learners? What relev… more
Date: December 2003
Creator: Peet, Martha Stuart Williamson
Partner: UNT Libraries
Back to Top of Screen