Information Science Approaches Research Articles

Community-Based Digital Initiatives: Challenges and Opportunities for LIS Education

The integration of experiential learning with community service is a prevalent pedagogical approach in Library and Information Science (LIS) education, particularly in courses like digital collections and fieldwork experiences. This paper explores the challenges and opportunities associated with community-based digitization projects within an LIS program, drawing upon anecdotal evidence from various instances of faculty and student involvement. Through reflective analysis, the author identifies key themes such as community needs and barriers, the practicality of hands-on learning, and the complexity of collaboration. The paper proposes a framework for potential interinstitutional and cross-community collaboration, aiming to bridge the gap between LIS education and practical applications. By delineating essential resources and potential avenues for support, the framework seeks to facilitate the sustainability and success of community-based digital initiatives. However, uncertainties regarding funding accessibility and institutional policies pose significant challenges, highlighting the need for ongoing research and collaboration in this field.

Re-envisioning Search Education through a Critical Information Literacy Lens

Search engines are a pervasive and powerful means of accessing information in contemporary society. Library and Information Science approaches to educating students in information retrieval and online searching focus on search skills and the design of search systems, largely excluding critical perspectives. Major shifts in how information is produced, retrieved, and used require an ethically grounded re-evaluation of these approaches. Critical information literacy offers a framework for deepening pedagogy related to search. We present a case of an undergraduate course that instantiates a critical approach and discuss outcomes, challenges, and plans for future development.

Health Misinformation Research

ABSTRACTHealth misinformation research has dramatically increased since the start of the COVID‐19 pandemic, although not all of this work has taken advantage of the rich theoretical and methodological background information science as a discipline has to contribute. This panel presentation will feature information scientists conducting health misinformation research from and in various settings, to showcase the value and range of information science approaches to health misinformation research. Each panelist will describe their work in the area of understanding and/or addressing health misinformation in institutions such as libraries and schools, health systems and interventions such as vaccination or public health promotion, or the general public in their online or offline information environments. Presentations will also highlight the ways researchers are applying information science theory, methods, and/or approaches to health misinformation topics, as well as lessons panelists have learned through this work. The panel will conclude with an interactive audience discussion that will center on the ways in which information science can help understand and address health misinformation challenges around the world.

Macrocyclic Parallel Dimer Showing Quantum Coherence of Quintet Multiexcitons at Room Temperature.

Singlet fission (SF) is a promising approach in quantum information science because it can generate spin-entangled quintet triplet pairs by photoexcitation independent of temperature. However, it is still challenging to rationally achieve quantum coherence at room temperature, which requires precise control of the orientation and dynamics of triplet pairs. Here we show that the quantum coherence of quintet multiexcitons can be achieved at room temperature by arranging two pentacene chromophores in parallel and in close proximity within a macrocycle. By making dynamic covalent Schiff-base bonds between aldehyde-modified pentacene derivatives, macrocyclic parallel dimer-1 (MPD-1) can be selectively synthesized in a high yield. MPD-1 exhibits fast subpicosecond SF in polystyrene film and generates spin-polarized quintet multiexcitons. Furthermore, the coherence time T2 of the MPD-1 quintet is as long as 648 ns, even at room temperature. This macrocyclic parallel dimer strategy opens up new possibilities for future quantum applications using molecular multilevel qubits.

Information science in the German Democratic Republic

PurposeThe article aims to give an overview of the history and the achieved status of information science in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) with an emphasis on the organisation of information science and practice in the GDR and on the theoretical foundations of information science.Design/methodology/approachPrimarily, this article is based upon critical literature studies, especially German-language books and journal articles, but the empirical basis also includes some unpublished sources (e.g. letters from information scientists from the GDR).FindingsThere are interesting results concerning the roots of information science in cybernetics, philosophy and the practical area of documentation. The naming of this knowledge field as “informatics”, “informatics of science” or “information and documentation science” is partly very distinct from Western conceptions. We found different theoretical foundations for information science including the approaches of Bonitz, Engelbert, Koblitz and Groß and Fuchs-Kittowski. In the GDR, information science and information practice were centralised, but through the information system science and technology, they were consistently accessible at all levels of professional work. With German reunification, information practice and its institutions, as well as GDR’s information science efforts, disappeared.Research limitations/implicationsThe article gives hints on the importance on and the survival of some GDR approaches in contemporary information science, but those developments should be analysed in much more detail.Originality/valueThis is the first overview article on the state and entire development of information science in the GDR.

A multi-channel hybrid deep learning framework for multi-sensor fusion enabled human activity recognition

Smart and connected health (SCH) accelerates the development and integration of information science and engineering approaches to support the digital transformation of health and medicine in populated societies. Sensor data based human activity recognition (HAR) as an effective means of SCH is promising for healthcare monitoring and ambient assisted living. This paper focuses on multi-position sensor data fusion enabled HAR, and proposes a multi-channel deep learning framework. The main contributions include: (1) A multi-channel hybrid deep learning model (1DCNN-Att-BiLSTM) that merges a one-dimensional convolutional neural network, a bidirectional long short-term memory model, and an attention mechanism is proposed to significantly improve the recognition performance of HAR models by extracting and selecting local and global behavioral features in the spatial and temporal domains; (2) Publicly accessible datasets Shoaib AR, Shoaib SA, and HAPT are collected and processed to build multi-position sensor data pool for model's evaluation; (3) Thoroughly evaluating the classification performance of seven sensor data fusion patterns from different body positions within the parallel network structure of the multi-channel framework; (4) Comparing the recognition performance metrics of traditional machine learning models, deep learning models, and hybrid models with our proposed model. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our approach achieves competitive performance.

Model of collaborative information retrieval behavior using information systems among academic researchers of medical sciences

Aim The purpose of this study was to analyze the collaborative information retrieval (CIR) behavior among faculty members of research centers based in the University of Medical Sciences to present a structural model. Methodology The type of this experimental study was based on a pretest-posttest with the control group. Data were collected using a questionnaire, and the participants were selected by stratified random sampling. Out of a total of 73 participants, there were 42 people in the intervention group and 31 participants in the control group. Findings The variables of awareness, information sharing, division of labor, and team communication had a significant positive relationship with the team collaboration (p < 0.05), collaboration had effect on the evaluation of retrieved information with a significant positive relationship (p < 0.05). Conclusion Based on the findings, CIR is the set of activities that can include factors such as the ability to share the obtained knowledge, analyze the retrieved information, communicate, and collaborative awareness. The structural model confirmed our findings that developing the interactive and synergies capabilities of research team members to increase collaboration through a network-based structure reduces the loss of stored collective knowledge and also accelerates the process of access to information resources, and required content. Originality This research has carried on as the one of the first studies on collaborative information retrieval behavior with an experimental method in Iran and many others countries. A considerable point in the present study was assessing the nature of CIR behavior from the perspective of human behaviors, which was mentioned as a very important approach in information science. Accordingly, a human behavioral approach to information retrieval was considered and strengthened, regardless of technical aspects. Another strength of this study was the model extracted from our findings which have emphasized specifically CIR as specific and dynamic activities.

A multi-dimensional analysis of graduate student writing in two applied science disciplines

Abstract This article reports on a new Multi-dimensional model of graduate student coursework writing in two applied science disciplines from a corpus containing 1,108 texts and 2,008,316 words. The Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) revealed five dimensions: (1) Conceptual Information vs. Process-Focused Actions (2) Human/Subjective- vs. Entity/Objective- Focus, (3) Attitudinal Monoglossia vs. Precisely Measured Information, (4) Social vs. Physical Science Approaches, and (5) Speculative vs. Finalized Events. The dimensions are analyzed functionally in terms of both register and discipline. The results demonstrate that course papers exhibit distinct patterns of language use, often attributed to the varying purposes of the texts but also related to disciplinary ways of knowing. Findings have implications for disciplinary writing research and representativeness of student writing corpora while contributing to an exploration of register as a continuous construct. The research provides an enhanced understanding of academic coursework writing for stakeholders such as professors, graduate students, writing consultants. (150 words)

The importance of a complementary approach when working with historical documents

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to show that the neo-documentary – or complimentary – approach in Library and Information Science by no means is conservative, but highly necessary also in today's digitized media landscape. An example from a digitized photo archive is chosen to demonstrate the importance of a complimentary analysis that considers both material aspects as well as social and mental ones.Design/methodology/approachBy taking Jenna Hartel's description of the neo-documentary turn as point of departure, the paper focuses on one case, the portrait of Johannes Abrahamsen Motka taken by Sophus Tromholt in 1883 and discusses different versions of the photograph from glass plate negatives to digitized versions in different contexts and media.FindingsMany of the same paratextual elements can be found in different versions, also the digitized ones, to help the viewer to establish a historical context, but the images exhibited today are nevertheless no longer the same ones taken by Tromholt at the end of the 19th century. Not only have the material properties changed, but also – and probably even more important in most cases – the social and mental aspects. More re-contextualization is needed for today's audiences to recognize and understand a historical photograph taken in a colonial context. Focusing on document's material elements is not novel within the LIS-field, but the so-called neo-documentary turn was also a reaction on political and technological developments during the 1980s and 1990s. The increased focus on understanding a document in a complimentary way has demonstrated its impact during the last decades and is, at the same time, still work in progress.Research limitations/implicationsAs a scholar in the humanities the author can only relate to and therefore analyze what the author can experience and observe on screen level.Originality/valueIn providing a case study, this article illustrates the necessity of employing a complimentary approach when analyzing documents. This also implicates the claim that the neo-documentary turn – or complimentary as it rather should be called – by no means is a conservative one, but a highly necessary one in today's digitized media landscape.

Are we there yet? Feminist approaches in information science

Introduction. Thirty years ago Librarianship: The Erosion of a Woman’s Profession (1992) provided a clarion call for specific, radical approaches to the field in what Harris deemed might be a new return to earlier interactions of information science as a female profession. Harris offered clear guidelines to reinvigorate the field that have not been fully addressed. This research presents two cases, leadership and data science, to examine persistent inequities in the field. Inequities in leadership and data science are analysed through selected literature on data science and leadership in Information Science. A feminist approach to information science is identified as a way forward in addressing issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion; to contend with missed opportunities; and to begin the work of redressing power in the field. A thorough feminist analysis and interdisciplinary research partnerships are suggested as ways to identify opportunities for change and ways to create a field that is truly our own.

A land without people? The GIScience approach to estimating the population of Ottoman Palestine towards the end of the 19th-century

The question of the nature and extent of population in Ottoman Palestine towards the end of the 19th century (∼1880) remains one of significant implications even today. Using the PEF (Palestine Exploration Fund) maps and employing GIScience (Geographic Information Science) approaches, the mapped settlements were extracted and inspected. Based on the population estimates of the PEF surveyors in the 1870s and on the 1922 census of Palestine carried out by the British Mandate authorities, it is possible to estimate the population size in the permanent settlements appearing on the maps. It was found that 864 settlements existed within the boundaries of the PEF map. Of these, 697 settlements were within the boundaries of Ottoman Palestine, with a population of ∼335,000. Most of the population was concentrated in the municipal towns while part of it inhabited rural regions in the Galilee, Samaria, and Judea. The coastal plain between Jaffa and Haifa, the Jordan Valley, and the northern Negev were considerably less populated.

Statistics Training in Library Science: Comparing Approaches in Library and Information Science to Sociology Graduate Programs

Library and information science (LIS) research is becoming more quantitative. However, statistics is not extensively taught within LIS research methods courses, and statistics courses are uncommon within LIS programs. Previous research on statistics in LIS revealed that researchers have mainly relied on descriptive statistics in publications. This article argues that LIS’s partner disciplines, such as sociology, emphasize statistical training more so than do LIS programs at the master’s level. Sociology serves as an appropriate comparison to LIS because of its central status in the development of both qualitative and quantitative research methods and its relevance for library science. The author analyzed the curricular requirements of 109 master’s degree programs (47 sociology and 62 LIS programs) and 81 research methods syllabi (60 in sociology and 21 in LIS). The analysis of master’s in LIS (MLIS) and sociology MA curricula revealed that MLIS students took 0.6 research methods courses while sociology MA students took 2.7 methods courses. LIS programs typically required one methods course, whereas sociology MA programs required three. LIS methods courses spent on average 19% of instructional time on statistics, whereas 64% of sociology MA programs’ instruction in methods focused on statistical analysis. 86% of LIS research methods courses covered descriptive statistics and only 38% of LIS courses discussed inferential statistics. Statistical training in LIS programs remains limited. LIS departments could approach statistical training as sociology has done by teaching inferential statistics and other advanced techniques. Thereafter, information professionals can publish more widely and provide improved research support.

Literature-based discovery: a classical approach of information science

The implicit links between documents are often of great significance to scientific discovery. This paper briefly reviews the background, basic ideas, and the related research tool Arrowsmith system of the literature-based discovery method founded by Professor Don. R. Swanson of the University of Chicago. It represents a classical research approach in information science. It is believed that this method has opened up a broader research field for information retrieval and knowledge discovery, provided new research ideas for medical informatics, and injected new vitality into information science.

Methods for a feminist technoscience of information practice: Design justice and speculative futurities

AbstractThis article builds on the argument that feminist technoscience will advance information practice scholarship beyond its current limitations. These limitations reflect neoliberalism in the field of information science and include a reliance on extractive logics in theories and models, monological individualism, binaries constructed between people and technologies, and techno‐solutionism. Here, we address the question: what does it look like to apply technofeminism to the study of information practice at methodological and methods levels? We first outline our metatheoretical conception of feminist technoscience, which embraces intersectionality and assemblage theory in order to move past white and colonialist logics embedded in cyborg theory. We next offer design justice as a methodological framework and movement that provides a necessary overhaul of the neoliberal ways that information science approaches scholarship, particularly in terms of participatory research. We suggest that speculative futurities provide a promising method for advancing technofeminism in information practice research because they explicitly reject neoliberalism and its techno‐solutionist bent. Overall, a feminist technoscience of information practice offers directions for our field that are rooted in liberatory epistemologies. We emphasize that in order to achieve liberation, a major overhaul in how our discipline approaches arrangements of information, people, and technologies is sorely needed.

Por uma abordagem temática de organização da informação

Aborda o tratamento temático da informação em sua perspectiva teórica. Incide sobre a literatura produzida em Biblioteconomia e Ciência da Informação sobre o assunto, tendo por base a necessidade de abordagem individualizada do eixo temático de organização da informação. Objetiva analisar teoricamente o tratamento temático da informação, como forma de explicitar a abordagem temática de organização da informação. Problematiza acerca da sustentação teórica da dimensão temática da organização da informação. Constitui pesquisa descritiva, teórica e de abordagem qualitativa. Emprega revisão de literatura sobre livros, capítulos de livro, artigos de periódico e trabalhos apresentados em evento. Demonstra a particularidade de contribuições do tratamento temático da informação, bem como a mediação por ele proporcionada no ciclo informacional, entre a produção e o uso da informação, integrando o usuário à representação de assunto estabelecida. Evidencia, também, a especificidade de processos, produtos e instrumentos de trato temático, que acabam por estabelecer uma abordagem temática da informação, congregando procedimentos específicos para sua organização e posterior busca e acesso por assunto, assim como dando o devido relevo à dimensão de conteúdo informacional. Conclui, por fim, com a histórica condução de procedimentos de representação de assunto e a expressão do teor dos registros do conhecimento, que reverbera em uma abordagem temática de cunho epistemológico, metodológico e operacional em Biblioteconomia e Ciência da Informação.

Digital Spindle: A New Way to Explore Mitotic Functions by Whole Cell Data Collection and a Computational Approach.

From cells to organisms, every living system is three-dimensional (3D), but the performance of fluorescence microscopy has been largely limited when attempting to obtain an overview of systems’ dynamic processes in three dimensions. Recently, advanced light-sheet illumination technologies, allowing drastic improvement in spatial discrimination, volumetric imaging times, and phototoxicity/photobleaching, have been making live imaging to collect precise and reliable 3D information increasingly feasible. In particular, lattice light-sheet microscopy (LLSM), using an ultrathin light-sheet, enables whole-cell 3D live imaging of cellular processes, including mitosis, at unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution for extended periods of time. This technology produces immense and complex data, including a significant amount of information, raising new challenges for big image data analysis and new possibilities for data utilization. Once the data are digitally archived in a computer, the data can be reused for various purposes by anyone at any time. Such an information science approach has the potential to revolutionize the use of bioimage data, and provides an alternative method for cell biology research in a data-driven manner. In this article, we introduce examples of analyzing digital mitotic spindles and discuss future perspectives in cell biology.

Using word embeddings for library and information science research

In the research field of library and information science (LIS), pattern recognition and machine learning approaches have often been adopted to analyze massive amounts of textual data in digital libraries. In recent natural language processing, word embeddings have attracted much attention because they can capture semantic meanings and contexts. This paper presents a short survey of how word embeddings have been used in LIS research, especially focusing on articles published in LIS journals between 2009 and 2019. Our simple bibliographic analysis showed that at least 15 LIS journal papers used word embeddings. These 15 papers were briefly described under the following categories: knowledge extraction and visualization from scholarly data, classification in scholarly data, and others that focus on more general corpora.

A record-keeping approach to managing IoT-data for government agencies

Purpose Particular attention to the issue of information management will be required to meet the expected growth in IoT-devices and the data they generate. As government agencies start collecting and using such information, they must also deal with the issue of privacy, to comply with laws and regulations. The approach discussed here shows that record-keeping principles may form part of a solution to the issue of managing IoT-data for government agencies. Design/methodology/approach This study uses the generally accepted record-keeping principles as a basis for a high-level discussion on how IoT-data can be managed. This is followed by a presentation and discussion on how the Norwegian record-keeping standard, Noark, can be extended to highlight practical issues. Findings Record keeping has principles that are relevant to the management of IoT-data. Further an implementation of the chosen use-cases is possible based on an existing record keeping standard. Record keeping is one of many information science approaches that can manage IoT-data. Research limitations/implications The main limitations are that the discussion cannot cover all types of IoT-devices, nor can all issues be captured with a limited choice of examples. The results should be seen within the context of the types of devices discussed and limited to the chosen use-cases. However, the level of abstraction used means the results may be applicable to similar scenarios. Originality/value The approach shows that record-keeping principles may be used as an approach to manage IoT-data. This discussion is useful when compared with other information science approaches, e.g. big-data or semantic Web approaches. The practicalities of a record-keeping approach are also discussed and relevant strengths and weaknesses are showed.

Principles for the Development of Domain Conceptual Models for Knowledge Organization Systems: An Analysis of Methodologies for Developing Learning Paths in the Field of Corporate Education

This article presents a set of principles for knowledge modeling in knowledge organization systems in specific domains. It discusses the representational problem, comparing the abstraction mechanisms present in the theories related to representation in concept systems, taken from foundational authors of information science, computer science, and terminology approaches. Parallel to this context, several representational possibilities arise to assist the modeler in the activity of elaborating models of representation. It describes the application of theoretical and methodological principles when organizing, representing, and managing navigation on learning paths in the corporate education field. As a concept proof, it exposes a conceptual model of learning paths and discusses a literature review on this subject to verify to what extent these principles are being applied. It concludes that we can consider the principles discussed in this study as relevant, since they expand the modelers’ freedom, not making him hostage to a specific model.

New quality and quantity indices in science (NewQIS): results of the first decade—project progress review

Strategies employing information science and scientometric approaches were introduced to science policy and management over the past decades. As a rapidly evolving field, new bibliometric parameters are proposed and discussed continuously and the fields also benefits from the introduction of novel visualization techniques. The present article summarizes the experiences with a platform that combines geographical mapping with scientometrics. It was established between 2005 and 2008 at the Charité in Berlin and termed “New Quality and Quantity Indices in Science” (NewQIS), consisting of the integration of common scientometric parameters such as the h-index and novel visualization techniques including density equalizing mapping. NewQIS was used to assess socio-economic important fields of medicine and sciences. Within NewQIS studies, research activities, citation patterns and their relation to socio-economic figures were analyzed with regard to time periods, countries, continents or even single cities. Within the decade after its establishment, more than 80 NewQIS articles were peer-reviewed and published. Being a non-funded low budget project, it was used by many medical students to conduct their MD thesis. The narrow technical frame led to the chance of a comparison of research output between different fields of science. This article summarizes NewQIS 1.0 activities, discusses its limits and gives a look into the future of NewQIS 2.0 with a target of 200 evaluated entities of the biomedical field of sciences.