Volume 73, Issue 4

The Library of Congress Classification system was designed during the age of colonialism, and as such, poorly represents the information-seeking behavior of present-day users. Students of Judaica are especially hindered by the limited scope of the B class (Philosophy and Religion) of the Library of Congress Classification system, which extensively classifies Christian material, but limits the thematic classification of Judaic subjects. Qualitative data collected on students of Jewish thought via a proposed questionnaire is anticipated to shed light on the specialized information-seeking behavior of Judaic students. The thematic coding and analysis of such data would assist in selecting an appropriate classification system that will complement Judaica scholarship or facilitate the creation of a novel classification system. More inclusively, such an endeavor may contribute to the understanding of specialized efforts in librarianship.

This paper examines the Bad News series of games, created by the Cambridge University Social Decision Making Lab and DROG Group, as an educational tool. More specifically, it considers Bad News as a persuasive game, within the umbrella of gamification. After considering the history and context of the game, the educational, motivational, and informational theoretical frameworks of the games, research, and criticisms, this paper concludes that the games are not, in themselves, transformative.

This theoretical paper explores the significance of Internet memes to the field of information research. Adopting a constructivist framework, it conceptualizes memes as documents that undermine popular assumptions about people’s engagements with information. In particular, it argues that Internet memes are conceptual tools through which people can negotiate different representations of reality and the logics that underlie them. Through a close reading of several memetic examples, I propose that memes are a means through which Internet users document and test their values against those of others, thereby allowing them to explore the different courses of action associated with situations they encounter. Memetic communication is thus presented as an important new information literacy practice that has critical implications for the following research areas: education, freedom of expression, ethics and policy, and the preservation of cultural heritage.

What are the motivations and sought gratifications leading information science researchers to share and to reuse research data? Research data are both datasets and supplementary materials such as interview guides or questionnaires. The theoretical backgrounds of this study are the Lasswell Formula of Communication, the Uses and Gratifications Theory, and the Self-determination Theory, which formed the basis for the construction of an interview guide and the interpretation of the interview transcripts. We performed 11 in-depth interviews with German information scientists, all with experiences with data. The results demonstrate that research data sharing is not a rare practice among information scientists. Due to problems with different information horizons of the sharing and the reusing researchers, the reusing of data sets is much rarer than the reuse of supplementary materials.

Kuwait University Library has invested in electronic information resources (EIR) to facilitate users’ access to library materials. However, this has been insufficiently investigated to identify the factors that influence the use of EIR. Therefore, this study aims to explore the factors influencing the use of EIR by faculty members at Kuwait University, as the study further aims to enhance library services. Specifically, the study uses a modified technology acceptance model (TAM) to investigate whether the perceived ease-of-use, the perceived usefulness, and prior experience of using EIR affect their adoption. The EIR adoption, consequently, impacts the faculty’s academic performance. A mixed-method approach was adopted using the questionnaire and interview tools sequentially to collect primary data from faculty members at the College of Social Science, Kuwait University. Out of 116 questionnaires sent to participants, 48 were returned, yielding a 41 % response rate, which was supplemented with ten semi-structured interviews. The quantitative results, which were supported by the qualitative findings, indicate that the perceived ease-of-use, the perceived usefulness, and prior experience significantly influenced the adoption of EIR, and that adoption significantly impacted the academic performance. Moreover, the qualitative findings revealed the challenges that EIR users encountered. Recommendations and future research are also discussed.

Despite his many contributions to bibliography and librarianship, the importance of the German librarian Julius Petzholdt (1812–91) has rarely been recognized. This article argues that Petzholdt’s significance becomes clearer when viewed from a transcultural, and specifically transatlantic, perspective. The first part of the article highlights the part played by Petzholdt’s long-lived bibliographical periodical, the Anzeiger für Bibliographie und Bibliothekswissenschaft , in disseminating knowledge of North American libraries and librarianship to a broad scholarly audience in the second half of the nineteenth century. Conversely, the second section of the article illustrates how Arnim Graesel’s 1890 and 1902 editions of Petzholdt’s seminal work on library economy, the Katechismus der Bibliothekenlehre (1856), serve to illuminate bibliothecal themes from Western Europe that were adopted, adapted, and perpetuated by North American librarians during the same period. Overall, the article emphasizes that Petzholdt and his contributions played a key role in the transatlantic circulation of bibliothecal knowledge during a critical period in the evolution of librarianship as a profession.

Increasing and persistent social divisions are a global challenge that threaten the stability of our societies and soundness of our democracies. Public libraries can potentially play an ameliorative role in reducing these divisions. Qualitative data analysis of Oslo’s public library system’s (Deichman) programming and events is used to understand how libraries are addressing social divisions in their communities. The findings suggest that a variety of events organized by Deichman directly contribute to overcoming social divisions, especially those related to economic inequalities, sociocultural factors, and the unequal access to digital technologies. Deichman also appears to contribute to overcoming social divisions indirectly through its programing and events related to more traditional library services. The study concludes that Deichman may be a significant player in addressing social divisions. Lastly, the study provides important insights into the role of libraries as social arenas and their ability to foster community resilience, tolerance, and democracy.

The present research investigated the effect of information literacy on the academic performance of business students enrolled at the top seven business education institutions from urban Sindh, Pakistan. A quantitative research approach using a cross-sectional survey was used to conduct this investigation. The data were collected from 385 business students enrolled in different degree programs using a questionnaire. The recruitment of the participants was done through proportionate stratified simple random and systematic sampling techniques, with the results indicating that business students are information literate. In addition, the information literacy of business students appeared as a positive predictor of their academic performance. These results may inform policy and practice to improve business education and might be useful for business educators, policymakers, librarians, and business accrediting bodies (e.g., National Business Education Accreditation Council and Higher Education Commission) in designing a needs-based information literacy instruction program and curriculum for business students of all levels for better human-information interaction. This study contributed to the existing literature on the effectiveness of information literacy in academia, particularly on business students’ academic performance, as no such research was available in the existing literature at the time of writing this article, specifically from the South-Asian region.