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In this study, we attempted to use dwell time on content pages as a predictor of document usefulness, and evaluated the prediction performance in different types of tasks. A user study was conducted to address this research problem. A total of 32 participants conducted searches associated with 4 different tasks, varying along several task type dimensions. In the study, participants were asked to save documents that were useful for the tasks during the searches. Participants' information-seeking activities were recorded. Using the logged dataset, we used the recursive partitioning method to identify the best threshold (cutoff point) of dwell time to predict which pages would be useful, i.e., be saved by the users. We examined the differences in the threshold and compared the prediction performance for each type of task. Our results indicate that the threshold should be developed according to the type of task users are working on. While the prediction performance using dwell time as the only indicator of document usefulness is acceptable for Factual tasks, it is not good for Intellectual tasks. Our results have implications on IR system design.

This chapter begins with a review of the history of anti-Asian racism in the United States. Beginning in the mid-19th century, Asian immigrants played a vital role in the development of the country. However, Asian Americans have faced a long legacy of exclusion and inequality, particularly during periods of economic recession, disease outbreaks, or war throughout US history. Adopting the framework of “othering,” this chapter analyzes the major events in US history related to Asian Americans, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the Immigration Act of 1924, the Japanese internment camps during World War II, and the anti-Asian immigration policies adopted by the Trump administration. Through this, the authors illustrate how historic racism and xenophobia at both individual and institutional levels have operated to marginalize Asian Americans and reproduce inequality, and they demonstrate the common roots of racism that lie in White supremacy.

An explorative survey pertaining to organization and execution of programs and events offered in public libraries across Connecticut revealed that library programs have been steadily increasing in recent years, with most libraries providing one hundred or more programs a year. The types of programs that are most popular vary throughout the library’s open hours. Children’s programming appears to be more popular during the day while adult programming is more popular in the evening. Program popularity is based on grouping and continuous support from external partners. While this study confirmed that both library space and library staff sizes are adequate for programming, a further investigation would assert that this is the case within nationwide library programming.

To increase patrons’ ability to find resources, it is imperative to investigate barriers and biases in thedescriptive catalog data for inclusive collection management and development standards. This studyused a specially designed descriptive approach to gather quantitative data from 101 public librariansin Connecticut via a Qualtrics survey to identify the key variables that influence the successfulenhancement of online public access catalog (OPAC) metadata after a diversity audit of the librarymaterials. The results revealed factors that promote or impede the integration of inclusive catalogingthat reflects the diversity of the community: (1) appreciating the benefits of audit methods that arefocused on bibliographic records, (2) recognizing the need for buy-in and participation from theentire organization, and (3) stressing the useful integration of institutional and community feedbackto improve the collection’s accessibility and representation. The findings provide practical adviceto public libraries that want to satisfy the diverse demands of their user base by integrating criticalcataloging frameworks into their diversity and inclusion objectives.

本書內容包括：智慧圖書館、知識服務、移動服務、推薦系統、無線射頻技術、學科及學術資源服務等關於中國與美國信息技術、知識管理和學科拓展。 本書可作為大中專信息管理學院、圖書館學院、軟件學院、管理學院，及所有相關專業的本科生、碩士生、博士生和教師等的專業教材或教學參考書。亦可作為計算機、圖書情報、信息管理，網絡文化教育等領域的研究人員和工程技術人員、管理人員、服務人員的信息參考資料。作為大學圖書館，公共圖書館，專業圖書館，各類信息中心，IT與網絡公司等機構收藏本圖書，為開展智慧服務提供借鑒參考。本書也可為信息資源管理相關行政部門實際工作提供政策建議，為大眾提供各類知識閱讀。

This paper examines to what extent the 129 members of the Urban Public Libraries Council meet the Section 508 standards for accessibility under the Rehabilitation Act, the minimum acceptable standard for accessibility under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Using an HTML evaluation tool, WAVE, the HTML coding of the libraries’ homepages was evaluated according to the Section 508 criteria for accessibility. After one-to-one deep examination to determine the accessibility of the library websites, the results tended to mirror other studies showing that most library websites have some coding deficiencies that limit the accessibility of the websites. Notably, only 7 of the 122 libraries that were surveyed had no Section 508 errors present with their homepages.

This paper reports on an examination of why information searchers find search tasks difficult and the specific reasons they feel difficult. Data was collected through a controlled laboratory experiment with 32 participants, each working with 4 search tasks. They were asked in questionnaires, both before and after the tasks, for task difficulty ratings and their reasoning for giving those ratings. We developed a coding scheme based on the difficulty reasons users gave, which covered various aspects of task, user, and user-task interaction. This helps us understand search task difficulty, as well as provides a scheme for task difficulty control in experiment task design.

Search task difficulty has been attracting much research attention in recent years, mostly regarding its relationship with searchers' behaviors and the prediction of task difficulty from search behaviors. However, it remains unknown what makes searchers feel the difficulty. A study consisting of 48 undergraduate students was conducted to explore this question. Each participant was given 4 search tasks that were carefully designed following a task classification scheme. Questionnaires were used to elicit participants' ratings on task difficulty and why they gave those ratings. Based on the collected difficulty reasons, a coding scheme was developed, which covered various aspects of task, user, and user-task interaction. Difficulty reasons were then categorized following this scheme. Results showed that searchers reported some common reasons leading to task difficulty in different tasks, but most of the difficulty reasons varied across tasks. In addition, task difficulty had some common reasons between searchers with low and high levels of topic knowledge, although there were also differences in top task difficulty reasons between high and low knowledge users. These findings further our understanding of search task difficulty, the relationship between task difficulty and task type, and that between task difficulty and knowledge level. The findings can also be helpful with designing tasks for information search experiments, and have implications on search system design both in general and for personalization based on task type and searchers' knowledge. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.