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Introduction: Through this paper we report on an exploratory study into the design and use of neighbourhood book exchanges in North America. We identify dominant media framings of these book exchanges in North America, along with claims made concerning the influence of the exchanges. We compare the media claims with insights from interviews with the stewards of six book exchanges in an urban centre of the Pacific Northwest and weekly inventories of the six exchanges. Method: We collected and analysed over 150 newspaper and media articles, conducted weekly extensive inventories of six book exchanges for three months and interviewed stewards of the six book exchanges at the beginning and end of our inventory period. Analysis: We draw upon grounded theory analytic methods as developed by Kathy Charmaz. Results: We provide the first empirically rigorous investigation focused on the information practices associated with neighbourhood book exchanges. Conclusions: Through this work we provide an initial framing of the neighbourhood book exchange phenomenon. Most significantly, the neighbourhood book exchange stewards in this study actively work to design and support local information practices, reinvigorating and sustaining relationships with their neighbours. [Note: The issue number (9) shown on this PDF is incorrect. The correct citation is v20 n3.]

Social networking tools offer opportunities for innovative, participative pedagogical practice within traditional institutional frameworks. However, tensions continue to develop within this space: between creativity and security, personal and professional identity, privacy and openness. We argue that iSchools are uniquely positioned to create proactive, adaptive policies guiding the pedagogical use of social media and offer initial recommendations toward the crafting of such policies. If we expect information school graduates to be proficient and critical users of perpetually evolving social media technologies, we need to create learning environments that support the ethical, reflective and effective use of these tools. As an initial step in that direction, we report on three explorations we conducted to identify the challenges and opportunities that are part of today's educational social media landscape. Informed by these investigations we put forward initial guidelines for developing a "Social Media & the iSchool Classroom" policy for other schools to appropriate, modify and enhance.

A number of debates exist in Africa, due to the HIV epidemics, on whether institutionalized compared with community-based care provide optimum management of infected children. Patterns of morbidity and mortality among HIV-1-infected children residing at an orphanage in Nairobi are characterized.

This special issue on ethical matter(s) contains innovative and reflective scholarship focused on questions of ethics with human computer interaction (HCI) design research. Through this introductory piece, we articulate three trends influencing contemporary design research which are creating spaces of discomfort for many scholars as they acknowledge their positionality and responsibility. We introduce the articles developed for this special issue through the framing of ethical difficulties, dilemmas and paradoxes, recognizing that some issues may not be immediately resolvable. We argue that no matter which structures, principles or heuristics you commit to at the start of an HCI project, ethical conundrums are likely to develop. Through this piece, we are not suggesting that anyone is trying to achieve the status of moral saint within HCI design research. Rather, we offer you work crafted by scholars striving to improve their scholarship, working to address the question of ethical action in HCI research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human societies face some significant problems--such as those tied to limitations of the human psyche, to tears in the social fabric, and to slow-moving natural processes--that defy rapid solution. Correspondingly, information systems that help to address these problems also develop over long(er) periods of time. Yet contemporary research and industry information system design is held to increasingly ambitious project deadlines. Research that engages with long(er) term design processes from diverse perspectives and theoretical orientations is needed. Early efforts of this ilk in the human-computer interaction community can be found around domains such as conflict and postconflict situations, crisis informatics, collapse informatics, cultural heritage and sustainability. The work reported here joins this literature-in the context of recovering from genocide and the development of systems of transitional justice--and draws from the theoretical framing of multilifespan design. Specifically, we report on the first 8 years of a multi-lifespan information system design project--the Voices from the Rwanda Tribunal--to support aspects of transitional justice in Rwanda. We offer a systematic presentation of the project's design principles and explicate the development of those guiding design principles through our engagement with a set of nine design challenges. We provide design reflections that pertain to information systems for transitional justice, conducting multi-lifespan information system design under shifting socio-political and technical conditions, and engaging with value sensitive design. We conclude with our contributions and open questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual playgrounds designed for children 4-12 years-old are among the fastest growing segments of the Internet. These spaces offer the promise of new social, educational, and creative opportunities for young people. These opportunities, however, are associated with new risks due to the nature of online interactions. This article presents a socio-technical investigation of two virtual worlds for children. Informed by Value Sensitive Design, the work highlights the tensions between supporting age appropriate, developmental play and constraining inappropriate behavior to ensure "safety." This article concludes with implications for the design of virtual spaces for young people. We note in particular that the features of children's worlds are affected by their framing, specifically by the language and practices that are encouraged by the interaction design. We challenge designers to consider how children may interpret technical feature in practice, and the long-term implications of features intended to keep children safe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through this paper we examine children’s literacy groupware, cloud-based reading management systems that combine digital reading collections with behaviour tracking and analysis, communication tools, and reader incentives. Children’s literacy groupware extends the notion of a digital library for children by providing value-added tools for teaching, monitoring, evaluating and encouraging young readers. We offer an analysis of two for-profit app-based systems that provide reading content and instruction for elementary age children in the United States and Canada. We question the influence of these systems on the practice of reading. How do systems for managing engagement with digital texts frame reading practice: the what, where, when and how of reading, including behaviours, attitudes and dispositions toward the practice itself? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information related to a perspective by a doctoral student. As a doctoral student, his ideal scenario is to graduate and attach a few letters to his name. Soon thereafter he hopes to be hired for a bona fide job. At some point while trotting off to gainful employment, will he instantly transform from student to full-fledged, multi-accredited professional. In an article in the June/July 2004 issue of the "Bulletin," he implied that there is often little other than the size of one's paycheck to differentiate a student from a professional. He pointed out that the student body in the field of information science is growing more diverse both in age and in previous professional experience, removing some of the more traditional differentiations. An article spurred a series of email conversations concerning the potential roles of students in the society. The piece had called on ASIS&T to value student involvement in the society in the same way full members are valued and to allow students to fully participate in ASIS&T activities and governance. The Board of ASIS&T made changes to the national bylaws in the early 90s ensuring that student members have the same rights as full members in participating in ASIS&T activities and governance.

It is stating the obvious, that the American Society for Information Science & Technology (ASIST) views students as vital members of the society. The society assumes that an individuals positive experience with the society as a student member leads to continuing involvement after graduation. To encourage student involvement in ASIST, the journal "Bulletin" Advisory Board has officially added a student member, the position is to be filled each year by a representative chosen by the chapter that won the previous year's Student-Chapter-of-the-Year Award. As a doctoral student at the University of Washington's Information School, the author is privileged to be the first to fill this position. When the author talked to fellow students about the position, they had questions about whom ASIST recognizes as information science students and what their role is in the society. The discussions centered on how the student body is transforming. Students entering information science programs are becoming more diverse for two main reasons, new opportunities in the programs being offered and a wider range of people entering to higher education.

Introduction. This paper investigates barriers to adolescent information seeking in high school libraries within the framework of Kuhlthau's model of intermediation. Method: In-depth interviews and corroborating observations were conducted at six high schools in the Pacific Northwest over a sixteen-month period. Analysis. The data suggest inconsistencies between teacher-librarians' self-perceptions of their role and their daily interactions with students. Harris and Dewdney's principles of information seeking are employed as an analytic framework to provide a structure for categorizing and examining these inconsistencies. Results. The identified barriers to student information seeking include a lack of collaboration, students' lack of autonomy, limited access to resources, devaluation of interpersonal sharing for academic purposes, lack of affective support, and failure to validate students'; previous experience in seeking information. Conclusions. These findings suggest future direction for pre- and in-service education of teacher-librarians to prepare them to recognize how the unique barriers within school contexts can constrain both their mediational behaviour and students' information seeking opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]