ABSTRACTCommunity question‐answering (CQA) enables responders to select questions, and respond to the questions by answering, commenting or voting. Accordingly, questions with different cues (i.e. complexity, specificity, emotional expressiveness, politeness, popularity, rewards) tend to attract different responders. However, the research is limited regarding the types of responders based on the questions they responded to. The gap inhibits us to form a complete understanding of how questions bridge askers with responders. Moreover, how different types of responders contribute to maintaining the ecosystem of the CQA has not been studied adequately. Accordingly, we conducted an online survey to organize responders by the cues of questions. Cluster analysis was used to group responders into three types: (1) “leaders” respond to complex and popular questions, attracting many followers in CQA; (2) “socializers” answer less complex and specific questions with emotion‐laden words; and (3) “specialists” respond to complex questions with high specificity but seldom use the social functions of CQAs. Finally, contributions and limitations are discussed.
ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to explore connections between immigrant information behaviour and concepts of information poverty. The researchers used the scoping method to examine the immigrant populations, operational definitions, and research methods associated with information poverty. Key findings from this systematic review suggest an overreliance on non‐empirical linkages to information poverty and the need for substantiated knowledge that captures specific immigrant contexts, vulnerabilities, and interventions.
This study examined Israeli researchers’ trends, intentions and awareness regarding scientific publications in open access (OA) journals and repositories. A survey was distributed to 202 Israeli researchers. According to the findings, most researchers used a combination of closed (traditional/toll access) journals with OA gold/green routes. Researchers showed low awareness of OA key concepts, which was significantly associated with the tendency not to publish in OA. In addition, researchers who reported that there was a formal policy concerning publishing articles in high-impact journals in their department tended to publish less in OA. The most common reasons that caused researchers not to publish in OA routes were lack of funding and lack of awareness. Conclusions present a need for an OA's declared policy as well as financial and informational support.
ABSTRACTCollection development policies for university special collections and archives guide archival appraisal, which is the process by which archivists determine the value of an item. Much has been written about appraisal theory, but little is known about archivists' actual appraisal practice and how collection policy guides such practice. The object of this paper is to explore the appraisal practices of archivists by examining collection development policies. As a preliminary examination, this study analyzed the collection development policies of seven Texas tier‐one institutions. The most common component of the policies was a statement on the types of items collected or excluded. The study also found that the language used for these formats varied considerably with no standardization. The policies themselves also varied widely in detail.
ABSTRACTIn the new era, the analysis of academic journal evaluation methods and the comprehensive comparison of the advantages, disadvantages, and stability of different methods can help to provide some reference for academic journal evaluation. In this study, single model evaluation was carried out for 6 weighting methods without comprehensive evaluation value, and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation is performed on the results passing the nonparametric test. Based on the evaluation, BP neural network is introduced, and BP neural network evaluation model is established. The results show that the fuzzy Borda evaluation can integrate the evaluation value and evaluation order of single models, and has higher accuracy compared with single evaluation models. The prediction rate of the network model based on the gradient descent optimization algorithm can reach more than 80%, and the weights obtained from the continuous self‐learning of the neural network training set can reduce the subjectivity and mutual interference between indicators.
ABSTRACT In recent years, Chinese migrants have become one primary source of computing professional labor in the United States. Within the Chinese migrant community, the computing profession was depicted as a new framework of success and a harbor to ease the stress caused by precarious immigration status. To successfully obtain a job in the IT industry, many Chinese migrants turned to the Chinese programming boot camp (PBC) for professional training in programming, which made Chinese PBC the intermediary between Chinese migrant professionals and the American companies demanding skilled programmers. In this research based on qualitative interviews with the founders, employees, and clients, I illustrated how Chinese PBC constructed computing knowledge into a set of techniques and skills to solve and present algorism problems. I interpreted this knowledge construction in the context of racialized and mystified computing profession in the Chinese migrant community.
YouTube is a valuable source of user-generated content on a wide range of topics, and it encourages user participation through the use of a comment system. Video content is increasingly addressing scientific topics, and there is evidence that both academics and consumers use video descriptions and video comments to refer to academic research and scientific publications. Because commenting is a discursive behavior, this study will provide insights on why individuals post links to research publications in comments. For this, a qualitative content analysis and iterative coding approach were applied. Furthermore, the reasons for mentioning academic publications in comments were contrasted with the reasons for citing in scholarly works and with reasons for commenting on YouTube. We discovered that the primary motives for sharing research links were (1) providing more insights into the topic and (2) challenging information offered by other commentators.
This panel aims to highlight the importance of digital platforms to information science (IS) and in doing this to help connect IS scholars to the important work from other intellectual communities when conducting studies on platforms. The pervasiveness of digital platforms in our lives has encouraged scholars across multiple disciplines to turn their attention to these socio‐technical arrangements. And, over the past two‐plus decades, scholars have advanced multiple conceptualizations and some initial theorizing about digital platforms. This noted, platform‐oriented literature in IS is less focused, and more importantly, does not connect to the conversations on this topic developed in other intellectual communities. To begin connecting IS scholars with platform scholarship outside of our field, this panel brings together IS scholars who have focused their scholarly attention to studying platforms in order to share their research and discuss how their studies could be inspired by and contribute to the platform literature.
ABSTRACT Clubhouse is an audio‐based social media platform launched in March 2020. In this platform, users create chat rooms for discussions around a topic of their choice. Organizers of these discussions can decide which listener in the room to be given the right to speak. To explore their experiences of persuading others and of being persuaded in Clubhouse discussions, we interviewed 16 Clubhouse users. One's credibility is important to the perceived persuasiveness of one's argument. In Clubhouse, one may establish their credibility through their profile pages where they introduce themselves such as their backgrounds, experiences, affiliations, passions, etc. Hence, our interviews also probed whether speakers' profile pages are used to check their credibility.
International research examines the differences and similarities in information processes and phenomena across countries or cultures. International studies are challenging to conduct due to cultural and linguistic barriers, ethical concerns, methodological complexities, and the legacy of the colonial research model. This 90‐minute panel will focus on the ethical and methodological challenges and practical solutions in conducting international research. The panelists will share their experiences from three international studies and will invite the scholarly community to engage critically in discussing methodological issues and ethical concerns in LIS international research.
ABSTRACTWhen it comes to search engines, users generally prefer Google. Our study aims to find the differences between the results found in Google compared to other search engines. We compared the top 10 results from Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Metager, using 3,537 queries generated from Google Trends from Germany and the US. Google displays more unique domains in the top results than its competitors. Wikipedia and news websites are the most popular sources overall. With some top sources dominating search results, the distribution of domains is also consistent across all search engines. The overlap between Google and Bing is always under 32%, while Metager has a higher overlap with Bing than DuckDuckGo, going up to 78%. This study shows that the use of another search engine, especially in addition to Google, provides a wider variety in sources and might lead the user to find new perspectives.
ABSTRACTThis study investigates the utility of open‐source data analytics, reporting, and integration tools for mapping knowledge organization systems (KOS) dedicated to COVID‐19. Using various natural language processing and machine learning methods, a workflow was created with the KNIME Analytics Platform for term mapping and document annotation tasks using string‐based, sense‐based, and rule‐based algorithmic methods. Results suggest strong support for mapping vocabularies within similar domains and appropriate tagging of unstructured data with concepts from an integrated dictionary created from mapped terms. This study demonstrates the use of a shareable, easily adaptable workflow for KOS mapping and annotating documents focused on COVID‐19 research. These mapped terms were then used for annotation of clinical trials. The results suggest that researchers could select and align vocabularies of interest and then use the results to annotate documents of interest.
Weibo is a widely used social media platform showing all kinds of information related to the COVID-19 pandemic promptly in China. Official media and private media are two typical types of media on Weibo. Due to the different characteristics of these two media types, in the context of public health emergencies, it is worth exploring whether there are differences in the users' interactive behavior with information from these two types of media. This is of great significance to the integration and development of these two types of media.This study obtained data on the interaction behaviors of Weibo users with posts published by the two media types at various stages of the pandemic. Statistical analyses have confirmed significant differences in interaction behavior data between users and these two media types. In future research, based on the findings of this study, we will investigate the reasons behind these differences to provide relevant guidelines and suggestions for the release of different media in public health emergencies by conducting a deep dive analysis of user reviews.
We conducted an exploratory study of the links found in Twitter tweets. Our results showed that the largest category of tweet links was social media platforms followed by alternative news sites. Government agencies and educational institutions were under-represented. In terms of relevance, about 75% of the links were related to COVID-19 but disappointingly, only 40% of the links were directly related to their respective tweets' topics.
ABSTRACT Technological advances have led to a powerful, complex information landscape where managing one's personal information is increasingly challenging. Personal Information Management (PIM) is the field of study dedicated to the activities people engage in to organize their information so that items can be found again when needed. Searching for previously located information items is a common frustration, yet PIM is not present in the standards of Information Literacy (IL). Situating PIM Literacy within the sociocultural New Literacies theory, I explore how youth currently make sense of PIM as Discourse—what they communicate through multiple sign‐systems about their PIM practices. In this phenomenological mixed‐methods study, after an initial survey of secondary school participants, I conducted two phases of interviews—guided tours of participants’ personal information places and Information Places Map (IPM) interviews regarding their perceptions of PIM. This ongoing study addresses the dearth of PIM research with youth. Initial findings suggest the importance of information systems’ default sorting by recency, the potential benefits of instruction in file structures and archiving, and opportunities to address email overload. Evaluating student needs assists in the development of K‐12 PIM Literacy, a necessary competency for high‐school graduates to successfully participate in the digital age.
This panel, co‐sponsored by ASIS&T SIG‐VIS (Visualization, Images, & Sound) and SIG‐DL (Digital Libraries), has two purposes. First, it briefly discusses panelists' recent research projects on visual forms of knowledge production and documentation. Their approaches involve collecting visual forms of data or studying contexts in which information practices involve visual information formats or regimes of graphical information creation. Second, this panel draws attention to the importance of dialogic engagement and acknowledgment of the role of the embodied researcher as a critical methodological agent in generating research data related to visual practices. This central role of the researcher in visual research foregrounds ethical and epistemological aspects of their positionality. In particular, panelists will discuss the ethical challenges of information studies research that involves Indigenous knowledge communities. This panel will engage the audience in a discussion on the role played by a researcher's positionality in shaping qualitative information research methodologies and will discuss how the generation of visual forms of data and the study of visual information practices pose particular challenges for information studies research.
ABSTRACTGeography is one of the defining factors in scientific collaboration. Despite the voluminous evidence for how geographical proximity shapes the formation of collaboration in research articles, it has been rarely examined in the emerging genre of data papers, one that describes research data and has enjoyed growing attention in the data‐driven paradigm of research. This poster presents preliminary findings from our project that aims to evaluate the geographical dynamics behind the production of data papers. We analyze how researchers from different countries collaborate with one another using 6,821 data papers published in Scientific Data and Data in Brief between 2014 and 2020. We found that data papers rely heavily upon domestic collaboration and the collaboration pattern largely mirrors that of research articles, although some distinctiveness was also observed. We discuss future work in conclusion, with the ultimate goal of opening a more meaningful conversation about the relationship between the data‐driven paradigm and knowledge production.
ABSTRACTText mining is a research method that uses interdisciplinary techniques to identify patterns and trends in unstructured data and can be used to detect research trends and developments in various fields. Thus, this study attempts to identify research trends in the issue of privacy concern (PC), focusing on the differences between the first two decades of the 21st century. This is done by applying an automated textual analysis tool (Voyant Tools) on a vast corpora of academic papers conducted on this field. We found that while the first examined decade of PC research focused on commerce and marketing issues, there was much more research emphasis on the social dimension of privacy in the second decade. This difference was explained by the technological developments that were prominent in the respective decades. The research provided support for the use of textual analysis of academic literature as a tool to identify research trends in various fields, including technologically‐oriented fields.
ABSTRACTFollowing the rise of the Black Lives Matter Movement in 2020, there has been an increased focus on racial equality in library services, including recent modifications of the ALA Code of Ethics. Online library services may eliminate race‐based service discrimination by obscuring the racial identity of the patron. However, racial assumptions based on patrons' names can lead to online discrimination. While prior research shows mixed results, we examine if there is evidence of racial bias in virtual reference in American academic libraries. Initial findings based on content analysis of 946 responses from 255 libraries suggest that Tyrone Jackson received better service than others did.
Library staff are knowledge workers (KWs), but it is not entirely clear what this work looks like, how it is allocated, what outcomes are associated with it, or how the pandemic influenced this work. This poster outlines an agenda to study the KW of paraprofessional and professional library staff. Learning more about the form, context, and authority of KW in the library—as well as the personal and task outcomes of this work—will better position LIS to prepare future librarians and guide the development of equitable workplaces that support the needs of library staff.
