Computers

The focus of this ninth volume is on human/technology issues that arise from the design, development, application, operation, evaluation, and maintenance of advanced systems with regard to training in complex environments. Areas covered include: a user-oriented design analysis of a virtual environment training system, a cognitive task analysis technique for virtual environment training, advanced embedded team training, human centered automation for air traffic control, human performance modelling in system design, and scenario-based training.

Critically acclaimed since its inception, "Advances in Librarianship" continues to be the essential reference source for developments in the field of libraries and library science. Articles published in the Series have won national prizes, such as the recent Blackwell North America Scholarship Award for the outstanding 1994 monograph, article, or original paper in the field of acquisitions, collection, development, and related areas of resource development. All areas of public, college, university, primary and secondary schools, and special libraries are given up-to-date, critical analysis by experts engaged in the practice of librarianship, in teaching, and in research. Written by professionals for professionals to find solutions to vexing questions, it is authoritative, in-depth, and concise, and the single best source for keeping up-to-date on key issues.

This will be the third edition of the highly successful "Text Information Retrieval Systems". The book's purpose is to teach people who will be searching or designing text retrieval systems how the systems work. For designers, it covers problems they will face and reviews currently available solutions to provide a basis for more advanced study. For the searcher its purpose is to describe why such systems work as they do. The book is primarily about computer-based retrieval systems, but the principles apply to nonmechanized ones as well. The book covers the nature of information, how it is organized for use by a computer, how search functions are carried out, and some of the theory underlying these functions. As well, it discusses the interaction between user and system and how retrieved items, users, and complete systems are evaluated. A limited knowledge of mathematics and of computing is assumed. This third edition will be updated to include coverage of the WWW and current search engines. In many cases, examples of non-web searching will be replaced with web-based illustrations. Coverage of interfaces, various features available to assist searchers, and areas in which search assistance is not available will also be covered. In addition, the book will have a web dimension which will include relevant material available online, to be used in conjunction with the text. It is a follow-up to the award winning 2nd Edition. It focuses on computer-based system but basic principles can be applied to any information seeking context.

The user-centered approach is central to the creation of usable information systems, services, and institutions. Information system design should derive from user research into information needs, tasks accomplished in meeting those needs, and resources used in the tasks. "Information Tasks" summarizes user research, then presents design sketches of systems that illustrate how design is linked to research. Also discussed are usable information services and an overview of the organization and economics of information institutions. This comprehensive user-centered approach provides an agenda for information research, design, and education that challenges many accepted beliefs and suggests new directions for information work. "Information Tasks" is of interest to library and information science students and faculty interested in information storage and retrieval, user studies, and systems analysis design. Students and scholars of human factors in systems design, human-computer interaction, and cognitive engineering also find the text useful. It reviews user research from many disciplines, and links research to practical design issues. It provides a unified model for user studies and user-centered design, and includes how-to summaries of design chapters. It shows how designers can investigate their user communities. It provides a general template for the design process. It integrates all aspects of information design, and discusses library issues in the larger information context.

The dual goal of the "Handbook in Information Systems" is to provide a reference for the diversity of research in the field by scholars from many disciplines, as well as to stimulate new research. This volume, focusing on Information Assurance, Security and Privacy Services, consists of six sections. In the first part contributors discuss Program Security, Data Security and Authentication, while the second section covers Internet Scourges and Web Security. Parts two and three concentrate on Usable Security and Human-Centric Aspects, along with Security, Privacy and Access Control whereas the final sections of the book examine Economic Aspects of Security, and Threat Modeling, Intrusion and Response.

This edited volume is intended to address in a comprehensive and integrated manner three major areas of national and international security research from an information systems-centric perspective: legal and policy frameworks; intelligence and security informatics; and emergency preparedness and infrastructure protection. The discussions are replete with real-world case studies and examples that present the concepts using an integrated, action-oriented and theory-based approach to validate the frameworks presented and to provide specific insights on the technical approaches and organizational issues under investigation.This book is intended to be used as both a textbook and a comprehensive research handbook. The contributors to this edited volume are renowned experts in their respective fields. Most of the chapters contained in this book provide an updated comprehensive survey of the related field and also specific findings from cutting-edging innovative research. To facilitate its adoption as a textbook, all the authors have included specific discussion questions that could be utilized to stimulate discussions and potentially further research in the area. This book addresses three major areas of national and international security research from an information systems-centric perspective. It focuses on legal and policy frameworks, intelligence and security informatics, and emergency preparedness and infrastructure protection. Real-world case studies are used as examples to provide specific insights.

This book is broadly organized in three parts. The first section ('Enhancing and Managing Customer Value') focuses on presenting the state-of-knowledge in managing and enhancing customer value through extraction of consumer-centric knowledge from mountains of data that modern interactive applications generate. The extracted information can then be used to provide more personalized information to customers, provide more relevant information or products, and even to create innovative business processes to enhance overall value to customers. The second section in the book ('Computational Approaches for Business Processes') focuses on presenting several specific innovative computing artifacts and tools developed by researchers that are not yet commercially used. These represent cutting-edge thought and advances in business computing research that should soon find utility in real-world applications or as a tool to analyze real-world scenarios. The final section in the book ('Supporting Knowledge Enterprise') presents approaches and frameworks that focus on ability of an enterprise to analyze, build, and protect computing infrastructure that supports value-added dimensions to the enterprise's existing business processes.

We live in an ever complex, dynamic and technological-based world. A world where industries, businesses and agencies rely ever increasingly on automated systems to maintain efficiency, increase productivity, minimize human error or gain a competitive edge. Moreover, automation is now seen by many organizations as the solution to human performance problems. These organizations continue to invest significant resources to implement automated systems wherever possible and there is no doubt that automation has helped such organizations manage their sophisticated, information-rich environments, where humans have limited capabilities. Therefore, automation has helped to improve industrial and commercial progress to the extent that organizations now depend upon it for their own benefit. However, new and unresolved problems have arisen as more individuals, groups and teams interact with automated systems. Hence, the need and motivation of this volume. The chapters contained in this volume explore some of the key human performance issues facing organizations as they implement or manage automated systems. Dealing with a range of topics, from how to design optional use, avoiding misuse, to creating training strategies for automated systems, this volume also explores which theories may help us understand automation better and what research needs to be conducted. This publication attempts to illustrate how human performance research on automation can help organizations design better systems and also hopes to motivate more theoretically-based but practically-relevant research in the technological-based world of the 21st century.

Automated Information Retrieval" describes a fully automated Boolean System and gives special attention to theoretical problems in automatic retrieval of textual information. The book details algorithms in each process in the system, including those that are radically new in the retrieval process and those that are adaptable to the individual. New approaches to evaluating information retrieval systems and studying their performance are included. This book reviews the general principles of constructing any system, such as an information retrieval system. It provides a detailed analysis of basic concepts such as information need, information, information crisis, and the notation of information retrieval. It examines the goal, function, structure, and language of an information retrieval system. It describes the construction of an information retrieval system (methods, algorithms, and approaches). It details different approaches to evaluating the results of information retrieval. It features new directions in the development of information retrieval systems.

For the first time in one comprehensive presentation, "Modern Information Systems for Managers" integrates some of the most recent and promising applications and technologies of information systems not found in current texts. Dr. Bidgoli's presentation offers several unique features to prepare future executives for effective utilization of information systems. The text presents coverage of the popular information systems technology within the context of information systems. Using this approach, Bidgoli has investigated all the important issues surrounding design and implementation of information systems including microcomputers, security issues, telecommunications and group support systems. The key features are: carefully examines new and future issues related to successful information systems design; gives the reader an understanding of upcoming technologies; contains a complete discussion of information systems analysis, design, and implementation; presents a comprehensive discussion or organizational, social, and legal impacts of information systems early in the text; each chapter contains learning objectives which leave the reader with a measurable goal; introduces various software products and their application to both micro and mainframe computers; and, each chapter concludes with 20 to 25 review questions. 'Practical Applications' presents numerous information systems applications in functional areas of business including: information systems in manufacturing, marketing, finance, human resource management, and strategic planning; internet and global information systems; decision support and executive information systems; group support systems; geographic information systems; multimedia and virtual reality; and, artificial intelligence and expert systems.

Technology does not invite a close examination of its own consequences because of its lengthy, intimate, and inevitable relationship with culture. In particular, the internet has delivered mixed blessings despite extravagant claims that it has revolutionized our lives and world. Issues concerning ethics and professionalism, privacy, autonomy, free speech, and ethics have often been recognized but rarely receive the careful analysis and illumination they deserve. Most of this Third Edition of "The Social Impact of Computers" is a study in the success of the computer in its incredibly wide variety of forms and applications. Its new chapters and reorganized material from the previous editions keeps its coverage of these issues appropriate and relevant. Richard Rosenberg has been instrumental in developing national and international privacy policies, particularly with respect to electronic media, as well as national and international approaches to free speech on the internet. Professor of Computer Science at Dalhousie University, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Key features include: new chapters on free speech, intellectual property rights, and computer crime and security; revised chapter on the information society; and two revised chapters on the government, including an analysis of the Microsoft antitrust case.

Once the basic idea of hypertext had spread rapidly throughout the world via the Internet, the reception of hypertexts soon became subject of empirical research among psychologists, cognitive scientists, and educational researchers. As easy to use software for the writing of hypertexts (HTML editors) is now broadly available, there are no longer any technical obstacles for the use of hypertext production in teaching and learning. This book presents and analyses the learning effects that can be anticipated from the production of hypertexts. It includes laboratory experiments, studies on the production of hypertexts in the context of educational institutions, and reports on software environments designed for the production of hypertext. It includes theoretical, empirically and developmentally oriented contributions. The first three chapters link up directly with research on traditional writing while addressing aspects of the interaction between content and rhetoric during hypertext writing. The next three chapters focus on cooperative learning of students in and through the production of hypertexts. The following two chapters look at new technological possibilities, namely, a software environment for transforming textbooks into personalized hypertexts and the design of hypervideos. The final chapter discusses potential methods for further research.

Critically acclaimed since its inception, "Advances in Librarianship" continues to be the essential reference source for developments in the field of libraries and library science. Articles published in the Series have won national prizes, such as the recent Blackwell North America Scholarship Award for the outstanding 1994 monograph, article, or original paper in the field of acquisitions, collection, development, and related areas of resource development. All areas of public, college, university, primary and secondary schools, and special libraries are given up-to-date, critical analysis by experts engaged in the practice of librarianship, in teaching, and in research. Written by professionals for professionals to find solutions to vexing questions, it is authoritative, in-depth, and concise, and the single best source for keeping up-to-date on key issues.

Increasing technological sophistication in many countries and the resulting larger world trade has indicated a need to pay greater attention to the international aspects of user interfaces. Many American companies are approaching a situation where half of their sales are outside the United States, and companies in smaller countries often have a much larger proportion of their sales outside their own country. This means that software sales will increasingly depend on their international usability and not just their domestic usability. Seen from a user's perspective more than half of the world's software users will be using interfaces which were originally designed in a foreign country. Usability for this large market of users will depend upon increased awareness of the issues involved in designing user interfaces for international use. As the European community aims to establish the so-called Single Market by the end of 1992, international software will become even more important in that part of the world. And as if it wasn't hard enough to design user interfaces for use in Europe, there are a further set of problems connected with user interfaces for Asia. Both of these issues are examined in depth. This is the first publication of its kind to appear on the topic of international user interfaces, and presents both general guidelines and a number of detailed case studies on the many aspects entailed. The book will be of considerable interest to project managers, lecturers, students, developers of basic software and user interface designers.

"Research in Philosophy and Technology: Volume 19" advances philosophical reflections on technology through a focus on metaphysical and epistemological issues. The contributors employ the resources of both the phenomenological and analytical traditions of contemporary philosophy in their work. Contributions include general proposals for the reform of the philosophy of technology; examinations of the work of major philosophers including Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Jonas, Ihde, and Merleau-Ponty; an extended argument for a more careful delineation of the difference between science and technology; a new analysis of the concept of efficiency; extended studies of the fate of skill in the information age and the place of the body in virtual reality. Themed review essays and general reviews complement the chapters.