Library and Information Science Commons^™

Musical Artists Capitalizing On Hybrid Identities: A Case Study Of Drake The “Authentic” “Black” “Canadian” “Rapper”, Amara Pope

FIMS Publications

This study is an exploration of identity politics through an examination of the ways in which musical artists use the medium of music videos to create marketable, hybrid identities. With the rise of social media and the online consumption of information, music videos play a central role in global, cultural flows. I argue that hybrid identities are constructed by musical artists to gain popularity through the form of ethno-marketing. I include literature surrounding diaspora and hybridity to understand how hybrid identities become a production of heritage and human capital. By utilizing music videos specifically to construct their hybrid identities, musical …

To Submit Or Not Submit: The Burden Of Evaluation On Postgraduate Medical Trainees, Elaine M. Zibrowski, Jeff Crukley, Jacqui Malett, Kathryn Myers

FIMS Publications

Purpose Academic centers utilize web-based surveillance systems to administer their evaluations, but little is known about their impact on the evaluation responsibilities delegated to medical residents. Method Using a mixed-methods approach, a retrospective content analysis was conducted of the evaluation activities experienced by a cohort of 29 residents as they completed their training in general internal medicine from 2009-2012. These data were triangulated with group interviews conducted with current internal medicine residents in 2012-2013. Results The internal medicine program electronically requested that its residents complete 8,614 evaluation reports on clinical faculty, curriculum, and junior trainees (345 requests annually per resident). …

Heroes For The Helpless: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Canadian National Print Media’S Coverage Of The Food Insecurity Crisis In Nunavut, Bradley Hiebert, Elaine Power

FIMS Publications

In northern Canada, the Inuit’s transition from a culturally traditional to a Western diet has been accompanied by chronic poverty and provoked high levels of food insecurity, resulting in numerous negative health outcomes. This study examines national coverage of Nunavut food insecurity as presented in two of Canada’s most widely read newspapers: The Globe and Mail (GM) and the National Post (NP). A critical discourse analysis (CDA) was employed to analyze 24 articles, 19 from GM and 5 from NP. Analysis suggests national print media propagates the Inuit’s position as The Other by selectively reporting on social issues such as …

Supporting Sensemaking Of Complex Objects With Visualizations: Visibility And Complementarity Of Interactions, Kamran Sedig, Paul Parsons, Hai-Ning Liang, Jim Morey

FIMS Publications

Making sense of complex objects is difficult, and typically requires the use of external representations to support cognitive demands while reasoning about the objects. Visualizations are one type of external representation that can be used to support sensemaking activities. In this paper, we investigate the role of two design strategies in making the interactive features of visualizations more supportive of users’ exploratory needs when trying to make sense of complex objects. These two strategies are visibility and complementarity of interactions. We employ a theoretical framework concerned with human–information interaction and complex cognitive activities to inform, contextualize, and interpret the effects …

Beyond Simple Charts: Design Of Visualizations For Big Health Data, Oluwakemi Ola, Kamran Sedig

FIMS Publications

Health data is often big data due to its high volume, low veracity, great variety, and high velocity. Big health data has the potential to improve productivity, eliminate waste, and support a broad range of tasks related to disease surveillance, patient care, research, and population health management. Interactive visualizations have the potential to amplify big data’s utilization. Visualizations can be used to support a variety of tasks, such as tracking the geographic distribution of diseases, analyzing the prevalence of disease, triaging medical records, predicting outbreaks, and discovering at-risk populations. Currently, many health visualization tools use simple charts, such as bar …

Policy As Embedded Generativity: A Case Study Of The Emergence And Evolution Of Hathitrust, Alissa Centivany

FIMS Publications

The traditional core of CSCW focuses on the relationships, tensions, and gaps between technical systems and social activity. Policy orbits around this core as a persistent but marginally represented presence. In the last few years, however, CSCW has witnessed an upsurge of interest in (re)integrating policy more explicitly and meaningfully into research and practice. For example, recent scholarship stressed the mutually constitutive and interconnected threads of design, practice, and policy [31]. This paper expands upon those motivations through a qualitative case study of the role of policy in library mass digitization work and the subsequent emergence and evolution of …

Writing And Reading The Results: The Reporting Of Research Rigour Tactics In Information Behaviour Research As Evident In The Published Proceedings Of The Biennial Isic Conferences, 1996 – 2014, Lynne Ef Mckechnie, Roger Chabot, Nicole K. Dalmer, Heidi Julien, Cass Mabbott

FIMS Publications

Introduction. This study examined if and how information behaviour researchers include research rigour tactics in reports of their research projects. Method. A content analysis was conducted of the 193 research reports published in the 1996 – 2014 ISIC proceedings.

Analysis. Articles were coded for author affiliation, rigour tactics reported, and whether or not enough information was presented to allow readers to assess the quality of the research and replicate the study. Both quantitative (frequencies) and qualitative (excerpts from the articles) data are reported.

Results. In total 698 research rigour tactics were reported for an average of 3.6 per paper, a …

“Popcorn Tastes Good”: Participatory Policymaking And Reddit’S “Amageddon”, Alissa Centivany, Bobby Glushko

FIMS Publications

In human-computer interaction research and practice, policy concerns can sometimes fall to the margins, orbiting at the periphery of the traditionally core interests of design and practice. This perspective ignores the important ways that policy is bound up with the technical and behavioral elements of the HCI universe. Policy concerns are triggered as a matter of course in social computing, CSCW, systems engineering, UX, and related contexts because technological design, social practice and policy are dynamically entangled and mutually constitutive. Through this research, we demonstrate the value of a stronger emphasis on policy in HCI by exploring a recent controversy …

Boundary Objects In Information Science, Isto Huvila, Theresa Dirndorfer Anderson, Eva Jansen, Pam Mckenzie, Adam Worrall

FIMS Publications

(Accepted for publication; final date unknown at present.) Boundary objects are abstract or physical artefacts that exist in the liminal spaces between adjacent communities of people. The theory of BOs was originally introduced by Star and Griesemer in a study on information practices at the Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate Zoology but has since been adapted in a broad range of research contexts in a large number of disciplines including the various branches of information science. The aim of this review article is to present an overview of the state of the art of information science research informed by the theory …

The Case For Taxonomic Reparations, Melissa Adler

FIMS Publications

Critical histories of subjects and classifications have unearthed the spatial-temporal situatedness of knowledge organization structures and terminologies. Coming to terms with the cultural foundations upon which our knowledge organizations are built and the ways they change and stay the same means that we also confront difficult truths about epistemic and systemic violence. This paper brings KO scholars into dialogue with critical race theorists, indigenous studies scholars, and queer theorists around conversations about reparations and reparative reading practices. It argues that historical studies that expose processes of exclusion and marginalization reveal the need and possibilities for creating reparative taxonomies. The paper …

A Proposal: The Religious Information Practices Of New Kadampa Buddhists: Examining The Informational Nature Of Buddhist Practice And A Prolegomenon To A Buddhist Theory Of Information Practice, Roger Chabot (Kelsang Legden)

FIMS Working Papers

To provide a background for the study, in this section I will introduce the theoretical concepts and population of study that will feature in this project. I begin with an introduction to everyday life information seeking and its intersection with religion and spirituality then follow this with an introduction of religious practices understood as information practices. Afterwards, I provide a rationale for studying Buddhists and provide an introduction to the particular Buddhist sect that will be the focus of the research.

The Him Career Matrix: Illuminating A Framework For Professional Advancement, Elaine M. Zibrowski, Kelly J. Adams

FIMS Presentations

This project sought out to develop the first, Canadian HIM career matrix in order to:

1. Support a common language to describe the seven core competency areas in which HIM professionals can work;

2. Describe new and evolving roles in HIM in Canada;
3. Provide information on advanced career options available within our profession; and
4. Seek consensus around the common functions performed by Canadian HIM professionals

Empowered To Name, Inspired To Act: Social Responsibility And Diversity As Calls To Action In The Lis Context, Sarah T. Roberts, Safiya Umoja Noble

FIMS Publications

Social responsibility and diversity are two principle tenets of the field of library and information science (LIS), as defined by the American Library Association’s Core Values of Librarianship document, yet often remain on the margins of LIS education, leading to limited student engagement with these concepts and to limited faculty modeling of socially responsible interventions. In this paper, we take up the need to increase the role of both in articulating the values of diversity and social responsibility in LIS education, and argue the field should broaden to put LIS students and faculty in dialog with contemporary social issues of …

A Model Of Social Media Engagement: User Profiles, Gratifications, And Experiences, Lori Mccay-Peet, Anabel Quan-Haase

FIMS Publications

No abstract provided.

“Taking Back” Information Literacy: Time And The One-Shot In The Neoliberal University, Karen P. Nicholson

FIMS Publications

No abstract provided.

Display And Control In Online Social Spaces: Toward A Typology Of Users, Jacquelyn A. Burkell, Alexandre Fortier

FIMS Publications

Online social networks are spaces of social display where an astronomical amount of personal information, which would once have been characterized as private, is shared with a loose community of friends or followers. This broad sharing does not preclude participant interest in control, both over the content of the social network profile and over the audience that has access to that profile. Thus, issues of display and control are in tension in the context of online social networking. The goal of this research is to articulate the different subjective perspectives that characterize Facebook users with respect to the control …

Values, Ethics And Participatory Policymaking In Online Communities, Alissa Centivany

FIMS Publications

Drawing upon principles and lessons of technology law and policy, value-centered design, anticipatory design ethics, and information policy literatures this research seeks to contribute to understandings of the ways in which platform design, practice, and policymaking intersect on the social media site Reddit. This research explores how Reddit’s users, moderators, and administrators surface values (like free speech, privacy, dignity, and autonomy), hint at ethical principles (what content, speech, behavior ought to be restricted and under what conditions), through a continuous process of (re)negotiating expectations and norms around values, ethics, and power on the site. Central to this research are questions …

The Paradox Of Privacy: Revisiting A Core Library Value In An Age Of Big Data And Linked Data, Grant D. Campbell, Scott Cowan

FIMS Publications

Protecting user privacy and confidentiality is fundamental to the ethics and practice of librarianship, and such protection constitutes one of eleven values in the American Library Association’s “Core Values of Librarianship” (2004). This paper addresses the concerns of protecting privacy in the library as they relate to library users who are defining, exploring, and negotiating their sexual identities with the help of the library’s information, programming, and physical facilities. In so doing, we enlist the aid of Garret Keizer, who, in Privacy (2012), articulates a fresh theory of the concept in light of American social life in the twenty-first century. …

Commercial Content Moderation: Digital Laborers' Dirty Work, Sarah T. Roberts

Media Studies Publications

In this chapter from the forthcoming Intersectional Internet: Race, Sex, Class and Culture Online (Noble and Tynes, Eds., 2016), I introduce both the concept of commercial content moderation (CCM) work and workers, as well as the ways in which this unseen work affects how users experience the Internet of social media and user-generated content (UGC). I tie it to issues of race and gender by describing specific cases of viral videos that transgressed norms and by providing examples from my interviews with CCM workers. The interventions of CCM workers on behalf of the platforms for which they labor directly contradict …

In/Visibility, Sarah T. Roberts

Media Studies Publications

In online life there is a normative supposition that the information- and image-rich environment of the web and other platforms should provide unfettered access to the circulation of all types of content. Less attention is paid to what is not seen, to the invisible—be it actual content that is rescinded, altered or removed, or the opaque decision-making processes that maintain its flow. In/visibility online is central to the intertwined functions/mechanisms of user experience and platform control, further operationalized under globalized, technologically driven capitalism. A digital labour phenomenon that is both responsible for it and relies upon it: is …

Survey Of Classification And Organization Of Videorecordings, Barbara J. Bergman, Jessica Schomberg, Dorie Kurtz

Library Services Publications

Libraries have long struggled with the question of how to best classify and enable access to videorecordings. While giving a presentation at a state library conference, the authors observed from comments during the question and answer portion of the presentation that the libraries represented in the audience use a variety of video classification and organization practices. To better understand how local practices and librarians’ attitudes regarding the efficacy of these practices vary, we conducted a survey soliciting responses from librarians representing a broad array of library types.

Providing Hands-On Training With Bioinformatics Databases: A Collaboration Between Vcu Libraries & Wright Center For Clinical And Translational Research, Karen H. Gau, Julie A. Arendt, Amy Olex, Aaron R. Wolen

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Background
With the goal of increasing specialized services for researchers, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Libraries sent its basic science librarians to an intensive training on bioinformatics databases, “A Librarian’s Guide to NCBI.” VCU’s Wright Center for Clinical and Translational Research (Wright CCTR) was expanding the educational component of its bioinformatics support around the same time. This year, the librarians partnered with the Wright CCTR to offer an introductory bioinformatics database workshop introducing researchers to genetic/genomic databases.

Methods
For one week in June, sessions were conducted introducing up to 30 faculty and staff to The Cancer Genome Atlas and NCBI’s Gene, …

Collecting Space Use Data To Improve The Ux Of Library Space, Shelley Gullikson, Kristin Meyer

Scholarly Papers and Articles

Collecting data about where people are and what they are doing is an easy entry point into exploring the UX of library space. This article examines projects at two academic libraries where space use data was collected multiple times per day for several months. The two projects were designed and carried out independently but had the same purpose: to better understand how students were using library spaces so that we could improve student experiences. Collecting space use data provided a baseline understanding of user behavior in these spaces. Similar to web analytics, this baseline can be useful on its own …

Gpo And The Movies, Hanover College

Film/Movies

Photograph and Bibliography for a display of government documents from Duggan Library at Hanover College.

Why The Acrl Framework For Information Literacy For Higher Education Enhances Information Literacy Instruction, Kathy F. Kempa

Selected Faculty Publications

This article attempts to clarify what the ACRL Framework is designed to do for teaching librarians. The article looks briefly at the need for change from the Competency Standards based on librarian concerns about their own teaching effectiveness. The short description of two of the foundational books, on which the Framework was based, are introduced so that instruction librarians can do their own research into the Framework foundational concepts for a deeper understanding of the value of this new approach to library teaching. Links to teaching resources are included.

Populating Your Institutional Repository And Promoting Your Students: Irs And Undergraduate Research, Betty Rozum, Becky Thoms

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Establishing institutional repositories (IRs) and encouraging supportive faculty participation can be daunting. Gaining access to scholarly publica- tions and other products that students produce, especially undergraduate researchers, can be an even more challenging task. Many IRs contain gradu- ate theses and dissertations as well as undergraduate honors theses and the abstracts of work that students present at student research events or con- ferences. It is less common to find IRs whose compilers thoroughly collect student scholarship from all aspects of students’ research activities, which can demonstrate the academic involvement of both a university’s student population and the faculty who collaborate …

Using Pop Culture, Feminist Pedagogy, And Current Events To Help Students Explore Multiple Sides Of An Argument, Dory Cochran

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

According to Project Information Literacy, students struggle with understanding the “big picture” of a research project, and in particular, with understanding “multiple sides of an argument.”1 As a skill, understanding different perspectives is needed in scholarly research, but it is also integral to understanding current events and broader social conversations. This lesson works to address both of these needs by bringing pop culture and feminist pedagogy into the library classroom. In collaboratively analyzing pop culture examples connected to a current event, students can draw upon their own experiences with pop culture, identify other viewpoints, and ultimately explore an issue from …

Advocating For Technical Services: The Power Of Assessment (Presentation), Rebecca L. Mugridge

University Libraries Faculty Scholarship

This presentation reviews the many ways that assessment can be used to advocate for technical services within academic library settings.

Instruction @ The Uri Libraries - January 2016, Mary C. Macdonald, Amanda Izenstark

Instruction @ the URI Libraries

No abstract provided.

Claiming A Seat At The Table: Inclusive Paths To Leadership In Academic Libraries And Beyond, Megan Hodge, Patricia Sobczak

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

The topic of leadership development in academic libraries is recent area of interest for the profession. There is nascent scholarship in the areas of how to prepare librarians to advance into a first formal management position as well as in the area of leadership capacity-building for librarians and library organizations. This poster combines two independent research projects with the common theme of leadership development in academic libraries. It is not often that separate scholarship integrates effectively and cogently, but these studies coalesced in such an impactful way that all parties felt the need to share the content as well as …