Abstract
The first paper in this issue, ‘Data Envelopment Analysis modeling for measuring knowledge management performance in Malaysian higher educational institutions’, by Chuen Tse Kuah and Kuan Yew Wong of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, aims to propose a new model for measuring Knowledge Management (KM) performance based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Data from 19 Malaysian higher educational institutions were analyzed using the proposed model, which provides a single KM performance score for each institution and indicates specific KM areas that should be improved. The results can be used by the institutions to determine their future KM strategies and targets.
Sustainable development is a constant concern of development practitioners everywhere, and the next paper, ‘The Internet and other ICTs as tools and catalysts for sustainable development: innovation for 21st century', by Ivana Zelenika of the University of British Columbia and Joshua M. Pearce of Michigan Technological University, examines the ways in which the Internet and other ICTs can improve critical shortcomings to sustainable development efforts. Among the many issues facing sustainable technological development, dispersed and un-coordinated research, as well as poor communication and collaboration of technological knowledge to those that need it, play a major role in many failed and delayed projects. However, the Internet and its multifaceted platforms provide a potential solution to these problems. This paper reviews the strategies of open source appropriate technology (OSAT) and innovation through collaboration, presenting four case studies of organizations at the forefront of open collaborative technologies for sustainable development. The conclusions drawn from these case studies should contribute insights and help to guide the development of this new innovation strategy.
“Publish or perish” is the rule, not only for university professors and other academics, but also, increasingly, for academic librarians. In ‘Academic status and research publication: The dilemma of librarians at the University of Ghana’, Daniel Opoku notes that pressure is now being put on all librarians at the University of Ghana to upgrade themselves to academic status, and considers the implications of this for research publication by these librarians and their job satisfaction.
From West Africa to Iran, and a complete change of subject. In their paper, ‘Accessibility and facilities for the disabled in public and university library buildings in Iran’, Nahid Bayat Bodaghi of Tarbiat Modares Universityin Iran and A.N. Zainab of the University of Malaya examine the views of architects and physically disabled users on the accessibility status of 14 public and university library buildings in Iran. The results indicate that the points of view of both groups were broadly similar, while disabled users who rated highly on library accessibility were frequent visitors to the library. The provision of access and equipment meets minimum compliant standards, but there is still room for improvement.
We move to China with the next paper, ‘The development of computer science research in the People’s Republic of China 2000–2009: A bibliometric study’, by Zhilong Xie of the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in China and Peter Willett of the University of Sheffield. Focusing on the areas of data mining, operating systems and web design, the paper shows that whilst the productivity of Chinese research has risen dramatically over the period under review, its impact is still low when compared with established scientific nations. A comparison of the publication and citation data for China with corresponding data for Brazil, Russian and India shows that China dominates these nations in terms of publications and citations, but that Indian publications often have greater individual impact.
The development of the CDS/ISIS software has been the subject of several contributions to Information Development since the first issue, and the tradition continues with ‘The MARC tags and ISBD display formats for the ABCD UNIMARC bibliographic database’, by Eustache Mêgnigbêto of the Bureau d'Etude et de Recherche en Science de l'Information (BERSI) in Benin, The paper presents two display formats incorporated into the UNIMARC database that allow records to be displayed and printed according to ISBD specifications or dumped according to the MARC tags pattern.
The final paper in this issue takes us back to Asia. In ‘Availability and visibility of open access digital repositories in ASEAN countries', Tan Lee-Hwa, of KBU International College, Kuala Lumpur, and A. Abrizah and A. Noorhidawati of the University of Malaya report on the 2011 survey of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) digital repositories, employing web analysis to highlight the current state of the repositories and describing their characteristics in terms of types, contents, subject coverage and language. It also identifies the web performance of these repositories as reflected through global visibility. The study identified a total of 61 ASEAN repositories participating in Open Access publishing through the Green Road. The findings suggest that ASEAN repositories need to have some degree of visibility and incorporate good practices in their web publication to fulfil the requirement for quantitative webometrics indicators of the Ranking Web of World Repositories.
This issue also includes the regular columns by Archie Dick and Msafiri, but sadly, not the CDS/ISIS column of Alan Hopkinson, who is unable to contribute to this issue due to illness. We wish Alan a quick and complete recovery, and hope to see him resuming his long series of contributions on CDS/ISIS in the near future.