Library and Information Science Commons^™

Discourse, Power Dynamics, And Risk Amplification In Disaster Risk Management In Canada, Martins Oluwole Olu-Omotayo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The domain of disaster risk management is rife with discursive contentions, whereby dominant discourses amplify the powers of risk actors to precipitate and reinforce political, economic, and environmental inequalities that predispose different sections of the population to unequal disaster risk vulnerabilities. This thesis identified important actors (government, risk experts, media, and NGOs) that shape the power dynamics in disaster risk management in Canada and explained their roles, influences, and the dimensions in which their powers negotiate each other through risk discourses. The patterns of these power dynamics in the three aspects of power –communication, assessment, and social trust –were also …

The Rise And False Of Confederate Monuments, Julia M. Hamilton

Museum Studies Theses

Removing Confederate monuments in the United States has caused a racist, violent, and deadly backlash. Those who are against removing Confederate monuments make claims that doing so is erasing history and culture. This thesis argues that removing these monuments corrects history because Confederate monuments are not historically accurate. Factual historic evidence is provided as well as literature to support this claim. Case studies are provided that explore different institutional responses to racist Confederate monuments and problematic museum displays. This paper explores the responsibility that historic public spaces must ensure accurate information is available to the American public.

Function And Aesthetic Value: An Analysis Of The Milwaukee Public Museum's Thai Royal Silver Collection, Aislinn Sanders

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes 45 objects from the Thai Royal Silver collection currently housed at the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM). Of these, 41 were donated by a single donor, Dr. Louis Schapiro, who collected the objects during his time working as Medical Advisor for the King of Siam in 1931-1932. Following his death, his son Mark held onto the objects until 1969, when they became a part of the MPM’s collection. The chosen objects include boxes, bowls, and other types of vessels. Through researching this collection, the following questions guided the direction for this thesis: How did the silver industry begin …

Research Data Management Policy & Organizational Compliance: An Exploratory Study In The Academic Context, Monica Inez Ihli

Doctoral Dissertations

Research data management (RDM) describes a broad array of processes and activities aimed at ensuring that data are documented, organized, findable, and preserved for future access. In January 2023, the National Institutes of Health will begin enforcing the strictest data management requirements of a U.S. federal agency to date, including potential consequences for organizations whose researchers fail to demonstrate compliance with commitments to data management and sharing. This dissertation makes two major assessment-based contributions in support of organizational preparedness for policy compliance. First, it reports the results of a pilot study at a high research institution for a survey instrument, …

Essays On Contributions In Social Knowledge-Sharing Platforms And Their Impact On Employee Performance And Job Mobility, Moe Esmaeili

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, the interest of practitioners and managers in social networking applications and social knowledge-sharing has increased. While these platforms allow individuals to collaborate, form/maintain social ties, and share/receive knowledge and expertise, and share/receive knowledge/expertise, they also provide a unique collaborative environment for organizations, enabling leaders to promote communication and collaboration among employee silos, engage them with others, and promote corporate core values once adopted internally.

Despite increasing efforts by scholars to uncover the underlying factors that influence members' participation in such platforms, there is still a lack of understanding of the fundamental motivating factor for such contributions and …

The Case Of The Benin Bronzes: Exploring Repatriation In U.S. Museums, Kendra Voelz

Theses and Dissertations

The Benin Bronzes are a grouping of an estimated 10,000 works made from brass, ivory, wood, clay, as well as other materials. These objects originated from the royal palace in Benin City, located in present day Nigeria in Africa. Within the last five years, beginning in 2017, discussions surrounding the repatriation of these artifacts from museums around the world have been reignited to a high degree where institutions are actively working towards researching and, in increasing numbers, repatriating the material to Nigeria. Through video and written interviews this thesis examines the thoughts and opinions of 11 professionals in museums across …

Measurement Of Digital Maturity In Liner Shipping Companies’ Business Models, Lukas Muthee Maganjo

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Determination Of Port Automation Levels Using An Analytic Hierarchical Process : A Case Study For The Port Of Colombo, Waruna Lasantha De Silva Amarathunga

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of The Digital Maturity Level On Port Operations In Africa, Joyce Wanjiru Kaburu

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Digital Readiness Of Container Terminals For Digital Technology Adoption: A Case Study Of Vietnam, Anh Tuấn Vu

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Digital Competences Framework For Seafarers: A Case Study Of Navigation Officers, Latifa Oumouzoun

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Toward A Transdisciplinary Model Of Social Justice In Academic Librarianship: Promoting Critical Awareness Within Advocates And Privileged Allies, Judith L. Brink Drescher

Theses & Dissertations

Academic libraries are largely comprised of White, middle-aged females, and as part of the overall diversity crisis within higher education, grapple with issues of racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, and ableism. This mixed-methods study uses an original theoretical framework of critical transcendence, based on the philosophies of Carl Jung and Paulo Freire, to examine what triggers and/or preconditions lead some academic librarians to reflect upon and interrogate their worldview to become actively engaged as advocates and social justice allies (SJAs). An online survey was conducted that obtained data from a sample of 113 academic librarians regarding their interest and commitment toward …

The Divine Consumptive: The Depiction Of Tuberculosis In Jane Eyre, Haley Highfield

Theses and Dissertations

Disease was a constant and unavoidable facet of life in British society during the Victorian Era. Despite the overwhelming prevalence of disease, the true cause of these illnesses remained mysterious until the turn of the century. With the origins of many of these diseases being either unknown or ascribed to mistaken sources, effective treatment was an impossibility. Tuberculosis is a prime example of this conundrum. Even with an estimated twenty-five percent of the British population dying from this particular disease during the nineteenth century, the actual provenance for infection was not discovered until 1882 with Robert Koch’s identification of the …

Convivial Making: Power In Public Library Creative Places, Shannon Crawford Barniskis

Theses and Dissertations

In 2011, public libraries began to provide access to collaborative creative places, frequently called “makerspaces.” The professional literature portrays these as beneficial for communities and individuals through their support of creativity, innovation, learning, and access to high-tech tools such as 3D printers. As in longstanding “library faith” narratives, which pin the library’s existence to widely held values, makerspace rhetoric describes access to tools and skills as instrumental for a stronger economy or democracy, social justice, and/or individual happiness. The rhetoric generally frames these places as empowering. Yet the concept of power has been neither well-theorized within the library makerspace literature …

Making In The Midst Of Pandemic: The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Two Public Library Makerspaces, Stacey Woods

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative research explored the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on makerspaces in the United States which were subject to public health guidelines and challenged with limited/no access to facilities. This multi-case study examined two public library makerspaces, and addressed these research questions: (1) How did the pandemic affect makerspace operations and access, and the teaching and learning that occurs there? (2) How did makerspace leaders respond to the challenges of the pandemic? (3) How did makerspaces evolve during the COVID-19 pandemic? I developed the Conceptual Framework for Studying the Impact of Pandemic on Public Library Makerspaces which informed the …

Diffusion Of Public Library Innovations: A Case Study On Parking Lot Wi-Fi Hotspots Diffusion Development, Samantha Laine Hull

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

Public libraries have begun to provide services well beyond books and online databases. Prior to the pandemic, many libraries expanded their collection to include items like power drills or board games in their circulation. They also started partnering with social service organizations to better serve their patrons’ needs beyond those that are educational and entertainment based. Despite being broadly trusted by most people and having clever and innovative ideas, some public libraries’ budgets and time limits left marketing efforts at a minimum. In order to address the communication problem many public libraries face, in this study I sought to align …

Creating A Public Space For Georeferencing Sanborn Maps: A Louisiana Case Study, Adam Cox

LSU Master's Theses

As institutional archives digitize their historical map collections and make them publicly available online, new methods for engaging with these materials emerge. Georeferencing the maps transforms their content from static images to dynamic map overlays, and allows for the extraction of geographic data like building footprints or place name coordinates. Many organizations have turned to crowdsourcing to georeference their large holdings, and this thesis approaches crowdsourced georeferencing from the perspective of participatory heritage, taking much inspiration from the idea of the archival commons. To test these ideas, a new extension was created for GeoNode—an open source geospatial content management system—that …

Recreational Nastiness Or Playful Mischief? Contrasting Perspectives On Internet Trolling Between News Media And Avid Internet Users, Yimin Chen

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The term “internet trolling” has come to encompass a wide range of disparate behaviours: ranging from abusive speech and computer hacking to sarcastic humour and friendly teasing. While some of these behaviours are clearly antisocial and, in extreme cases, criminal, others are harmless and can even be prosocial. Previous studies have shown that self-identified internet trollers tend to credit internet trolling’s poor reputation to misunderstanding and overreaction from people unfamiliar with internet culture and humour, whereas critics of trolling have argued that the term has been used to downplay and gloss over problematic transgressive behaviour. As the internet has come …

Digital Equity: Difficulties Of Implementing The 1:1 Computing Initiative In Low-Income Areas, Demetric D. Williams

Dissertations

Successful One-to-One Computing Initiative implementation requires educators to communicate and collaborate effectively with everyone in the learning community. However, other factors such as teacher’s professional development, student’s perception, and parent’s perception often affect the implementation of the One-to-One Computing Initiative. School districts, which serve low-income areas in Mississippi, have difficulties ensuring students and communities have access to the information technology they need to participate outside the school setting. The concept is often called digital equity. However, when officials do not address the capacity, there is a vital threat to the participants’ civic, cultural, employment, lifelong learning, and access to essential …

Application Of The Markov Chain Method In A Health Portal Recommendation System, Xin Cai

Theses and Dissertations

This study produced a recommendation system that can effectively recommend items on a health portal. Toward this aim, a transaction log that records users’ traversal activities on the Medical College of Wisconsin’s HealthLink, a health portal with a subject directory, was utilized and investigated. This study proposed a mixed-method that included the transaction log analysis method, the Markov chain analysis method, and the inferential analysis method. The transaction log analysis method was applied to extract users’ traversal activities from the log. The Markov chain analysis method was adopted to model users’ traversal activities and then generate recommendation lists for topics, …

"Neighborhood Library Modernization": Public Library Expansion In Milwaukee During The 1960s And 1970s, Madeline Brenner

Theses and Dissertations

By the second half of the 20th century, public libraries expanded their reach across American cities and transformed the urban landscape. With almost 10,000 libraries in U.S. cities by 1960, new library development was at an all-time high. Despite this success, few scholars have analyzed these critical changes. Since the historical scholarship on library development is limited, this thesis analyzes the history of public library development in Milwaukee during the 1960s and 1970s. The goals of community engagement and partnership through city-wide circulation of material guided the development of branch library construction under the Ten-Year Library Plan of 1962 to …

Exploring The Information Experience Of The Immigrant Toward Public Libraries In New York City, Jean Edwin Rene

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative exploratory study investigated the experiences, or the lack, of underemployed immigrants with limited job skills, limited income, and limited English speaking skills with public library services as they face many stages of cultural and informational adaptation in the United States. Their information needs are at first primarily for housing, employment, education and social services. In general, they came to the US looking for opportunities, and to be successful. Those achievement means finding good jobs, educations, skills, and greater financial security. Having greater options starts by getting access to information that leads to those objectives. Public libraries have provided …

Public Libraries In Rural Arkansas: An Oasis In An Information Desert, Britt Graves

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Public libraries in Arkansas are welcome, but those found in rural Arkansas are almost a necessity. The public uses the library for more than just checking out books or their email: it’s become a community gathering place for all walks of life, regardless of age or economic status. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the state, libraries also became essential for education, medicine, news, and employment, nearly overloading their resources and shining a spotlight on technology, or the lack thereof, that so many public libraries are needing. With the Arkansas governor planning an upgrade on broadband technology and the federal government …

A Quantiative Study: Public Perceptions Of Medical Librarians And Implications For Communication And Practices, Chelsea C. Jacobs

Masters Theses

The purpose of this research study is to investigate and assess whether medical librarians, clinical medical librarians, medical informationists, etc. (referred to collectively as “medical librarians”) have an obligation beyond their particular institutional role to, or aspirationally should, provide the public with medical literature that has the potential to improve an individual’s health or the public health. The survey will examine the opinions of members of the United States (U.S.) public regarding the practices of medical librarians as these practices pertain to health promotion, patient care, medical education, and clinical research.

The research design for this study is a single-phase …

“Describing Without Identifying”: The Phenomenological Role Of Gender In Cataloging Practices, Travis L. Wagner

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores gendering practices of visual information catalogers. The work aims to understand how catalogers perceive gender when describing persons within visual information. The qualitative study deployed queer interpretative phenomenological analysis to understand how catalogers think broadly about describing identity. The infused queer theoretical tenets helped to understand that while participants may not directly name gender as challenging, the conflation of gender into cisnormative monoliths (assuming every person's gender matches their sex-assigned-at birth) or silence around gender produce telling opinions concerning nonbinary gender. The research also utilized a Think Aloud exercise wherein participants undertook in-the-moment cataloging three moving images. …

In My Skin, Her Skin: An Artistic Exploration Of The Intersection Of Queer Femininity And Body Image, Stephanie Allen

Senior Theses

This project aims to visually record the feeling of being seen and queer women and non-binary people’s developing knowledge of their identity. Using interview questions that focused on body satisfaction, body selectiveness in partners, queer identity, and one’s relationship with femininity, a series of “floating collages” was created to record and juxtapose the appearance of the body with one’s internal relationship to the body. By realistically showing a variety of different body types that all relate to queerness and femininity in some way, one may expand their presupposed notions about the body enforcing identity. Additionally, despite these varying appearances of …

A Qualitative Inquiry Into Scholarly Publishing Between Librarians And Subject Faculty, Michael Furlong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

This is a phenomenological exploration of academic librarians collaboratively publishing with subject faculty. The explorative study investigates academic librarians and subject faculty who conduct research outside of librarianship. The purpose of this qualitative inquiry is an exploration of barriers subject faculty members and academic librarians encounter when conducting collaborative research. The study was performed because of an identifiable research gap and a paucity of qualitative studies related to librarian and faculty research partnerships. Much of the existing scholarship focuses on quantitative data exploring librarians' publishing outcomes. Data collection was performed by interviewing five academic librarians and five subject faculty pairs. …

Data Science: A Study From The Scientometric, Curricular, And Altmetric Perspectives, Michael Joseph King

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

This research explores the emerging field of data science from the scientometric, curricular, and altmetric perspectives and addresses the following six research questions: 1. What are the scientometric features of the data science field? 2. What are the contributing fields to the establishment of data science? 3. What are the major research areas of the data science discipline? 4. What are the salient topics taught in the data science curriculum? 5. What topics appear in the Twitter-sphere regarding data science? 6. What can be learned about data science from the scientometric, curricular, and altmetric analyses of the data collected? Using …

Data Analytics For Crisis Management: A Case Study Of Sharing Economy Services In The Covid-19 Pandemic, Bahri Haciibrahimoglu

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

This dissertation study aims to analyze the role of data-driven decision-making in sharing economy during the COVID-19 pandemic as a crisis management tool. In the twenty-first century, when applying analytical tools has become an essential component of business decision-making, including operations on crisis management, data analytics is an emerging field. To carry out corporate strategies, data-driven decision-making is seen as a crucial component of business operations. Data analytics can be applied to benefit-cost evaluations, strategy planning, client engagement, and service quality. Data forecasting can also be used to keep an eye on business operations and foresee potential risks. Risk Management …

Digital Searching: A Grounded Theory Study On The Modern Search Experience, Nicolas Armando Parés

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This Grounded theory study explores US adults' modern information search process as they pursue information through digital search user interfaces and tools. To study the current search process, a systematic grounded theory methodology and two data collection methods, a think-aloud protocol and semi-structured interviews, are used to develop the theory. The emerging theory addressed two tightly connected research questions that asked, “What is the process by which humans search and discover information?” and “What is the process by which search and discovery interfaces and tools support the modern search process?”

The study collects participant data from US adults who have …