Analysis of Work-to-Work Bibliographic Relationships through FRBR: A Canadian Perspective

Clément Arsenault & Alireza Noruzi

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics of Canadian publications by analyzing their bibliographic relationships based on the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) model. The study indicates frequencies of occurrence of work-to-work bibliographic relationships for manifestations published in 2009 and cataloged in the AMICUS online catalog. The results show that approximately 4.4% of the 2009 bibliographic records in the AMICUS catalog exhibit a work-to-work bibliographic relationship.

Bibliographic information

Arsenault, Clément & Noruzi, Alireza (2012). Analysis of Work-to-Work Bibliographic Relationships through FRBR: A Canadian Perspective. Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, Vol. 50, No. 5-7, pp. 641-652. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01639374.2012.679580

Information consumers' needs

Three major trends of information consumers' needs caused by the emergence of search engines and Web 2.0 technologies are: Self-service (moving to self-sufficiency), Satisfaction, and Seamlessness.

Services provided by Google, Amazon, OCLC, and similar companies are the major cause of these emerging trends. Customers have wholeheartedly embraced these products because of their ease of use and quick delivery of "good enough" results.

Source

Mi, J., & Wen, C. (2008). Revitalizing the library OPAC: interface, searching, and display challenges. Information Technology and Libraries, 27(1), 5-22.

Will FRBR turn out to be a failure like DC (Dublin Core)?

Jeffrey Beall (2006) asked an interesting question "Will FRBR turn out to be a failure like DC?"

Obviously DC failed in some way; but I believe that it was and is the basis for many metadata schemas. FRBR will have the same or more effect on bibliographic information systems, even if it fails.

Reference
Beall, Jeffrey (2006). Some Reservations about FRBR. Library Hi Tech News, 23(2), 15-16.

The future of knowledge organization

The role of knowledge organization (i.e., indexing, cataloging and classification) will increase in the future due to the information explosion and overload on the Internet. Metadata standards (RDA based on FRBR, RDF, etc.) are excellent examples.

Qualities of a good teacher (academic faculty)

Teaching is a career that provides excitement, challenges, personal reward and a chance to encourage and support young students to achieve their goals. There are many personal qualities and skills that make someone a good or great teacher. Here are what I believe are the essential Qualities of a Good Teacher.

• Adapt to change (open to change and coping well with change)
• Approchable
• Being fair-minded (just and impartial; not prejudiced)
• Calmness
• Cares about the students
• Challenges the students
• Consistency
• Creative and innovative
• Empathy
• Enjoy working with a wide range of people;
• Enjoying a challenge (a question, …)
• Enthusiastic
• Explaining things very good
• Firm, but fair
• Flexible
• Friendly
• Good communicator
• Keeping cool under pressure;
• Knowledge of subject matter (having a strong knowledge in particular subject areas)
• Motivating and inspiring
• Passion
• Patience
• Personal involvement
• Presentation skills
• Pride in student’s accomplishments
• Reflective and introspective
• Respectful
• Responsive
• Sense of humor
• Time manager
• True compassion for their students
• Understanding
• Well-organized
• Willing to learn
• Willingness to help student achieve

The list is alphabetical, not preferential.

Final question

Which of the abovementioned attributes do you think are important qualities of good teachers? What makes a Good Teacher?

My right hand for writing; my left hand for clicking

I'm practicing on touch typing (using both hands for typing without looking at the keyboard with all 10 fingers). In general, my right hand is stronger than my left hand. I decided to use my right hand for writing and keyboard practicing, and my left hand for clicking on the mouse. I click on the mouse with my left hand as well as with my right hand.

Clicking on the mouse by changing two hands rather than one is a good method to reduce the neck and shoulder pain. In many cases when I have neck or shoulder pain due to the right or the left hand clicking, I change the hand, and then the pain disappears.It's great.

Educational Impact and Open Access Journals

Educational Impact and Open Access Journals
Alireza Noruzi

Introduction
Scholars may find out that they (i.e., their papers, ideas, findings, methods, models or theories) have been invoked (i.e., cited, mentioned, or linked to) by others. Citations (links) are no longer found only in classical scholarly texts, nor are they directed only to scholarly texts: Scholars may be cited formally, or merely mentioned en passant in listservs and others electronic discussion fora, or they may find out that they have been included in reading lists or electronic syllabi (Cronin et al., 1998). The Web is both a publishing and a conversational medium. It engenders new modes of scholarly communication, interaction and signaling (Cronin et al., 1998).
Google and especially Google Scholar offer potentials for tracking scientific and technological progress traditionally excluded from bibliometric or scientometric studies, such as the use of scientific journals in teaching/presentations and by the general public (Björneborn, 2004). Google Scholar, as a citation tracking service and a bibliometric tool, can be used to locate citations from a variety of file types (e.g., PPT, DOC, PHP, HTML, PDF) that are not covered by the ISI Web of Science and traditional citation indexes (Noruzi, 2005).
Online course syllabi provide a convenient source of information about a journal use (Williams, Cody & Parnell, 2004). The number of faculty members who use the Web to post syllabi and other course materials is increasing. Therefore, editors and publishers of journals should use this golden opportunity to maximize journals visibility and educational impact. The educational impact of a journal depends not only on online accessibility (open access), but also on how widely it is used by educators.
The inclusion of an open access (OA) journal in recommended/required reading lists in the course syllabi is important for its visibility and of course for its impact factor. Moreover, the creation of hyperlinks to OA journals in web-based syllabi increases their link popularity. The syllabi can be used to determine how a journal is used and how much it is used.
While a few of the references to a journal are from papers, books, theses, web resources, etc., references from course syllabi might be considered differently. It is essential for an educator to cite a reference in a paper. But a listing on a course syllabus seems to indicate that the educator thinks the resource is worth being consulted by students. If a book or a journal is frequently cited or mentioned as reading text in the course syllabi, it serves the information needs of educators and students. Therefore, it seems interesting to know to what extent a journal has been included in reading lists or electronic syllabi and cited in PowerPoint presentations. For example, some of the papers published in Webology are included in the course syllabi for library and information science (LIS) schools. Some of these occurrences are on syllabi for LIS schools in the U.S. and Canada. We also found that Webology journal was cited 17 times in the PowerPoint presentations.

Conclusion
The online syllabi can reveal a better picture of how a journal is used and can present the educational impact of the journal. It is obvious that open access will improve the educational impact of journals. For example, Webology journal is very often mentioned in lists of journals and e-journals or in lists of links on topics covered by Webology, especially in the fields of library and information science and computer science. We found several online syllabi that listed the journal.

References

- Björneborn, Lennart (2004). Small-world link structures across an academic web space: A library and information science approach. PhD Thesis. Royal School of Library and Information Science, Copenhagen, Denmark.

- Cronin, B., Snyder, H.W., Rosenbaum, H., Martinson, A., & Callahan, E. (1998). Invoked on the Web. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 49(14): 1319–1328.

- Noruzi, A. (2005) Google Scholar: The new generation of citation indexes. LIBRI, 55(4), 170-180.

- Williams, L.M., Cody, S.A., & Parnell, J. (2004). Prospecting for new collaborations: mining syllabi for library service opportunities. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 30 (4), 270-275.

Bibliographic information of this paper for citing:
Noruzi, A. (2007). "Editorial: Educational Impact and Open Access Journals." Webology, 4(4), editorial 14. Available at: http://www.webology.org/2007/v4n4/editorial14.html