ALISE 2009 WIP Poster Submissions
Amelia Abreu
Digital Archives and Digital Objects: An Inquiry in Form and Relationship
This study seeks to conceptualize two aspects of an archival model that can serve contemporary users and institutions in preserving web-born new media objects. There are two central questions: how will such an archive work, and what form will the the objects and collections within them take? That is, what is the place/product that would be built to house objects we would like to save in a manner that reflects what we (as information scientists, knowledge organization specialists, archival thinkers) know about storing, accessing and authenticating objects in archives? (Cox, 2004; Duranti, 1998) Secondly, I examine how these objects interact with their surroundings and each other, drawing on scholarship in New media (Manovitch, 2001). As a case study, I look at new media artists experiments in form, and the work of institutions such as Rhizome at the New Museum, a hybrid museum/web forum dedicated to dedicated to the "creation, presentation, preservation, and critique" of artistic practices engaging technology.
This work is part of a larger study of descriptive practices and contextual elements of description across Libraries, Archives, and Museums institutions. Grounded in the field of Knowledge Organization, this study attempts to extricate knowledge organization practices in emergent media, and to draw parallels between description in LAM settings and in online settings.
Melissa Adler
Who Is the Authority on Transgender Vocabularies?: A Comparative Study of Controlled Terms in LCSH and User-Generated Tags in LibraryThing
Subject cataloging has become a hotly contested topic, particularly with the development of Web 2.0 tools and the advent of social tagging. Libraries around the world and across the bibliographic universe, including the World Wide Web, use the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). However, LCSH has been attacked for headings that are deemed to be prejudiced, out-dated, or simply unintelligible to users. Critics have also determined that the headings reflect and serve a mainstream audience, lacking terms for and misrepresenting groups on the margins, including sexual minorities.
LibraryThing is an interactive online library catalog that pulls bibliographic information from such sources as Amazon.com and the Library of Congress. It allows users to create their own personal catalogs, tag and review books, and view and communicate with other users' catalogs.
This poster will feature an analysis of the Library of Congress Subject Headings in WorldCat records and user-generated tags in LibraryThing for books with transgender themes. Based on popularity in LibraryThing and recommendations of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered Round Table of the American Library Association, records for twenty books were selected and examined. The goal of this study is to offer insight into the significance of self-naming and to consider the potential and limitations of tagging and controlled vocabularies for access to transgender materials. It is part of a larger project to study access to LGBT materials in libraries.
Subject cataloging has become a hotly contested topic, particularly with the development of Web 2.0 tools and the advent of social tagging. Libraries around the world and across the bibliographic universe, including the World Wide Web, use the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). However, LCSH has been attacked for headings that are deemed to be prejudiced, out-dated, or simply unintelligible to users. Critics have also determined that the headings reflect and serve a mainstream audience, lacking terms for and misrepresenting groups on the margin, including sexual minorities. LibraryThing is an interactive online library catalog that pulls bibliographic information from such sources as Amazon.com and the Library of Congress. It allows users to create their own personal catalogs, tag and review books, and view and communicate with other users' catalogs.
This poster will feature an analysis of the Library of Congress Subject Headings in WorldCat records and user-generated tags in LibraryThing for books with transgender themes. Based on popularity in LibraryThing and recommendations of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered Round Table of the American Library Association, records for twenty books were selected and examined. The goal of this study is to offer insight into the significance of self-naming and to consider the potential and limitations of tagging and controlled vocabularies for access to transgender materials. It is part of a larger project to study access to LGBT materials in libraries.
Christine M. Angel
Does the Construction of Personal Meaning from Museum Artifacts Change with Contextual Variation?
The Internet is a powerful tool for people to communicate and access information across the globe. According to Holland and Smith (http://www.archimuse.com/mw99/papers/holland/holland.html) museum professionals are studying how technology can help people locate and access specific information they need. This exploratory research is intended to improve our understanding of how museum professionals can effectively connect the digital visitor to the museum artifact and how the visitor interacts with digital artifacts when constructing personal meaning. The museum-user communicative process first requires an understanding of how museum professionals organize their own digital collections. Therefore, current research consists of: 1) defining descriptive practices with online museum digital exhibits; 2) defining best practices via institutional surveys and; 3) conducting a user analysis via survey of online digital exhibits.
Further research is needed in determining if the construction of personal meaning changes from the museum environment to the virtual one. There are three specific questions this portion of the study will explore: First, do visitors of the museum environment incorporate the ideas, values and beliefs originally intended by the primary curator? Second, do visitors of online three dimensional digital environments incorporate the ideas, values, and beliefs originally intended by the primary curator? Finally, what are the similarities and differences between the ideas obtained from three-dimensional digital online environment and the original goals of the primary curator?
Jennifer Weil Arns
Assessing the Economic Value of Public Library Services: A Review of the Literature and Meta-Analysis
Assessing the Economic Value of Public Library Services: A Review of the Literature and Meta-Analysis
Over the last few years, interest in developing contextual models that capture the multi-layered economic value that public libraries bring to their communities has been growing steadily. As a result, there are an increasing number of well-designed local studies, including those conducted in St. Louis, Florida, New York, Seattle, and South Carolina that expand our understanding of this pressing issue and respond to the needs of library advocates who must make the case for libraries in their communities. Much less is known concerning the consistency of these estimates, their predictable magnitude, or the contextual factors that figure in their variation. This two year project, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program, addresses this problem using meta-analysis techniques that aggregate and integrate the four types of estimates most commonly used to assess the value of public libraries and other cultural institutions: contingent valuation, cost-benefit analysis, regional impact assessment, and externality estimation. The results of the meta-analysis will be presented in research and practice oriented publications, workshops, and presentations at professional meetings. Models for framing the results in policy and advocacy presentations are under development and will be incorporated in sample web-based education modules provided to the public at the end of the project.
Jennifer E. Burke
Digital History & Education: An Exploration of the Factors Contributing to the Use of Digital Primary Sources in the Secondary School History Classroom
This poster presents a proposed qualitative study on aspects of information use behavior among high school educators regarding digital media to support teaching History/Social Studies.
Nearly every museum, library, historical society or archive has digitization projects underway to bring the richness of primary sources like photos, letters, maps, and other historical or cultural artifacts to the Web, all with a great potential for educational use. These newly accessible digitized primary resources [DPRs] could change the way students learn about history. However, research shows that these resources are not being used to their full potential in the classroom, so it’s imperative to study teachers’ use and integration of these materials in the curriculum.
This is a qualitative case study with teachers and the media specialist from a very large high school in the northeastern U.S. that will explore how influencing factors and behaviors work together in terms of integration of DPRs. The study primarily uses a brief survey, semi-structured interviews, and document analysis to produce thick description and to find a deeper understanding of the contextual factors and concerns over adoption of specific technology in this specific work setting. This research is noteworthy for its interdisciplinary approach. The study brings together key learning from digital collections, digital history, educational technology, and human information behavior to address research gaps and to build a better and more well-rounded understanding of history teachers’ behavior. In the long term this research intends to provide recommendations for improved resources, resource use, and teaching in secondary school history.
Janet L. Capps
Emergent Literacy: Assessing Core Knowledge with EL-Capstone
Libraries have historically been making vital connections between children, books, and literacy. Funding initiatives demonstrate that libraries are developing partnerships to expanded children services to include emergent literacy components. The early childhood developmental concepts of print motivation, print awareness, phonological awareness, alphabetic awareness, vocabulary, and narrative abilities are part of this theoretical approach known as emergent literacy. Pre-readers blend into readers without any clear boundaries. These influential skills being fostered prior to formal reading and writing instruction have affected reading outcomes.
How knowledgeable are librarians in core emergent literacy concepts? Through the design and evaluation of an instrument to measure emergent literacy concepts, this work prepares to support future initiatives intended to measure capstone levels of practitioners. Having a valid and reliable, community-sensitive tool to assess emergent literacy understanding has the potential to directly impact the transformation of LIS education for the 21st Century.
The development process of the emergent literacy assessment instrument (EL-Capstone) is informed by earlier assessment instrument designs from other domains. The general steps include: (1.) define the content, (2.) develop and select the instrument items, (3.) review by experts, (4.) interview sessions, (5.) pilot study data collection, and (6.) evaluation.
Preparing to enter phase 4 (interview sessions), this work in progress poster will share the EL-Capstone instrument development steps. Measuring the capstone level at which librarians are prepared to fulfill a leadership role in the community’s effort to impact emergent literacy development is paramount to future design and implementation of librarian training/intervention programs.
Lonelyss Charles
Becoming colleagues: The experiences of doctoral research fellows in the practice setting
The IMLS-funded TRLN Doctoral Fellows Program supports doctoral candidates interested in teaching and research in academic librarianship, combining doctoral coursework with a research assignment in one of the Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN) libraries; fellows are mentored by senior academic library administrators. Rationale for the program also includes the need to help alleviate known boundaries between research and practice settings.
Purpose/Objective of Study:
Sample and Setting:
Method (Qualitative, quantitative, historical, etc):
Results:
Hsin-liang Chen
An Analysis of Undergraduate Students’ Search Behaviors in an Information Literacy Class
The objectives of this project are 1) investigate students’ search strategies for assignments in the class; 2) study whether students change their search strategies during the semester; and 3) examine relationships between student’s search strategies and their learning experience. Data collection included five different paper-based surveys corresponding to course content in the 2008 Spring semester. Seventy-seven students answered the surveys. The first survey was conducted at the beginning of the course to collect students’ demographic, academic goals, technology literacy and library use. The second survey asked students to state their own search topic and keywords they planned to use to conduct their search. This survey was given to the students in the second or third week in the semester. In the fourth week the students started their search and in the third survey reported their actual search keywords and their satisfaction level based on the search results they obtained In the eighth week, students had the second search and in the fourth survey reported their actual search keywords and their satisfaction level again based on the search results they obtained. The students were encouraged to keep the same search topic for both searches. The students answered the fifth survey regarding their learning experience at the end of the semester. Primary findings indicate that the significant relationships were found between students’ pre-search keywords and the keywords of 1st search assignment, as well as their pre-search keywords and those of the 2nd search assignment. The significant relationships provide valuable suggestions to the pedagogical design of the information literacy class.
Pok W. Chin
Identification of Image Browsing and Selecting Behavior of Users from Library/Information Science and Art Education
This inquiry is an experiment-based study. The subjects of this research are Library and Information Science (LIS) and Art students. The objective of this study is to investigate how educational differences affect people’s image browsing and selecting behavior.
LIS and Art educations represent the two extremes of the science/arts polarity. Science and arts are the two principal modes of human experience. The science mode can be known as objective understanding and the art mode can be known as subjective feeling. Human experience is comprised of both modes, and these modes not only oppose each other but are inversely proportional. LIS students tend to be more science oriented and Art students are much more arts oriented.
Research participants will be asked to select images that represent concrete concept, moderately abstract concept, and highly abstract concept from a collection. This collection is comprised of five hundred digital images from the public domain and has been pre-tested.
The researcher uses semiotics theory to analyze the result. Semiotics is the study of signs such as text and images. It is within the realm of semiotics to investigate how meaning is constructed. According to this theory, people from different backgrounds, such as LIS and Art, have different codes to interpret signs. The need to understand how people interpret digital images differently has become more critical and of interest to LIS educators and as a subject of research. The findings of this inquiry have the potential to improve user-centered indexing in digital image collection.
Katherine Chuang
Preparing LIS graduates for non-traditional jobs: Employer expectations of information professionals in knowledge management and competitive intelligence
Preparing information professionals for the 21st century may require enhancements to current LIS education that will provide students with the skills necessary for them to be successful at non-traditional library jobs. Many LIS graduates may lack the business knowledge, strategic planning ability, and other essential skills sought by employers outside of the library field. This poster reports on the results of the second phase of a three-phase project to identify gaps in LIS education related to the skills necessary for positions in knowledge management and competitive intelligence. Phase One identifies skills and knowledge considered essential by current incumbents in KM and CI positions. Phase Two that this poster draws attention to, will identify the requirements considered essential by potential employers. A content analysis of job ads analysis of approximately 200 (100 for each KM/CI) online job ads, will produce a prioritized list of skills and knowledge. Data come from different sources: organizations within the LIS community, organizations outside the LIS community, and generic job boards. The types of job titles vary greatly and positions can come from many industries. Phase Three of the project will address the skills and knowledge related to KM and CI currently taught in MLS programs. Based on the data collected in the three phases, gaps in LIS curriculum related to these job areas will be identified so that enhanced curricula in these areas can develop.
(Ms.) Clayton A. Copeland
Library and Information Center Accessibility: The Differently-able Patron’s Perspective
The 1980’s “Decade of the Disabled,” stimulated increased awareness regarding rights of differently-able people for better access to education, employment, and information (United Nations, 1982). As “great equalizers of knowledge,” (Epp, 2006) libraries were among organizations striving to become accessible, enabling environments for the differently-able. While “diversity” remains a critical focus for libraries, many remain inaccessible for the differently-able (Murray, 2000, 2001; Wojahn, 2006). In recent years, few research studies have investigated how library accessibility might be improved. Even fewer studies have investigated the impact of perception upon library accessibility, and fewer still investigated library accessibility from the differently-able patron’s perspective.
The purpose of this study is to explore library services & accessibility in public, school, and academic libraries from the differently-able person’s perspective. By identifying differently-able undergraduate students & higher education faculty and staff [through their affiliations with the Association of Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) and its regional affiliate, South Carolina University and College Council of Educators Empowering Disabled Students (SUCCEEDS)] and conducting a series of interviews and focus groups with these individuals, this research will analyze “lived experiences” of differently-able patrons to investigate how library accessibility / inaccessibility are socially constructed. Specifically, it will investigate: 1. how social constructivism itself informs librarians’ perceptions of differently-able patrons; 2. the impact of perception, social constructivism, and technological advances upon library accessibility / inaccessibility. Ultimately, the study’s goal is to illuminate issues related to library accessibility / inaccessibility and, through participants’ voices, suggest how library accessibility can be improved.
Melissa H. Cragin
Shared Scientific Data Collections and Implications for Curation in Academic Libraries
This research concerns the development and use of Resource data collections (National Science Board, 2005), and the implications for their curation and stewardship. In 2005 the National Science Board published a report on Long Lived Digital Data Collections (LLDDC), which they characterize as “the infrastructure, organizations, and individuals necessary to preserve access” (p. 13) to digital content that can be accessed electronically. The report identifies three kinds (or classes) of collections, the Research Collection, the Resource Collection, and the Reference Collection. Research collections come from single labs or projects, and are rarely developed for sharing; Reference collections are those (like GenBank ) that are steadily funded and used by many research communities. Resource level collections exist along a continuum between the other two, and it is anticipated that many of these community-based collections will stabilize, go through some process of certification, and then require appraisal and selection for long-term maintenance and use.
As such, Resource Collections (RCs) are important to academic and research libraries engaged in e-Science activities because they contain data that are valued, and therefore engender support and resources from the primary research community to build them. While a few RCs have been known to grow and follow a trajectory toward Reference collection status (e.g. the Protein Data Bank ), the development of others has ended, leaving valuable data inaccessible. This poster will present initial analysis of the features and characteristics scientific Resource Collections and the implications for on-going curation and stewardship of these data in academic libraries.
References
National Science Board (September 2005): NSB-05-40, Long-Lived Digital Data Collections: Enabling Research and Education in the 21st Century. http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2005/nsb0540/
Evelyn L. Curry
Information-Seeking Behavior of African-American Women with HIV/AIDS: A Grounded Theory
Using the grounded theory method, this study explores the phenomenon of information-seeking behavior in African-American women with HIV-AIDS. The purpose of the study is to qualitatively explore and describe the decision-making process of women with the chronic disease. Specific objectives are: (a) to describe and explain the emerging concepts and domains associated with the phenomenon of information-seeking for the management of HIV-AIDS in a selected population and (b) to initiate the development of a model of its information-seeking behavior. Using purposive and theoretical sampling, 12 women with HIV-AIDS will be interviewed (or until the sample becomes "saturated" and no new information is being obtained). The researcher will be open to the unique experiences of the participants; therefore, other topics will be explored as they are related to the participants' information-seeking decisions. Data analysis will be conducted using the method of grounded theory first introduced by Glaser and Strauss (1967). Among the many patterns evident in the data, distinct categories will be identified. Lenz (1984) argues that information management is a critical component in the treatment of chronic diseases. Study conclusions have implications for the effective provision of public and health sciences library services to patients in the specialized group.
Rachel A. Fleming-May
Electronic Resources Librarianship: Responsibilities and Competencies for a New Type of Library Professional
In order to address the phenomenal growth of electronic scholarly resources academic libraries have dramatically restructured and reallocated their resources. Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member libraries’ electronic resources expenditures increased by 400% from 1994-2002, while overall materials expenditures increased by only 61%. Human resources have been shifted to facilitate electronic resources management as well; some libraries have created the position of electronic resources librarian to address these issues. Between 1996 and 2006 223 such positions were advertised in College & Research Libraries News. These announcements frequently combine traditional tasks such as resource evaluation, cataloging, and acquisitions, with entirely new skills, including license negotiation and the technical integration of disparate electronic resources. In spite of the apparently complex nature of electronic resources librarianship, 81% of the position advertisements Albitz surveyed required applicants to have three or fewer years of library experience (40% requiring none), possibly indicating that employers expect LIS programs to contribute significantly to preparing electronic resources librarians. A cursory examination of the course offerings of the fifty-seven ALA-accredited LIS programs reveals, however, that few electronic resources management courses are currently being offered.
The authors surveyed current electronic resources librarians in order to investigate how they acquired the skills necessary for their positions (as determined by analyzing electronic resources librarian position advertisements from College & Research Libraries News) and how MLIS programs are addressing the preparation of students for this position. This poster will report our findings and provide strategies for LIS faculty to equip students interested in electronic resources librarianship.
Pamela Fowler
Current Issues in the Use of Copyrighted Materials by Academic Institutions
My poster entitled “Current Issues in the Use of Copyrighted Materials by Academic Institutions” will share with the LIS community what I have found to be timely and pertinent issues in the academic use of copyrighted materials. Issues such as new case law and other developments, distance learning, and common misunderstandings or errors will be represented.
Although many excellent resources exist for the dissemination of correct and sound guidelines regarding use of copyrighted materials, some academic institutions do not provide adequate instruction to faculty and students or provide incomplete and occasionally faulty information.
The TEACH Act, enacted in 2002, sets forth requirements and limitations on the use of copyrighted materials in distance and online learning. The Act, although beneficial in its allowances, requires institutional compliance and seemingly remains underused by institutions of higher learning. Reasons for this underuse and confusions concerning the Act are explored. Differences between Fair Use allowances and allowances under the TEACH Act are also examined.
Trudi Bellardo Hahn
Comparing Students’ Learning in Online and Classroom Sections of a Core Course
Two sections of a core course, one online and the other in a traditional classroom, were compared from both students’ and faculty members’ perspectives, using two methods.
The first method used a learning-focused feedback tool called SALG (Student Assessment of their Learning Gains, http://www.salgsite.org/about). Developed with NSF funding, SALG is a well-established tool that asks students to rate how certain components of a course (e.g., course materials, collaborative work, assignments) helped them to learn, understand concepts, and master skills, affected their enthusiasm for the course or subject area, and moved them toward achieving the course goals. For this study, SALG was customized for the specific learning goals of the course.
A baseline version of SALG was administered near the beginning of the course in order to compare gains relative to incoming student characteristics. SALG will be administered again at the end of the course.
The second assessment, from the faculty perspective, will be to compare students’ performance on two assignments that are the same for the two sections. In addition to the instructors, an outside evaluator will independently grade the assignments.
The SALG results and the assignment grades will be compared to see whether there are group differences tied to the delivery mode. The study goals are to demonstrate whether or not method of delivery (online vs. classroom) makes a difference in learning and using the findings to improve teaching by modifying current practices. The study will be completed in December 2008; preliminary results will be reported in the poster.
Catherine Hansen
Voices from the other side: listening to our students
Accredited maters programs in library and information studies hear two strong institutional voices outside of the schools that house them: the profession in the voice of the ALA Committee on accreditation and the academy in the voice of graduate schools. There is no such formal entity representing students. In an effort to hear our students voices at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Information Studies an anonymous survey was implemented at the start of the fall 2008 semester. All of the 30 onsite and 90 online students registered for the Foundations of Library and Information Science core course were sent an email inviting them to participate. The survey was anonymous in that we could not match a student with a particular response, but we can identify all of those asked to participate, which will be used for follow-up throughout the next 2 years. Students are strongly urged to take this course in the first semester of their MLIS, so the survey results will reflect the expectations of the program primarily among incoming students. These variables will be matched to demographic factors. The results of the survey will allow us to better meet the needs of our students by informing our determination regarding future faculty hires, course offerings, the addition of academic concentration areas for the students, and advising services.
Katarina Marlen Jones
Assistive Technology and Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities at Academic Libraries in the North Carolina Triad
The purpose of this study is to evaluate how user-friendly academic libraries are for people with disabilities in a local southeastern region of the United States. One of the major challenges for making libraries adaptive for people with disabilities is funding (Lee, 2008). The study’s hypothesis was that our findings would show a strong positive relationship between an academic institution’s tuition rate and their respective library’s overall assistive technology resources and policies. To better explore this question academic libraries at both public and private were included in our sample.
The study is using a mixed method approach utilizing both qualitative methods including surveys of area universities and colleges (n=12), observations (n=12), and a review of historical trend data (percentage of students registered with disability services, average tuition, and average funding). Data analysis includes basic descriptive statistics including percentages, average means, and frequency counts. The type of academic institution’s average is benchmarked against the Triad’s overall average for each question. Other factors such as grants, average age, age range of students, enrollment of students with disabilities, and number of students attending are also being studied.
The next phase of our study is to do a 360-degree evaluation involving library management and staff and have people with disabilities actually usability test these facilities. Our poster will highlight our current results and next steps in our research with a special emphasis on the need to increase funding in assistive technology in academic libraries.
References
Lee, H., & Templeton, R. (2008). Ensuring Equal Access to Technology: Providing Assistive Technology for Students with Disabilities. Theory Into Practice, 47(3), 212-219. Retrieved from ERIC database.
Weimao Ke
Collaborative Expertise Retrieval: A Referral Approach to Finding Distributed Experts
We live in a networked environment, where expertise and computing powers are highly distributed. A distributed approach to the retrieval of distributed expertise appears to be reasonable. We propose an agent simulation framework where distributed agents, representatives of information consumers, providers (experts), and referrers, learn to collaborate with each other for finding the experts. Two fundamental information organization operations, namely, clustering and classification, will be used to organize information items and to label information needs within each agent. The organized/indexed information is then mapped to the agent's perception of the society (neighbors) reinforced through machine learning. We reason why this approach is desirable and propose the investigation of: 1) whether information organization at individual levels can help expertise retrieval at the collective level; and 2) to what extent learning can facilitate the adaptive building of an efficient agent network for the finding of expertise. The proposed approach is presented as a conceptual framework. However, potentially, the implementation of the method will provide guidance on new information and expertise retrieval models that utilize the huge distributed informational and computational resources on the Web and beyond the Web.
Weimao Ke
The Rich Get Richer: Studying Scholarly Impact in the Emerging Field of Information Visualization
The paper reports on an investigation of the-rich-get-richer effect of scholarly communication in the emerging field of Information Visualization. A dataset containing 31 years' representative publications within the field is used to analyze scholarly impact of publications and scholars in terms of citation scores. Rich factors, i.e., variables associated with previous citation scores, are closely examined and their contributions to future citations measured. Based on previous research on citation patterns, a general log-linear model is proposed and applied to the prediction of scholar prestige and publication impact using the rich factors. The analysis reveals that the average previous citation score of authors has significant influence on a publication's future citations. Referring to important works helps, but only to a limited extent. In general, the number of citations a scholar received in the past largely explains what he or she will get in the future. This study explicitly supports the "preferential attachment" property, or the-rich-get-richer phenomenon, in citation networks proposed by network science researchers. The implication is that citation-based evaluation of scholarly impact is biased. The large coefficient of determination ($R^2$) found in the current analysis, and to be verified in other domains, is too significant to be ignored. This invites thoughts on how a discipline can maintain research momentum by rewarding recognized scholars while supporting new researchers and recognizing novel directions.
Patrick Keilty
Tabulating Queer: Space, Perversion, and Belonging
As with border studies, "belonging" is a concept central to the study of knowledge organization, grouping things (and people) in relation to where they belong, where they don't belong, and why things belong in one class and not another. Yet not all phenomena belong neatly within a set of boundaries, as any cataloguer can attest, especially where classification systems meet the politics of ontologies, diverse ways of being. Queer is one such phenomena, referring as it does to "the open mesh of possibilities, gaps, overlaps, dissonances and resonances, lapses and excesses of meaning when the constituent elements of anyone's gender, of anyone's sexuality aren't made (or can't be made) to signify monolithically" (Eve Sedgwick, Tendencies, 1993, 8). Even the term "queer" is an ever-shifting category to describe an area of study whose dimensions in recent years can't be subsumed under gender and sexuality alone: the ways it has been applied to race, ethnicity, post-colonial nationality, and transnationalism.
Through fields as diverse as the history of science, Internet studies, border studies, and coalition politics, my work explores how the knowledge around queer phenomena has been structured, tabulated, and spacialized: the hazards, coercive and productive qualities, as well as queer's paradoxical relationship as both resistant to and reliant on categories, classification, and knowledge structures.
Paulette A. Kerr
Conceptions and Practice of Information Literacy: Espoused Theories and Theories-in-use
The key research focus of the study is in the field of information literacy in academic institutions. It investigates the relationship between philosophical/conceptual understandings of information literacy (IL) and concurrent professional practice. Philosophical understandings of IL are rooted in its concepts, definitions, theoretical frameworks and research findings. For this research “practice” is defined as teaching activities in academic libraries. Kuhn (1996) posits that professional practice is underpinned and shaped by a received set of beliefs, values and models. This shared paradigm is reflected in the language of practice. The proposed research asks whether the conceptual understandings, the foundational beliefs of IL as expressed in official policy documents, guide the practice of academic library information literacy.
The research is guided by the theoretical framework of Argyris and Schon (1974), in which contrasting theories of action namely espoused theories and theories-in-use, are employed to explain professional practice. This study will provide a researched understanding of the relationship between the espoused theories and theories-in-use of information literacy.
The aims of the research will be achieved via an interpretive and comparative analysis of concepts as expressed in mission and goal statements and exemplary online tutorials of a purposive sample of 16 academic libraries. The mission statement typically espouses values and beliefs and is an institution’s public declaration of its purposes (Meacham & Gaff, 2006). The online tutorial has emerged as a primary vehicle of information literacy instruction. It is presented as an ideal representation of good professional practice.
The research will provide a holistic framework of philosophy and practice of IL in academic institutions.
References
Kuhn, T. (1996). The structure of scientific revolutions. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Meacham, J. & Gaff, J. (2006). Learning goals in mission statements: implications for educational leadership. Liberal Education Winter, 6-13.
Soojung Kim
Two Sides of the Story: Credibility Assessment of Information Seekers and Providers in Yahoo! Answers
(This is a research proposal and the IRB form will be submitted in October.)
The advent of the Web raises huge concerns about the credibility of information. This concern is particularly severe in a community-based Q&A site where people ask and answer questions without the intervention of any information professionals or quality-control mechanisms. The purpose of this study is to investigate the general public’s perceptions of credibility assessment in a specific social Q&A site (Yahoo! Answers). One interesting phenomenon in the site is that users often occupy both information seekers’ and providers’ roles; they are questioners for certain topics, but become answerers for the same or different topics they have knowledge on. Examining the perception held by each role will provide a fuller picture of credibility assessment on the Web.
Specifically, the study aims to answer the following questions: 1) how do questioners assess the credibility of answers given by fellow users? (credibility criteria, verification process, etc.) and 2) how do answerers establish credentials of their answers? (resources consulted, strategies, etc.)
Thirty participants will be recruited for interviews using random sampling with publicly available email addresses from the site. The interviews will be conducted in person (for nearby participants only), via the telephone and audio taped, or via a chat session on the Web.
The findings will be analyzed on the construct, heuristic, and interaction levels as suggested in Hilligoss and Rieh’ framework of credibility assessment. The framework will be expanded by adding the perspective of users as information providers.
Yong-Mi Kim
The Role of Tags in Web Information Retrieval Interaction
This study examines the role that tags play in information retrieval (IR) interaction on the Web. Tags are descriptive terms people attach to online content, either their own or other people’s, and tagging is the practice of attaching tags. Research on tagging has focused on analysis of the tags themselves or the motivations and behavior of people who attach tags, or taggers. How tags help both taggers and non-taggers to find what they are looking for is still an open question. We distinguish between two types of tag use by referring to tagging as tag production, and the use of tags for information seeking as tag consumption. Tag consumption behavior is examined for different IR interaction stages, such as search result evaluation and query reformulation. In this study, each user is assigned three search tasks to be performed on a test system. The test system is designed to display tags throughout the user’s search process, in contrast to existing systems implementing tagging. At the conclusion of the three searches, each user must generate a description of the best way to conduct a search in the test system. In addition to search logs and the user-generated search description, data is collected through think-aloud, questionnaires, and interviews. This data will be analyzed to address the following research questions: 1. To what extent do people utilize tags across stages of IR interaction? 2. How do people characterize the value of tags across stages of IR interaction? 3. How do tags contribute to IR effectiveness as perceived by users? The study contributes to our understanding of Web IR behavior and system design.
Kyungwon Koh
Assessing Students’ Critical Thinking Promoted by Radical Change Information-Seeking Behavior in the Digital Age
In this digital age, new media affect the ways youth learn and seek information requiring emergent literacies and skills. This research proposes that emerging changes in youth information seeking-behaviors influenced by the digital media culture have a positive potential to push children toward obtaining important 21st century skills such as critical thinking.
The research intends to define new characteristics observed in children’s information-seeking-behavior in the digital age using the Radical Change theory (Dresang, 2005) as a framework. The study results will refine and expand the original theory by adding types of Radical Change in youth information-seeking behaviors and its characteristics. Also, it adopts Evidence-Centered Design [ECD] (Mislevy, Steinberg, & Almond, 2003) to design and create assessments for estimating the critical thinking skills in children’s information seeking. By doing so, the research will identify relationships between children’s information-seeking behavior with Radical Change characteristics and the critical thinking skills.
The study employs model-based methods, which have been developed in the Educational Assessment field, in order to represent and analyze young information-seekers’ cognition and behaviors. Modeling is a powerful technique in (1) representing and organizing complex behavioral processes; and (2) studying invisible and unobservable internal constructs such as children’s mental models and conceptual changes during their information seeking processes. The research also incorporates various techniques such as scenario-based assessment and Bayesian Network Modeling. Field research will test the established model’s validity and reliability.
The proposed research is intended to facilitate understanding about new information-seeking behaviors due to the digital environment and provide the basis for the development of appropriate library and information services for youth.
Reference
Michelle Kowalsky
Chatting about Technology: LIS Students’ Perceptions and Dispositions toward Technology in Schools
In an LIS technology course for future school library media specialists, 40 graduate students were asked to use an online “chat room” tool of their choice for discussing course readings and topics outside of class time. Analysis of the transcripts of their weekly chat sessions over two six-week periods is being performed using content analysis and a grounded theory approach. Themes of their perceptions about technology in general, and about viewpoints in the readings in particular, were identified and categorized. Readings included various items such as books (_The Long Tail_), videos (“The Machine is Using Us”) and reports (Pew Internet & Daily Life, Horizon, etc.). Details of student dispositions toward technology over time, including self-reflection about their new learning in the course, were tracked and recorded in each of two semesters.
Thus far, student negativity about current technology use by students, both at home and in school, was surprisingly high given the apparent inverse correlation between this negative perception and an individual’s greater depth of understanding of the readings and conceptualization of his or her classmates’ varying viewpoints. Complaints about the status quo were frequent, yet few solutions were offered by the students to remedy these perceived ills. Often, the solutions were seen as “someone else’s problem.” This research points to the need for LIS programs to explicitly instruct students in strategies for systemic and cultural change, as well as a need to involve library media specialists in identity-building for leadership in technological settings that extend beyond classroom walls.
Bill Kules
LIS Program Expectations of Incoming Student Competencies with Information and Communications Technology
As library and information science schools continue to incorporate information and communications technology (ICT) into their curricula, one of the challenges they face is the diverse technology backgrounds and competencies of incoming students. Students without adequate preparation may experience particular difficulty when confronted with topics such as web page creation, database design, and systems analysis. This poster will report on a web content analysis of the published requirements and expectations that ALA-accredited LIS programs have of incoming students. It examines the conceptual knowledge, practical skills, and ICT access identified by the programs as important for student success. It also examines how programs support students with gaps in their knowledge or skills. The study uses an iterative method to develop categories that reflect the diversity of expectations regarding knowledge, skills, and ICT access. Our analysis of 25 schools to date has identified a variety of practices, including: making a set of baseline competencies an admissions requirement, administering a diagnostic assessment, making all students take a required ICT course, and simply providing a list of software. This study contributes to our understanding of the issue and the approaches that are being used to address it. It is one step toward ensuring that incoming students are technologically prepared to succeed in an LIS program.
Robin Fogle Kurz
Closing the Gap: Exploring the Prenatal and Pediatric Health Information Needs of Latinas in the US
The Latino population is the largest and fastest growing minority group in the United States. About 48 percent of the approximately 30.1 million Latinos are female; however, these figures exclude undocumented Latino immigrants, estimated at more than 8.4 million. Nationwide, Latinas not only have higher fertility rates than non-Latinas, but also are more likely to live in poverty and lack health insurance. While Latinos are more likely to be diagnosed with cervical cancer, tuberculosis, and diabetes than are non-Latinos, they have less access to health education and health care, and receive less overall preventative care. Besides the negative effects these disparities have on the health of Latino adults, many researchers believe that Latino children are at even greater risk, as many are not receiving vaccinations, annual checkups, or routine care for chronic conditions. In addition, Latinas are less likely to receive adequate prenatal and postpartum care than are their non-Latino counterparts.
Research indicates that linguistic, cultural, economic, and legal factors affect Latinos’ access to health information and services. Legal factors are becoming more significant as anti-immigrant sentiment and immigration-related policy decisions increase across the country. Building on grounded theory, this poster will detail possible triangulation scenarios for a qualitative study using situational analysis (Clarke, 2005) to explore the gaps between public policy and the prenatal and pediatric health information needs of Latinas in the United States. Particularly effective in health-related research, situational analysis identifies whose voices are being heard and whose are silent through discourse analysis and situational mapping.
Melinda Livas
Increasing LIS Diversity — A University Case Study
Diversity in the field of Library and Information Studies is an ever increasingly important topic as the demographics of the United States continues to evolve into a more ethnically diverse nation. Over the last decade, the American Library Association along with other library science professional organizations and libraries made recruiting and retaining minority librarians a priority with the hopes of transforming the field of librarianship into a more diversified profession which mirrors the society it serves. A review of the literature suggests that to improve diversity within the library science profession, the LIS community must seek to understand the motivations behind why students of color select other career paths instead of library science (Hussey, 2006).
Our work-in-progress poster will detail both the impact of various department diversity initiatives, in close partnership with the university library, are unfolding along with original research attempting to ensure efforts are aligned appropriately with the needs of minority students. New initiatives include a new minority post-MLIS residency program has been established and our first recipient will be starting full time at the university library in fall 2008. In addition, we have recently been awarded an IMLS grant to recruit and provide master’s of library science scholarships to 12 ethnic minority students interested in working in academic libraries. A dynamic Web portal is also being developed to support these efforts.
Aaron Loehrlein
The cognitive categorization of information resources
This research is an investigation into cognitive categorization as it applies to categories of documents and other information resources. In the cognitive psychological approach to categorization, categories are thought to be sets of individual entities that are grouped together based on perceived similarities between the entities’ properties. These properties are used to determine whether entities that are newly encountered are also members of the category. However, information resources are often explicitly grouped into artificial categories based on a tag, descriptor, or other representation. In those cases, the user does not need to determine category membership, but seeks to understand the rationale for membership in the category. In addition, categories are traditionally understood in terms of the properties that apply to the category and/or specific members of the category. However, the utility of information resources often depends not on the properties that apply to the resource itself, but on the properties (i.e., the knowledge) that is represented by the resource. In addition to examining the process of determining category membership, the cognitive approach also addresses phenomena such as inductions between categories and categories that are combined to form novel categories. The structure of categories has also been shown to be partially dependent on the tasks, goals, expertise, and/or socio-cultural characteristics of the people who acquire and use the categories. This research seeks to explore the manner in which these phenomena are observed in categories of information resources, including categories created by indexers as well as categories created by users.
Lauren Mandel [email protected] Florida State University, College of Information Doctoral Student 87. Buildings/Facilities
Toward an Understanding of Library Patron Wayfinding: Observing Patrons' Entry Route and Initial Choice Points
The purpose of this research is to explore via unobtrusive observation library patrons’ initial routes and choice points from the main entrance of a public library. This research seeks to answer the question of how library patrons navigate beyond the main entrance of the facility, specifically which routes they choose from the entrance and the locations of their initial choice points.
This medium-sized public library in South Florida was selected for this research because informal staff observation suggests patrons struggle to navigate the facility. Current wayfinding tools are inadequate compensation for the user’s inability to view all areas of the library from the main entrance, where the non-fiction stacks block the reference desk, computer labs, and children’s department from view and the second floor balcony blocks visibility of the materials housed there.
During the observation period, the researcher covertly observed patrons entering the facility from the second-floor balcony and recorded their initial routes and choice points on copies of the library floor plan. Although the data has yet to be compiled and analyzed, the researcher observed several common paths taken by a seeming majority of patrons. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) will be used to conduct spatial analysis of the patron’s paths and choice points for a more accurate depiction of patron wayfinding behavior from the entrance of this library.
Joanne Gard Marshall, PhD, [email protected], UNC School of Information and Library Science and Institute on Aging
Workforce Issues in Library and Information Science 2 (WILIS 2): Implementing a Model for Career Tracking of LIS Graduates
WILIS 2 is an IMLS funded project designed to implement a career tracking model for Library and Information Science (LIS) graduates. LIS programs have generally lacked the time and resources to systematically survey their graduates. As a result, stakeholders lack an adequate understanding of what happens to graduates. Educators, in particular, do not have ongoing data about the extent to which their programs meet students’ expectations, prepare them for the workplace or meet continuing learning needs. Such an understanding will assist in educating and managing the LIS workforce more effectively. The WILIS 2 project builds on WILIS 1, a comprehensive study of career patterns of graduates of LIS programs in North Carolina. Using a Community Based Participatory Research approach, WILIS 2 will refine the WILIS 1 career tracking model so that it is suitable for use by all LIS programs. Up to 33 programs will be funded to participate in testing a career tracking model which focuses on recent graduates.
Tammy L. Mays
Sacred knowledge: The underutilization of blogs by libraries at HBCUs
The proliferation of social networking tools, specifically blogs, has revolutionized the dissemination of information. Blogs have become a cost efficient tool to quickly publish new information on the web. It is not surprising that Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are beginning to use blogs as a vehicle to disseminate information to current students and alumnus. The authors examine how well HBCUs are utilizing this user friendly technology to promote library resources as an educational tool to bring visibility to librarianship by recruiting a new generation of librarians. There are a total of one hundred and two HBCUs throughout the United States. The authors examined each of the HBCUs websites to see if social networking technology is being used as a tool for education at HBCUs.
Eileen McElrath
Safety Measures Implemented in Academic Libraries in Response to Recent Campus Violence
This is beginning work whose purpose is a review of the literature about safety in academic libraries as well as to identify specific measures academic libraries have implemented since the Virginia Tech University killings. Universities have tightened and improved their safety measures in response this tragedy. While it is intuitively appealing to assume that university safety measures recently enacted are sufficient for the academic library, there are differences in operational needs that suggest other safety measures are needed in academic libraries. For example, the campus library is opened seven days a week and open long hours each day. The library’s goals include being a welcoming and social place for students and faculty so safety measures need to be sensitive to this mission. There is much written in Library and Information Studies/Science literature about crime in academic libraries that focuses on crimes committed against library materials and computers. There is gap in knowledge, however, when identifying safety measures that academic libraries are implementing and identifying safety measures needed to provide new security measures needed in today’s environment. This research will use personal interviews with four academic library directors to identify specific safety measures that academic libraries are implementing current and to identify safety measures they recommend to be implemented.
withdifferent learning styles so we know a great deal about different learning styles. (There is even more literature about the topic from the education field). A gap in knowledge, however, exists when identifying specific exercises that librarians can use to support a specific learning style. This becomes especially important in the online environment—an environment quite different from face-to-face library instruction. Lori Mestre, in her article, “Accommodating Diverse Learning Styles in an Online Environment.” stresses:
“Currently, most online situations best serve students who function well in a logical, text-based, passive environment. If equivalent services are to be provided to all students, it is essential that special attention be paid to developing resources that support students who require a more personalized, interactive learning environment. When a diversity of learning approaches is offered, all students are enabled to choose from among different environments to make learning most efficient (31).
Comments and suggestions from conference attendees will be much appreciated.
Mestre, Lori. “Accommodating Diverse Learning Styles in an Online Environment.” Reference & User Services Quarterly. 46 (2) 2006: 27-32.
Theodore Patrick Milas
How social access transforms information authority: Insights from the Reformation to Web 2.0.
Throughout history religion has informed and transformed information, culture, research, education, art, and technology. In the 21st century, religious sensibilities continue to affect information access in modern America. To approach the intersection of information, technology, and theology, this research poster compares modern America to another period charged by religious fervor and burgeoning information access – the Reformation in Early Modern Europe. Analyzing issues of access in the Reformation and in modern America, I appropriate a three-prong model that conceptualizes physical access as “access to documents,” intellectual access as “access to information”, and social access as “the entire spectrum of behaviors of individuals and groups.” Although physical access to information improved considerably during the Reformation, even modern print culture continues to neglect the marginalized. While the information age is as revolutionary as the Gutenberg press, physical access is not universal. Intersections related to intellectual and social access also apply in modern America. The intersection of religion and technology was critical for intellectual access in the 16th century, and its effects continue to be felt in modern America. Technology facilitates the opportunity for critical thought and theological interpretation through increased information access and vernacular literacy. During the Reformation, Church authorities created new ways to limit social access to information. One religious practice at the time was the attempt to control what could be safely read by the populace and to suppress what could not be controlled. In 2008, the federal government of United States exercises censorship of formerly public information on federal websites.
Janet C. Mumford
Privacy, Social Software, New Literacies and Teens
My poster will present my research proposal for my doctoral dissertation work.
The focus of my work is to better understand and support the literacy needs of early adolescents. I seek to understand these issues: how their needs for privacy, such as private spaces and venues, private communications, private thoughts and private information seeking experiences change as they grow and develop; how these needs relate to their literacy development particularly as they relate to new technologies/new literacies; and how these needs for privacy can be supported given the safety and access issues that arise in our globally and electronically connected environments.
In today’s schools, libraries, and homes, students, parents and professionals are confronted with the dilemma of finding a balance between providing safe environments for young people and infringing on their rights to privacy, freedom of access to information and freedom of expression. There is a continuous stream of new technologies that challenge young people’s rights to privacy. Librarians must deal with the issues these technologies present, such as challenges to unfettered access to information that facilitates the development of literacy. Librarians seek answers in the policies of their professional organizations. However, it is not always easy for teacher-librarians in schools and librarians in public libraries to implement such policies or for families to make decisions and take actions about privacy issues in their homes. My research seeks to inform librarians, teachers, parents and young people about the roles of privacy in a young person’s growth and literacy development.
Kyoungsik Na
Patterns in Information Seeking Behavior of Blind People: Using Concept Maps and Learning Styles
This study will examine the patterns, if any, of information seeking behavior of blind people with foci on their concept mapping and learning styles. According to the findings from the 2006 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), an estimated 21.2 million adult Americans reported that they either have trouble seeing, even when wearing glasses or contact lenses, or that they are legally blind. It is particularly important to know that a better understanding of how blind people think, perceive, and remember information based on their concept mapping skill and learning styles, or their preferred approach to accessing such information on the patterns of their preferred information seeking behavior will provide better services for the people with visually impaired and blind. This proposed research addressing the patterns of information seeking behavior of blind people will represent a significant and critical insight for information professional in LIS community.
Jamie Campbell Naidoo
Focus on MY Family: Examining Public Library Services for LGBQ Children and Children with Same-Sex Parents.
Research suggests that it is important for children’s self-esteem and psychological development to see representations of themselves and their families in the books that they encounter. According to U.S. Census data, children with same-sex parents live in 96% of all counties nationwide (Urban Institute and Human Rights Campaign, 2000). As the number of children with same-sex parents, children identified as expressing gender nonconformity, and gay/lesbian youth increases, the greater the need to learn more about the responses of these children to the children’s literature written about them. Concurrently, the need for public libraries to have services and quality children’s literature collections that represent Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Transgendered (LGBT) characters and families also increases.
Previous LIS studies have failed to examine public libraries serving populations with high instances of gay adoptions or large numbers of same-sex parents. This study examines these libraries to determine the specific gay-themed picturebooks that they include in their holdings. The types and quality of library services and programs available to these families are also examined using web survey software and questionnaires. Written and verbal responses of children with same-sex parents will be recorded and studied to ascertain the children’s reactions to books representing their family compositions. This research has been partially funded by an American Library Association 2008 Diversity Research Grant.
Heejin Park
A conceptual framework to study folksonomic interaction
This study proposes a conceptual framework to explore the ways in which people use and perceive the folksonomy they work with as a classification in assessing, sharing, and navigating Web resources. We use information scent and foraging theory as a context to discuss how folksonomy is structured through interactions among users, a folksonomic system, and a given domain that consists of a group of users who share the same interest or goals. Two dimensions of folksonomies are: (1) folksonomy as a Web classification which puts like information together in a Web context; and (2) folksonomy as information scent which helps users to find related resources and users, and obtain desired information. These two dimensions provide useful insight into the ways in which a folksonomy serves as a Web classification that reflects an interaction among users, a domain, and a classification structure. A proposed framework consists of three components of users’ interactions with a folksonomy: (a) tagging – cognitive categorization of Web accessible resources by an individual user; (b) navigation – exploration and discovery of Web accessible resources in the folksonomic system; and (c) knowledge sharing – representation and communication of knowledge within a domain. The research agenda to demonstrate this new model focuses on qualitative analysis of folksonomies as well the study of end users’ tagging behaviors.
Sung Jae Park
Library accessibility analysis using GIS
Library accessibility is one of the important issues related to library use analysis and facility planning. Roughly, accessibility analysis is a tool to measure the freedom to take part in activities. The purpose of this study is to investigate library accessibility based on the distance from a user's home to their library. This study analyzed user data collected from a central Florida County, which included: address, gender, age, ethnicity, registration date, and registration location. Collected data was plotted on a map through using geographic information system software. Also, digitized maps displaying road networks, county boundaries, and public facility locations are collected and analyzed. The results show that distance is a determinant factor in choosing a library. However, some users tend to travel longer distances to libraries which indicates that other factors affect the user's choice of library. Also the proximity to other facilities is related to the registration rate; in particular, the locations of schools and libraries are strongly related to each other. These results represent a starting point for further research that will focus on measuring the actual distance and travel time using road networks, and will statistically analyze the relationship between distance and the characteristics of each library. Also, through user surveys, the perceived accessibility of the library will be collected and combined with the actual physical accessibility of the library.
David M. Pimentel
Indexing the Relationships: Organizing Knowledge for Navigation
Knowledge organization (KO) is central to theory and practice in Library and Information Science. Historically this fundamental aspect of LIS has had two common guises, represented by the division in practice between descriptive and subject cataloging. Yet both types of cataloging are fundamentally concerned with establishing headings and then establishing relationships among/between headings. While the cross references among (and the disambiguation between) variant forms of headings and names is commonly conceived as authority control, the network of relationships that links topical concepts (e.g., via thesaural broader terms, narrower terms, related terms, etc.) is commonly conceived as vocabulary control. This work considers the possible utility of having a more unified perspective on these seemingly different types of control.
The nature of pointing to preferred or authorized headings whether for a creator or a concept reveals a fundamental similarity in the two historically separate practices. Despite their perceived differences, systems of authority control and vocabulary control are both ultimately denotative and indexical: creating access points to knowledge (embodied elsewhere) based on consensus or warrant. The function of coordinating such indexical assemblages is a basic phenomenon in the larger (more generalized) task of knowledge organization. This work considers the nature of syndetic structure resulting from an integrated perspective on authority and vocabulary control.
The process of navigation presumes navigable dimensions; this work explores the idea that relationships themselves form the navigable elements of syndetic structures. Web-based information systems that allow end users to create (and share) syndetic structures are considered.
Lillian Rozaklis
The Internet Public Library's Ask an IPL Librarian Service: An Exploratory Study of the Users and the Questions they Ask
The Internet Public Library (IPL) offers a digital information service to Internet users through an asynchronous question-answering enterprise. Since its launch on March 17, 1995, the IPL has recorded reference questions submitted to the Ask an IPL Librarian service, nearly 72,000 to date. The Ask an IPL Librarian service operates through the use of web-based forms found on the General Adult and KidSpace sites that collect, in addition to the question submitted, other contextual information surrounding the nature of the question, including self-identified demographic characteristics, how the user plans to use the information, and any sources the user consulted before posing a question to the service. An exploratory study was undertaken to derive a methodology for an unobtrusive analysis of the users of the Ask an IPL Librarian service. Specifically, the study examines the demographic characteristics of the Ask an IPL Librarian users, and categorizes the kinds of questions users pose to the service by means of a question classification scheme. A fundamental component in the provision of reference services for a community rests on understanding who the community consists of. The findings of an analysis of questions posed to a digital reference service provide a better understanding of the users and their informational needs. In this specific case, the preliminary results will permit the IPL administrative team to develop responsive services and collections, and prepare library/information science students and volunteers participating in the IPL's digital reference learning laboratory to meet the needs of global information users.
Ellen Rubenstein
Multidimensional Facets of Information Exchange Among Members of an Online Breast Cancer Support Group
Participation in an online breast cancer support group comprises multiple facets of information acquisition and integration, providing patients with opportunities to increase their understanding of their health issues as well as expand their social networks and increase social capital. Being diagnosed with breast cancer often requires that individuals become proficient in new domains of information. As patients, they must learn unfamiliar terminology as well as where and how to access appropriate information. A qualitative analysis of the archives of an online breast cancer support group examined the ways that participants become literate about breast cancer and acquire the information and social support necessary to navigate the intricacies of coping with their illness.
With the assistance of current and former patients, participants garner necessary information and skills that increase their understanding of breast cancer and the ability to cope with treatment. A broad characterization of this process comprises socialization similar to that of communities of practice, where through the mentorship of more experienced breast cancer patients and survivors, novices develop facility within the realm of breast cancer, which, in turn, transforms them into mentors. Through the medium of an online support group, individuals develop competencies that include learning how to understand the trajectory of their illness and its associated treatments, as well as acquiring the ability to coordinate medical care and negotiate potentially conflicting information. Moreover, as participants acquire proficiency in managing their illness, they also learn and adapt to the norms and expectations of online group participation.
Brooke Shannon
LIS Artifacts: Part of a LIS Ecology of Knowledge
This poster explores knowledge as a contextually situated phenomenon and attempts to gain understanding through analyzing the context in which things gain acceptance as truth. A spatial representation approach will be used to create a layer-cake model of Library and Information Science (LIS) knowledge that depicts an ecology of knowledge (EOK) model with eight layers, including Actors, Artifacts, Knowledge/Skills, Organizations, Occupations and Disciplines, Institutions, Macroscopic Institutions, and Historical Events. This particular portion of the research focuses on the Artifacts layer and understanding how certain artifacts, ranging from the traditional book to archived webcasts, become parts of a discipline's knowledge through the artifact's degree of relatedness to higher-level layers. The degree of relatedness is a factor captured by the spatial representation of the layer-cake model, which serves as a visual aid displaying how near or far specific elements and events are in relation to each other. Elements included in the Artifacts layer are taken from descriptions, primarily in journal articles, by area experts who articulate the importance of particular artifacts within the greater context of LIS and related disciplines, such as computer science, or macroscopic institutions, to include the emergence of an information age. In later phases of the research, all layers will be combined and the next phase of research, analysis of the metonymic relationships, will be possible. The end result is not a finite representation of knowledge but an exploratory tool that enables the audience to visualize a large amount of information in a format that is contextually malleable.
James David Gwynn
Changing times, changing requirements - the evolution of an LIS Department
The growth of technology has greatly increased avenues of access to information. Librarians and information specialists must keep up with changes in the information world in order to provide the best possible service to their clients. How can LIS departments best prepare their graduates to meet these challenges? What role does ALA accreditation play? This study will look at an LIS department in a mid-size Southeastern university and how it is evolving to train its students to deal with traditional and emerging technologies in the information world.
Tremendous change within the LIS discipline over the past three decades has raised significant questions about the optimal focus for LIS programs in the future (Warner, 2001; Baruchson-Arbib & Bronstein, 2002). Debate has centered on the realignment of the discipline into the more theoretical, information-based focus of the i-schools movement (Chu, 2001; Lynch, 2008), the move toward a more multidisciplinary approach (Burnett & Bonnici, 2006; Audunson, Nordlie, & Spangen, 2003; Arms, 2005), and subsequent issues of departmental reorganization and integration (Raber & Connoway, 1996; Hildreth & Koenig, 2002). While ALA accreditation standards have evolved to reflect the new realities of the discipline (American Library Association, 2008), there is some debate about the necessity for accreditation (Burnett & Bonnici, 2006). Also under scrutiny are issues surrounding increasingly-important distance learning programs (Conrad & Rapp-Hanretta, 2002; Kazmer, 2007; Kennedy, Gonzalez, & Cenzer, 2007).
Our poster presentation will detail the evolution of a mid-sized LIS department from various stakeholder perspectives including the provost, dean, ALA, faculty, alumni, and students.
A. Arro Smith
Developing a National Oral History Archive of Retired/Retiring Librarians: A Resource and Opportunity for Library Education
This poster describes Capturing Our Stories: A National Oral History Program of Retired and Retiring Librarians, one of Dr. Loriene Roy's 2007-2008 American Library Association presidential initiatives. Capturing Our Stories is a digital archive of library oral histories being developed by the University of Texas at Austin School of Information using state-of-the-art technology that displays the transcript text along side (and synced with) the audio and/or video recording of the interview. The project matches volunteer interviewers with end-of-career librarians from across the nation to conduct oral history interviews, documenting the transition of library science from the mid-twentieth century into the twenty-first.
The archive of interviews will be a lasting contribution to the field of library education. Each interview will be searchable by key-word, as will the entire archive. Robust metadata for each interview is also being collected to identify institutions, time-periods, types of librarianship, and committee affiliations. All of these biographical fields will be searchable to identify oral histories of interest to the viewer.
Please visit the website: http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~stories
Maria Souden
The Subjective Experience of Information Use in Chronic Illness Self-Management
This research takes a multidisciplinary approach to understanding how information is used in the self-management of chronic illness. Its questions are grounded in information science and health communications, and its approach to them draws on research from medical sociology, nursing, public health and social studies of medicine to situate the experience of illnesses within the everyday lives of people who suffer from them. Chronic conditions are largely experienced and managed outside of medical settings; the persistence and inherent complexity of chronic illness requires research approaches that are attentive to people's subjective experience of illness in their lives.
The proposed study operationalizes the everyday experience of the sufferer by focusing on self- management of chronic illness, defined in the patient care literature as the ability of the patient to deal with all that a chronic illness entails, including symptoms, treatment, physical and social consequences, and lifestyle changes. As a construct, self-management goes beyond coping to indicate activities aimed at achieving some measure of control or mastery over illness. Information can play a role in reducing uncertainty, resolving psychological impacts, and developing practical management strategies congruent with everyday life.
Personal and subjective uses of information to manage chronic illness can be at odds with the objectivity inherent in the medical science paradigm that privileges particular types or uses of information. A biomedical perspective on the type of information needed to cope with and manage illness has been critiqued as overemphasizing medical expertise and embracing a model of a one-way transfer of perfect, or complete information that enables rational decisions leading to compliance with treatment. The gap between information and behavior change has long frustrated medical practitioners and health educators. The theoretical frameworks and methodological sensibilities of information behavior offer a potential contribution away compliance-oriented model of information provision toward a broader conception that takes the issue beyond the biomedical, and which is based on a holistic understanding of the patient's lifeworld, comprehending the realities of people's lived experience.
Denyse Sturges
Does Size Matter? An Exploration of Job Advertisements for Academic Library Director, 1974-2004.
This study analyzes the content of job advertisements for academic library directors in the years 1974, 1984, 1994, and 2004. Specific attention has been spent on the duties and desired candidate attributes listed in the ads. Both qualitative and quantitative measures have been used to identify changes in these fields. This study extends the work done by Chih-Feng P. Lin's 2000 dissertation, which was unable to show a statistically significant change in duties/attributes for the years 1992 and 1997, although qualitative evidence supported that thesis. This study extends the timeframe of Lin's research to discern if the problem is lack of data. In addition, this study actively includes the library's size (collection, budget, FTE) as a potential influencing factor of the content of academic library director job advertisements.
Besiki Stvilia, Yong Jeong Yi, Abdullah Al-Faraj, and Hongyan Ma
Problems of cross-language information quality evaluation in Wikipedia
With encyclopedias in more than 100 languages Wikipedia provides an excellent opportunity for studying problems of cross-language information reuse, aggregation, and quality evaluation. The English Wikipedia is the largest and most comprehensive Wikipedia. However, neither its content nor its coverage is a superset of that of other language Wikipedias. In addition, Wikipedia articles in different languages can differ in quality, often influenced by the general contexts (cultural, social, economic) of these Wikipedias. As the reuse of content and policies takes place among different language Wikipedias, the ability of comparing, and reusing language-specific evaluations of quality in a systematic way becomes important too.
This research identifies the information quality (IQ) models of the Arabic, Chinese, and Korean Wikipedias and compares those to the quality model used in the English Wikipedia chosen as the baseline. In particular, the study uses earlier proposed activity theory based frameworks of IQ assessment and change to answer the following research questions:
The poster presents the preliminary findings of the analysis, including number of statistical characterizations of the analyzed datasets.
Besiki Stvilia, Lorri Mon, and Yong Jeong Yi
A model for assessing healthcare webpage quality
This study seeks to understand information quality in health care from three perspectives: web providers of health information and how information quality is signaled on health web sites; consumers of health information, their health questions, and their perceptions of quality indicators; and intermediaries (librarians and web directory creators) whose criteria for information quality are applied in evaluating and selecting health web sources. A mixed methodology is used in this study to collect and analyze data by triangulating from several sources:
The goal of this study is to develop a reusable, parametrized model of quality for healthcare web pages that is grounded in empirical data. Preliminary findings of the analysis are presented in the poster.
Kate Vo Thi-Beard
Locating Asian-American Magazines within Print Culture Studies: The Readership of Audrey Magazine
Few researchers have pursued the study of Asian-American magazines. My work-in-progress identifies the place of such magazines within the studies of print culture. The Asian-American magazine, Audrey, gives us clues as to the community of readers. Audrey is a national, bimonthly, English-language, Asian-American women's lifestyle magazine. It discusses topics that are of interest to the Asian-American community. According to its website, Audrey was launched in 2003 in response to the growing demand for a high-quality publication that serves Asian-American women.
My research questions center around the readership of Audrey. They include: Who are the readers, and what can we use as sources of data to identify their demographics, their communities, their values, and their cultural identities? My research methods include an analysis of at least three sources of data: the location of Audrey's holdings in libraries nationwide, marketing data, and its letters to the editor. Through triangulation of these sources, I attempt to identify the readership of Audrey. The identification of such a group provides a bigger umbrella of the readership of Asian-American popular magazines. My attempt at locating the readers of Audrey contributes to the expansion or knowledge of the readership of popular magazines in the United States.
Richard J. Urban
Blended Methods for Ontology Development
Ontologies represent an important backbone for knowledge representation on the emerging Semantic Web. As a formal specification of concepts within a domain, developing an ontology requires translating the knowledge of domain experts into the classes, properties and relationships used by machine-processable languages such as RDF and OWL. Current ontology development practices owe much to knowledge and software engingeering processes, however the methods for capturing the knowledge of domain experts reamins under-theorized. While "mixed" qualitative and quantitative methods have received extensive discussion in the literature, less attention has been paid to blending the kinds of formal methods used in ontology development and qualitative methods used elsewhere in LIS research. The resulting "knowledge acquisition bottleneck" has lead some ontology developers to turn towards mining large textual datasets for base concepts using natural language processing techniques. While these tools are improving, automated population of an ontology still requires intervention and evaluation by domain experts - particularly in areas where textual sources present conflicting or incomplete representations of a domain.
Lee (2000) has identified the lack of agreement on concepts of "collections" among LIS professionals and their users - exactly the kind of domain that challenges automated techniques. The research discussed here is working towards an ontology for cultural heritage "collections" as identifiable entities that are more than the sum of their parts. As part of the work in progress, this poster explores how qualitative approaches, such as Glaser & Strauss' Grounded Theory, can be used to inform the development of such an ontology.
Waseem, Afzal
Graduate Programs at LIS Schools: A Web-Content Analysis
Graduate programs serve two important objectives; they provide qualified individuals for professional service and also prepare intellectual capital for future doctoral studies. Nature of class offerings and available specializations within a graduate program play a pivotal role in meeting the needs of a profession. Extent of specializations available at a school also conveys, implicitly, the teaching and research expertise of the faculty. Professions rely on new graduates for bringing in fresh perspectives so that new means to serve the needs and to implant novel practices could be continued. The graduate programs at Library & Information Science (LIS) Schools strive to serve the needs of the profession as well as of research. The increasing variation in class offerings as well as in available specialization necessitates the importance of analyzing the graduate programs so that an information resource, displaying a map of these programs could be made available for professionals and academicians. With an objective to develop that resource, all of the graduate programs at LIS schools in US and Canada were content analyzed. An information resource including course offerings, number of required credits, transferable credits, and names of the programs was developed. This study has made an important contribution by making available a guide, which can provide an initial understanding of LIS education to readers.
Katherine H. Weimer, Pete Reehling, Bradley Wade Bishop
Charting a Course for Geographic Information Studies, Map and Spatial Data Librarianship Curriculum: Core Competencies and Collaboration
Maps and GIS (geographic information systems) communicate geographic information graphically and numerically. The Occupational Outlook Handbook states that employment in areas which use map and spatial resources will increase faster than average and that increasing demand for fast, accurate, and complete geographic information will be the main source of growth for these occupations ... Also, the increased popularity of online mapping systems has created a higher demand for and awareness of geographic information among consumers."
Libraries have seen an increase in the amount and types of cartographic materials requested and used over the past ten years, however, librarians working with maps and spatial data often learn their field by apprenticeship, mentoring, and on-the-job training rather than formal coursework, due to a lack of course offerings for these non-traditional materials. This growing demand calls for skilled professionals equipped with specialized knowledge of maps, spatial data and their cataloging and metadata creation.
In 2008, the ALA Map and Geography Round Table's Education Committee created a core competencies document to outline the skills set in the areas of maps, spatial data and cartographic resources cataloging librarianship. This will support development of a range of professional development options for the Geographic Information librarian, beginning with master's level curriculum development and continuing education workshops; internships; self study for the new professional/mid-career professionals or others who are new to the specialization; and support for administrators and personnel officers to assist in job descriptions and hiring. Collaboration between faculty and practitioners are important to the success of this endeavor.
Melinda Whetstone
A Comparison of Personal Health Record Interfaces: A Critical Evaluation of Information Communicated to Users by its Mere Design and Language
Personal Health Records (PHRs) offer primarily digital means for personal health information storage, access, and sharing. PHR usage is envisioned to promote patient empowerment; health consumers are increasingly provided health information in order to make appropriate choices. PHRs often functions as electronic versions of a medical intake form and are similar across brands in many attributes and functions, but may vary in interface attributes and usability features. These functionalities, e.g. vocabulary, forced choice options, etc., affect PHR usability, but they also convey meaning about the importance of health management. In this manner, PHR interfaces may convey meaning to consumers, as would a text.
As with any technology PHR usability is critical to usage intention. However, consumer perceptions of messages conveyed by PHR interfaces may influence empowerment potential. Therefore, this study seeks to address the overarching question: what interpretation may consumers make of an interaction with a PHR? Specifically, the study will focus on how consumers may perceive and evaluate PHRs and what meanings the system has for them. A qualitative comparison of interfaces will be made across a purposive sample of PHR interfaces.
Melinda Whetstone
Investigating Health Literacy as an Antecedent to Personal Health Record Usage
Personal health records (PHRs) are primarily a digital means for individuals to store and manage personal health information, to include information common on medical intake form. PHRs were developed in part to address the Institute of Medicine aims for improved medical care; however, PHRs are also envisioned to empower consumers to manage their health.
PHRs have gained popularity with early adopters and tech savvy patients. More employers and health insurance companies offer versions of portals to consumers for management of their personal health information, and many trials are ongoing to determine effectiveness of disease-specific PHRs, e.g. VitalChart for diabetes, to manage health. Access awareness, and interest in PHR usage is increasing, however consumers themselves may lack the necessary health literacy skills vital for successful usage.
Health literacy is defined as the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions. Substandard health literacy skills may blind consumers to the benefits of PHRs or to potential implications for their own care through PHRs. This study addresses the question: is health literacy an antecedent of PHR usage?
The study includes a literacy test, followed by usage surveys to evaluate PHR usage intention pre- and post-PHR benefit training. A purposive, convenience sample of college students in a Research I University in the Southeast was selected for study. Data will be analyzed using a modified Technology Acceptance Model (TAM).
Melinda Whetstone
Personal Health Record Usage Intention: An Assessment of the Effect of Education Using a Diffusion Framework
Personal health records have emerged as a digital means to manage personal health information. Awareness of this product is limited and the benefits to consumers have not yet been promoted. American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) is working to increase awareness throughout 2008 with the PHR awareness campaign, "It's HI Time, America!" Our study seeks to address the overarching question: does exposure to information about PHRs increase usage intention? Specifically, this study administered two questionnaires to college students in a Research I University in the Southeast to determine Usage Intention of health maintenance tools pre- and post- PHR training modules that occurred as part of an undergraduate health informatics course. The 50+ item questionnaire administered pre-PHR training assessed the influence of Access Importance (to health information), Perceived Influence, Self-efficacy, and Perceived Usefulness on intention to maintain health information, in lieu of a PHR-product specific question. Post exposure to information about personal health records, PHR Usage Intention is hypothesized to be influenced by: Usability, Performance Expectancy, Attitude, Information Privacy, Social Influence, Anxiety, Self-efficacy, and Vendor Trust. Data is being collected and analyzed using the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT).
Hannah Winkler
Comparing virtual reference services Is there a difference?
The purpose of our study is to compare the usability of four kinds of reference services used by an academic library - telephone, instant messaging, email, and Skype - on the factors of efficiency, effectiveness, and patron satisfaction.
Use of such Web 2.0 technologies to provide virtual reference using chat, video conferencing, and hybrid technologies making use of chat and voice over IP telephony such as Skype are becoming more commonly used in libraries (Booth, 2008; Cahill, 2007; Hillyer & Parker, 2006; Pan, 2005; Lessick, Ruttenberg, Tunender, et al., 2003). While virtual reference may not be ideal for everyone, these technologies have been found to strengthen the experience of online learners who expect immediate assistance, response, and recognition (Pan 2005), and are welcomed by patrons as another type of personalized service in an increasingly impersonal world (Lessick, Ruttenberg, Tunender, et al., 2003). Skype, in particular has been used by libraries to provide virtual reference as it is free and provides more personal support that can alleviate feelings of isolation brought on by other virtual reference tools (Pan, 2005).
Our study, utilizing a quasi-experimental design using purposeful stratified sampling, examines the overall usability of virtual reference services by comparing and contrasting three existing methods chat (n=10), email (n=10), and telephone (n=10) with a new experimental service using Skype (n=10). Our poster presentation will report the preliminary findings of this study and suggest implications for LIS education in emerging technologies.
Borchuluun Yadamsuren
Usability of the Academic Library Website: Implementing the Heuristic Walkthrough Method
Library websites have become such complex information systems with a trend to migrate a diversity of resources and services online. To understand whether library websites meet their users' needs, enormous interest in usability arises from library professionals such as website designers and reference librarians. Due to the lack of formal training and practices on usability evaluation techniques, library professionals usually resort to outside parties for evaluating their websites. However, most usability studies of library sites are conducted with research methodology to evaluate the interface design of library websites from the general usability perspective neglecting the unique nature of the library websites.
The goal of this poster is to present the research design of the usability study of the academic library website, where we used heuristic walkthrough method tailoring it for the unique needs of library websites.
Heuristic walkthrough method combines the advantages of heuristic evaluation, cognitive walkthroughs, and usability walkthroughs (Sears, 1997). It is a method that combines the benefits of several usability evaluation techniques and encompasses advantages such as lower financial investment, high efficiency in obtaining results, and the capability of detecting different levels of usability problems. We will present how we modified the heuristic checklist for evaluating library website based on Liu (2008) study and the task list for heuristic walkthrough.
Three members of the Information Experience Lab evaluated the Fontbonne University library website using the developed instruments. Heuristic walkthrough consisted of two phases. During the first phase, three evaluators were asked to familiarize themselves with the website through a list of prioritized tasks. As evaluators explored the tasks, they were guided by four thought-focusing questions derived from the cognitive walkthrough. During the second phase, evaluators were guided by their task-oriented introduction and an exhaustive list of usability heuristics which contains 14 dimensions with 90 criteria. As a result, 34 categories of usability problems were revealed and six major weaknesses of this website were captured.
Changwoo Yang
Online Reference Service Evaluation from a Health Information Seeking Users' Viewpoint: Ask a Librarian Evaluation
While digital reference services have proliferated widely in the past decade, little attention has been devoted to how the general public uses online reference service to find health information. This study is to examine Florida residents' perceptions and experiences of Ask a Librarian, which is a free online reference service (chat and e-mail reference service) provided by Florida libraries to find health information. More specifically, factors and barriers affecting use of the online reference service for seeking health information will be examined by survey and semi-structured interviews. In addition, the relationship between users' socioeconomic status and their use of the online reference service for health information will be examined. This study will discuss potential roles for developing online reference services to meet the information needs of general public patrons.
JungWon Yoon, EunKyung Chung
Query Reformulation during the Web Image Search Process
Information retrieval is an iterative process. Although users attempt to represent their information needs in search queries which seem to be processed by an information retrieval system, they often do not get expected search results. Then, users must reformulate their queries based on the initial search results, their previous search experience, subject knowledge, and so on. This query reformulation process can be more frustrating than initial query formulation (Rieh & Xie, 2006). Therefore, an information retrieval system should be able to guide users to reformulate their queries appropriately and effectively.
Whereas there have been a few image search query reformulation studies focusing on term modification patterns, this study examines the query reformulation process by considering pictorial meanings (or attributes). Using the Web search log of Excite 2001, which has been used frequently in several Web query studies, the image search sessions which have three or more queries per session are identified. In order to examine changing patterns of image attributes during the query reformulation process, this study will categorize queries using two schemes: 1) overall intention expressed in a query will be analyzed using Batley's four visual information types, and 2) individual terms consisting a query will be analyzed using the categorization schemes which were developed based on previous studies on query reformulation and image search query analysis. The findings of this study will make contributions to the design of image retrieval system interfaces.
Yan Zhang
Mediating effects of mental models on search performance and experience in the web environment
Traditionally, user studies in information and library science (ILS) focus on exploring relationships between individual differences (e.g., gender, age, and technical aptitude), or contextual factors (e.g., tasks and work environment) and people's information searching performance. This line of research has provided rich descriptive knowledge about information searching. For example, users with high spatial ability navigate more easily in a particular information space than users with low spatial ability. However, this general approach of exploring the impact of independent variables on dependent variables falls short when it comes to explaining the cognitive sources of the differences. To advance this line of research, there is an urgent need to investigate the underlying cognitive mechanisms or processes, by which psychological and contextual factors influence people's search behavior. This study sets out to explore the role of mental models as a mediator, mediating the effects of task complexity (a contextual factor) and individual differences in spatial ability on people's performance and experience with an information-rich website. The research will improve our understanding of how and why spatial ability and task complexity affect people's information behavior. The research results will be particularly informative for system design and user instruction.
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