This panel draws on the insights of accomplished scholars in information science, to focus attention on the ways in which their own careers were shaped by the academic cultures in which they have labored. In contemporary North America, a neo‐liberal academic culture dominates higher education and attempts to diversify the academy over the past several decades have at times been limited and have recently been brought into sharp and destructive focus under the current presidential administration. The panel addresses the questions: How have scholars who are senior members of the academy today understood their careers and experiences, and the cultures that shaped those? What strategies have been used to manage diverse types of experiences?

Population aging presents unique challenges and opportunities for public libraries, particularly in providing tailored services for older adults and individuals with dementia. This study examines the inclusion of courses on older adult and dementia-friendly library services within American Library Association-accredited MLIS programs in North America. It highlights a significant gap in curricula, with only a few programs offering courses explicitly focused on older adults and none addressing dementia-specific needs directly. Most courses integrate older adults within broader discussions of adult services. The preliminary findings reveal inconsistencies in course availability and content, with limited emphasis on the unique challenges of dementia or Alzheimer's disease. Although some courses, such as those focusing on information technology for older adults, provide frameworks applicable to dementia-friendly services, these elements remain underexplored. Recommendations include expanding MLIS curricula to incorporate targeted content on dementia-friendly programming and collection development, cognitive accessibility, and caregiver collaboration. The research underscores the need for dedicated coursework to equip future librarians with the skills to address aging populations' needs effectively. By fostering age-and dementia-friendly environments, libraries can enhance quality of life, support community engagement, and position themselves as essential resources for diverse and growing demographics.

PurposeThis study investigated the moderating effect of organizational knowledge management performance on the sharing and use of information encountered by serendipity within the organization.Design/methodology/approachThe authors surveyed 274 medical librarians from the top 100 medical schools.FindingsIndividual information encountering predicted information encountering at work, which, in turn, predicted organizational sharing of encountered information. When the propensity to encounter information was high, then organizational knowledge management performance moderated the effect between organizational encountering and organizational sharing of information. Encountered information at work was only present when high organizational knowledge management performance was in place.Research limitations/implicationsThis finding helps information behavior researchers discover the transfer of behaviors from everyday life to organizational environments.Practical implicationsIt shows the need for greater support for information encounterers at work and the role of knowledge management, which may enhance their contribution to the organizational objectives.Originality/valueInformation encountering involves finding information by chance. Studies on information encountering have not focused on work settings and if the individual propensity to encounter information translates to organizational settings. Also, the relationship between information encountering and organizational knowledge management has not been studied so far.

This article reports the development of a scale designed to measure an individual’s tendency to engage in serendipitous information encountering behaviour online. We relied on the simplified process model of information encountering to derive an initial item pool. In Study 1, a total of 3037 participants completed a preliminary 24-item scale. Using a split-half principal components analysis and confirmatory factor analysis to determine the underlying factor structure, we reduced the scale to 12 items. In Study 2 ( N = 66), we demonstrated the revised scale’s test–retest reliability and showed that it distinguishes between information encountering and other conceptually related constructs. In Study 3, behavioural data from 304 participants showed that the information encountering scale is associated with various indicators of online information-seeking, such as page visits and visit duration. Collectively, these studies yield a valid and easily implemented scale to better understand online information encountering. We describe the development of this scale and discuss its implications for both the measurement and study of serendipity in online information behaviour.

• Investigated the seeking-encountering tension in an eye-tracking experiment. • Foreground & background tasks triggered information seeking & encountering, resp. • Significant relationships existed between task urgency & seeking/encountering behavior. • Enriched the understanding of multitasking in human information acquisition. • Unlocked a new quantitative research paradigm for the field. Echoing the urge for in-depth research on the mechanisms of the seeking-encountering tension, i.e., foreground and background tasks co-exist and switch between each other, this study conducted a true experiment based on 2*2 factorial design to examine the roles of task urgency in such tension. The experiment used an eye tracker and the build-in screen recorder to capture 39 participants’ eye movements and clicking behavior when they performed foreground search tasks in the laboratory, while the information related to the background task assigned in advance as coursework was embedded in the search results. It was found that the information seeking and encountering processes were interwoven and competed persistently with each other for users’ attention and actions, and the seeking-encountering tension led to a lose-lose outcome. While there existed negative relationships between foreground task urgency and multiple search measures, positive relationships were revealed between background task urgency and the examining of the encountered information. In particular, the high foreground task urgency suppressed the noticing of the stimulus related to the background task. The results not only enrich the understanding of multitasking in human information acquisition, but also generate useful practical implications for the design of search engines.

Echoing the urge for in-depth research on the mechanisms of the seeking-encountering tension, i. e., foreground and background tasks co-exist and switch between each other, this study conducted a true experiment based on 2*2 factorial design to examine the roles of task urgency in such tension. The experiment used an eye tracker and the build-in screen recorder to capture 39 participants' eye movements and clicking behavior when they performed foreground search tasks in the laboratory, while the information related to the background task assigned in advance as coursework was embedded in the search results. It was found that the information seeking and encountering processes were interwoven and competed persistently with each other for users' attention and actions, and the seeking-encountering tension led to a lose-lose outcome. While there existed negative relationships between foreground task urgency and multiple search mea-sures, positive relationships were revealed between background task urgency and the examining of the encountered information. In particular, the high foreground task urgency suppressed the noticing of the stimulus related to the background task. The results not only enrich the under-standing of multitasking in human information acquisition, but also generate useful practical implications for the design of search engines.

This qualitative study explores the information behavior of newspaper reporters regarding their serendipitous encounters with information that lead to story ideas, and how newspaper editors affect reporters' ability to pursue such encountered ideas. As an interdisciplinary examination in human information behavior and journalism studies, behaviors and routines emerged that encouraged and potentially limited certain behaviors and routines. The findings also identify behaviors wherein newspaper editors match reporters with certain traits to certain story assignments.

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia, is an incurable neurological disease with an unknown cause. Since AD is not only social and health challenge but also an economic and fiscal burden and its prevalence is expected to grow exponentially as world population gets older, in 2012 the World Health Organization (WHO) and Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) recognized dementia as a global public health priority. Although librarians have not generally been recognized as professionals caring for persons with dementia, recent research indicates that public libraries can contribute to the development of dementia friendly communities by supporting social inclusion, self-efficacy and capacity building of persons with AD, and by providing support to their informal caregivers (CGs). The research reported in this paper aims to examine the role of Croatian public libraries in building a dementia friendly communities, in a country where information, health and social care systems for D patients and their CGs are not sufficiently developed (Rušac, 2016; Petr Balog et al., 2020). With the help of quantitative (online survey) methodology authors explore how Croatian public libraries tailor their spaces, collections, programs and services in order to enhance the everyday experience of persons with AD and their CGs.

It is not clear if people’s high propensity for information encountering translates to organizational work settings. We investigate the relationship between individual predisposition for information encountering with the frequency of individual information encountering at work. Through a survey of 274 medical librarians of the top 100 medical schools, we found that individual information encountering was a significant predictor of information encountering at work. This finding helps information behavior researchers discover the transfer of behaviors from everyday-life to organizational environments. It brings attention to the need for greater support for information encounters at work, which may enhance their contribution to the organizational objectives.

Visual reasoning is critical in many complex visual tasks in medicine such as radiology or pathology. It is challenging to explicitly explain reasoning processes due to the dynamic nature of real-time human cognition. A deeper understanding of such reasoning processes is necessary for improving diagnostic accuracy and computational tools. Most computational analysis methods for visual attention utilize black-box algorithms which lack explainability and are therefore limited in understanding the visual reasoning processes. In this paper, we propose a computational method to quantify and dissect visual reasoning. The method characterizes spatial and temporal features and identifies common and contrast visual reasoning patterns to extract significant gaze activities. The visual reasoning patterns are explainable and can be compared among different groups to discover strategy differences. Experiments with radiographers of varied levels of expertise on 10 levels of visual tasks were conducted. Our empirical observations show that the method can capture the temporal and spatial features of human visual attention and distinguish expertise level. The extracted patterns are further examined and interpreted to showcase key differences between expertise levels in the visual reasoning processes. By revealing task-related reasoning processes, this method demonstrates potential for explaining human visual understanding.

In recent years, there has been an increased focus on information encountering and serendipity within information behavior research and practice. Serendipity has the potential to facilitate creativity and innovation in various spheres, including in libraries, archives and museums. However, do we wait for chance to occur, or can serendipity be designed and facilitated? What are the characteristics of systems that support serendipitous discovery, and what methods can be used to study its occurrence? Extending and building on the concepts and definitions introduced at a 2016 ASIS&T Annual Meeting panel led by Erdelez, we feature in this 40‐min panel innovative work that creates opportunities for discovery within research spaces. Attendees engage through an interactive two‐part discussion and a hands‐on ideation session on impacts and guidelines for systems designed to facilitate serendipity, emphasizing sustainable, accessible researcher and user experiences. Presenters focus on the role of socio‐technical constraints and affordances to inform systems' design in a variety of research contexts, each contributing expertise in navigating particular issues in serendipity research.

PurposeIn order to understand the totality, diversity and richness of human information behavior, increasing research attention has been paid to examining serendipity in the context of information acquisition. However, several issues have arisen as this research subfield has tried to find its feet; we have used different, inconsistent terminology to define this phenomenon (e.g. information encountering, accidental information discovery, incidental information acquisition), the scope of the phenomenon has not been clearly defined and its nature was not fully understood or fleshed-out.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, information encountering (IE) was proposed as the preferred term for serendipity in the context of information acquisition.FindingsA reconceptualized definition and scope of IE was presented, a temporal model of IE and a refined model of IE that integrates the IE process with contextual factors and extends previous models of IE to include additional information acquisition activities pre- and postencounter.Originality/valueBy providing a more precise definition, clearer scope and richer theoretical description of the nature of IE, there was hope to make the phenomenon of serendipity in the context of information acquisition more accessible, encouraging future research consistency and thereby promoting deeper, more unified theoretical development.

Introduction. The paper presents findings from a study that investigated information needs of caregivers of Alzheimer’s disease patients’ in Croatia, a country in which health and social care systems for such persons are insufficiently developed. Special emphasis is put on the barriers caregivers face in obtaining required information or services. Methods. Interviews with 11 Alzheimer’s disease patients’ caregivers from the area of Eastern Croatia were conducted. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was chosen as the best method to interpret the caregivers’ experience of information support received from the Croatian system. Analysis. Topics were defined for each interview and then superordinate topics were defined for the whole sample. Results. Results show that Alzheimer’s disease patients’ caregivers in Croatia are faced with numerous obstacles. No organised information support system was detected. Conclusions. A more holistic approach to information support is needed. Authors suggest an Alzheimer’s disease information package to be distributed through the family doctors’ practices.

AbstractInformal information networks are the personal connections of friends, family and colleagues that people use to help them find information. Recently, a great deal of attention has been paid to social network sites, and other social media, as a key source of information and misinformation in contemporary society. This panel will probe deeper, to investigate the personal connections that underpin and lie behind the social connections visible on social network sites. This issue is of increasing importance as more of our everyday lives are moved online. We will debate what we actually know, and do not know, about how people find information through others, both on‐ and off‐line. From the panel we hope to create a network of scholars interested in creating a research agenda to make informal networks a focus of study going forward.

In this poster, we report the preliminary results of an inventory of 149 publicly accessible active COVID‐19 tracking systems. Key findings include the frequency distribution of the systems' web domain names, the countries where the systems were created, the languages they support, the visual display format, the map platforms, and the data sources. These findings help to advance the knowledge of the data characteristics and design of pandemic surveillance/tracking systems.

ABSTRACTA usability study was conducted on a new human‐computer web interface for large displays created by researchers from the Media Lab at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Data was collected by observing 12 subjects who were asked interact with a large screen monitor using a set of gestures. The subjects were also asked to complete a survey after they participated. The purpose of the study was to discover new methods of how people interact with a large display using gestures. By understanding how people use this interface, novel applications that reflect user preferences can be designed. Our findings discovered usability and technology issues that were given to the creators of the web‐interface that was evaluated in this study. We also created usability testing protocol that will be used in future studies of this gesture‐based application.

ABSTRACTIn an increasingly interconnected world, information professionals are expected to be at the forefront of implementing and instructing others in using information technologies. Yet, it is a challenge for educators to leverage library and information science students' varying interests and experiences to develop technology curricula that addresses diverse student needs and prepares them to engage actively with current and emerging technologies throughout the course of their careers. In this interactive event, technology instructors at Simmons University come together to share their experience in designing and teaching technology courses through interactive demos and case studies. This is followed by an interactive Q&A and small‐group brainstorming to address issues related to technology education. The event will promote discussion around developing curricula and pedagogy to promote students' abilities to use and implement technology in professional practice.