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Now showing 1 - 10 of 12
  • (2005) Zhu, Liming; Aurum, Aybuke; Jeffery, David; Gorton, Ian
    Journal Article
    Software architecture evaluation involves evaluating different architecture design alternatives against multiple quality-attributes. These attributes typically have intrinsic conflicts and must be considered simultaneously in order to reach a final design decision. AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process), an important decision making technique, has been leveraged to resolve such conflicts. AHP can help provide an overall ranking of design alternatives. However it lacks the capability to explicitly identify the exact tradeoffs being made and the relative size of these tradeoffs. Moreover, the ranking produced can be sensitive such that the smallest change in intermediate priority weights can alter the final order of design alternatives. In this paper, we propose several in-depth analysis techniques applicable to AHP to identify critical tradeoffs and sensitive points in the decision process. We apply our method to an example of a real-world distributed architecture presented in the literature. The results are promising in that they make important decision consequences explicit in terms of key design tradeoffs and the architecture`s capability to handle future quality attribute changes. These expose critical decisions which are otherwise too subtle to be detected in standard AHP results.

  • (2006) Kennan, Mary Anne; Wilson, Concepción
    Journal Article
    To review the current literature and discussion on institutional repository (IR) and open access (OA) issues, to provide examples from the Information Systems (IS) literature, and to propose the use of IS literature and further research to inform understanding of institutional repository implementations for library managers. Methodology/Approach: Recent literature is reviewed to provide the background to, and current issues in, the development of institutional repositories to support open access to refereed research output. Practical implications: Existing research is identified, as are areas for potential research. Brief examples from IS literature are provided which may provide strategies for libraries and other organisations to speed up their implementation of IR to provide access to, and management of, their own institutions refereed research output. Value of paper: The paper brings together recent opinion and research on IR and OA to provide librarians and other information managers with a review of the field, and proposes research on IR and OA building on existing IS as well as information management and librarianship research.

  • (2010) Wilson, Concepción S.; Kennan, Mary Anne; Willard, Patricia; Boell, Sebastian K
    Journal Article
    This paper investigates the academization of library and information science (LIS)educators in Australia from 1959 to 2008. Extensive data document the distribution of these academics in Australian higher education institutions over fifty years: from a slow beginning in the 1960s, to rapid growth in the 1970s, relative stability in the 1980s, and a persistent decline from the 1990s. Results of other characteristics of Australian LIS educators over the fifty-year period are presented including: previous positions held before entering academia, what and where academic qualifications were obtained, academic positions/ranks by gender, mobility within Australian higher education institutions, and years spent as Australian LIS educators. Although there has been a steady decline in the number of Australian LIS educators since the 1990s, the level of academic qualifications and percentage with doctorates have risen, thus conforming to a major requirement of academia; however, the relative decline in junior academic positions is a worrying trend. The analysis of changed characteristics over time helps define who Australian LIS academics are, and additionally provides data that contributes to LIS academic workforce planning.

  • (2010) Boell, Sebastian K; Cecez-Kecmanovic, Dubravka
    Journal Article
    Conducting a literature review is a vital part of any research. Library and information science (LIS) professionals often play a central role in supporting academics in their efforts to locate relevant publications and in teaching novice researchers skills associated with literature reviews. This paper examines literature review processes with the aim to contribute to better understanding of their complexity and uncertainty and to propose a new approach to literature reviews that is capable of dealing with such complexity and uncertainty.

  • (2010) Kennan, Mary Anne; Cecez-Kecmanovic, Dubravka; Underwood, Jim
    Journal Article
    This article explores some of the issues associated with giving non-human actors a voice of their own in actor-network theory based research. What issues do we face in doing so? Does doing so increase understanding of the issue to hand, bring to life and make more accessible and interesting the stories of these actors? Or does this anthropomorphism detract from the issues at hand? We discuss these broader issues and then present some findings from an ANT field study which investigated the implementation of institutional repositories and their relations with the spread of open access to scholarly publishing. We experiment with allowing some of the non-human actors to speak for themselves. We conclude with a discussion which opens the debate: does giving voice to non-human actors bring them to life and make them better understood as intimately entangled with each other and human actors in the sociomaterial practices of the everyday? And what are the challenges in doing so?

  • (2006) Kennan, Mary Anne; Willard, Patricia; Wilson, Concepción
    Journal Article
    This paper reports the findings of an exploratory study of position vacant announcements appropriate for library and information studies (LIS) graduates appearing in the Sydney Morning Herald over a four week period in each of the following years: 2004, 1994, 1984 and 1974. The period studied witnessed change-demanding developments in information technologies as well as changes in workplace conditions and client expectations. The study collected data on the demands of employers as expressed through job advertisements that included data on work status (full-time, part-time, contract, casual), qualifications and the experience required of the information professional at the selected timeslots. To investigate similarities and differences between periods a content analysis and co-word analysis of the job advertisements was undertaken. The ads indicated a movement from simple advertisements in 1974 inviting applications for reference or technical services librarians, to complex and specialised positions being advertised in 2004 where the most called for attributes were interpersonal skills and behavioural characteristics.

  • (2008) Kennan, Mary Anne; Willard, Patricia; Cecez-Kecmanovic, Dubravka; Wilson, Concepción
    Journal Article
    The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of the knowledge, skills and competencies demanded of early career information systems (IS) graduates in Australia. Online job advertisements from 2006 were collected and investigated using content analysis software to determine the frequencies and patterns of occurrence of specific requirements. This analysis reveals a dominant cluster of core IS knowledge and competency skills that revolves around IS Development as the most frequently required category of knowledge (78% of ads) and is strongly associated with: Business Analysis, Systems Analysis; Management; Operations, Maintenance & Support; Communication Skills; Personal Characteristics; Computer Languages; Data & Information Management; Internet, Intranet, Web Applications; and Software Packages. Identification of the core cluster of IS knowledge and skills – in demand across a wide variety of jobs – is important to better understand employers’ needs for and expectations from IS graduates and the implications for education programs. Much less prevalent is the second cluster that includes knowledge and skills at a more technical side of IS (Architecture and Infrastructure, Operating Systems, Networks, and Security). Issues raised include the nature of entry level positions and their role in the preparation of their incumbents for future more senior positions. The findings add an Australian perspective to the literature on information systems job ads and should be of value to educators, employers, as well as current and future IS professionals.

  • (2005) Janson, Marius; Cecez-Kecmanovic, Dubravka
    Journal Article
    Purpose – To provide a social-theoretic framework which explains how e-commerce affects social conditions, such as availability of information and equality of access to information, influences actors’ behavior, shapes e-commerce business models, and in turn impacts industry structure. Design/methodology/approach – Empirical investigation based on one-hour interviews with owners/managers of nine vehicle dealerships and six vehicle buyers in a large US metropolitan region. The hermeneutic method of understanding was used, involving a circular process from research design and attentiveness to data, to data collection and interpretation. This circular process exemplified the dialectic relationship between the theoretical framework (derived from Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action) and empirical data, through which interpretation and theoretical explanations grounded in the data emerged. Findings – Demonstrates that e-commerce gives rise to increasing competition among the dealers, decreasing prices and migration of competition to price, decreasing profitability of the average dealer, and erosion of traditional sources of competitive advantage. Moreover, e-commerce emancipates and empowers vehicle purchasers while reducing the power of automobile dealers. Research limitations/implications – The research findings focus on the effects of e-commerce on the automobile distribution industry. However, one could argue that a number of the findings extend to other retailing-based industries. Practical implications – The paper illustrates a research methodology that may be useful to study other e-commerce applications. Originality/value – This paper illustrates the application of Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action to studying the effect of e-commerce.


  • (2010) Boell, Sebastian K
    Journal Article
    Professional journals play an important role in the dissemination of research results and activity reports among scientists and practitioners. This article gives a brief introduction into the field of informetrics with the purpose of presenting a list of journals in the field of library and information science (LIS ; in German: IuB). By combining ten different lists of journals from databases which cover the relevant literature in this field, a comprehensive list of 1205 professional journals could be assembled. Based on the frequency of appearance in the list, it is possible to rank individual titles by significance to the field. Four different categories of journals were identified: fifteen core journals, 88 central journals, 173 selective journals, and 672 marginal journals. Further features of the study include language of publication, geographical distribution, and the overlap of various databases with one another. ---- Fachzeitschriften spielen für Wissenschaftler und Praktiker bei der Verbreitung von Forschungsergebnissen und Erfahrungsberichten eine wichtige Rolle. Der vorliegende Artikel gibt eine kurze Einführung in das Feld der Informetrie, um auf dieser Grundlage eine Zeitschriftenliste auf dem Gebiet der Informations- und Bibliothekswissenschaft (IuB) einzuführen. Durch Kombination von zehn verschiedenen Zeitschriftenlisten aus Datenbanken, die relevante Literatur auf dem Gebiet der IuB erfassen, wird eine umfassende Liste von 1205 relevanten Fachzeitschriften erstellt. Anhand ihrer Erscheinungshäufigkeit wird die Bedeutung einzelner Zeitschriften für das Gebiet der IuB eingeordnet, wobei vier verschiedene Kategorien von Zeitschriften unterschieden werden: fünfzehn Kernzeitschriften, 88 zentrale Zeitschriften, 173 selektive Zeitschriften und 672 Randzeitschriften. Betrachtet werden darüber hinaus auch Publikationssprache und geografische Verteilung der Zeitschriften sowie die Überschneidung von verschiedenen Datenbanken untereinander.