Library and Information Science Commons^™

Ancient Andean Tattooing Practices, Madison Auten

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the practice of tattooing in the ancient Andean world focusing on Peru. I ask the question: What can we learn about how people in the ancient Andean world used tattoos? For example, who were the people receiving tattoos, where on the body were tattoos located and what did they depict? To address this, I collected data on tattoos preserved on human remains. Mummies originating from Peru were examined and their tattoos were photographed. The mummies I examined come from collections in three museums in the United States, including: the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM), the Field Museum (FM) …

The Impact Of Research Data Sharing And Reuse On Data Citation In Stem Fields, Hyoungjoo Park

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the open science movement and mandates for the sharing of research data by major funding agencies and influential journals, the citation of data sharing and reuse has not become standard practice in the various science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Advances in technology have lowered some barriers to data sharing, but it is a socio-technical phenomenon and the impact of the ongoing evolution in scholarly communication practices has yet to be quantified. Furthermore, there is need for a deeper and more nuanced understanding of author self-citation and recitation, the most often cited types of data, disciplinary differences regarding …

Digitization Guidelines For Static & Non-Static (Audiovisual) Media: Compliance & Challenges In Academic Libraries, Maali Alghnimi

Theses and Dissertations

This doctoral dissertation aims to explore digitization practices at academic libraries in the United States. It examines adopted digitization guidelines, levels of compliance with these guidelines, challenges, and solutions. It seeks answers to five research questions in relation to academic libraries’ compliance with static and non-static (audiovisual) media digitization guidelines, encountered challenges, and applied solutions. A mixed methods explanatory research design was adopted for this comparative study. Purposive sampling was applied. The study sample consisted of 68 subjects from doctoral universities with highest and higher research activity based on the 2015 classification issued by The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of …

Enacting A Third Space Pedagogy In An Art Museum Setting: Strategies, Intersections, And Values, Claudia Patricia Orjuela Borda

Theses and Dissertations

This ethnographic case study investigates the theory and practice of third spaces in relation to a

professional development program for K-12 teachers in an art museum setting, with emphasis on

arts-based programming, lived curriculum, contemporary art, and critical teaching strategies. I

investigate how museums negotiate the transition from a pedagogy of place towards a pedagogy

of third spaces. The questions guiding my study were: how a third space is valued by educators

and museum staff? What are the components, strategies, and methodologies that allow for the

emergence of third spaces in professional development programs? What does a third space

pedagogy …

Creating Inclusive Experiences In Children's Museums For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Cassandra Coffey

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined daily programming and inclusion efforts for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) at a singular study site, a children’s museum located in a suburban community of Illinois. The purpose of this study was to identify, through survey, observation, and peer interviews the current accessibility barriers at the study site and suggest ways to prevent them through inclusive design strategies. Interviews with children’s museums around the country focused on how children’s museums may be able to expand their inclusion efforts to overcome these barriers including designing programming to provide inclusive experiences for children with ASD. These interviews championed …

Issues With Reality: Defining And Exploring The Logics Of Alternate Reality Games, Jay Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Alternate Reality Games (ARGs), a genre of transmedia experiences, are a recent phenomenon, with the first recognized ARG being The Beast (2001), a promotion for the film A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001). This dissertation seeks to more clearly define and investigate contexts of transmedia narratives and games, specifically ARGs. ARGs differ from more popular and well-known contemporary forms of gaming in several ways, perhaps most importantly by intensive use of multiple media. Whereas a player may experience most or all of a conventional video game through a single medium, participants in ARGs must navigate multiple media and technical platforms— networks of …

How Do Self-Checkout Kiosks Impact Public Libraries?, Michael Green

Theses and Dissertations

The public library always utilizes new technology for the benefit of the patron. Nowadays, instead of sifting through a card catalogue shelf, one simply has to peruse the online database attached to the library website, using the KOHA system to keep track of materials and patron accounts. Patrons are also able to checkout their materials without the interaction with a staff member at the front desk. What benefits do these self-checkout kiosks bring to the library and the patron? This independent research study is going to look the quantitative data found through the Middleton, Wisconsin Public Library. This study will …

Analysis Of Family-Health-Related Topics On Wikipedia, Yanyan Wang

Theses and Dissertations

New concepts, terms, and topics always emerge; and meanings of existing terms and topics keep changing all the time. These phenomena occur more frequently on social media than on conventional media because social media allows a huge number of users to generate information online. Retrieving relevant results in different time periods of a fast-changing topic becomes one of the most difficult challenges in the information retrieval field. Among numerous topics discussed on social media, health-related topics are a major category which attracts increasing attention from the general public.

This study investigated and explored the evolution patterns of family-health-related topics on …

An Investigation Of Autism Support Groups On Facebook, Yuehua Zhao

Theses and Dissertations

Autism-affected users, such as autism patients, caregivers, parents, family members, and researchers, currently seek informational support and social support from communities on social media. To reveal the information needs of autism- affected users, this study centers on the research of users’ interactions and information sharing within autism communities on social media. It aims to understand how autism-affected users utilize support groups on Facebook.

A systematic method was proposed to aid in the data analysis including social network analysis, topic modeling, sentiment analysis, and inferential analysis. Social network analysis method was adopted to reveal the interaction patterns appearing in the groups, …

Quantitative Phenotype Analysis To Identify, Validate And Compare Rat Disease Models, Yiqing Zhao

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction

The laboratory rat has been widely used as an animal model in biomedical research. There are many strains exhibiting a wide variety of phenotypes. Capturing these phenotypes in a centralized database provides researchers with an easy method for choosing the appropriate strains for their studies. Current resources such as NBRP and PhysGen provided some preliminary work in rat phenotype databases. However, there are drawbacks in both projects: (1) small number of animals (6 rats) used by NBRP; (2) NBRP project is a one-time effort for each strain; (3) PhysGen web interface only enables queries within a single study – …

Facets Of Graffiti Art And Street Art Documentation Online: A Domain And Content Analysis, Ann Marie Graf

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation research I have applied a mixed methods approach to analyze the documentation of street art and graffiti art in online collections. The data for this study comes from the organizational labels used on 241 websites that feature photographs of street art and graffiti art, as well as related textual information provided on these sites and interviews with thirteen of the curators of the sites. The goal of the research is to demonstrate the existence of a coherent domain of street art and graffiti art documentation that may in turn be used to inform the formal design of …

An Evolving Experiment In Community Engagement: The Philippine Co-Curation Partnership At The Field Museum, Sarah E. Carlson

Theses and Dissertations

Over the last decade, Field Museum staff have worked to build enduring partnerships with local Filipinx-American community members. These partnerships engage participants in the stewardship of the collection, reinterpreting entangled object meanings and connecting the Museum’s collection to the lived experiences of modern communities. Through collaborative digitization efforts and events the Philippine Co-Curation partnership works to confront a colonial past while offering a gathering space for local Filipinx-Americans. As an emerging approach to collections management, it aims to embody the ideals of modern museology, bringing both partners and staff into uncertain territory and inspiring important questions about how collaborative relationships …

Toward A Model Of Intercultural Warrant: A Case Of The Korean Decimal Classification's Cross-Cultural Adaptation Of The Dewey Decimal Classification, Inkyung Choi

Theses and Dissertations

I examined the Korean Decimal Classification (KDC)'s adaptation of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) by comparing the two systems. This case manifests the sociocultural influences on KOSs in a cross-cultural context. I focused my analysis on the changes resulting from the meeting of the two cultures, answering the main research question: “How does KDC adapt DDC in terms of underlying sociocultural perspectives in a classificatory form?” I took a comparative approach and address the main research question in two phases. In Phase 1, quantities of class numbers were analyzed by edition and discipline. The main class with the most consistently …

Fluid Functionality: An Examination Of Shifting Identities Using North American Indian German Silver Brooches At The Milwaukee Public Museum As A Case Study, Victoria Catherine Pagel

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the social lives of Woodland silver and German silver brooches

beginning in the late 18th century up to the present day using examples from the collections at the

Milwaukee Public Museum. As a popular trade item introduced by Europeans, silver brooches

provided a new medium for personal adornment in North American indigenous communities

throughout the Woodland region. Brooches were fastened on clothing as singular items and

occasionally worn in the hundreds to display wealth, status, and other aspects of identity. The

majority of brooches used for this project originate from Canada, New York, and Wisconsin.

Also included …

Rural Public Library Assets And Socioeconomic Demographics: A Multi-Classification Study, Karen A. Miller

Theses and Dissertations

Rural public libraries hold economic, cultural, and social capital assets in trust for the benefit of their communities. Filling a gap in the study of those assets, 2012 through 2015 rural library statistics from the Institute of Museum and Library Services were combined with public data from the United States Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services to: (1) reveal interrelationships between rural public library assets and socioeconomic factors, (2) explore the implications of those relationships in terms of potential community services and asset strengths, (3) investigate differences in those relationships over time, and (4) consider rural library asset …

Secondary Student Information Literacy Self-Efficacy Vs. Performance, Jen Spisak

Theses and Dissertations

The amount of information in the world has grown exponentially in the last generation. Students often believe that growing up as digital natives means they have advanced information literacy skills. However, school librarians are not seeing evidence of this in their schools. The purpose of this study was to determine if secondary students overestimate their information literacy (IL) abilities, if relationships exist between IL self-efficacy and performance, and if grade level or self-efficacy level changes those relationships. To accomplish this, data were collected from two middle schools and three high schools from a total of 397 students in grades 6, …

Knowledge Practices In Professional Web Design, T. Zachary Frazier

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the use and construction of knowledge by individuals involved in the professional design of websites. Its focus is on the knowledge practices of those who identify as web designers; professionals engaged primarily in the aesthetic design of websites. This study employs a qualitative semi-structured interview to explore this population’s practices, and adopts a constructivist approach built on critical realist ontology in analyzing the data. The study addresses the general lack of scholarship focusing on web designers, and helps build an understanding of the processes and forces that govern the development and creation of websites. The findings of …

Characterizing Health Behavior Information: Developing A Surveillance Text Mining Framework Using Twitter For Diet, Diabetes, Exercise, And Obesity, George Shaw Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Previous studies have documented the relationship that exists among diabetes, diet, exercise, and obesity. Obesity increases people’s risk of developing heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Exercise and proper dieting are modifiable lifestyle behaviors that can help with reducing people’s overall weight and risk to various chronic conditions like diabetes. A national survey conducted by the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) is the annual Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS). Twitter provides researchers with a new opportunity and alternative data source to collect information regarding health behaviors using real-time data. Previous studies have demonstrated Twitter’s ability to monitor …

A Bibliometric Analysis Of The Proceedings Of The Association For Educational Communications And Technology (Aect) For The 1979-2009 Period, Vandy L. Pacetti-Donelson

Theses and Dissertations

Traditional journal analysis for the identification of disciplines is limited in developing areas of study due to the lack of journals specific to that area of study. Identifying knowledge domains worthy of study for the identification of developing disciplines has been difficult.

Conferences are at the forefront of building knowledge in scientific communities, particularly in technology related sectors, but less than 10% of conference proceedings are available in conventional knowledge databases. As a result, conference proceedings as a previously unconsidered knowledge domain, may provide the knowledge domain worthy of analysis to identify developmental and incremental change within developing areas of …

Intersection: Reading, And Adult Homelessness And Public Libraries, Deborah W. Yoho

Theses and Dissertations

A deeper understanding of reading as more than a set of word-attack and decoding skills may help to guide public librarians seeking to fully implement the ethical professional standard of equitable access to information for everyone, including marginalized patrons such as adults experiencing homelessness. As public libraries respond to questions about their continued relevance in a digital age, an understanding of how libraries can contribute to solutions to community social needs such as homelessness has the potential to broaden community support for more inclusive library programming. In this qualitative study of the experience of reading among eight adults in a …