International Journal of Information Science and Management
Volume:15 Issue: 1, Jan-Jun 2017

This paper aims to recognise Information Security Policies (ISP) and their relationship with the effectiveness of the Management Information Systems (MIS) of the major Palestinian universities in the Gaza Strip. The researchers used the descriptive analytical approach. They used a questionnaire as a research tool. They used a stratified random sample to explore viewpoints of the research sample which comprised 169 employees of The Islamic University – Gaza, Al Azhar University - Gaza, and Al-Quds Open University - Gaza Strip branches. The population comprised IT center employees and administrative departments’ employees who use MIS in their daily work. 152 questionnaires were collected, with a response rate of 89.94%. The study found that the research sample had shown a high degree of agreement on the ISP dimensions (Risk Assessment of Information Security, Senior Management Support, Reviewing and Updating of ISP, Enforcement of ISP, Training and Awareness of ISP). Those dimensions together gained a rate of 74%. The study also found that the research sample had shown a high degree of agreement on the field of the “Effectiveness of MIS”, with a rate of 81%. In addition, it demonstrated a statistically significance relationship level (α ≤ 0.05) between ISP and the effectiveness of the MIS of the major Palestinian universities in the Gaza Strip. It recommends that the universities should support the Information Security Policies from the process of risk assessment and creation of ISP to the process of continuous reviewing and updating of ISP. Furthermore, the universities should measure the effectiveness of their MIS periodically, to enhance this effectiveness and improve it regularly.

The knowledge and information science is more or less linked to other sciences due to its interdisciplinary nature. The interactions between different disciplines and taking advantage of each other’s knowledge can lead to problem solving and scientific advancements. Due to the relationship between information and communication, knowledge and information science has many common issues with communication science. In the present study, it has been tried to examine some of the issues and activities in the field of knowledge and information science from the perspective of agenda setting theory as one of the most important theories in the field of communication science. The results showed that agenda setting theory is closely related to knowledge and information science in three aspects including corporate reputation of libraries and information centers, users’ queries, and set-building in libraries.

Information Systems (IS) acquisition prescribes induction of information technologies (IT) in the organization. At times, IS is used for managing broader enterprise level issues like implementing e-business, e-commerce. Enterprise level issues are addressed through adequate involvement of people in the organization which are termed as “user capabilities”. Managing user capabilities is critical since their roles are very important in the entire Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC). It is seen that failures in IT acquisition are not because of the technology, but failure in choosing it rightly, and poor user capabilities. If planned properly, user capabilities can contribute effectively to SDLC. SDLC works in stages with different sets of users and insensitivities to users contribute to the gap between satisfying organizational needs and end-user deliveries. This problem can be addressed by carefully integrating user capability issues in the SDLC process. In this paper a framework is suggested to capture user capabilities in an IT acquiring organization. User capabilities are identified in two categories: IT users who are IT experts and involved in design, development, and implementation of SDLC driven projects, and, second, non-IT users who, despite having inadequate or no exposure to IT, contribute to SDLC driven projects. The framework is implemented through Unified Modelling Language (UML) based approach. A case discusses the utility of this approach.

This study aims to determine the relationship between innovation climate and the librarian's innovative behavior in Organization of Libraries, Museums and Documentation Center of Astan Quds Razavi, as the largest public library of Iran. The methodology for this study is based on a survey research. To this purpose, the innovative behavior questionnaire and Ekvall's (1996) innovation climate, developed by the Creative Problem Solving Group, Buffalo, USA, were used. The study population consisted of 104 librarians working in Organization of Libraries, Museums and Documentation Center of Astan Quds Razavi. The results show that there is a significant relationship between innovative behavior of librarians and innovation climate in the library (44%). That is, innovation climate and innovative behavior factors can explain 44% of variation in each other. The findings show that innovation climate exists at an average level (mean: 3.24) in Organization of Libraries, Museums and Documentation Center of Astan Quds Razavi. Among the dimensions of innovation climate, challenge (3.44) and trust (2.86) achieved the highest and the lowest mean respectively. In general, the librarian's innovative behavior was found to be at an average level (2.44).This behavior was above average at the two stages of idea discovery (2.6) and idea generation (2.54), whilst it was at the medium level at the two stages of idea support (2.321) and idea implementation (2.33). This is the first research to study the relationship between innovation climate and innovative behavior of librarians in the library organization.

The paper provides an overview over the functionalities of the proposed harvesting model (BURA – Burdwan University Research Archive) and describes the activities involved in harvesting resources from OAI compliant LIS (Library and Information Science) repositories. Repositories, registered in OpenDOAR database, containing 'Library and Information Science' as one of the key subject have been considered and finally 117 repositories have been short listed on the basis of framed criteria. The purpose of this paper is to report an integrated Web-enabled distributed harvesting model that can extract and update metadata index efficiently from any OAI-PMH driven repositories on global scale. The findings suggest that LIS repositories are not up to the global standards and lack contents compared to others disciplinary repositories. It should follow open standards and should respect essence of interoperability. The model may be an interoperability solution to the professional librarians in designing and developing federated search option for multiple repositories from a single-window search interface. Thus, it may be concluded that this proposed harvesting framework may work as a guiding tool to those who plan to set up new OAI-based service provider.

Collaboration is a central aspect of research, with variable impact on research output and quality. Its assessment is commonly based on citation count, but this is an inadequate measure in biomedical research. The aim of this preliminary study is to determine the impact of collaboration at three levels on the quality of dental therapy research using a valid and reliable instrument. Ninety-nine papers published in four ISI dental journals were analyzed using the MINCIR scale for methodological quality (MQ). Correlations and a linear regression model were used to determine the impact of collaboration on MQ. There was a positive and significant correlation between MQ and number of authors (r=0.2991; p=0.0026) and countries (r=0.2253; p=0.0249), but not institutions (r=0.1750; p=0.0832). The linear regression model for MQ explains 20.32% of the variance; only the number of authors and journal quartile were significant. Collaboration has little impact on MQ in this area.

Book social media are reading communities primarily developed as online social networks. This study aims to find precise criteria and indicators for evaluation of book social network and examine and rank the most popular book social networks. The sample population included 10 English and two Persian book/reading social networks publicly available on the Web. A checklist containing 9 main criteria and 35 indicators was built up through a Delphi study and it was used to gather the characteristics of the sample networks. The results indicate that Shelfari has the highest number of features (87%) and therefore it ranks first. In contrast, Bisheh, a Persian social network, contains only 60% of the features and ranks last. The results reveal that there is no meaningful statistical difference among the scores. In other words, all of the twelve book/reading social networks contain almost similar features and have more than 50% of indicators. Several technical indicators were ignored as it was impossible to access and examine inner layers of the studied websites. In general, Persian book social network scored less than English ones and this can be related to smaller number of audience, little interest in such online communities or language barriers in developing book social networks. These findings can lead to new patterns and recommendations for different societies to improve their book social networks as these websites can encourage reading. Unlike general social networks, little work has been done on book/reading social network in order to reflect their structural functional characteristics. Besides, this paper has resulted in specific criteria and indicators for evaluation of book social networks which can be used as a tool for future studies.

The main purpose of present study is to figure out the web usage rate with emphasize on the invisible web, with using Max Weber's ideal type among faculty members of Science College of Bahonar University of Kerman. The present study is a survey, and the statistical population is 109 full-time faculty members of the Science college of Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, the sample size how was 36 calculated using Cochran method. For data collection, the researchers made questionnaire were used which assessed its validity and reliability. Cronbach's alpha coefficient of .76 indicates the validity of the questionnaire. Data were analyzed using required descriptive tests, such as frequency, frequency percent, mean and standard deviation. Finally, in order to assess the practical usage and attitudes of staff members of the invisible Web, Bahonar University of Max Weber's model has been fitted, use and based on the model for analysis of Web users, four loaders, loaders, ideal type model.The findings of the study show that the main aim of searching for information by faculty were research, educational and upgrading their knowledge base in the field of their specialty. Most Web usage of faculty members in the visible web was using search engines, and in the invisible web was using databases. Google search engine and the sharing databases of university (especially science direct) have been most used tools to meet information needs of statistical society. They use advanced methods for searching and also use operators in their search strategy. Our findings showed that the faculty members use both parts of the Web to access scientific information and resources. They have been distributed in every four ideal type. 62.2% of faculty members use visible web regularly, but only 8 percent of them use invisible web regularly because of the lack of familiarity with the invisible web and lack of requiring trainings.

This study investigates how contextual factors such as culture, geographical location and religious status may either encourage, determine or prevent information seeking behavior. The study applied both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection as a mixed-method. Fifteen Catholic clergymen from Northern Nigeria were interviewed and 109 participated in a survey. Findings show that geographical location, culture, and religious status may influence these clergy’s information seeking behavior. This paper contributes to research on information seeking in context. It may help in understanding the effects of some contextual factors, especially religious status, on information seeking behavior and, consequently, aid in the planning of library and information systems that meet the needs of the African clergy and theological institutions.

Science popularization is an exigency in the era of knowledge explosion which has made the dissemination of scientific knowledge and attitudes of public aligned with such understanding of a prerequisite for further development of all societies. The concept of SKAQ has been introduced with an accompanying argument that can play a constructive part in making an objective determination of nation’s attainment level. The author, then, explicates a variety of rationales behind such proposition and maintains that in light of such rationales the Islamic nations can be regarded as prime candidates for urgent policy and action in this respect. A conceptual framework has been developed envisions of science popularization at two critical layers referred to as the institutional and cultural one. At both layers, though, the formal schooling is argued to have a pronounced role to play. Finally, certain recommendations as action principles have been suggested to consolidate future efforts in this respect.