Library and Information Science Commons^™

Setting The Stage For Affordability Initiatives At Syracuse University Libraries, Scott Warren, Anne E. Rauh

Libraries' and Librarians' Publications

No abstract provided.

A Visual Workflow For Cataloging, Arden Kirkland, Minor Gordon

School of Information Studies - Faculty Scholarship

Our digital collections team took on the challenge to improve the tools and processes of cataloging. We began to explore how we could build features that helped students into a cataloging worksheet tool, under development at DressDiscover.org. After our initial development of the tool, we looked back and realized just how much Universal Design for Learning (UDL) had influenced our design, although we had not consciously intended that from the start. Our assessment of the project through a UDL lens was at first extremely affirming, helping us to note many ways that our work already supported all three of …

Organizing Knowledge Through Revealing Data In Knowledgebases., Jian Qin, Qiaoyi Liu

School of Information Studies - Faculty Scholarship

This paper uses the knowledgebases in the biomedical field as a case study to discuss the characteristics and requirements of knowledge organization (KO) practices and products by looking at the constructs, cross-linking, and curation methods. Modern knowledgebases such as Gene Ontology and Disease Ontology reflect the major expansions in KO to be more computational, portable (entification allows individual nodes to be extracted and used in combination with multiscale resources) and connected. Many techniques and methods used are not covered in KO textbooks. The interdisciplinary nature of KB development will be a worthwhile research area for the field of knowledge organization.

Operationalizing Open At Syracuse University Libraries, Déirdre Joyce, Anne E. Rauh

Libraries' and Librarians' Publications

No abstract provided.

Social Media As Fragile State, Caroline A. Haythornthwaite, Philip Mai, Anatoliy Gruzd

School of Information Studies - Faculty Scholarship

Social media platforms are grappling with how to respond to hate speech, misinformation, and political manipulation in ways that address human rights, free speech, and equality. As independent ‘states’, they are enacting their own rules of conduct, deriving their own ‘laws’, convening their own extrajudicial self regulatory institutions, and making their own interpretations and enactments of human rights. With the rise of social states such as Facebook, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit, how fragile are they in their ability to achieve outcomes of fair, equitable and consistent application of their own laws? Could an assessment of the fragility of …

Lantern Slides For Engineering Instruction In The Early 20th Century, Jill H. Powell

Upstate New York Science Librarians Conference

Cornell's Engineering Library received a donation of some 360 lantern slides from the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, which were used as visual aids in industrial engineering classes in the 1920s-1930s. They include pictures of machines, people operating machines, organized recreation in factories, automobile assembly, and sample hiring practices, many of which were discriminatory. We would like to get the slides digitized, and will discuss the experience of applying for a grant.

Beam Me Up Some Sci-Fi: Building And Promoting Popular Science & Climate Fiction Book Collections In Academic Libraries, Jennifer Embree

Upstate New York Science Librarians Conference

Academic libraries often focus most, if not all, of their collection development efforts on supporting resources that directly support their campus research or course curricula (with good reason!). However, there is a growing call in the library literature that highlights the benefits of recreational reading collections in academic library settings. These collections, also frequently referred to as pleasure reading, leisure reading, or popular reading collections, are sometimes dismissed as frivolous and out of scope in academic libraries, with some attitudes seemingly even going so far as to disparage their need or existence in these more “serious” settings (Brookbank et al. …

Beyond Chatgpt: Using Its Stem To Support Librarians, Juan Denzer

Upstate New York Science Librarians Conference

Librarians have long utilized technology to enhance productivity and information sharing. However, the pace of adopting new technologies in libraries has been limited by factors such as funding constraints, privacy concerns, and a non-profit focus. This proposal aims to explore the transformative potential of advanced AI tools, specifically large language models (LLMs), in the field of librarianship. While natural language tools like ChatGPT and Google's Bard have garnered attention, misconceptions and fears surrounding academic integrity and negative media coverage have hindered the broader acceptance of these AI advancements. Paradoxically, many existing tools in libraries, such as translation services and customer …

Starting Stem On The Right Foot: Developing A Student Success Oer For First-Year Stem Students, Samantha Dannick, Elizabeth Matson

Upstate New York Science Librarians Conference

This presentation will introduce a collaborative project between library and STEM faculty. The goal of the project is the creation of an open educational resource (OER) for first-year college students entering STEM fields. The final product may be an adaptation of an existing college success OER or supplemental resources. A driving force of the project is the recognition that success in STEM fields in college and beyond requires knowledge and skills distinct from and in addition to general college success skills.

Early stages of the project are data gathering from first-year STEM students and STEM faculty to identify and prioritize …

Open V Closed: The Scelc Story, Robert Boissy

Upstate New York Science Librarians Conference

Sixty-eight institutions in the SCELC Consortium signed a Springer Nature Open Access or "transformative agreement" starting in 2023. This presentation will take a look at the SCELC publishing data leading up to the agreement from 2018 to 2022, and also a look at the publishing data for 2023ytd, in order to study the effects of such an agreement. The 2023 data carries an explicit comparison of downloads of the open access papers published with SCELC authors to the closed access papers published by non-SCELC authors in the same journals for the same period of time. The purpose of the presentation …

Beyond Misinformation: The Misrepresentation And Misappropriation Of Research, Winn W. Wasson

Libraries' and Librarians' Publications

The contemporary information landscape has produced numerous incidents of researchers having their research misunderstood, misrepresented, or misappropriated—or worse, being subjected to intimidation and harassment—by individuals or groups who seek to cherry-pick evidence in support of ideological agendas or who wish to suppress evidence that counters those same agendas. While the covid-19 pandemic elevated these tactics in their frequency, visibility, and intensity, this phenomenon did not start or end with the pandemic. To help prepare current and future researchers for the possibility that their research might be misrepresented, misappropriated, or politicized in other ways by ideologically motivated individuals or groups, Syracuse …

Transformative Role Playing: Embracing Non-Library Instructional Opportunities To Enrich Professional Identities, John Stawarz, Sebastian Modrow

Libraries' and Librarians' Publications

In this chapter, the authors assert that taking on a different role—that of a course instructor—can inform and influence academic librarians’ individual instructional identities in novel, meaningful ways.

“I’M Not Searching The Right Words”: User Experience Searching Historic Clothing Collection Websites, Arden Kirkland, Monica Sklar, Clare Sauro, Leon Wiebers, Sara Idacavage, Julia Mun

School of Information Studies - Faculty Scholarship

This study investigates the search processes of users accessing public websites representing historic clothing collections, examining where their searches are supported by the metadata in the collection databases and what factors could make their experience more inclusive. With IRB approval from four universities, we performed a recorded experiment with twenty adults: ten students of historic dress and ten fashion professionals. Four tasks included search scenarios and images representing diverse historic garments. Results indicate that both the descriptive metadata and search features on collection websites present challenges for the typical user search process. Users search for historical dress content the way …

Beyond Misinformation: Educating Our Campuses About The Misrepresentation And Misappropriation Of Research, Winn W. Wasson

Libraries' and Librarians' Publications

The contemporary information landscape has produced numerous incidents of researchers having their research misrepresented or misappropriated—or worse, being subjected to intimidation and harassment—by individuals or groups who seek to cherry-pick evidence in support of ideological agendas or who wish to suppress evidence that counters those same agendas. While the COVID-19 pandemic has elevated these tactics in their frequency, visibility, and intensity, this phenomenon is by no means unique to the pandemic. Medievalists and Classicists have seen their research become politicized by white supremacists, and historians and archaeologists of ancient India have had to push back against religious nationalist narratives that …

Showcasing Research Impact For Institutional Advancement: Sharing Stories Backed By Data, Emily Hart, Anne E. Rauh, Linda Galloway

Libraries' and Librarians' Publications

No abstract provided.

Global Perspectives On Open Access: The Syracuse University View, Anne E. Rauh

Libraries' and Librarians' Publications

No abstract provided.

“Envisioning Digital Sanctuaries”: An Exploration Of Virtual Collectives For Nurturing Professional Development Of Women In Technical Domains, Subhasree Sengupta

Dissertations - ALL

Work and learning are essential facets of our existence, yet sociocultural barriers have historically limited access and opportunity for women in multiple contexts, including their professional pursuits. Such sociocultural barriers are particularly pronounced in technical domains and have relegated minoritized voices to the margins. As a result of these barriers, those affected have suffered strife, turmoil, and subjugation. Hence, it is important to investigate how women can subvert such structural limitations and find channels through which they can seek support and guidance to navigate their careers. With the proliferation of modern communication infrastructure, virtual forums of conversation such as Reddit …

“You Can't Self-Care Your Way Out Of A Broken System”: The 2022 Urban Libraries Trauma Forum, Leah T. Dudak, Lauren Comito, Christian Zabriskie

School of Information Studies - Post-doc and Student Scholarship

The Urban Libraries Trauma Study (ULTS) conducted by Urban Librarians Unite (ULU) examines trauma that urban public library workers experience in the workforce through their work with the public and interlibrary relationships. Drawing on interviews, focus groups, and a trauma forum, this paper discusses the problem of trauma in the library. It demonstrates a grounded way to engage library staff in research and change. Finally, this paper concludes with ideas proposed by the forum participants to begin addressing trauma in the library workplace and provide areas to look to going forward.

Critical Information Literacy: An Annotated Bibliography, John Stawarz

Libraries' and Librarians' Publications

No abstract provided.

Against Wind And Tide: Alternative Case Studies Reflecting On Subject And Functional Librarians In A Hybrid Reality, Julia Gelfand, Ibironke Lawal, Jill Powell, Anne E. Rauh

Libraries' and Librarians' Publications

No abstract provided.

Building Inclusive Stem Collections: Books By Bipoc Scientists, Hilary Wong

Upstate New York Science Librarians Conference

No abstract provided.

From Ho-Hum To Fun: Engaging Audiences With Game-Based Learnin, Lauren Mabry

Upstate New York Science Librarians Conference

Are you ready to transform traditional slideshows and lecture-style presentations into exciting games that will have your audience actively collaborating, exploring, and learning? Let’s investigate multiple free(mium) tools that make it easy! Make sure to have an internet-connected personal device with you to participate in the fun.

Enriching University Of Rochester's Stem Collections With Resources About And By Bipoc Scientists, Susan K. Cardinal

Upstate New York Science Librarians Conference

You might think that the collections of a major library would be unaffected by cultural prejudices. However, even the University of Rochester's collections are sadly lacking in works by and about scientists of color. Our poster describes our work to rectify this situation in order to inspire current and future BIPOC students to go into STEM fields. One scientist who we feature is Joy Buolamwini, who recently earned her PhD from MIT’s Media Lab. She noticed that analyses of photographs are often biased, so she formed the Algorithmic Justice League to study and correct that problem. Our collections are more …

Centering Student Labor: A Practical Examination Of Digital Library Experiences In The Lis Student Lifecycle, Grace Swinnerton, Heather C. Owen, Brie Baumert, Kamryn Lenning

Libraries' and Librarians' Publications

This presentation was created as a summary of many previous presentations to emphasize the essential nature of student labor to the success of cross campus collaborations. Additionally, this presentation discusses the creation of a digital library for veterans and military families.

Practicing Care: A Look At The Application Of Care Ethics To Metadata Creation And Remediation, Kiley Jolicoeur

Libraries' and Librarians' Publications

The process of creating and stewarding descriptive metadata is often approached with a focus on standardization. However, utilizing an approach grounded in care ethics to construct a relationship between the metadata creator and the people who are the creators and subjects of the archival materials can provide better descriptive metadata. The improvement is focused on allowing digital archives to give people appearing in the archive the respect and attention they deserve, as well as providing important historical information to users. This paper details a concept-in-practice discussion of the employment of an approach grounded in care ethics on the remediation of …

Research Data Management Practices And Impacts On Long-Term Data Sustainability: An Institutional Exploration, Sarah Elaine Bratt

Dissertations - ALL

With the 'data deluge' leading to an institutionalized research environment for data management, U.S. academic faculty have increasingly faced pressure to deposit research data into open online data repositories, which, in turn, is engendering a new set of practices to adapt formal mandates to local circumstances. When these practices involve reorganizing workflows to align the goals of local and institutional stakeholders, we might call them 'data articulations.' This dissertation uses interviews to establish a grounded understanding of the data articulations behind deposit in 3 studies: (1) a phenomenological study of genomics faculty data management practices; (2) a grounded theory study …

An Nlp Analysis Of Health Advice Giving In The Medical Research Literature, Yingya Li

Dissertations - ALL

Health advice – clinical and policy recommendations – plays a vital role in guiding medical practices and public health policies. Whether or not authors should give health advice in medical research publications is a controversial issue. The proponents of "actionable research" advocate for the more efficient and effective transmission of science evidence into practice. The opponents are concerned about the quality of health advice in individual research papers, especially that in observational studies. Arguments both for and against giving advice in individual studies indicate a strong need for identifying and accessing health advice, for either practical use or quality evaluation …

Essays On Strategies For Increasing Repayment Rates Of Digital Microloans, Alain Rutayisire Shema

Dissertations - ALL

Access to credit can act as a highly effective tool for poverty reduction and economic growth. The ability to borrow increases the propensity of low-income people to start and maintain businesses, educate their children and withstand financial shocks. These factors, in turn, can help them to move out of poverty and lead to more sustainable economic development. However, traditional financial institutions have inherent limitations that have impeded their ability to serve the poor.

Digital lenders are able to leverage the widespread adoption of mobile phones and mobile money to extend credit quickly and conveniently to more people, especially in developing …

Problematic Expectations: Using Close Reading To Surface Emotional Labor In School Librarian Job Postings, Alexandra Grimm

School of Information Studies - Post-doc and Student Scholarship

Although emotional labor—defined as the process(es) by which a worker manages their feelings in order to produce the desired emotional response in a customer—has been studied in various fields and specific domains of librarianship, this topic has yet to be examined in school librarianship. In this exploratory article, I perform a close reading of school librarian job postings to surface expectations of emotional labor and explicate connections to the feminized history of librarianship. The article closes with a call to action, outlining steps for administrators and researchers to prevent the potential harms of emotional labor in school librarianship.

Beyond Misinformation: Educating Graduate Students About The Mischaracterization And Misappropriation Of Research, Winn W. Wasson

Libraries' and Librarians' Publications

The contemporary information landscape has produced numerous incidents of researchers having their research misappropriated or mischaracterized—or worse, being subjected to intimidation and harassment—by individuals or groups who seek to cherry-pick evidence in support of ideological agendas or who wish to suppress evidence that counters those same agendas. While the COVID-19 pandemic has elevated these tactics in their frequency, visibility, and intensity, this phenomenon is by no means unique to the pandemic. Medievalists and Classicists have seen their research become politicized by white supremacists, and historians and archaeologists of ancient India have had to push back against religious nationalist narratives that …