Reference Service Evaluation and Meta-Analysis: Findings and Methodological Issues

Saxton, Matthew L.

doi:10.1086/629952

Cited by 25 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…This is followed by an illustrative example of a meta-analytic study of factors affecting information needs of cancer patients. An earlier study by Saxton (1997) …”

Section: Meta-analysis: Nuts and Boltsmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…When introducing a method relatively new to the discipline, future researchers are encouraged to adopt a conservative approach until acceptance is more broadly attained. Saxton (1997) articulated that the process for comparing and recalculating effect size estimates across studies requires three steps. First, the researcher must test the homogeneity (similarity) of signifi cance levels across studies.…”

Section: Meta-analysis: Nuts and Boltsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To model the desirable practice he was advocating, Saxton (1997) provided suffi cient statistical data to enable later researchers to include his work in future analysis. This action was clearly validated four years after publication when a doctoral student, Rafael Merens, at the University of Havana, Cuba, re-analyzed Saxton's work for his dissertation.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As discussed at the beginning of this article, it is ironic that stringent rules exist for governing the style of citations and a complex code administers the creation of bibliographic records, yet no commonly recognized standards exist for reporting the results of research in LIS. Saxton (1997) proposed a set of fi ve minimum standards for reporting quantitative research studies that use Pearson's correlation coeffi cient for bivariate analysis. In response to Ankem's (2005) criticism of this narrow approach to meta-analysis, these standards are amended here as follows to accommodate a broader range of statistics:…”

Section: Recommendations For Reporting Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Meta-Analysis in Library and Information Science: Method, History, and Recommendations for Reporting Research

Saxton¹

2006

lib

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Meta-analysis is a method for summarizing statistical fi ndings across multiple research studies. It is a useful method for assessing the level of agreement or disagreement surrounding a given research question. The ability to perform meta-analysis is dependent on the level of consistency in measures and the amount of data shared in published research. Guidelines to minimum standards for reporting research may improve the quality of writing in published research. Inconsistencies in reporting research fi ndings across studies, failing to provide enough detail on method and instrumentation to facilitate replication, and the multiplicity of different operational defi nitions or measures for the same concept all pose diffi culties to successfully attempting any form of research synthesis. This article presents a methodological explanation of meta-analysis, a literature review describing the application of meta-analysis in library and information science, and guidelines for reporting quantitative research that would enable subsequent researchers to perform meta-analysis.

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“…This is followed by an illustrative example of a meta-analytic study of factors affecting information needs of cancer patients. An earlier study by Saxton (1997) …”

Section: Meta-analysis: Nuts and Boltsmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Meta-analysis: Nuts and Boltsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Recommendations For Reporting Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Meta-Analysis in Library and Information Science: Method, History, and Recommendations for Reporting Research

Saxton¹

2006

lib

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“…Moreover, re search suggests that the accuracy of the librarian's response is only about 50 per cent: One out of every two questions is answered correctly. 6 Therefore, an intel ligent decision-support system (IDSS) could serve librarians well. An IDSS could free up the valuable time of reference li brarians so that it could be spent answer ing the more demanding research-type questions.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Question Master: An Evaluation of a Web-Based Decision-Support System for Use in Reference Environments

Richardson

1998

CRL

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Designed for librarians, Question Master (QM) (at http://purl.org/net/Question_Master) is a decision-support system automating some of the more routine, fact-type reference questions encountered in libraries. A series of Web pages guides librarians through a set of clarifying questions before making recommendations of an appropriate electronic or relevant print resource from WorldCat, the OCLC Online Union Catalog. The goal is to improve the accuracy of reference transactions, which in turn should lead to increased end-user satisfaction. Based on usability studies of QM’s biographical module, this study found that although the system already was easy to use, its usability could be improved in several ways. Its ability to answer questions was 100 percent, with an accuracy rate of 66 percent compared to Weil’s 64 percent accuracy. In addition, QM accuracy was substantially better than most reported studies of real reference environments and certainly better than the Internet results of 20 percent for HotBot and 30 percent for AltaVista.

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Towards effective evaluation of digital community information systems

Unruh

Pettigrew

Durrance

2002

Proc of Assoc for Info

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Digital Community Information Systems (CIS) are increasing in both size and scale. These systems help people obtain community information (CI) for the myriad situations that arise in everyday life. As these systems migrate to the online environment, increasing complexities and scale provide the impetus for improvements in system design. System re-design, however, relies on the effective evaluation of digital CIS. Despite the plethora of evaluation frameworks from the systems, organizational, and information retrieval fields, minimal research has directly addressed the issue of digital CIS evaluation. Following a selective review of digital CIS and evaluation approaches, a layered evaluation framework is proposed to guide the evaluation of digital CIS. Community Information SystemsStudies of information behavior indicate that everyone, at one point or another, requires information for solving problems associated with daily living (Dervin, 1976;Chen & Hernon, 1982;Durrance 1984;Harris & Dewdney, 1994). Sometimes this information is basic, such as where to find quality childcare in a local community; other times, this information is augmentative, like frnding interest or activity groups. In some cases, this information is crucial such as where to find a homeless shelter or food assistance.Libraries have long recognized that access to this kind of information is an essential component of daily life and an important part of localized information services. Community information (CI) can be defined as that which helps people with everyday problems and facilitates civic life. Thus it includes information about healthcare, financial assistance, housing, transportation, education, child care, recreation, community events, etc. (Pettigrew, 1996). Durrance (1984) describes CI as comprising three components: human service, citizen action, and localized information content. Historically, library staff "identified, organized, and managed large files of data about their communities" (p. 329) with the goal of meeting everyday information needs of community residents.With the development of networkmg technologies that enable community networking, librarians experimented with porting their CI to the online environment with the idea of increasing access to CI. Armed with research that indicates only a fraction of community residents utilize physical library resources, librarians created new experimental CI systems for increasing access and use of CI. These new digital CIS varied widely from hypertext versions of the "vertical file" to sophisticated electronic CI databases. Available online to the public, librarians believed their systems could (a) provide CI to individuals not currently using the library; (b) extend access times to current library users; and (c) expand the awareness of the scope of CI available for particular communities.For this paper, digital community information systems (CIS) refer to organized collections of CI in the hypertext environment. Descriptively, digital CIS share many common characteristics of digita...

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Reference Service Evaluation and Meta-Analysis: Findings and Methodological Issues

Cited by 25 publications

References 17 publications

Meta-Analysis in Library and Information Science: Method, History, and Recommendations for Reporting Research

Meta-Analysis in Library and Information Science: Method, History, and Recommendations for Reporting Research

Question Master: An Evaluation of a Web-Based Decision-Support System for Use in Reference Environments

Towards effective evaluation of digital community information systems

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