Avaluació de les metadades com a eina d'indexació i recuperació al web de la Biblioteca de la Universitat de Barcelona

Coincidint amb la renovació del web de la Biblioteca de la Universitat de Barcelona, al mes de juny s'inicià un procés d'avaluació amb l'objectiu de replantejar la utilització de les metadades com a eina d'indexació i recuperació de continguts de pàgines web. L'article s'estructura en tres parts principals. En una primera part, s'estableixen els antecedents del web de la Biblioteca, l'origen i la forma de la inclusió de metadades en les seves pàgines i l'evolució del tema fins a arribar al moment de l'avaluació. Tot seguit, s'exposen totes les dades analitzades en el procés d'avaluació fet, partint de conceptes i aspectes teòrics fonamentals de l'anàlisi de contingut. L'apartat de conclusions amb què finalitza l'article parteix de la interpretació de les dades dels dos processos de manera relacionada per oferir un seguit d'indicacions o pautes que cal tenir en compte en el replantejament de la utilització de metadades com a eina de representació de contingut i de recuperació d'informació de les pàgines web de la BUB.

The M-Coffee web server: a meta-method for computing multiple sequence alignments by combining alternative alignment methods.

The M-Coffee server is a web server that makes it possible to compute multiple sequence alignments (MSAs) by running several MSA methods and combining their output into one single model. This allows the user to simultaneously run all his methods of choice without having to arbitrarily choose one of them. The MSA is delivered along with a local estimation of its consistency with the individual MSAs it was derived from. The computation of the consensus multiple alignment is carried out using a special mode of the T-Coffee package [Notredame, Higgins and Heringa (T-Coffee: a novel method for fast and accurate multiple sequence alignment. J. Mol. Biol. 2000; 302: 205-217); Wallace, O'Sullivan, Higgins and Notredame (M-Coffee: combining multiple sequence alignment methods with T-Coffee. Nucleic Acids Res. 2006; 34: 1692-1699)] Given a set of sequences (DNA or proteins) in FASTA format, M-Coffee delivers a multiple alignment in the most common formats. M-Coffee is a freeware open source package distributed under a GPL license and it is available either as a standalone package or as a web service from www.tcoffee.org.

XML y web semántica diseño y populación semiautomático de ontologías

El objetivo de este proyecto es familiarizarse con las tecnologías de Semántica, entender que es una ontología y aprender a modelar una en un dominio elegido por nosotros. Realizar un parser que conectándose a la la Wikipedia y/o DBpedia rellene dicha ontología permitiendo al usuario navegar por sus conceptos y estudiar sus relaciones.

Trabajo final de carrera web semántica

Software de lectura y población de ontología con información de DBpedia y Wikipedia.

Utilisation of Statistics in Intelligent Web Applications

Web-portaalien aiheenmukaista luokittelua voidaan hyödyntää tunnistamaan käyttäjän kiinnostuksen kohteet keräämällä tilastotietoa hänen selaustottumuksistaan eri kategorioissa. Tämä diplomityö käsittelee web-sovelluksien osa-alueita, joissa kerättyä tilastotietoa voidaan hyödyntää personalisoinnissa. Yleisperiaatteet sisällön personalisoinnista, Internet-mainostamisesta ja tiedonhausta selitetään matemaattisia malleja käyttäen. Lisäksi työssä kuvaillaan yleisluontoiset ominaisuudet web-portaaleista sekä tilastotiedon keräämiseen liittyvät seikat.

Improving Information Problem Solving skills in Secondary Education through embedded instruction

This empirical study consists in an investigation of the effects, on the development of Information Problem Solving (IPS) skills, of a long-term embedded, structured and supported instruction in Secondary Education. Forty secondary students of 7th and 8th grades (13–15 years old) participated in the 2-year IPS instruction designed in this study. Twenty of them participated in the IPS instruction, and the remaining twenty were the control group. All the students were pre- and post-tested in their regular classrooms, and their IPS process and performance were logged by means of screen capture software, to warrant their ecological validity. The IPS constituent skills, the web search sub-skills and the answers given by each participant were analyzed. The main findings of our study suggested that experimental students showed a more expert pattern than the control students regarding the constituent skill ‘defining the problem’ and the following two web search sub-skills: ‘search terms’ typed in a search engine, and ‘selected results’ from a SERP. In addition, scores of task performance were statistically better in experimental students than in control group students. The paper contributes to the discussion of how well-designed and well-embedded scaffolds could be designed in instructional programs in order to guarantee the development and efficiency of the students’ IPS skills by using net information better and participating fully in the global knowledge society.

Information Sharing in Drives Alliance Partner Concept

Työssä oli selkeästi kaksi tavoitetta. Ensimmäisenä tavoitteena oli tutkia, millaisesta kumppanuudesta Drives Alliance Partner -konsepti (DAP) muodostuu. Työn toisena tavoitteena oli selvittää ja analysoida DAP-konseptin informaation jakamiseen liittyvät tietotyypit, ja tehdä esitys siitä, mitä tietoa ABB:nja kumppaneiden välillä tulisi vaihtaa. Jotta kumppanuuden tila saatiin selville, tehtiin ABB:n sisäisiä haastatteluja sekä käytettiin hyväksi DAP-konseptista tehtyä dokumentaatiota. Informaation jakamiseen liittyvä tietotarpeiden kartoitus toteutettiin web-pohjaisen kyselyn avulla. Kysely toimitettiin osalle ABB:n nykyisistä kumppaneista sekä sellaisille ABB:n työntekijöille, jotka liittyvät DAP- konseptiin. Työssä luotiin malli kuvaamaan informaation vaihtoa partnereiden j a ABB :n välillä. Malliin otettiin mukaan ne tietotarpeet, jotka tehdyn kyselyn mukaan osoittautuivat tarpeellisiksi. Kumppanuuksiin syventymisen myötä tiedonvaihdon merkitys tulee entisestään korostumaan, mikä asettaa uusia haasteita ABB:lle.

Search and Discovery : OER's Open Loop

Open educational resources (OER) promise increased access, participation, quality, and relevance, in addition to cost reduction. These seemingly fantastic promises are based on the supposition that educators and learners will discover existing resources, improve them, and share the results, resulting in a virtuous cycle of improvement and re-use. By anecdotal metrics, existing web scale search is not working for OER. This situation impairs the cycle underlying the promise of OER, endangering long term growth and sustainability. While the scope of the problem is vast, targeted improvements in areas of curation, indexing, and data exchange can improve the situation, and create opportunities for further scale. I explore the way the system is currently inadequate, discuss areas for targeted improvement, and describe a prototype system built to test these ideas. I conclude with suggestions for further exploration and development.

UDDI palvelurekisterin merkitys Web palveluissa

Tietojärjestelmien integraatio on nykypäivänä tärkeä osa alue yritysten toiminnassa ja kilpailukyvyn ylläpitämisessä. Palvelukeskeinen arkkitehtuuri ja Web palvelut on uusi joustava tapa tehdä tietojärjestelmien välinen integraatio. Web palveluiden yksi ydinkomponentti on UDDI, Universal Description, Discovery and Integration. UDDI toimii palvelurekisterin tavoin. UDDI määrittää tavan julkaista, löytää ja ottaa käyttöön Web palveluja. Web palveluja voidaan hakea UDDI:sta erilaisin kriteerein, kuten esimerkiksi palvelun sijainnin, yrityksen nimen ja toimialan perusteella. UDDI on myös itsessään Web palvelu, joka perustuu XML kuvauskieleen ja SOAP protokollaan. Työssä paneudutaan tarkemmin UDDI:in. UDDI:ta käsitellään tarkemmin myös teknisesti. Oleellinen osa UDDI:ta on ollut julkaisijoiden ja käyttäjien mielestä tietoturvan puute, joka on rajoittanut huomattavasti UDDI:n käyttöä ja käyttöönottamista. Työssä tarkastellaankin tarkemmin juuri tietoturvaan liittyviä asioita ja ratkaisuja sekä myös UDDI:n merkitystä yrityksille.

Social media and public libraries : exploring information activities of library professionals and users

Social media has become a part of many people’s everyday lives. In the library field the adoption of social media has been widespread and discussions of the development of “Library 2.0” began at an early stage. The aim with this thesis is to study the interface between public libraries, social media, and users, focusing on information activities. The main research question is: How is the interface between public libraries and social media perceived and acted upon by its main stakeholders (library professionals and users)? The background of Library 2.0 is strongly associated with the development of the Web and social media, as well as with the public libraries and their user-centered and information technological development. The theoretical framework builds on the research within the area of Library and Information Science concerning information behavior, information practice, and information activities. Earlier research on social media and public libraries is also highlighted in this thesis. The methods survey and content analysis were applied to map the interface between social media and public libraries. A questionnaire was handed out to the users and another questionnaire was sent out to the library professionals. The results were statistically analyzed. In the content analysis public library Facebook pages were studied. All the empirical investigations were conducted in the area of Finland Proper. An integrated analysis of the results deepens the understanding of the key elements of the social media and public library context. These elements are interactivity, information activities, perceptions, and stakeholders. In this context seven information activities were distinguished: reading, seeking, creating, communicating, informing, mediating, and contributing. This thesis contributes to develop the research concerning information activities and draws a realistic picture of the challenges and opportunities in the social media and public library context. It also contributes with knowledge on library professionals and library users, and the existing differences in their perceptions of the interface between libraries and social media.

A systematic mapping study of web services discovery mechanisms

Context: Web services have been gaining popularity due to the success of service oriented architecture and cloud computing. Web services offer tremendous opportunity for service developers to publish their services and applications over the boundaries of the organization or company. However, to fully exploit these opportunities it is necessary to find efficient discovery mechanism thus, Web services discovering mechanism has attracted a considerable attention in Semantic Web research, however, there have been no literature surveys that systematically map the present research result thus overall impact of these research efforts and level of maturity of their results are still unclear. This thesis aims at providing an overview of the current state of research into Web services discovering mechanism using systematic mapping. The work is based on the papers published 2004 to 2013, and attempts to elaborate various aspects of the analyzed literature including classifying them in terms of the architecture, frameworks and methods used for web services discovery mechanism. Objective: The objective if this work is to summarize the current knowledge that is available as regards to Web service discovery mechanisms as well as to systematically identify and analyze the current published research works in order to identify different approaches presented. Method: A systematic mapping study has been employed to assess the various Web Services discovery approaches presented in the literature. Systematic mapping studies are useful for categorizing and summarizing the level of maturity research area. Results: The result indicates that there are numerous approaches that are consistently being researched and published in this field. In terms of where these researches are published, conferences are major contributing publishing arena as 48% of the selected papers were conference published papers illustrating the level of maturity of the research topic. Additionally selected 52 papers are categorized into two broad segments namely functional and non-functional based approaches taking into consideration architectural aspects and information retrieval approaches, semantic matching, syntactic matching, behavior based matching as well as QOS and other constraints.

Étude du rôle des professionnels de l'information dans les systèmes d'information Web du Gouvernement fédéral canadien

Les professionnels de l'information traversent actuellement une période de redéfinition de leur profession provoquée par la transformation de l'information et des processus informationnels vers un mode de plus en plus électronique. Les systèmes d'information Web (SIW) — c'est-à-dire des systèmes d'information basés sur les technologies Web tels que les sites Web externes, les intranets, les systèmes de commerce électronique et les extranets — font partie des technologies à l'origine de ces changements. Ces systèmes sont de plus en plus adoptés par les organisations et, en particulier, par les gouvernements dans leur volonté de devenir électroniques. Le gouvernement fédéral canadien est reconnu comme un des plus innovateurs en matière de SIW et doit adapter son environnement informationnel, dont font partie les professionnels de l'information, à l'introduction de ces systèmes. Malgré l'innovation que les SIW représentent, peu d'études empiriques ont été menées pour identifier quels sont les intervenants nécessaires à leur mise en place. Aucun consensus n'émerge de la littérature quant à la nature de l'intervention des professionnels de l'information dans ces systèmes. Cette recherche vise à accroître les connaissances sur l'intervention des professionnels de l'information dans les SIW. Pour les besoins de cette recherche, les professionnels de l'information sont définis comme les personnes ayant une maîtrise en bibliothéconomie et sciences de l'information ou toute autre formulation équivalente. Cette recherche étudie quatre questions de recherche qui portent sur : (1) les rôles des professionnels de l'information décrits dans les politiques d'information pan-gouvernementales liées aux SIW ainsi que ceux des autres intervenants mentionnés en lien direct avec les SIW, (2) les types de SIW dans lesquels les professionnels de l'information interviennent, (3) les tâches des professionnels de l'information dans ces SIW, et (4) les autres intervenants qui travaillent dans ces systèmes. Une approche qualitative a été utilisée pour répondre à ces questions et implique quatre modes de collecte des données : (1) des entrevues en profondeur en personne avec des professionnels de l'information impliqués dans des SIW, (2) une analyse des SIW où interviennent ces professionnels de l'information, (3) une analyse des politiques pan-gouvernementales liées aux SIW, et (4) la documentation pertinente. Les professionnels de l'information rencontrés proviennent de sept ministères du gouvernement fédéral canadien, ministères retenus pour leur implication dans les SIW. Les résultats indiquent que les professionnels de l'information rencontrés interviennent dans les SIW aux niveaux micro et macro, c'est-à-dire dans des SIW spécifiques ainsi que globalement au niveau de l'ensemble des SIW d'un ministère ou du gouvernement fédéral. Ces professionnels de l'information sont impliqués dans toutes les dimensions et les phases de développement des SIW. Les tâches liées au contenu sont prédominantes mais les tâches technologiques sont aussi très présentes. Trois variables se dégagent de cette étude qui ont un impact sur l'intervention des professionnels de l'information dans les SIW : les types de SIW, les types de postes occupés par les professionnels de l'information et les types de gouvernance.

S'engager à l'ère du Web : attitudes, perceptions et sens de l'engagement chez la "génération de l'information" (20-35 ans)

Cette recherche explore le sens que la « génération de l’information » (20-35 ans) donne à l’engagement. Alors que sociologues et médias ont longtemps brandi des chiffres alarmants concernant la désaffection électorale des jeunes et leur rejet des associations ou groupes de pression usuels, le développement du Web 2.0 semble donner lieu à de nouvelles formes d’action visant le changement social, qui sont particulièrement prisées par les jeunes. Analysant leur recours à des pratiques de manifestations éclairs (flash mobs), de cyberdissidence, l’utilisation du micro-blogging et des réseaux Facebook et Twitter dans le cadre de mobilisations récentes, des enquêtes suggèrent qu’elles témoignent d’une nouvelle culture de la participation sociale et politique, qui appelle à repenser les façons de concevoir et de définir l’engagement. Or, si nous assistons à une transformation profonde des répertoires et des modes d’action des jeunes, il demeure difficile de comprendre en quoi et comment l’utilisation des TIC influence leur intérêt ou motivation à « agir ». Que veut dire s’engager pour les jeunes aujourd’hui ? Comment perçoivent-ils le contexte social, politique et médiatique ? Quelle place estiment-ils pouvoir y occuper ? Soulignant l’importance du sens que les acteurs sociaux donnent à leurs pratiques, la recherche s’éloigne des perspectives technocentristes pour explorer plus en profondeur la façon dont de jeunes adultes vivent, expérimentent et interprètent l’engagement dans le contexte médiatique actuel. La réflexion s’ancre sur une observation empirique et deux séries d’entretiens en profondeur (de groupe et individuels), menés auprès de 137 jeunes entre 2009-2012. Elle analyse un ensemble de représentations, perceptions et pratiques d’individus aux horizons et aux modes d’engagement variés, soulignant les multiples facteurs qui agissent sur la façon dont ils choisissent d’agir et les raisons qui les mènent à recourir aux TIC dans le cadre de pratiques spécifiques. À la croisée d’une multiplication des modes de participation et des modes d’interaction qui marquent l’univers social et politique des jeunes, la recherche propose de nouvelles hypothèses théoriques et une métaphore conceptuelle, le « murmure des étourneaux », pour penser la façon dont les pratiques d’affichage personnel, de relais, et d’expérimentation mises en avant par les jeunes s’arriment en réseau à celles d’autrui pour produire des « dérives culturelles » : des changements importants dans les façons de percevoir, d’agir et de penser. Loin d’une génération apathique ou technophile, les propos soulevés en entretiens suggèrent un processus réflexif de construction de sens, dont l’enjeu vise avant tout à donner l’exemple, et à penser ensemble de nouveaux possibles. La recherche permet d’offrir un éclairage qualitatif et approfondi sur ce qui caractérise la façon dont les jeunes perçoivent et définissent l’engagement, en plus d’ouvrir de nouvelles avenues pour mieux comprendre comment ils choisissent d’agir à l’ère du Web.

Information Discovery in Distributed Systems-A Novel Concept Based on Modelling of Information Elements

Sharing of information with those in need of it has always been an idealistic goal of networked environments. With the proliferation of computer networks, information is so widely distributed among systems, that it is imperative to have well-organized schemes for retrieval and also discovery. This thesis attempts to investigate the problems associated with such schemes and suggests a software architecture, which is aimed towards achieving a meaningful discovery. Usage of information elements as a modelling base for efficient information discovery in distributed systems is demonstrated with the aid of a novel conceptual entity called infotron.The investigations are focused on distributed systems and their associated problems. The study was directed towards identifying suitable software architecture and incorporating the same in an environment where information growth is phenomenal and a proper mechanism for carrying out information discovery becomes feasible. An empirical study undertaken with the aid of an election database of constituencies distributed geographically, provided the insights required. This is manifested in the Election Counting and Reporting Software (ECRS) System. ECRS system is a software system, which is essentially distributed in nature designed to prepare reports to district administrators about the election counting process and to generate other miscellaneous statutory reports.Most of the distributed systems of the nature of ECRS normally will possess a "fragile architecture" which would make them amenable to collapse, with the occurrence of minor faults. This is resolved with the help of the penta-tier architecture proposed, that contained five different technologies at different tiers of the architecture.The results of experiment conducted and its analysis show that such an architecture would help to maintain different components of the software intact in an impermeable manner from any internal or external faults. The architecture thus evolved needed a mechanism to support information processing and discovery. This necessitated the introduction of the noveI concept of infotrons. Further, when a computing machine has to perform any meaningful extraction of information, it is guided by what is termed an infotron dictionary.The other empirical study was to find out which of the two prominent markup languages namely HTML and XML, is best suited for the incorporation of infotrons. A comparative study of 200 documents in HTML and XML was undertaken. The result was in favor ofXML.The concept of infotron and that of infotron dictionary, which were developed, was applied to implement an Information Discovery System (IDS). IDS is essentially, a system, that starts with the infotron(s) supplied as clue(s), and results in brewing the information required to satisfy the need of the information discoverer by utilizing the documents available at its disposal (as information space). The various components of the system and their interaction follows the penta-tier architectural model and therefore can be considered fault-tolerant. IDS is generic in nature and therefore the characteristics and the specifications were drawn up accordingly. Many subsystems interacted with multiple infotron dictionaries that were maintained in the system.In order to demonstrate the working of the IDS and to discover the information without modification of a typical Library Information System (LIS), an Information Discovery in Library Information System (lDLIS) application was developed. IDLIS is essentially a wrapper for the LIS, which maintains all the databases of the library. The purpose was to demonstrate that the functionality of a legacy system could be enhanced with the augmentation of IDS leading to information discovery service. IDLIS demonstrates IDS in action. IDLIS proves that any legacy system could be augmented with IDS effectively to provide the additional functionality of information discovery service.Possible applications of IDS and scope for further research in the field are covered.

Re-engineering and Re-defining University Libraries in the context of modern Information and Communication Technologies: a study with special reference to the University Libraries in Kerala

Information and communication technologies are the tools that underpin the emerging “Knowledge Society”. Exchange of information or knowledge between people and through networks of people has always taken place. But the ICT has radically changed the magnitude of this exchange, and thus factors such as timeliness of information and information dissemination patterns have become more important than ever.Since information and knowledge are so vital for the all round human development, libraries and institutions that manage these resources are indeed invaluable. So, the Library and Information Centres have a key role in the acquisition, processing, preservation and dissemination of information and knowledge. ln the modern context, library is providing service based on different types of documents such as manuscripts, printed, digital, etc. At the same time, acquisition, access, process, service etc. of these resources have become complicated now than ever before. The lCT made instrumental to extend libraries beyond the physical walls of a building and providing assistance in navigating and analyzing tremendous amounts of knowledge with a variety of digital tools. Thus, modern libraries are increasingly being re-defined as places to get unrestricted access to information in many formats and from many sources.The research was conducted in the university libraries in Kerala State, India. lt was identified that even though the information resources are flooding world over and several technologies have emerged to manage the situation for providing effective services to its clientele, most of the university libraries in Kerala were unable to exploit these technologies at maximum level. Though the libraries have automated many of their functions, wide gap prevails between the possible services and provided services. There are many good examples world over in the application of lCTs in libraries for the maximization of services and many such libraries have adopted the principles of reengineering and re-defining as a management strategy. Hence this study was targeted to look into how effectively adopted the modern lCTs in our libraries for maximizing the efficiency of operations and services and whether the principles of re-engineering and- redefining can be applied towards this.Data‘ was collected from library users, viz; student as well as faculty users; library ,professionals and university librarians, using structured questionnaires. This has been .supplemented by-observation of working of the libraries, discussions and interviews with the different types of users and staff, review of literature, etc. Personal observation of the organization set up, management practices, functions, facilities, resources, utilization of information resources and facilities by the users, etc. of the university libraries in Kerala have been made. Statistical techniques like percentage, mean, weighted mean, standard deviation, correlation, trend analysis, etc. have been used to analyse data.All the libraries could exploit only a very few possibilities of modern lCTs and hence they could not achieve effective Universal Bibliographic Control and desired efficiency and effectiveness in services. Because of this, the users as well as professionals are dissatisfied. Functional effectiveness in acquisition, access and process of information resources in various formats, development and maintenance of OPAC and WebOPAC, digital document delivery to remote users, Web based clearing of library counter services and resources, development of full-text databases, digital libraries and institutional repositories, consortia based operations for e-journals and databases, user education and information literacy, professional development with stress on lCTs, network administration and website maintenance, marketing of information, etc. are major areas need special attention to improve the situation. Finance, knowledge level on ICTs among library staff, professional dynamism and leadership, vision and support of the administrators and policy makers, prevailing educational set up and social environment in the state, etc. are some of the major hurdles in reaping the maximum possibilities of lCTs by the university libraries in Kerala. The principles of Business Process Re-engineering are found suitable to effectively apply to re-structure and redefine the operations and service system of the libraries. Most of the conventional departments or divisions prevailing in the university libraries were functioning as watertight compartments and their existing management system was more rigid to adopt the principles of change management. Hence, a thorough re-structuring of the divisions was indicated. Consortia based activities and pooling and sharing of information resources was advocated to meet the varied needs of the users in the main campuses and off campuses of the universities, affiliated colleges and remote stations. A uniform staff policy similar to that prevailing in CSIR, DRDO, ISRO, etc. has been proposed by the study not only in the university libraries in kerala but for the entire country.Restructuring of Lis education,integrated and Planned development of school,college,research and public library systems,etc.were also justified for reaping maximum benefits of the modern ICTs.