Library and Information Science Commons^™

Advancing Social Media Literacy, Caroline A. Haythornthwaite

iSchool - All Scholarship

What does it take to be literate on social media? What kinds of knowledge, skills, and competencies are needed for literate social media practice? This paper builds on language, media, information, digital, and cultural literacy to offer a definition of social media literacy that addresses the abilities needed to be an engaged, informed, ethical, and responsible social media user. The paper draws attention to skills of information evaluation, knowledge of production, cultural understanding, and knowledge of content moderation practices as necessary for social media literacy. The paper further argues that, due to the open, social, collective, and distributed nature of …

Empowering Library Instructors: Reflections On The Information Literacy Scholars Program At Syracuse University Libraries, Kelly K. Delevan, Breeann Austin, Brie Baumert, Rebecca Mccall, Lauren Quackenbush, Olivia Russo, Alayna Vander Veer, B. Austin Waters

Librarian Publications

The need for authentic work experience is a concern for most graduates entering the field of librarianship. For academic librarians, authentic teaching experience is particularly desired, and while some courses are offered in most library and information science graduate programs, few pair the coursework with opportunities for practical applications. At institutions with LIS programs, there can be partnerships with the university or college library. The Information Literacy Scholars Program at Syracuse University is one such program.

“(Mis)Information Creation As A Process”: A Method For Teaching Critical Media Literacy, Winn W. Wasson

Librarian Publications

In January 2019, I taught a condensed credit-bearing media literacy course for undergraduates based on the ACRL Frame, “Information Creation as Process”. My main learning objective was to teach students to recognize accurate information, misinformation, and disinformation in the news and on social media, not by naming them as such, but by: 1) exposing students to the process through which news goes from field observations to a published or broadcast story, and 2) exploring current social and cognitive psychology research on how humans evaluate whether to believe the information they consume. The course ended with a discussion of healthy information …

Memetic Memory As Vital Conduits Of Troublemakers In Digital Culture, Alexander O. Smith, Jordan Loewen-Colón

School of Information Studies - Post-doc and Student Scholarship

Recent fears of data capitalism and colonialism often argue using implicit assumptions about cybernetic technology’s ability to automate data about culture. As such, the level of data granularity made possible by cybernetic engineering can be used to dominate society and culture. Here we unpack these implicit assumptions about the datafication of culture through memes, which both act as cultural data and cultural memory. Using Alexander Galloway’s critical method of protocological analysis and descriptions of media tactics, we respond to fears of cybernetic domination. Protocols – the source by which cybernetic technologies enable automated datafication – enables us to respond to …

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

Librarian Publications

No abstract provided.

Beyond Misinformation: Strategies And Tactics For Addressing The Growing And Pernicious Problem Of The Misrepresentation And Misappropriation Of Research, Winn W. Wasson

Librarian 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 …

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 …

Test Document - Aria Overview Pdf, Corinne Sartori

Librarian Publications

This is a test document for Accessibility.

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

Librarian 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 …

Using Gene Ontology And Ml Algorithms For Dataset Design And Creation For Ml/Ai Modeling, Qiaoyi Liu, Jian Qin

School of Information Studies - Post-doc and Student Scholarship

This demo proposal presents a case study that uses Gene Ontology (GO) and ML/AI algorithms to design and create KO-derived datasets for ML/AI applications. We discuss the characteristics and requirements of KO practices and products in implementing ML algorithms. The focus of this demo is on how knowledge organization systems can be utilized to derive datasets that can deliver quality and trustworthiness for achieving the precision, computing of semantic similarity, and interoperability in these algorithms.

Potential For Trauma In Public Libraries Experiencing Book Banning And Material Challenges, Jieun Yeon, Leah T. Dudak

School of Information Studies - Post-doc and Student Scholarship

Material challenges in public libraries are at an all time high while also possessing a huge political and emotional weight. As such, library workers are defending against book banning in larger numbers, and their very work is coming into public scrutiny and questioning. In such stressful times, the potential for trauma from the library workplace is higher and more charged. This paper lays the groundwork for how trauma and materials challenges have the potential to interact in the library workplace, especially for those from marginalized communities. It also proposes a trauma cycle for deeper understanding of trauma during material challenges, …

Labarchives, Electronic Lab Notebook For Modern Scientists, Susan K. Cardinal, Heather Owen

Upstate New York Science Librarians Conference

During the summer of 2023, librarians at the University of Rochester encouraged use of the LabArchives for Education module by introducing it to librarians and faculty. We did an environmental scan of the literature and the vendor website to glean benefits and challenges of using this tool. All liaison librarians were encouraged to get accounts and play with the tool. We started hosting vendor provided webinars and inviting discussion. I'll share the process and results of our efforts.

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. …

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.

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 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 …

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

Librarian 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 …

Digitalizing The Grassroots. Transforming Internet Access In Africa And Globally Bottom-Up, Lee W, Mcknight, William Lehr, Danielle Smith, Jane Appiah-Okyere, Kwaku Antwi

The Lender Center for Social Justice

This paper discusses bottom-up approaches to internet access in Africa, emphasizing grassroots-led digitalization strategies. It argues for community-centered, inclusive models as alternatives to top-down infrastructure deployment.

Digital Literacy In The Age Of Social Media, Caroline A. Haythornthwaite

School of Information Studies - Faculty Scholarship

For many years media literacy has addressed ways of verifying information, and information literacy has addressed finding information and understanding its production. But today’s social media takes us out of the realm of standard information sources to open, online discussion. The volatility of these environments suggests the need for social media literacy that complements both media and information literacy. This talk takes up the topic of social media literacy, highlighting what is different in these environments, and what will help make literate social media participants. The presentation reviews contemporary ideas about literacy and discusses the contemporary trends in understanding literacy: …

Linking Us Together: Applications Of Wikidata In Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online (Sucho), Kiley Jolicoeur, Andreas Segerberg, Susanna Ånäs

Librarian Publications

This presentation was delivered at the LD4 virtual conference, 11 July 2023.

As three volunteers for the non-profit Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online (SUCHO) initiative, we are applying Wikidata to many aspects of work supporting Ukrainian cultural heritage institutions. We will discuss three interconnected applications:
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/="/">First, we will discuss the development of a Google Sheets list of Ukrainian cultural heritage institutions from Wikidata queries which enabled SUCHO to rapidly develop a working inventory of institutions whose websites needed emergency archiving, and which continued to grow throughout the year and inform SUCHO’s developing activities.
/="/">
/="/">Then, we will …

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

Librarian 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

Librarian 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

Librarian Publications

No abstract provided.

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

Librarian Publications

No abstract provided.

Virus Outbreaks And International Scienti C Collaboration: A Quantitative Analysis Of Nih Genbank Metadata (1992-2018), Will Devitt, Sarah Bratt, Jian Qin, Jeff Hemsley

School of Information Studies - Faculty Scholarship

Countries around the world su er from outbreaks of viral diseases. These outbreaks are worsened by socio-economic inequality, both nationally and internationally. To combat these outbreaks, scientific research is conducted. Our paper analyzes the NIH GenBank virus research network (a net record of virus research from 1992-2018) to discover viral outbreaks and ask how the network responded in the event of these outbreaks, with interest in the changes in collaboration between research teams, increased activity, and when + where this activity occurred with the objective of examining the equity of the international response to public health events. We conclude that …

“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 …