Search

This paper reports on a systematic literature review of CAIS/ACSI and ASIS&T conference proceedings to identify, analyze, and map the application of feminist theories, methods, and epistemologies across a sample of LIS research. We seek a better understanding of feminist theories in LIS to a) identify how/where it has been taken up (and not taken up); b) identify feminist research themes and influence over time and across subdomains; and c) to consider how to build on intersectional feminist theories and praxis in LIS to move toward a critical intersectional femiLISt movement that is embraced and embedded within our field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emergent realities such as the COVID-19 pandemic and corresponding "infodemic," the resurgence of Black Lives Matter, climate catastrophe, and fake news, misinformation, disinformation, and so on challenge information researchers to reconsider the limitations and potential of the user-centered paradigm that has guided much library and information studies (LIS) research. In order to engage with these emergent realities, understanding who people are in terms of their social identities, social power, and as epistemic agents--that is, knowers, speakers, listeners, and informants--may provide insight into human information interactions. These are matters of epistemic injustice. Drawing heavily from Miranda Fricker's work Epistemic Injustice: Power & the Ethics of Knowing, I use the concept of epistemic injustice (testimonial, systematic, and hermeneutical injustice) to consider people as epistemic beings rather than "users" in order to potentially illuminate new understandings of the subfields of information behavior and information literacy. Focusing on people as knowers, speakers, listeners, and informants rather than "users" presents an opportunity for information researchers, practitioners, and LIS educators to work in service of the epistemic interests of people and in alignment with liberatory aims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevailing rhetoric concerning learning analytics is that its use will support the educational endeavor and make significant improvements to teaching and learning. For academic libraries, learning analytics presents the possibility of using library data to coordinate, integrate, and align with the goals of the institutions in which they are embedded. While libraries have a long history of collecting data to support various service and learning objectives, those data have typically been siloed, de-identified, private, and confidential. Although there are positive contributions that learning analytics can make to the learning process, there are concerns associated with its use, particularly the tensions between the objectives of learning analytics contrasted with different conceptualizations of learners and the values of education and librarianship. Institutions of higher education use learning analytics to achieve institutionally defined goals and outcomes for students, which creates tensions with the enshrined values of the American Library Association's Code of Ethics, Library Bill of Rights, and Core Competencies of Librarianship. The transcendent benefits to society that are inherent in education and academic librarianship, such as the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, are not measurable through learning analytics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on an investigation of temporal patterns of searching within the Edmonton Public Library discovery system to identify the temporal trends and aspects of public searching. The specific objective of this study was to examine the temporal patterns of public searching on weekdays and weekends in the months of summer and fall. The findings show that there are hourly, daily, weekday, and weekend patterns associated with the public searching of a discovery system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores the intersections among learners, online learning, and the development of a sense of community by critically evaluating Canada's first fully-online Master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) program at the University of Alberta. A survey with open and closed questions was distributed to all students in the inaugural cohort (39 students who began the program in Fall 2013), which asked about the students' experiences in the online program and their perceptions of what facilitated and what hindered a sense of community from developing among their cohort. Findings were analyzed using Wenger's communities of practice and Rovai's four dimensions of classroom community. Eighty-four percent of respondents (27 out of 32) reported that they felt a sense of community in the online program. Factors that promoted a sense of community included opportunities to build relationships, the program structure and content, and the process of enculturation into the program and the profession. Factors inhibiting a sense of community from developing included workload, other obligations, issues regarding time such as time management, and the nature of online learning. Implications for developing a sense of community among online cohorts and areas for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have employed a variety of research methodologies and methods to explore, probe, and uncover ways in which social justice is enacted, embodied, supported, or not supported by researchers, educators, and practitioners in library and information science and services (LIS). Discursive psychology as developed by social psychologist Jonathan Potter and critical discourse analysis as developed by Norman Fairclough are introduced as fruitful approaches to investigate the critical intersections of LIS and social justice. The theoretical development of social justice in LIS is discussed. Next, critical discourse analysis and discursive psychology are examined and then analyzed for goodness of fit with Kevin Rioux's (2010) fve underlying assumptions of social justice metatheory: (1) All human beings have an inherent worth and deserve information services that help address those needs; (2) People perceive reality and information in different ways, often within cultural or life role contexts; (3) There are many different types of information and knowledge, and these are societal resources; (4) Theory and research are pursued with the ultimate goal of bringing positive change to service constituencies; (5) The provision of information services is an inherently powerful activity. Drawing on the findings of the goodness of ft of Rioux's metatheory and examples of discourse analytic studies in LIS, this article offers practical strategies for social justice researchers wanting to use critical discourse analysis or discursive psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on study that investigates practices of women's health information through examination of heart health information and mentions gendered differences in treatment and care of heart health. Topics discussed include medical care for cardiovascular disease causing death in women based on clinical trials, importance of education on heart health and awareness campaigns and need of consideration of cardiologists, doctors or rehab medicines by women experiencing heart disease.

Third-party or patron-perpetrated sexual harassment is often experienced by frontline public library workers by the very patrons they endeavor to support. This article reports on the results of an interdisciplinary environmental scan designed to identify and understand third-party sexual harassment across a variety of disciplinary fields and perspectives including library and information studies. This work makes visible a confluence of intersecting social structure (patriarchy and white supremacy), social identity (gender, race, age, sexual orientation, etc.), and library workplace factors (workplace precarity, feminized work, service work and care work, values of universal access, and whiteness in libraries) that contribute to the perpetuation of third-party sexual harassment in libraries. It proposes a research agenda for future study in this area, arguing that future research, practice, and education about sexual harassment within libraries must intersect with ongoing LIS and feminist intersectional scholarship and praxis that opposes and undermines gendered power structures that endanger women workers and make them vulnerable to gender-based violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public library value is often ascertained by outlining the economic, social, and cultural benefits public libraries generate for the greater community. While researchers have focused on the concepts of social capital, civic engagement, and the role of libraries in promoting democracy, fewer studies have explored the public’s perceptions of libraries in an effort to determine library value. Furthermore, library nonusers are rarely included in these studies. In Alberta, Canada, 1,201 Albertans from across the province, including both urban and rural areas, were asked a series of questions about their perceptions of public libraries and library use. Findings reveal characteristics of library users and nonusers, what services and resources are used most often at public libraries, what value the public places on public libraries, and the role that libraries play in supporting communities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents a case study on the library and archives in Canada. It notes that Canada was the first country in the world to merge its National Archives of Canada and the National Library of Canada into Library and Archives Canada (LAC). It also talks about the modernization policy, which would transform LAC from an institution focused on acquisitions and preservation to one focused on digital access and preservation.

The article discusses the resistance strategies of professional organizations from the attempt of Conservative Party to deprofessionalize federal employees caused by the crisis happened in the implementation of modernization policy of Library and Archives Canada (LAC). Topics include the employee's Code of Conduct, the response of Canadian Library Association (CLA), and Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) to LCA crisis.

Communication for informed choice is particularly challenging in clinical settings such as direct-entry midwifery, where the care model embraces diverse therapies and forms of knowledge. We identified three discursive moves (explanation, invocation, and evaluation) that Ontario midwives and clients used in making claims about proposed interventions. The analysis was informed by an understanding of communication as an interactionally situated and socially constructed interpretive practice. Both midwives and women called on the authority of biomedical discourse, but they also turned to sources such as women's wisdom to support their cases. The flexible use of these moves afforded participants considerable latitude in accepting or rejecting forms of evidence as authoritative. However, strategies designed to empower clients in making choices could unintentionally serve to enhance the authority of the care provider. Talk about interventions brings into view both the knowledge systems and the broader relations within which regulated midwifery practice operates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A wide variety of treatment options for depressives have been developed by both the conventional and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) sectors. Using data collected from three online newsgroups as well as in-depth interviews, I analyse how people use information when making or justifying claims, or making decisions, about treatments for depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on what kind of information resources ordinary people use to obtain authoritative knowledge in fields where that knowledge is contested. Particular attention is given to how people with mental depression acquire and share information about alternative and conventional medicine and make choices on how they handle depression. The author suggests that knowing how patients seek and use information will help officials know how to develop services that will be useful for information seekers.

Introduction. This study examined if and how the results of information behaviour research are being interpreted and reported for application to the work of library and information science practitioners. Method. A content analysis was conducted of 117 research reports published in the 1996 to 2006 ISIC proceedings. Analysis. Articles were coded for author affiliation, theories and methods used, inclusion of explicit implications for practice and, if these were included, where they appeared in the article (title, abstract, introduction, literature search, method, findings, discussion andconclusion). Also noted were the specific strategies used by authors to report implications for practice, the accessibility of papers to practitioner readers and whether or not the studies had been shared through other venues. Results. A majority of papers (n=69, 59%) included implications for practice. However, of these 39 (56.5%) used vague, general or otherwise unclear statements rather than explicit delineation of implications for practice. Conclusions. The culture and conventions of scholarship appear to work against the transfer of the results of information behaviour research to practice. Researchers must bring greater consciousness to linking and reporting their results to practice and information professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]