[InetBib] New Issue of Information Research

[Tom Wilson <wilsontd@xxxxxxxxx>]

With apologies for cross-posting and the length of the message.

The new issue of Information Research will be available to all some time
after 1030 GMT tonight.  Here is the Editorial

In this issue

We have a diverse set of papers in this issue, with, however, some
relationships. Thus, two papers deal with aspects of the information
professions and five are Web-related.

Turning first to the two papers on the profession or professions. In one, a
Working Paper, Miriam Vieira da Cunha has analysed job vacancies in Brazil,
advertised on the Internet. Her principal finding is rather interesting,
given the 'hype' surrounding the idea of the new information professional:

Yet, in spite of the changes and of the reorganization of the workspace, and
of new partnerships, the informational field in Brazil still is resistant to
expansion, and shows little sign of change. We must conclude that job
opportunities in the information field in our country continue to be
dominated by the traditional professionals. The data shows that the typical
professional advertised using the specific sites and discussion lists on the
Internet between January 2005 and February 2008 is a librarian who is a
graduate in Library Studies, with information technology experience,
required to perform technical and management functions in a private
institution in São Paulo.

The other paper dealing with a professional group is by Hemalata Iyer on the
development and implementation of standards for visual resources management.
In this, the first of two papers (the second will be published in the next
issue), the author presents the organization's view on what is needed
through an analysis of job advertisements. Perhaps because of the focus on a
very narrow area of professional activity, her conclusions are very
different from those of da Cunha

Overall, visual resources appears to be an emerging area of knowledge and
expertise that needs to be systematically addressed. This is indeed a
profession in transition moving from slide curators and slide librarians to
a field that encompasses a broad range of skills applicable in a wide range
of environments.

The five Web-related papers are quite diverse: Deborah Soun Chung and Kwan
Yi examine how news stories are shared on the *Delicious* Website; EunKyung
Chung and JungWon Yoon explore the differences between user-supplied tags
and search query terms for images through an analysis of user-supplied tags
on the *Flickr* photography site and Web search terms; and Sara Kjellberg
explores scholarly blogging practice within a framework based on genre
theory. These three papers are about interaction, the remaining two in this
group deal with publication, although in different ways. First, in a
contribution in Spanish, Enrique Orduña-Malea and Joséö-Antonio
Ontalba-Ruipéörez, propose metrics for determining the impact of Web
newspapers through their citation on the Menéame social bookmarking site. In
the second paper Mohammad Hanief Bhat presents the results of research on
open access publishing in Indian research institutions, finding that very
little of the output of these institutions is openly available and then
mainly through Indian open access journals.

The final paper, which doesn't fit into either of these two groups is a
study of the information needs and the information sources of dairy farmers
in Inner Mongolia by Yuanfeng Zhao, Ruijin Zhang and K. K. Klein who
conclude:

Small-scale farmers in the key dairy production area of Inner Mongolia still
operate their businesses on the basis of limited industry information but
most have recognized the need for improved availability of accurate
information and appear willing to share in the cost of providing it. There
appears to be an opportunity for government and private organizations to
work together to develop advanced information dissemination systems for
small dairy producers in Inner Mongolia.

Finally, we have a smaller than usual set of book reviews (which probably
means we shall have a lot in December!). They are diverse, as usual,
however, covering ontologies for the Semantic Web, the economics of ordinary
knowledge, managing information for research, searching and how to employ
graphics effectively. There should be something for everyone there. I would
particularly recommend Hardin's book on ordinary knowledge as offering ideas
for information research.

My thanks, as usual, to the Associate Editors, copy-editors, referees and my
colleagues at Lund University Libraries for helping to bring this collection
to your screen.
As an aside - the names alone will tell you that we have an international
authorship - in fact, the authors come from Brazil, Canada, China, India,
South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the USA.

-- 
Professor Tom Wilson, PhD, Ph.D.(h.c.),
Publisher and Editor-in-Chief
Information Research: an international electronic journal
Website: http://InformationR.net/
E-mail: wilsontd@xxxxxxxxx
______________________________________
-- 
http://www.inetbib.de