Exploring Contextual Factors For Knowledge Service In Digital Libraries

The studies about context are originally derived from the fields of mobile and ubiquitous computing, in which the introduction of contextual factors allows the system to take advantage of contextual information, such as location, environment, time and others, to provide users with appropriate information services and computing resources. Later, as the development of e-commerce recommendation services, researchers have come to realize that the simple "user (User)-recommended items (Item)" match can not fully exploit the user’s needs, and the introduction of contextual information into the recommendation process can significantly improve the recommendation accuracy and user satisfaction. From then on, the context-related research flourished. As the important providers of knowledge services, digital libraries experienced more than20years of development, from the information resources service systems with simple provision of information resources storage and retrieval services to the knowledge service systems closely connected to academic research process and providing users with personalized services, and with the user and knowledge service activities together constitute knowledge ecosystems. In the user-centric and meeting-individual-needs-oriented digital library knowledge service processes, the contextual factors closely related to the entire knowledge ecosystem will inevitably have a major impact on and role of improving the quality of knowledge service and user satisfaction. Since the entire knowledge ecosystem contains multiple participants and many activities or events between the participating parties, the contextual factors involved would be numerous and complex. Therefore, carry out the study on the contextual affecting factors in digital library knowledge services, to identify the contextual affecting factors in digital library knowledge services, to understand how the different contextual factors work in the digital library knowledge services and their sizes of the utility values, can help improving the functionalities and services of digital libraries and user satisfaction, as well as providing theoretical support for the development of digital libraries.In this thesis, the research background, significance and research plan are analyzed firstly. The research status quo obtained by domestic and abroad scholars in three related areas, namely digital library, knowledge services, and context, is investigated. Among them, the review of digital library focuses on by analyzing changes in the development of digital libraries, elaborates the functions and features of digital libraries in different periods, and leads to the definition of digital library objects used this study; the review of knowledge services focuses on by summarizing the research and development status of domestic and international knowledge services, highlighting the essential characteristics of knowledge services of user-centric to meet the needs of individual users; the review of context research is carried out from two perspectives:first, from the perspective of different applications, review the contextual factors involved in different application areas; second, from the perspective of knowledge service process, analyze the contextual factors related to various service participants and service environment, and finalize the occurrence environment and application scenarios of the context studied in this thesis.Based on a comprehensive analysis of the knowledge object life cycle theory, user information behavior theory and other related theories, by considering the content and features of digital library knowledge services, referring to the existing research results, determine the structural variables in the research model, propose the relationship assumptions between the variables, and create a contextual affecting factors model of digital library knowledge services.Based on theoretical models and research hypotheses, and with reference to the research results, design corresponding measurement variables to the structural variables in the theoretical model to form the measurement model. According to empirical research needs, determine the scope and object of questionnaire, and design reasonable methods of data analysis. The survey data is obtained through questionnaires.After analyzing the model identifiability, determining the measurement model reliability and validity, and determining model parameters estimation method, the SPSS software is used for descriptive statistics, reliability and validity analysis, then apply Smartpls software to model regression analysis. First, conduct the measurement model regression for verification, and then perform the overall hypothetical model regression. According to the results of regression analysis, the relationship between the variables in the final model is analyzed.The analysis results show that the used questionnaires are reliable and effective, and the validity of the contextual affect factors model for digital library knowledge service is verified; the initial research hypotheses have been better validated, and a final model with more ideal interpretation results is obtained by correcting. Through the discussion of the findings, it has obtained the specific measures that digital libraries should take to improve user satisfaction with their knowledge services. Finally, the analysis of the shortcomings of the research work is conducted, and the prospects of future research are proposed.