UNT Theses and Dissertations - 89 Matching Results

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open access

Smoothing the information seeking path: Removing representational obstacles in the middle-school digital library.

Description: Middle school student's interaction within a digital library is explored. Issues of interface features used, obstacles encountered, search strategies and search techniques used, and representation obstacles are examined. A mechanism for evaluating user's descriptors is tested and effects of augmenting the system's resource descriptions with these descriptors on retrieval is explored. Transaction log data analysis (TLA) was used, with external corroborating achievement data provided by teachers.… more
Date: May 2002
Creator: Abbas, June M.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
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
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Perceived attributes of diffusion of innovation theory as predictors of Internet adoption among faculty members of Imam Mohammed Bin Saud University.

Description: The Internet is the most common communication and research tool worldwide. Perusal of the World Wide Web quickly reveals the variety of information available. Internet adoption can be considered the late 20th century's most important event. In academic environments today, Internet use among faculty members has been widely expanded, with professors now integrating Internet technology into classroom activities. Imam Muhammad Bin Saud Islamic University (IMSU) is a pioneering public university in … more
Date: May 2007
Creator: Almobarraz, Abdullah
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
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

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.
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.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries

Wayfinding tools in public library buildings: A multiple case study.

Description: Wayfinding is the process of using one or more tools to move from one location to another in order to accomplish a task or to achieve a goal. This qualitative study explores the process of wayfinding as it applies to locating information in a public library. A group of volunteers were asked to find a selection of items in three types of libraries-traditional, contemporary, and modern. The retrieval process was timed and the reactions of the volunteers were recorded, documented, and analyzed. Th… more
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Date: May 2004
Creator: Beecher, Ann B.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
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
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
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
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

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
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
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
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Date: August 2003
Creator: Du, Yunfei
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Supporting Computer-Mediated Collaboration through User Customized Agents

Description: This research investigated a neglected problem - interruption of groups by agent advisory systems. The question was whether interruption by the agent advisory system was beneficial. A survey of literature in four areas is included in this dissertation. The areas surveyed were Agents, Online Help, Computer Supported Cooperative Work(CSCW) and Awareness in CSCW. Based on the review, a human subject experiment was conducted. The study investigated whether the style of agent advisory interface impr… more
Date: December 2001
Creator: Ducksworth, Letatia Bright
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Cognitive Playfulness, Innovativeness, and Belief of Essentialness: Characteristics of Educators who have the Ability to Make Enduring Changes in the Integration of Technology into the Classroom Environment.

Description: Research on the adoption of innovation is largely limited to factors affecting immediate change with few studies focusing on enduring or lasting change. The purpose of the study was to examine the personality characteristics of cognitive playfulness, innovativeness, and essentialness beliefs in educators who were able to make an enduring change in pedagogy based on the use of technology in the curriculum within their assigned classroom settings. The study utilized teachers from 33 school distri… more
Date: August 2004
Creator: Dunn, Lemoyne Luette Scott
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
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
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

An Examination Of The Variation In Information Systems Project Cost Estimates: The Case Of Year 2000 Compliance Projects

Description: The year 2000 (Y2K) problem presented a fortuitous opportunity to explore the relationship between estimated costs of software projects and five cost influence dimensions described by the Year 2000 Enterprise Cost Model (Kappelman, et al., 1998) -- organization, problem, solution, resources, and stage of completion. This research was a field study survey of (Y2K) project managers in industry, government, and education and part of a joint project that began in 1996 between the University of Nort… more
Date: May 2000
Creator: Fent, Darla
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
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.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

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
open access

Relevance Thresholds: A Conjunctive/Disjunctive Model of End-User Cognition as an Evaluative Process

Description: This investigation identifies end-user cognitive heuristics that facilitate judgment and evaluation during information retrieval (IR) system interactions. The study extends previous research surrounding relevance as a key construct for representing the value end-users ascribe to items retrieved from IR systems and the perceived effectiveness of such systems. The Lens Model of user cognition serves as the foundation for design and interpretation of the study; earlier research in problem solving,… more
Date: December 2000
Creator: Greisdorf, Howard F.
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
open access

Negotiation, communication, and decision strategies used by hostage/crisis negotiators.

Description: By conducting this theory-based empirical study, gathering data from working negotiators in the US and Canada, I have determined what primary dynamic activities, communication skills, and negotiation tools are used by hostage/crisis negotiators. Negotiators implement their negotiation and decision strategies differently depending on whether the situations they deal with are instrumental or expressive. I have determined which elements of negotiations and factors affecting negotiations differ whi… more
Date: May 2008
Creator: Hancerli, Suleyman
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

MEDLINE Metric: A method to assess medical students' MEDLINE search effectiveness

Description: Medical educators advocate the need for medical students to acquire information management skills, including the ability to search the MEDLINE database. There has been no published validated method available to use for assessing medical students' MEDLINE information retrieval skills. This research proposes and evaluates a method, designed as the MEDLINE Metric, for assessing medical students' search skills. MEDLINE Metric consists of: (a) the development, by experts, of realistic clinical scen… more
Date: May 2000
Creator: Hannigan, Gale G.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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