A recent case study analyzes the use of the Finnish National Electronic Library (FinELib). Specifically, the study looks at how academic status and discipline influence the search strategies used by university academic staff.
The main conclusion of the study is that patterns of searching for journal articles are changing because of increasing access to digital information resources. In particular, the role of colleagues is diminishing.
The study was done by Pertti Vakkari and Sanna Talja at the Department of Information Studies at the University of Tampere in Finland. They studied how academic staff proceed when they are looking for electronic articles for teaching, research and keeping up to date in their field.
The material analyzed is the result of a nationwide web survey of the users of FinELib, The Finnish National Electronic Library. The survey had 900 respondents.
Vakkari and Talja found that in all disciplines, keyword searching in journal- and reference databases were the most important methods, compared to browsing or obtaining material from colleagues.
The strategies varied in the different academic disciplines. Keyword searching in databases was more common in natural sciences, engineering and medicine than in other disciplines. Browsing, and conferring with colleagues as sources of access was significantly more common in humanities than in other disciplines.
Pertti Vakkari and Sanna Talja: “Searching for electronic journal articles to support academic tasks. A case study of the use of the Finnish National Electronic Library (FinELib)” in Information Research, Vol. 12 No. 1, October 2006.
http://www.pandia.com/sew/309-academics.html
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Elections easily hacked via electronic voting machines
(NewsTarget) As more voting processes across the country turn from the old-fashioned pencil-and-ballot to newer, computerized voting systems, the possibility increases that these new systems will be open to many kinds of electronic fraud.
Cheryl Kagan, a former Maryland Democratic legislator, was shocked when she opened her mail recently to discover three computer discs containing the secret source code for vote counting machines. The information she received could be used to alter the votes cast through Maryland's new electronic voting machines, said Kagan.
While not admitting guilt, Diebold -- the company that makes the voting machines -- responded to concerns by telling ABC News that the discs being circulated at random "do not alter the security of the Diebold touch-screen system in any way."
ABC News then obtained an independent report commissioned by the state of Maryland and conducted by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) which revealed that original Diebold factory passwords are still being used on many voting machines, making them "hackable" by a knowledgeable party intent on carrying out voting fraud.
The report commissioned and carried out by the SAIC also shows a host of other security flaws in the Diebold voting machines, including administrative override passwords that cannot be changed by local officials but can be used by hackers or those who have seen the discs.
The SAIC independent report goes on to state that one of the high risks to the Diebold voting machine systems appears if operating code discs are lost, stolen or seen by unauthorized parties, which is what has already happened based on the discs that were sent to Kagan.
In the recent past, national computer experts and government officials have voiced serious concerns that if the Diebold voting machines end up malfunctioning, no paper record will exist for a recount. Even worse, fears have sprung up that an entire election could be hacked and results altered.
http://www.newstarget.com/020882.html
Cheryl Kagan, a former Maryland Democratic legislator, was shocked when she opened her mail recently to discover three computer discs containing the secret source code for vote counting machines. The information she received could be used to alter the votes cast through Maryland's new electronic voting machines, said Kagan.
While not admitting guilt, Diebold -- the company that makes the voting machines -- responded to concerns by telling ABC News that the discs being circulated at random "do not alter the security of the Diebold touch-screen system in any way."
ABC News then obtained an independent report commissioned by the state of Maryland and conducted by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) which revealed that original Diebold factory passwords are still being used on many voting machines, making them "hackable" by a knowledgeable party intent on carrying out voting fraud.
The report commissioned and carried out by the SAIC also shows a host of other security flaws in the Diebold voting machines, including administrative override passwords that cannot be changed by local officials but can be used by hackers or those who have seen the discs.
The SAIC independent report goes on to state that one of the high risks to the Diebold voting machine systems appears if operating code discs are lost, stolen or seen by unauthorized parties, which is what has already happened based on the discs that were sent to Kagan.
In the recent past, national computer experts and government officials have voiced serious concerns that if the Diebold voting machines end up malfunctioning, no paper record will exist for a recount. Even worse, fears have sprung up that an entire election could be hacked and results altered.
http://www.newstarget.com/020882.html
Electronic access to authoritative publications for RAE 2008
An innovative partnership will enable RAE panel members to have free electronic access to journal articles submitted to the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). Project partners announcing the plan include the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), on behalf of the UK higher education funding bodies, the Publishers Licensing Society, CrossRef, Eduserv, the Copyright Licensing Agency and a wide array of rightsholders.
The RAE is a peer review process to evaluate the quality of research in UK higher education institutions (HEIs). This assessment informs the selective distribution of funds by the UK higher education funding bodies, and is administered on their behalf by the RAE team based at HEFCE.
For the assessment of research quality in different subject areas, HEIs make written submissions which may include up to four pieces of research output - made public between 1 January 2001 and 31 December 2007 - for each researcher in their submission. The outputs can comprise a wide range of materials (e.g. books, conference proceedings, performances, patents) but the majority of outputs cited are journal articles. In the previous RAE in 2001, a total of 117,171 journal articles were submitted for assessment. Over 75,000 of these were published by the 10 leading academic publishers and the rest were published by a diverse group of smaller publishers. Accessing these articles was therefore a serious challenge for RAE assessment panels, which this partnership is uniquely positioned to address.
Under the arrangement, which is free of charge, RAE panel members will be able to access, full text electronic content directly from publishers' web-sites using cutting-edge technology from CrossRef and Eduserv. Other outputs cited in submissions which are not readily accessible in an electronic format, such as books, edited volumes and non-print research outputs, can be accessed by RAE panel members in physical form.
As the RAE licence will be free, it will save HEFCE significant administrative costs. This reflects the partnership between HEFCE and publishers, and the value to the publishing industry in demonstrating that it can work together to provide innovative licensing and access solutions. 'We are delighted to be able to conclude this agreement, which will help RAE panel members access outputs for assessment and ease the burden of data collection for submitting institutions,' said Ed Hughes, RAE manager. ' The UK higher education funding bodies welcome publishers' co-operation and the free licence to use copyright materials. These copyrights are of course held by authors, artists, and/or publishers and we acknowledge all parties,' he continued.
Alicia Wise of the Publishers Licensing Society said, 'This innovative and elegant solution has enabled us to solve a thorny access challenge. This clearly demonstrates that challenges can be overcome when publishers, intermediaries, and universities work in partnership. The arrangement does have boundaries in order to protect publishers and other rights owners. It will not permit use of works other than for the RAE, or the long term storage of electronic files by universities.'
http://www.rae.ac.uk/news/2007/elect.htm
The RAE is a peer review process to evaluate the quality of research in UK higher education institutions (HEIs). This assessment informs the selective distribution of funds by the UK higher education funding bodies, and is administered on their behalf by the RAE team based at HEFCE.
For the assessment of research quality in different subject areas, HEIs make written submissions which may include up to four pieces of research output - made public between 1 January 2001 and 31 December 2007 - for each researcher in their submission. The outputs can comprise a wide range of materials (e.g. books, conference proceedings, performances, patents) but the majority of outputs cited are journal articles. In the previous RAE in 2001, a total of 117,171 journal articles were submitted for assessment. Over 75,000 of these were published by the 10 leading academic publishers and the rest were published by a diverse group of smaller publishers. Accessing these articles was therefore a serious challenge for RAE assessment panels, which this partnership is uniquely positioned to address.
Under the arrangement, which is free of charge, RAE panel members will be able to access, full text electronic content directly from publishers' web-sites using cutting-edge technology from CrossRef and Eduserv. Other outputs cited in submissions which are not readily accessible in an electronic format, such as books, edited volumes and non-print research outputs, can be accessed by RAE panel members in physical form.
As the RAE licence will be free, it will save HEFCE significant administrative costs. This reflects the partnership between HEFCE and publishers, and the value to the publishing industry in demonstrating that it can work together to provide innovative licensing and access solutions. 'We are delighted to be able to conclude this agreement, which will help RAE panel members access outputs for assessment and ease the burden of data collection for submitting institutions,' said Ed Hughes, RAE manager. ' The UK higher education funding bodies welcome publishers' co-operation and the free licence to use copyright materials. These copyrights are of course held by authors, artists, and/or publishers and we acknowledge all parties,' he continued.
Alicia Wise of the Publishers Licensing Society said, 'This innovative and elegant solution has enabled us to solve a thorny access challenge. This clearly demonstrates that challenges can be overcome when publishers, intermediaries, and universities work in partnership. The arrangement does have boundaries in order to protect publishers and other rights owners. It will not permit use of works other than for the RAE, or the long term storage of electronic files by universities.'
http://www.rae.ac.uk/news/2007/elect.htm
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