Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Appendix A: Interview Guide With Privacy-Related Questions (Full Version), Anabel Quan-Haase, Dennis Ho

FIMS Publications

Interview Guide: Networked individualism, East York Project

The Sociological Imagination In Studies Of Communication, Information Technologies, And Media: Citams As An Invisible College, Anabel Quan-Haase, Molly-Gloria Harper, Shelley Boulianne

FIMS Publications

In this 2020 CITAMS special issue of Information, Communication & Society, we bring together an important body of work that draws on the sociological imagination to ask critical questions of our times. We selected nine papers that represent both the breadth of sociological work taking place within CITAMS as well as the diversity of its members. CITAMS is welcoming of a range of perspectives in more than one way. We welcome studies of a range of tools and practices. For example, Kadylak and Cotten (this volume) study the willingness of older adults to use six different emerging technologies in …

Politics And Porn: How News Media Characterizes Problems Presented By Deepfakes, Critical Studies In Media Communication, Chandell E. Gosse, Jacquelyn Burkell

FIMS Publications

“Deepfake” is a form of machine learning that creates fake videos by superimposing the face of one person on to the body of another in a new video. The technology has been used to create non-consensual fake pornography and sexual imagery, but there is concern that it will soon be used for politically nefarious ends. This study seeks to understand how the news media has characterized the problem(s) presented by deepfakes. We used discourse analysis to examine news articles about deepfakes, finding that news media discuss the problems of deepfakes in four ways: as (too) easily produced and distributed; as …

Disability And Accessibility Language In Subject Headings And Social Tags, Mackenzie Johnson, Carlie Forsythe

FIMS Publications

Mackenzie Johnson and Carlie Forsythe’s article on disability and accessibility language in subject headings and social tagging stresses the importance of involving subject experts in the creation of subject headings, and of getting the headings right to allow effective information retrieval. The authors also assess the ‘third way’, of semi-structured, moderated social tagging systems, that lies between fully controlled vocabularies and free social tagging.

How Do You Solve A Problem Like The Whole User? The Construction Of Worthy And Problematic Users In Online Discussions Of The Public Library, Pam Mckenzie

FIMS Publications

In this article I use a discursive approach and the concept of the ‘category entitlement’ to analyse the ways that contributors to a public Internet discussion of the value of the public library make cases for different user characteristics and behaviour as ‘worthy’ or ‘problematic’, and use these characteristics to discuss and debate the kinds of individuals and the kinds of behaviour that properly belong to each category. Contributors to the discussion represented users in three categories: a fluid ‘everyone’, which included people represented as being disadvantaged and in legitimate need of the library’s resources, expertise, and support; the user …

Terrorism And Its Legal Aftermath: The Limits On Freedom Of Expression In Canada’S Anti-Terrorism Act & National Security Act, Percy Sherwood

FIMS Publications

This analysis aims to demonstrate how s. 83.221 in Bill C-51 is likely to violate freedom of expression guaranteed under the Charter. The first section employs the two-step Irwin Toy analysis to show that the speech offense infringes upon s. 2(b) of the Charter. The second section uses the Oakes test to determine whether the breach of freedom of expression is a reasonable limit. On whether the speech offense can be justified under s. 1 of the Charter as a reasonable limit, the legislation fails at the third and fourth step of the Oakes test. Section three of this paper …

"Being In Time": New Public Management, Academic Librarians, And The Temporal Labor Of Pink-Collar Public Service Work, Karen P. Nicholson

FIMS Publications

Time is a site of power, one that enacts particular subjectivities and relationships. In the workplace, time enables and constrains performance, attitudes, and behaviors. In this qualitative research study, I examine the impact of the values and practices of new public management on academic librarians’ experiences of time when engaged in pink-collar public service (reference and information literacy) work. Data gathered during semi-structured interviews with twenty-four public service librarians in Canadian public research-intensive universities, members of the U15 Group, serve as a site of analysis for this study. Interview data were first analyzed using thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke 2006) …

A News Verification Browser For The Detection Of Clickbait, Satire, And Falsified News, Victoria Rubin, Chris Brogly, Nadia Conroy, Yimin Chen, Sarah E. Cornwell, Toluwase V. Asubiaro

FIMS Publications

The LiT.RL News Verification Browser is a research tool for news readers, journalists, editors or information professionals. The tool analyzes the language used in digital news web pages to determine if they are clickbait, satirical news, or falsified news, and visualizes the results by highlighting content in color-coded categories. Although the clickbait, satire, and falsification detectors perform to certain accuracy levels on test data, during real-world internet use accuracy may vary. The browser is not a replacement for digital literacy and is not always correct. All processing is completed on the local machine - results are not sent to or …

Educators' Perceptions Of Information Literacy And Skills Required To Spot ‘Fake News’, Victoria Rubin, Nicole Delellis

FIMS Publications

This research examines the concept of ‘fake news’ in the context of information literacy (IL) in a post‐secondary educational setting. Educators' perceptions shape both IL curricula and classroom discussions with students. We conducted 18 interviews with members of 3 integral groups implementing IL education (8 professors, 6 librarians, 4 department chairs). Interviews explored participants' perceptions of: IL education, perceived skills associated with IL, skills required to spot ‘fake news’, and gauged our participants' willingness to incorporate segments dedicated to detecting ‘fake news’ in IL curriculum. Our qualitative findings identify a substantial overlap that exists between skills associated with IL and …

Roll For Initiative: A Player’S Guide To Tabletop Role-Playing Games In Libraries, Carlie Forsythe

FIMS Publications

Independent study exploring the history of tabletop role-playing games, their intrinsic benefits, and how they can be implemented into library collections and programs. I also explore the accessibility of tabletop role-playing games and how they can be made more accessible. To conclude, I present a series of recommendations and valuable resources for librarians and enthusiasts.

Just-In-Time Or Just-In-Case? Time, Learning Analytics, And The Library, Karen P. Nicholson, Nicole Pagowsky, Maura Seale

FIMS Publications

In this essay, we explore the timescapes of library learning analytics. We contend that just-in-time strategies, a feature of late capital modes of production, New Public Management, and future-oriented risk-management strategies inform the adoption of learning analytics. Learning analytics function as a form of temporal governmentality: current performance is scrutinized in order to anticipate future performance and prescribe just-in-time interventions to mitigate risk—not only for the student but also for the institution. Ultimately, we argue that using time as a lens to examine discourses surrounding library learning analytics reveals the temporalities reproduced in this discourse, which obscures questions of power, …

Building And Maintaining Lgbtq+ Picture Book Collections, Alissa Droog, Danielle Bettridge, Alyssa R. Martin, Ashleigh Yates-Mackay

FIMS Publications

The LGBTQ+ community has had to continuously fight for their rights, including their right to be represented in the library. This toolkit provides instruction on how to develop and manage a library collection of LGBTQ+ children’s picture books. It is split into four sections that include a guide to evaluating materials, recommended picture books, a guide to fighting censorship, and a list of recommended resources.

On The Space/Time Of Information Literacy, Higher Education, And The Global Knowledge Economy, Karen Patricia Nicholson

FIMS Publications

Local sites and practices of information work become embroiled in the larger imperatives and logics of the global knowledge economy through social, technological, and spatial networks. Drawing on human geography’s central claim that space and time are dialectically produced through social practices, in this essay I use human/critical geography as a framework to situate the processes and practices—the space and time—of information literacy within the broader social, political, and economic environments of the global knowledge economy. As skills training for the knowledge economy, information literacy lies at the intersection of the spatial and temporal spheres of higher education as the …

Are "Stress Busters" The Solution? Teaching Wellness At The Academic Library, Emily Carlisle

FIMS Publications

No abstract provided.

Information World Mapping To Explicate The Information- Care Relationship In Dementia Care, Nicole K. Dalmer

FIMS Publications

Information world mapping is a helpful data elicitation technique to make visible the hidden work of finding, using and making sense of information. This methods-based paper explores the utility of a mapping exercise both within an institutional ethnographic study and in eliciting informants’ understandings and descriptions of their care-related information work. Eleven family caregivers of community- dwelling older adults living with dementia drew maps of their information worlds. Each map depicts a unique combination of information resources (people, agencies, texts and websites) accessed, relationships that shape the information work in addition to key locations frequented to access information. Given the …

Add Info And Stir’: An Institutional Ethnographic Scoping Review Of Family Care-Givers’ Information Work, Nicole K. Dalmer

FIMS Publications

Family care-givers are increasingly expected to find, understand and use information to meet the complex needs of older adults in their care. A significant number of studies, however, continue to report that care-givers’ information needs are unmet. Following Arksey and O’Malley’s scoping review framework, I examined 72 articles for the range and extent of available research on the information work done by family care-givers of community dwelling older adults living with dementia. To untangle the complex relationship between information and care, this scoping review maps out (a) the ways scholarly literature conceptualises the informational components of family care-givers’ work and …

Reading As A Lifeline Among Aging Readers, Paulette Rothbauer, Nicole Dalmer

FIMS Publications

No abstract provided.

Equality At Stake: Connecting The Privacy/Vulnerability Cycle To The Debate About Publicly Accessible Online Court Records, Jacquelyn A. Burkell, Jane Bailey

FIMS Publications

A considerable amount has been written about the privacy implications of publishing court and tribunal records online. In this article the authors examine the linkages between privacy and vulnerability for members of marginalized communities and, drawing on Calo’s “vicious cycle” of privacy and vulnerability, suggest that publicly accessible online court records represent an equality issue as well. Drawing on social science research and privacy theory, the authors demonstrate the potentially disproportionate effect of online court records on members of marginalized communities. They then examine Canadian case law, legislation and policy that impose restrictions on public disclosure of information from court …

Communicating With Library Patrons And People With Dementia: Tracing An Ethic Of Care In Professional Communication Guidelines, Nicole K. Dalmer, D Grant Campbell

FIMS Publications

In both library reference work and dementia care, communication between personnel and service recipients can be both complex and complicated. Professionals in both fields have therefore developed protocols and standards to assist personnel in handling these interactions. In this article we detail an exploratory comparative study that used an ethic of care framework to compare prominent guidelines for reference librarians (American Library Association’s Reference and User Services Association’s Guidelines for behavioral performance of reference and information service providers) with guidelines for workers in long-term dementia care settings (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s Guideline on supporting people with …

The Creature Questions Its Reflection: Lyrical Feminist Explorations Of Reference Desk Interactions, Alexandrina Hanam, Corinne Gilroy

FIMS Publications

The lyric scholarship of Canadian poet-scholars such as Jan Zwicky, Anne Carson, and Kathleen McConnell provides space for literary, analytic, and artistic critique of library reference practice and interactions. Lyric scholarship is a poetic and methodological tool that is used here to interrogate the dependence-driven customer service model embedded in women-dominated service professions, while gesturing toward alternatives that cultivate inter-dependence, independence, and equity. Significant portions of this piece are structured to evoke Zwicky’s Wisdom & Metaphor, in which the author’s own verses live on the left, mirroring and responding to quotes from other writers and thinkers on the right. The …

Data-Driven Public Diplomacy: A Critical And Reflexive Assessment, Hamilton Bean, Edward Comor

FIMS Publications

This essay presents a critical and reflexive assessment of contemporary efforts

to innovate the measurement and evaluation of public diplomacy. Analyzing a

recent and pivotal report called “Data-Driven Public Diplomacy,” it explains

how the institutional and ideological residue of the Cold War underwrites

these initiatives in the context of American activities in its contemporary “War

on Terror.” Inspired by Marx’s concept of the fetish—n under-represented

conceptual approach to public diplomacy research—he authors critique

the thinking of public diplomacy scholars and officials, arguing that both an

omnipresent past and a powerful form of technological fetishism are discernible

in the “Data-Driven Public …

The Dark History Of Hathitrust, Alissa Centivany

FIMS Publications

Abstract This research explores the ways values, power, and politics shape and are shaped by digital infrastructure development through an in-depth study of HathiTrust’s “dark history,” the period of years leading up to its public launch. This research identifies and traces the emerging and iterative ways that values were surfaced and negotiated, decision making approaches were strategically modified, and relationships were strengthened, reconfigured, and sometimes abandoning through the process of generating a viable, robust and sustainable collaborative digital infrastructure. Through this history, we gain deeper understandings and appreciations of the various and sometimes surprising ways that values, power, and politics …

Deception Detection And Rumor Debunking For Social Media, Victoria L. Rubin

FIMS Publications

Abstract

The main premise of this chapter is that the time is ripe for more extensive research and development of social media tools that filter out intentionally deceptive information such as deceptive memes, rumors and hoaxes, fake news or other fake posts, tweets and fraudulent profiles. Social media users’ awareness of intentional manipulation of online content appears to be relatively low, while the reliance on unverified information (often obtained from strangers) is at an all-time high. I argue there is need for content verification, systematic fact-checking and filtering of social media streams. This literature survey provides a background for understanding …

Questioning Reliability Assessments Of Health Information On Social Media, Nicole K. Dalmer

FIMS Publications

This narrative review examines assessments of the reliability of online health information retrieved through social media to ascertain whether health information accessed or disseminated through social media should be evaluated differently than other online health information. Several medical, library and information science, and interdisciplinary databases were searched using terms relating to social media, reliability, and health information. While social media’s increasing role in health information consumption is recognized, studies are dominated by investigations of traditional (i.e., non-social media) sites. To more richly assess constructions of reliability when using social media for health information, future research must focus on health consumers’ …

Mind The Gap: Towards The Integration Of Critical Gerontology In Public Library Praxis, Nicole K. Dalmer

FIMS Publications

Aging populations challenge public libraries to adapt their materials, services and programming to maximize the wellbeing and functional capacity of older adults and enhance their social participation and security. For older adult patrons using public library spaces and services, the capacity to which the public library has been able to deliver on these qualities remains unclear. In the past, libraries and library staff have been critiqued for narrowly interpreting the needs of older adults, concentrating on aging as a loss or deficit. To understand the current state of Canadian urban public library services for older adults, publically accessible texts, documents …

Problematizing The Digital Literacy Paradox In The Context Of Older Adults’ Ict Use: Aging, Media Discourse, And Self-Determination, Kathleen Schreuers, Anabel Quan-Haase, Kim Martin

FIMS Publications

Despite evidence of an upward trend in ICT adoption, current media discourse suggests that older adults (those 60+) lag behind in terms of engagement with digital technology. Through a survey and interviews with older adults we investigate how this population views their own digital skills, barriers to digital literacy, and the social and institutional support system they draw on for technology help. Older adults recognize their age as a factor in the adoption of technology and note differences between how they and younger generations use technology. A lack of skills and limited social and institutional support make it difficult for …

Player–Game Interaction And Cognitive Gameplay: A Taxonomic Framework For The Core Mechanic Of Videogames, Kamran Sedig, Paul Parsons, Robert Haworth

FIMS Publications

Cognitive gameplay—the cognitive dimension of a player’s experience—emerges from the interaction between a player and a game. While its design requires careful consideration, cognitive gameplay can be designed only indirectly via the design of game components. In this paper, we focus on one such component—the core mechanic—which binds a player and game together through the performance of essential interactions. Little extant research has been aimed at developing frameworks to support the design of interactions within the core mechanic with cognitive gameplay in mind. We present a taxonomic framework named INFORM (Interaction desigN For the cORe Mechanic) to address this gap. …

Stak – Serendipitous Tool For Augmenting Knowledge: A Conceptual Tool For Bridging Digital And Physical Resources, Kim Martin, Brian Greenspan, Anabel Quan-Haase

FIMS Publications

Humanities scholars have long claimed the importance of browsing in the library stacks as part of their research process. The digitization practices of libraries and archives, while meant to assist with preservation and access, make the physical browsing experience impossible. While there have been various attempts to recreate this experience online, none as yet has created a digital tool which users can interact with as they move through the physical material in the library. This paper aims to introduce the concept of the Serendipitous Tool for Augmenting Knowledge (STAK), a geolocative app that allows users to access material complementary to …

Crowdsourcing Law And Policy: A Design-Thinking Approach To Crowd-Civic Systems, Brian Mcinnis, Alissa Centivany, Juho Kim, Marta Pobet, Karen Levy, Gilly Leshed

FIMS Publications

Crowdsourcing technologies, strategies and methods offer new opportunities for bridging existing gaps among law, policymaking, and the lived experience of citizens. In recent years, a number of initiatives across the world have applied crowdsourcing to contexts including constitutional reform, drafting federal bills, and generating local policies. However, crowd-civic systems also come with challenges and risks such as socio-technical barriers, marginalization of specific groups, silencing of interests, etc. Using a designthinking approach, this workshop will address both opportunities and challenges of crowd-civic systems to develop best practices for increasing public engagement with law and policy. The workshop organizers will suggest an …

Revisiting The Open Court Principle In An Era Of Online Publication: Questioning Presumptive Public Access To Parties’ And Witnesses’ Personal Information, Jane Bailey, Jacquelyn Burkell

FIMS Publications

Openness Of cOurts can serve laudable purposes, not the least of which are transparency of government and court systems and access to justice, although accounts of the open court principle’s meaning, breadth, and underlying pur- poses have expanded and shifted over time.CurrentlyinCanadathe adherence to the principle has meant presumptive access to almost all aspects of court cases, including access to personal information about parties and witness- es, encompassing not only information contained in court judgments, but also information contained in documents led in court oces. Historically, not- withstanding this presumptive access, practical obscurity has protected much of this information, in …