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The study examines the communication of intellectual capital (CIC), defined as information disclosure of an organization’s intangible assets through annual report and supplementary corporate disclosure (ARS). Three research gaps were identified: (1) There is insufficient understanding of the drivers behind corporate disclosure of IC in the ARS; (2) How IC is communicated for corporate reporting, particularly content and formats used; and (3) The relationship between CIC and organizational performance (OP) has not been established. The study of CIC draws from three theoretical perspectives. Stakeholder Theory ascribes management responsibility to report to multiple stakeholders and interests. Thus the need to explore factors underlying CIC (RO1). Legitimacy Theory highlights management’s discretion in reporting based on perceived importance to stakeholders, which questions what and how CIC is reported (RO2A). Finally, Impression Management Theory suggests possible influence of CIC in enhancing perception of respectability and importance, thus the examination of the relationship between CIC and OP (RO2B). To gather empirical evidence, data was collected from surveys, 1-to-1 interviews and ARS. Two global surveys were conducted with 200 senior executives of banks responsible for ARS, supplemented with 1-to-1 interviews from a smaller subset of executives. To address RO1, factor analysis was applied on the survey results, supplemented with 1-to-1 interviews. For RO2A, ANOVA analysis and content analysis was undertaken on ARS, supplemented with 1-to-1 interviews. For RO2B, Negative Binomial Regression was used to investigate the relationship between CIC and OP. In RO1, four factors were found to drive organizations in CIC, namely compliance, management responsibility to stakeholders, corporate leadership and collective behavior. Stakeholder Theory applied in the context of CIC uncovered four main groups of stakeholders to focus – regulators, community-at-large, investors, stockbrokers and analysts, and peers. In RO2A, structural capital information (SCI) was the most prevalent content, followed by human capital information (HCI) and relational capital information (RCI). On format, SCI reflected transparency, often presented as narratives and illustrations. RCI resonated with strength and reliability, frequently represented by pictures and graphs. HCI showcased organizational culture, typically displayed as pictures, graphs and tables. These findings identified underlying motives behind the use of content and format, containing tacit messages in CIC to support management’s legitimacy. For RO2B, HCI was found negatively correlated with return on assets (ROA). RCI was positively correlated with net profit margin and negatively with ROA. Finally, SCI was negatively correlated with solvency ratio. This study found that Impression Management Theory was applicable, particularly for organizations that were in financial distress or lagging in performance. This study offers several contributions. Firstly, this is among the first works that investigated factors underlying CIC in corporate reporting. It provides regulators with insights into forces that compel or hinder CIC, and updates literature on management’s thinking and priorities. Secondly, empirical evidence extends Stakeholder Theory in the context of CIC, and uncovers the use of content and formats in CIC to suggest legitimacy and impression management. For practice, this study highlights benefits of CIC and motivates organizations to disclose IC as part of corporate reporting. ​Doctor of Philosophy (WKWSCI)

The burgeoning global popularity of social media is evident in several fields and communities, including the libraries and librarians. In the local context, digital traces of the Public Libraries Singapore (PLS), which is a network of 26 public library branches, can be found on three social media platforms. As of August 2018, the PLS Facebook page boasts the largest social media following in comparison to its Twitter and Instagram accounts. With an emphasis placed on the Facebook page administered by PLS, this exploratory study investigated the general characteristics of its posts and the user engagement of these features. The latter is measured and defined by the number of like, love, haha, wow, sad, angry, comments and share received from the audience. This research adopted a multi-pronged approach, which comprises human coding, computerised text analysis and statistical data processing, to examine the elements in the collected Facebook posts (N = 255). The descriptive statistics of the dataset show that the majority of the Facebook posts was published on weekdays and during the time slots 1201–1500 and 1801–2100. The text analysis indicates that the posts generally displayed a certain level of confidence, formal thinking and emotional tone, but were seemingly lacking in personal touch. In terms of the content presented, book-related recommendation appeared to be a common theme across the samples. The frequent inclusion of visual content in the Facebook posts was also observed. The multiple regression results reveal that certain features of the posts by PLS had statistically significant effects on the reactions garnered from its users. The Facebook posts published on Tuesdays and during 0901–1200 demonstrated a greater tendency to receive like, share and comments. The use of impersonal pronouns, negations and verbs possibly posed an impact on the number of wow gathered. Content types quiz and library design/facility exhibited positive relationships with some of the Facebook engagement indicators. However, the visual content incorporated in the posts did not display any apparent impact on the audience reactions, despite being widely regarded as an essential element to engage users. While this study seeks to offer useful observations from an external perspective, further investigation into the online behaviours of the audience using administrator-limited Facebook page insights is warranted. In addition, a survey on the users’ opinions about the current level of engagement by PLS’ Facebook posts can be conducted to gain a deeper insight into the ways to improve the local public libraries’ social media strategies. Master of Science (Information Studies)

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to examine the inter‐war history of the Raffles Library in Singapore with the aim of understanding what the management of the library believed its role should be as well as the role others in that society considered that it should fulfill.Design/methodology/approachThe article is based on historical research using archival sources.FindingsTo a great extent the management of the library narrowly construed the institution's mission in terms of appealing to that class of persons likely to become paying members – that is, the European elite and its high‐level local collaborators. Financial constraints, relations between the library and museum as well as prevalent negative attitudes regarding class and race in colonial society are likely reasons for the lack of sustained attention to non‐European populations.Originality/valueThe library history of much of Asia remains relatively unexplored, especially from a viewpoint that stresses the importance of social context to library structure and operation.

Background: In the recent years, social networking sites (SNSs, also called social media) have been adopted in organ donation campaigns, and recruiting opinion leaders for such campaigns has been found effective in promoting behavioral changes. Objective: The aim of this paper was to focus on the dissemination of organ donation tweets on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, and to examine the opinion leadership in the retweet network of popular organ donation messages using social network analysis. It also aimed to investigate how personal and social attributes contribute to a user’s opinion leadership on the topic of organ donation. Methods: All messages about organ donation posted on Weibo from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015 were extracted using Python Web crawler. A retweet network with 505,047 nodes and 545,312 edges of the popular messages (n=206) was constructed and analyzed. The local and global opinion leaderships were measured using network metrics, and the roles of personal attributes, professional knowledge, and social positions in obtaining the opinion leadership were examined using general linear model. Results: The findings revealed that personal attributes, professional knowledge, and social positions predicted individual’s local opinion leadership in the retweet network of popular organ donation messages. Alternatively, personal attributes and social positions, but not professional knowledge, were significantly associated with global opinion leadership. Conclusions: The findings of this study indicate that health campaign designers may recruit peer leaders in SNS organ donation promotions to facilitate information sharing among the target audience. Users who are unverified, active, well connected, and experienced with information and communications technology (ICT) will accelerate the sharing of organ donation messages in the global environment. Medical professionals such as organ transplant surgeons who can wield a great amount of influence on their direct connections could also effectively participate in promoting organ donation on social media. Published version

Background: Users searching for health information on the Internet may be searching for their own health issue, searching for someone else’s health issue, or browsing with no particular health issue in mind. Previous research has found that these three categories of users focus on different types of health information. However, most health information websites provide static content for all users. If the three types of user health information need contexts can be identified by the Web application, the search results or information offered to the user can be customized to increase its relevance or usefulness to the user. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility of identifying the three user health information contexts (searching for self, searching for others, or browsing with no particular health issue in mind) using just hyperlink clicking behavior; using eye-tracking information; and using a combination of eye-tracking, demographic, and urgency information. Predictive models are developed using multinomial logistic regression. Methods: A total of 74 participants (39 females and 35 males) who were mainly staff and students of a university were asked to browse a health discussion forum, Healthboards.com. An eye tracker recorded their examining (eye fixation) and skimming (quick eye movement) behaviors on 2 types of screens: summary result screen displaying a list of post headers, and detailed post screen. The following three types of predictive models were developed using logistic regression analysis: model 1 used only the time spent in scanning the summary result screen and reading the detailed post screen, which can be determined from the user’s mouse clicks; model 2 used the examining and skimming durations on each screen, recorded by an eye tracker; and model 3 added user demographic and urgency information to model 2. Results: An analysis of variance (ANOVA) analysis found that users’ browsing durations were significantly different for the three health information contexts (P

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of the National Library of Singapore in the life of Singaporeans. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses historical research. McMillan and Chavis’ theory of sense of community is adopted as the analytical framework to delineate the role of the National Library of Singapore. Findings – The paper finds that the National Library of Singapore plays an important role in fostering a sense of community among Singaporeans. The transformation of the library to a truly public institution in 1950s effectively enlarged its boundaries. Upon joining the community of the library, local Singaporeans underwent a bidirectional process of influencing and being influenced. The library made strenuous efforts to meet the needs of Singaporeans in myriad ways, resulting in reinforcement of the sense of community among Singaporeans. A shared emotional connection in the community was engendered as a result of the frequent contact and high-quality interaction. Originality/value – While being influenced by various social and cultural frameworks under which it operates, the library actively takes part in and influences the society. The study of the library in the life of the users via the lens of sense of community provides a perspective to further understand the potential and power of libraries and how libraries can positively contribute to the society at large.

175 p. This study is a historical investigation into the sciences and an exploration of whether Thomas Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions (SSR) fits independently grounded theories developed from study of known scientific shifts. The primary objectives of this work were to identify any relationships between independently grounded theories and the SSR and it was also contemplated whether the SSR was adequate to account for events that led to scientific paradigm shifts. Master of Science (Knowledge Management)

This study presented the analysis of funny YouTube videos about libraries, library staff and library users. The purpose of the study was to promote library and library services through funny YouTube videos. Content analysis was selected as the research methodology for this study, and 335 videos were analyzed. The study found that prank videos, videos about irresponsible behavior of library users and games videos are the most popular among the twelve video categories. This study also showed that videos from mainstream media attract more viewers than user-generated videos. Most of the video uploaders are ordinary people, and most of the funny videos are shot in academic libraries. It also reviewed the top 20 videos and their categories. It was found that 10 percent of the videos represent 90 percent of total video views. For every 10,000 views, there are 38 favorites, 30 ratings and 10 comments given by the users, on average. This study suggested three ideas, namely “Simple Creation”, “Easy Attraction” and “Memorial but Risky”, to be used by libraries for creating promotional videos. Master of Science (Information Studies)

Librarianship is generally considered to be concerned with the principle and practice of selecting, acquiring, organizing, disseminating and providing access to information in accordance with the specific needs of groups of people or an individual. As every practicing librarian knows, rapid developments in the global communication infrastructure in the last decade or so have seriously fudged, loosened and erased the boundaries of librarianship as we know it. Taking a broader perspective of the purpose of librarianship and beyond, this presentation attempts to clarify, redefine, reshape and expand the boundaries of our concerns as we move forward to more disruptive changes. The purpose is not to offer predictions, solutions or answers but rather to initiate and provoke the reflection and discussion that must take place amongst us in order for our profession to meet with the challenges of the future. Published version

PurposeAs Singapore librarians celebrate the culmination of the landmark Library 2000 Plan, it is also an appropriate time to look at what lies ahead for the profession. The purpose of this paper is to provide an edited version of an article originally delivered at the conference “Celebrating Knowledge: The Power and Potential – 13‐15 December 2005” organized by the Singapore National Library Board in conjunction with the opening of the new National Library Building.Design/methodology/approachUsing a basic model of a library, one that comprises three components – the collection, value added work on the collection, and services that help users exploit and use the collection – the paper discusses each component in light of current technological developments and learning trends to draw conclusions on the relevance of libraries in the near future.FindingsIt is argued that libraries and librarians will continue to play critical roles as the need for the effective preservation and transmission of knowledge in society still remains. As many of these critical roles rely on libraries as permanent institutions, librarians must continue to make significant contributions through their work in institutions such as libraries.Originality/valueThe article provides a useful springboard to discuss, identify and elaborate on the roles of libraries and librarians in the near future.

This article compares the newspaper coverage of Internet access in public libraries across two countries, Canada and Singapore. The aim is to discover some of the main concerns and themes that the press identifies with libraries, noting the differences between the two countries in this regard, and then to provisionally link these differences to certain structural characteristics of their respective societies and states. To achieve these aims I compare press coverage produced in terms of dates of publication, discourse producers, and discourse content. Implications of the findings for libraries and librarians are discussed. Accepted version

This dissertation attempts to devise a basic preservation and weeding program to be implemented in the SAFTI Military Institute Library as part of a total effort for collection maintenance. A preservation program is important in the SAFTI Library context due to its unique subject area, Military Art and Science, which is rarely found in other libraries in Singapore. If effort is not taken to preserve this unique collection, it will not be available elsewhere in Singapore. The subject areas collected by this Library are not time-sensitive but contain historical and classical value. Another important factor which requires a preservation program to be implemented as soon as possible in the SAFTI Library is the age of the collection. Much of the collection is at least half a century old due to the merging of collection of two old libraries. As no preservation program has been implemented, these old collections have begun to show signs of deterioration. Master of Science (Information Studies)

This study examined the current management information provision from computer-based library systems for library managers in academic libraries, putting into focus the adequacy of such provision. In addition, the study also looked at the use of and reliance on the statistical information generated from these automated library systems by library managers, in relation to the latter's level of management and decision-making process. The future developments of management information systems in academic libraries was also considered. Master of Arts