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Targeted online harassment of academics has been on the rise in the US and internationally. Such harassment ranges from online threats and hacking to doxxing and organized campaigns to discredit one's work. It has now become an often‐unrecognized part of the job for academics—particularly socially marginalized academics and those who study controversial topics such as race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality—to work to protect themselves from such attacks. With this increase in intimidation attempts, new questions for the profession arise regarding what skills we should be instilling in trainees, whether professional association and academic units should be taking explicit positions or action on researcher/faculty harassment, and the obligations of our employers with regard to defending faculty, staff, and students. This panel will describe targeted online harassment of academics, discuss models for individual and institutional response, and raise questions for the profession as a whole. Sponsored by SIG ED. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Researchers' inability to address challenges related to planning, collecting or interpreting data collected from marginalized communities is one of the main reasons for the failure of projects using information, communication and technologies for the development (ICTD) of marginalized communities. This panel consists of information science experts who have conducted research with marginalized communities like women earning less than a dollar a day in slums in India, farmers, Latino community in the Midwest, racial minorities and visually impaired population. Panelists will share various challenges that they encountered while planning, collecting and interpreting data collected from marginalized communities; they will also provide guidance, advice, lessons learned and tips for addressing the challenges encountered during data collection with marginalized communities in the developing and developed world. This panel will inform information science researchers, who work at the intersection of information technologies and social justice, for better engaging with marginalized communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This panel, comprised of an international team of scholars, will address children's information poverty from three perspectives: 1) information poverty faced by populations who do not see themselves reflected within mainstream picture books; 2) information poverty faced by immigrant children who do not have access to appropriate learning materials; and 3) adults' cultural information poverty around the meaning of young people's encounters with art and culture as part of their everyday life experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Digital sociology is a new subfield of sociology that has challenged the discipline to engage with digital methods, information practices, and questions of societal data use. Such topics have been central to information science research for decades; however, renewed attention being called to them by sociologists creates both opportunities and challenges for information researchers who incorporate sociological theory or methods into their work. This panel invites audience members to consider the emergence of digital sociology and to explore what it means for information science research. Panelists, drawing on a variety of disciplinary roots, will introduce and contextualize the idea of digital sociology, explore issues related to the existing and potential intersection between digital sociology and information science, and examine tensions and criticisms related to sociological digital information research. Following a brief introduction and presentations from four panelists who are themselves using or exploring digital sociology in information research, there will be an open question and answer session with the audience, followed by World Café style small group discussions designed for attendees to share perspectives, make connections with each other, and discuss methods for future research with a sociological lens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]