Information Science Practice Research Articles

Sense‐making, sensemaking and sense making—A systematic review and meta‐synthesis of literature in information science and education: An Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST) paper

AbstractSense‐making, sensemaking, and sense making are terms used in different disciplines. Similarities of usage seem unclear. (1) to examine the concepts used in different approaches to sense‐making/sensemaking/sense making; (2) to identify, classify and synthesize recent studies relevant to information science, as well as similar group on sensemaking in education research; (3) to reflect on future directions for sense‐making/sensemaking methodology in information science. The objectives were to retrieve, examine, classify and perform meta‐synthesis on sense‐making/sensemaking studies in both information science and education research. The review used systematic review principles, with selection criteria for case studies for examination in both information science and education sets. The final meta‐synthesis used a meta‐ethnographic approach, together with findings of recent overviews on organizational sensemaking, and other information science reviews. Qualitative sense‐making studies in information science often used Dervin's SMM (sense‐making methodology) and studies in organizations and education frequently used Weick's organizational sensemaking. Different mixed methods approaches were identified. Sense‐making is actively used in research and practice in information science and knowledge management. Using a coherent sense‐making methodology helps and dialogic principles are useful in planning, data collection and analysis. Individual and collective sense‐making are important to information science.

“Get Our Feet Wet and Hands Dirty”: Black Community‐Based Librarianship and the Fight Against Information Poverty, 1940‐1975

ABSTRACTFocusing on information services to marginalized urban communities in the United States between 1940 and 1975, this paper argues that African American librarians played foundational roles in early community‐based librarianship (CBL) initiatives. In doing so, Black librarians skillfully and resourcefully fought information poverty, pushed for social and political equality, and promoted their communities’ well‐being through proactive information provision. By fighting the systemic racism throttling inner‐city Black communities, their labors constituted a seminal contribution to the post‐World War II United States Freedom Struggle. Theirs was a specifically Black CBL. Underpinned by the theoretical work of Elfreda Chatman, this heretofore hidden history offers fruitful lessons for current library and information science practice. It therefore aligns with the annual meeting theme, “Translating Information Research into Practice, Policy, and Action,” particularly its emphasis on “creating effective models of information provision, creating empathetic information services” and on “understanding the power of information to develop human happiness, equality, and wellbeing.”

The Library in the Life of the Community: Twenty Years of OCLC Research

Abstract: Library and information science practice and research have transitioned from positioning the user in the life of the library to placing the library in the life of the user. A review of OCLC Research themes during the past twenty years identifies a shift in focus from the optimization and quantitative analysis of library collections, systems, and services to the study of the needs and expectations of users of library collections, systems, and services. Just as libraries operate within local and global networks and ecosystems, users, with diverse needs and expectations, are embedded in communities in various ways. This new environment changes the focus from individual decision making to collaborative decision making, centering and emphasizing the importance of relationships and experiences. OCLC’s research has addressed these trends, providing a path for library leaders and staff to create their New Model Library that focuses on agility, collaboration, virtualization, and space within their work, collections, and engagement experiences. This framework offers a way to navigate the transition to the library in the life of the community.

Information Injustice and Intellectual Freedom: Polarizing Concepts for a Polarizing Time

AbstractHistorically, information professionals have advocated for intellectual freedom, specifically the rights to free speech and expression. The unrestricted flow of information has been foundational to library and information science practice. Yet, free speech at times is protected to the detriment of vulnerable communities. In this panel discussion, four library and information science researchers discuss the scholarly and pragmatic tensions surrounding LIS ethics and anti‐hegemony. Using Chatman's (1996) concept of information poverty and Gibson and Martin's (2019) theory of information marginalization as discursive guides, the panelists will describe how they negotiate ethical principles, information justice, LIS professionalization, and social inclusion.

A Study of Inquiry-based Classroom Practice in Information Science that Aims to Promote Students’ Scientific Understanding of Characteristics of Data Communication System

A Study of Inquiry-based Classroom Practice in Information Science that Aims to Promote Students’ Scientific Understanding of Characteristics of Data Communication System

Global health crises are also information crises: A call to action.

In this opinion paper, we argue that global health crises are also information crises. Using as an example the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) epidemic, we (a) examine challenges associated with what we term “global information crises”; (b) recommend changes needed for the field of information science to play a leading role in such crises; and (c) propose actionable items for short‐ and long‐term research, education, and practice in information science.

Eugene Garfield’s Ideas and Legacy and Their Impact on the Culture of Research

Eugene Garfield advanced the theory and practice of information science and envisioned information systems that made the discovery of scientific information much more efficient. The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), which he founded in Philadelphia in 1960, developed innovative information products that have revolutionized science. ISI provided current scientific information to researchers all over the world by publishing the table of contents of key scientific journals in the journal Current Contents (CC). Garfield introduced the citation as a qualitative measure of academic impact and propelled the concepts of “citation indexing” and “citation linking”, paving the way for today’s search engines. He created the Science Citation Index (SCI), which raised awareness about citations; triggered the development of new disciplines (scientometrics, infometrics, webometrics); and became the foundation for building new important products such as Web of Science. The journal impact factor (IF), originally designed to select journals for the SCI, became the most widely accepted tool for measuring academic impact. Garfield actively promoted English as the international language of science and became a powerful force in the globalization of research. His ideas changed how researchers gather scientific information, communicate their findings, and advance their careers. This article looks at the impact of Garfield’s ideas and legacy on the culture of research.

EFMI

The European Federation for Medical Informatics Association (EFMI) is the leading organization in medical informatics in Europe. All European countries are entitled to be represented in EFMI by a suitable Medical Informatics Society. The term medical informatics is used to include the whole spectrum of Health Informatics and all disciplines concerned with Health Informatics. EFMI is organized as a non-profit organization concerned with the theory and practice of Information Science and Technology within Health and Health Science in a European context. The objectives when founded in 1976 are still guiding

Big data

ABSTRACTBig data is defined and distinguished from a mere moment in the “ancient quest to measure.” Specific discontinuities in the practice of information science are identified which, the paper argues, have large consequences for the social order. The infrastructure that runs on big data is described as diffusing with unprecedented speed but as being difficult to analyze and critique, and therefore the designers of society’s big data infrastructure, whether human or machines, play an unacknowledged legislative function of great consequence.

Institutional ethnography: A sociology for librarianship

Canadian sociologist Dorothy Smith’s institutional ethnography (IE) is an ontology of the social that conceptualises ‘life as usual’ as the ongoing coordination of people’s actions across diverse sites. Popular in the health sciences and human service professions as a research strategy for understanding and explicating problematics of everyday life, it is slowly gaining traction as a critical research approach for library and information science (LIS). This article introduces IE and provides an overview of its central tenets. It outlines ways in which institutional ethnographers identify research problematics and collect and analyse data. The article concludes with three illustrations of how institutional ethnography has been used to map the linkages among activities and institutional processes, ultimately revealing how it can contribute to a critical understanding of library and information science practices and scholarship.

Digital Humanities e Library and Information Science . Through the lens of knowledge organization

This paper describes how the methodology of Digital Humanities is related to the Library and Information Science practices. The aim is to disclose connections and shared approaches. In particular knowledge organization and ontologies, as a tool for formalizing knowledge, are the contact points. Data modeling is increasingly perceived as a need among communities, as it is related to research scope and content of both the domains: on the one hand in data preservation, and on the other, in interpretation.

"Second Life" Librarianship and the Gendered Work of Care in Technology

This paper examines the basis for the commonly expressed sentiment that librarians have been late to adopt emerging technologies for use in library and information science practice. Using insights from science and technology studies, this sentiment is shown to be inadequately empirically warranted. The trope of the technophobic librarian is examined for clues to the importance of gendered emotional labor in effective library work, under the rubric of “customer service.” These clues lead to an examination of embodiment in the virtual world Second Life, and the emerging presence of librarians there. Using Second Life librarianship as a case study, this paper argues that embodiment is an important resource for library work, and that women’s technological labor is effaced through the trope of the technophobic librarian. Deconstructive analytical moves which collapse binary categories, yoked with methods from science and technology studies, are suggested for future fine-grained accounts of library technological practice.

Cheers for CHLA’s 2009 bioinformatics course

146 It was with trepidation and excitement that I enrolled in the bioinformatics course sponsored by the Canadian Health Libraries Association (CHLA) and taught by McGill University’s Joan Bartlett, Assistant Professor in their School of Information Studies. Since I’m not currently working in a library environment, and with my nursing and science education a little rusty, I was looking for a topic that would be a fascinating “Entrez” to current scientific and information science practices. And fascinating it was... As major breakthroughs continue in genetics research, its basics are becoming an integral part of elementary, secondary, college, and university curricula. These days, librarians do not usually require in depth knowledge about genetics to answer most questions; however, we need to consider the view 5 years from now. The human genome has already been sequenced, and the genetic basis for many human diseases will soon be mapped. Like the Millennials, who grew up being wired and connected, our clients will be familiar with aspects of genetics that still faze and amaze us. Increasing our subject knowledge can only improve our ability to meet the demands of our reference and instruction roles. With this in mind, 26 science librarians from universities across Canada, one new Faculty of Information Studies graduate, and I arrived at the University of Toronto’s Gerstein Science Information Centre early in the morning on June 8 to begin our investigations. With heartfelt thanks to the wonderful organizational skills of Ilo-Katryn Maimets and Gail Nichol, we were pampered with technology that functioned and delicious refreshments to sustain our intellectual efforts. For the next amazing and intense 3 days, Professor Joan Bartlett energetically whirled and twirled our little grey cells through the intricacies of basic genetics, types of resources, typical reference questions, and some tips on how to maintain our equilibrium while navigating the wealth of resources available in this field. Last but not least, Professor Bartlett articulated some of the challenges associated with the design, usability, and authority of these databanks. We focused on the three types of resources that would be accessed for questions that lie beyond the scope of basic molecular biology reference sources. These online collections consist of summaries of research illustrating the genetic connections with human diseases (e.g., OMIM (http://www. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=omim)); databases of genetic sequences (e.g., UniProt (http://www.uniprot.org)); and tools that analyze these sequences for similarities (e.g., ORF Finder (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gorf/gorf.html)). We are all familiar with the dynamic nature of electronic resources; their user interfaces, content, and ownership are not static by any stretch of the imagination. In genetics, this issue is compounded by the individuality of scientists and their research, their funding situations, and their particular computer programming colleagues. With the fast pace of recent genetic research, staggering numbers of new in-house databases have been built, with all their attendant idiosyncracies. An examination of the 2009 Nucleic Acids Research annual database issue (available at http://nar. oxfordjournals.org/content/vol37/suppl_1/index.dtl) drives home this point, with a total of 179 databases described, including 95 new ones. Combined with the pivotal role that computer science plays in the structure of these resources, end-user issues for quality data mining have often been glossed over, if not ignored. Yet analysis and visualization of this data are the raisons d’etre for these collections, since the days of just creating repositories of data are over. For example, the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO; www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/ geo/), European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) ArrayExpress (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/microarray-as/ae/), and the University Health Network’s MicroArray Centre (http://data. microarrays.ca/) here in Ontario contain similar data, with overlapping content. However, each one offers a vast number of ways to search for and examine their data. Terminology is another aspect that has become quite complex due to the rapid growth of the field. Terms may or may not be referenced to synonyms, MeSH, or UMLS subject headings. Naturally, this leads to difficulties in accessing the most appropriate resource, using it efficiently, and accurately evaluating that resource. Gene Ontology (GO; http://www. geneontology.org/) is an international collaboration of sequence database developers that has led to the establishment of structured vocabularies. However, without an international agreement on bibliographic control for these types of resources, usability problems will only worsen. Finally, content is not always authoritative (i.e., curated) nor transparent. Submissions are often accepted as is, in order to collect as much data as possible. For instance, major players such as NCBI clearly distinguish between GenBank (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank/), their “as is” repos-

Index to Volume 62

Index to Volume 62 Justine Carson Page references in boldface indicate major treatments of a topic. Italic locators indicate photographs. Italic t, f, or n indicates tables, figures or notes. A A-series paper formats, 485–486 Abbate, Janet, 706 Academic libraries, Chinese. See Chinese academic libraries Access to Learning Award (Gates Foundation), 210, 212 Acknowledgments, by W. Boyd Rayward, 289–290 ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), 761 ACLU (Wisconsin) Civil Libertarian of the Year Award, 727 Action Plan for Agricultural and Rural Informatization in China, 49 Activism antigay, 735–736 library, 730–739 Adams, Scott, 690 ADI (American Documentation Institute), 689 Administrative surveillance, 644–645, 646. See also Surveillance Advertising etiquette books, 672–676, 675–676 relationship to Die Brücke, 479–480 source of commercial information, 637 AEG (Allgemeine-Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft), 479 Age of Reason. See Enlightenment Ai Hua Libraries, 164 AIBO Youth Center, 174 Air conditioning systems. See HVAC systems ALA. See American Library Association (ALA) Alingh Prins, Jan, 329–331, 383 Alkalimat, Abdul, 145, 255 All the World’s Knowledge: The Paper Internet, 285 Alle Kennis Van de Wereld, 285 Allgemeine-Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG), 479 American Association of Museums, 604, 607 American Bibliography (Evans), 461 American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, 726–727 American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), 761 American Civil Liberties Union (Wisconsin) Civil Libertarian of the Year Award, 727 American Documentation Institute (ADI), 385, 689 American Family Association, 731, 735–736 American Institute of Higher Learning, 534 [End Page 773] American Library Association (ALA) attacks by social conservatives, 731–733 Code of Ethics, 742, 772 definition of censorship, 744 Library Bill of Rights, 742, 761, 771 WBCML controversy, 726–727 American Library Association (ALA). Office for Intellectual Freedom, 761, 763 “American Practice in Information Science” (Vormelker), 385, 389 American Society for Information Science and Technology. (ASIS&T) Special Interest Group. History and Foundations of Information Science, 305 Americans for Truth about Homo- sexuality, 749n Americans with Disabilities Act, 571 Amory, Hugh, 457 Amsterdam, Netherlands, 635–636 Amway (China) Co., Ltd., 165 Analogous Spaces: Architecture and the Space of Information, Intellect, Action, Ghent, 2008, 308 Andersen, Hendrik Christian, 531 Anderson, Augusta, 502n Anderson, H.C.L., 543, 546 Announcement for the Standardization of Commercial Activities in Cybercafes and the Strengthening of Security Management, 124 Annuaire de la vie internationale, 316 Annual Meeting of German Librarians (Bibliothekartag), Göttingen, 1928, 351 Anonymous scientific publications, identifying authors, 451–452 Anschluss, 380 Anthropometric classification, criminals, 446–450 Anthropometry, relationship to scientific bibliography and classification, 442–455 Antigay activism, 735–736. See also “Ex-gay” books Apers, René, 533 Appadurai, Arjun, 509–510, 512 Apprenticeship programs, museum, 597, 605–607, 609–610 Apres le Congrès Mondial (Otlet), 380 Archaeological Data Bank Conference, 601–602 Architectural elements. See also Library architecture basements and underground spaces, 537–538 books used as, 536–537 brickwork, 569, 578 historic library buildings, 556–559 terracotta, 568 towers, 532–536 Architecture of Knowledge: The Mundaneum and European Antecedents of the World Wide Web, Mondeneum, Mons, 2002, 308 The Architecture of Knowledge: The Mundaneum and European Antecedents of the World Wide Web, 323 Archives. See also Cultural heritage organizations functional integration with libraries and museums, 613–614, 615–616, 619, 621 of Otlet and La Fontaine, 319–320 Aristocracy, marketing of, 674 ARL (Association of Research Libraries), 689 Armstrong, Edmund La Touche, 544, 546 Armstrong, Henry Edward, 448 Art.sy, 438 Asbestos, 562 ASIS (American Society for Information Science), 696 ASIS&T SIG HFIS, 305 Aslib. See Association of Special Libraries and Information Bureaux (Aslib) Aslib-FID joint conference, Oxford, 1938. See Joint Conference of FID and Aslib, Oxford, 1938 Aslib Information, 383 Association des Amis du Palais Mondial, 318, 319–320, 321 Association of American Publishers, 727 Association of Research Libraries (ARL), 689 Association of Special Libraries and Information Bureaux (Aslib), 371, 396, 689 collaboration with BSIB, 468–469 [End Page 774] joint conference with FID, Oxford, 1938, 378–401 Association of the Friends of the Palais Mondial, 318, 319–320, 321 Astrographical Catalogue, 686 Astronomy, bibliographies, 686 Atheneums. See Mechanics institutes Atherton, Pauline, 431–432. See also Cochrane, Pauline Atherton Austin, Derek, 436 Australia federation period, 1880–1900, 542...

Visualizing Information Science Knowledge by Modelling Domain Ontology (OIS)

Information Science (IS) is one of the areas that need a unified ontology model to facilitate information in order to access the heterogeneous data resources, and share a common understanding of the domain knowledge. The aim of the study is to develop a generic model of ontology that serves as a foundation of knowledge modelling for applications and aggregation with other ontologies. This study adopts the Methontology methodology to develop an Ontology of Information Science (OIS). To support ontology development, the virtual community of practice of Information science (Ontocop) was employed. The Ontology was coded using Protégé and the OWL web ontology language. The main achievement of the study is that a new model of Information Science Ontology (OIS) has been constructed, which is a generic model that contains only the key objects and associated attributes with their relationships. The model defines the 706 concept, which will be widely used in Information Science applications. The research reveals that OIS ontology is a model that meets the ontology quality criteria for the subject area. It is concluded that OIS ontology unifies information science knowledge, which is composed of Library, Computer, and Archival science, by creating a theoretical base that is useful for further practical systems. The OIS ontology can be reused as the basis for any domain development.

Visualizing Information Science Knowledge by Modelling Domain Ontology (OIS)

Information Science (IS) is one of the areas that need a unified ontology model to facilitate information in order to access the heterogeneous data resources, and share a common understanding of the domain knowledge. The aim of the study is to develop a generic model of ontology that serves as a foundation of knowledge modelling for applications and aggregation with other ontologies. This study adopts the Methontology methodology to develop an Ontology of Information Science (OIS). To support ontology development, the virtual community of practice of Information science (Ontocop) was employed. The Ontology was coded using Protégé and the OWL web ontology language. The main achievement of the study is that a new model of Information Science Ontology (OIS) has been constructed, which is a generic model that contains only the key objects and associated attributes with their relationships. The model defines the 706 concept, which will be widely used in Information Science applications. The research reveals that OIS ontology is a model that meets the ontology quality criteria for the subject area. It is concluded that OIS ontology unifies information science knowledge, which is composed of Library, Computer, and Archival science, by creating a theoretical base that is useful for further practical systems. The OIS ontology can be reused as the basis for any domain development.

Digital Repositories for Sophisticated Information Management: Emphasizing Development of Digital Repositories in India

Digital repositories are the main practice of Information Science. In simply manner digital repositories refers to the Archive holds digital content, information or object. Digital repositories to some extend related with Information Systems and Networks (ISN) but the main differences in between two are Digital Depositories are the internal form where as ISN are opposite of that. Digital repositories may be for institutional user or it may be used as knowledge dissemination systems to others. This paper describes the aspects related with digital repositories like- digital repositories in characteristics, problems and so on. The trends regarding open repositories are increasing day-byday.

The Perception and Practice of Evidence Based Library and Information Practice Among Iranian Medical Librarians

Objective – Evidence based library and information services help to link best evidence with decision making in library practice. Current library and information science practice operates in both a knowledge and evidence-based environment. Health service librarians provide information services in an evidence based health care context to improve patient care. But the evidence based practice movement has influenced many fields of human knowledge, including librarianship. Therefore, this study seeks to answer the following questions: 1) What are the perceptions of Iranian medical librarians regarding the use of an evidence based approach in their decision making processes? 2) Do Iranian medical librarians apply an evidence based approach in their professional work? 3) How do Iranian medical librarians practice an evidence based approach? 4) What are the barriers and limitations for Iranian medical librarians who engage in evidence based library and information practice (EBLIP)?
 
 Methods – This study utilized a survey to discover medical librarians’ attitudes and perceptions towards the use of an evidence based approach to library practice in Iran. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire to identify medical librarians’ attitudes toward EBLIP.
 
 Results – The findings of the study indicate that Iranian medical librarians are aware of EBLIP and that they utilize an evidence based approach towards their LIS work. They practice the five steps of an evidence based answering cycle in formulating, locating, assessing, applying, and redefining questions. However, they have less knowledge about levels of evidence, research methodologies, and critical appraisal. 
 
 Conclusions – Medical librarians in Iran are familiar with the concept of an evidence based approach. More training is needed in some elements of evidence based practice to improve their approach to evidence based library and information practice.

Visual Literacy in the Age of Participation

We like to categorize and name things. Naming helps us to create meaning about ourselves and our role in the world. The naming of our times has followed a rich lineage starting with the Hunter/Gatherer Age, moving to the Agriculture Age, the Industrial Age, and most recently leading us to the Information Age. The Information Age has defined much of what we do in our professions for the last several decades, and most library and information science practice derives from notions of the Information Age. However, we are now faced with a changing world of information and services, one that potentially goes beyond information. Can we still characterize our times as the Information Age? The answer to that question has an influence on both user expectations and our role as information profes sionals, especially as we examine the skills and competencies the current age requires, among them visual literacy. There is no shortage of theorists trying to determine the answer to the question of what to name the current era in which we live, floating names such as the Web 2.0 Age,2 the Conceptual Age,3 and the Age of Participation.4 The Information Age, as we know it, began in the mid-twentieth century when the economic base of much of the world shifted from the production of physical goods (Industrial Age) to the production and manipulation of data or information. This shift really took hold in the mid-1980s with the development of the personal computer and blossomed further in the 1990s with widespread development and adoption of the Internet. Just a decade after what many are now calling Web 1.0, a potential new age is upon us. The Information Age and associated Web 1.0 era is being eclipsed by a new Web 2.0 era. In 2004, Tim O'Reilly coined the buzzword Web 2.0 to describe a trend in the use of Web tech

An integrative model of “information visibility” and “information seeking” on the web

PurposeThis paper aims to encapsulate the main procedure and key findings of a qualitative research on end‐users' interactions with web‐based search tools in order to demonstrate how the concept of “information visibility” emerged and how an integrative model of information visibility and information seeking on the web was constructed.Design/methodology/approachThe study was formed of three parts. The first looked at conceptions of the Invisible Web; the second explored conceptualisations of the causes of search success/failure; the third organised the findings of parts 1 and 2 into a series of theoretical frameworks. Data collection was carried out in three phases based on interviews with a sample of biologists.FindingsThe first part led to the development of a model of information visibility which suggests a complementary definition for the Invisible Web. The results also showed the participants were aware of the possibility that they had missed some relevant information in their searches. However, perceptions of the importance and the volume of missed information varied, so users reacted differently to the possibility that they were missing information. The third part indicated the “Locus of Control” and “Attribution Theory” that can help us to better understand web‐based information seeking patterns. Moreover, “Bounded Rationality” and “Satisficing Theory” supported the inductive findings and showed that users' estimates of the likely volume and importance of missed information affect their decision to persist in searching.Research limitations/implicationsThe study creates new understanding of web users' information seeking behaviour which contributes to the theoretical basis of web search research. It also raises various questions within the context of library and information science practice to know whether, and if so how, we can assist end‐users to develop more efficient search strategies and satisfactory approaches.Originality/valueThe research adopted a combination of inductive‐deductive methods with a qualitative approach in the area of information seeking on the web which is mainly dominated by quantitative studies.