Showing papers in "The Library Quarterly in 2005"

Information Literacy as a Sociotechnical Practice.

Abstract: Information literacy has thus far been mostly a practical and strategic concept guiding the library field’s efforts in teaching information seeking and using skills. Texts on information literacy rarely attempt to account for how individuals interact with other people and technical artifacts in their information environments. This article contributes to the literature on information literacy by introducing a definition of information literacy as a sociotechnical practice. Information literacy evolves in the course of realizing specific work‐related tasks and mundane activities, which usually involve a complex system of social relationships, sociotechnical configurations, and work organization. From the perspective of a situated understanding of learning and learning requirements, information skills cannot be taught independently of the knowledge domains, organizations, and practical tasks in which these skills are used. The article suggests that studying and understanding the interplay between information...

What Children Can Teach Us: Developing Digital Libraries for Children with Children

Abstract: At the University of Maryland, an interdisciplinary team of researchers from information studies, computer science, education, art, and psychology worked with seven children (ages seven to eleven) to design a new digital library for children. This partnership led to new approaches for collection development, cataloging (metadata standards), and new technologies for information access and use. The team validated the importance of working with children by analyzing the results of Weblogs, surveys, and lab user studies. This article presents a discussion of the interdisciplinary research landscape that contributes to an understanding of digital libraries for children, examines a case study on the development of the International Children’s Digital Library, and discusses the implications from this research as they relate to new technology design methods with children and new directions for future digital libraries.

Citation Analysis for Collection Development: A Comparative Study of Eight Humanities Fields

Abstract: This study analyzes 9,131 citations from the 2002 volumes of journals in eight humanities fields: art, classics, history, linguistics, literature, music, philosophy, and religion. This study found that citation patterns varied widely among humanities disciplines. Due to these differences, it is important for librarians with humanities collection development responsibilities to consider each field separately when making collection development decisions. The authors investigated the language of sources cited in each field. Foreign language citations continue to be dominated by French and German. This study also confirms that, in most humanities disciplines, monographs remain the dominant format of cited sources, although some fields cited monographs less frequently than expected.

Information Access and Exchange among Small Worlds in a Democratic Society: The Role of Policy in Shaping Information Behavior in the Post-9/11 United States.

Abstract: Every democratic society relies on deliberation and dialogue between social groups with varying perspectives to provide for the representation of the diverse members of the society. Meaningful deliberation is based on open access to information by individuals and free exchange of information between different social groups. Policy developments in the United States since September 2001, however, have altered the roles of information in many social contexts, with impacts on information access and information exchange between social groups. These changes have the potential to be of great consequence to social and political uses of information in society. Libraries, as established guardians of diverse perspectives of information, are in a unique position to protect and preserve information access and exchange in this new policy environment.

An Investigation of Career and Job Satisfaction in Relation to Personality Traits of Information Professionals

Abstract: This study collected data on personality characteristics, job satisfaction, and career satisfaction from more than 1,300 information professionals. Respondents included academic reference librarians, archivists, catalogers, distance education librarians, public librarians, records managers, school media specialists, special librarians, systems librarians, and other information professionals who responded to listserv requests or picked up questionnaires at a national library conference. Significant correlations were obtained between personality variables and both career and job satisfaction. Stepwise regression analyses were performed, revealing that five variables (Optimism, Emotional Stability, Teamwork, Visionary Work Style, and Work Drive) accounted for 20 percent of the variance in job satisfaction. Four variables accounted for 19 percent of the variance in career satisfaction (Optimism, Work Drive, Emotional Resilience, and Assertiveness). Hierarchical regression analyses were performed to test Louns...

A Neighborhood Analysis of Public Library Use in New York City.

Abstract: The use of 200 public libraries in New York City was analyzed according to their neighborhood characteristics. In addition to demographic, economic, and cultural factors traditionally considered, the social and spatial interactions within a neighborhood were related to public library use. Correlation and regression analyses were implemented for all the libraries. The research found that traditional factors are not enough to explain public library use, especially in a cosmopolitan area such as New York City. Social connections and racial diversity and integration stimulate public library use. Based on these findings, suggestions were made for improving the underutilized library branches in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

A Phenomenological Study of an Emergent National Digital Library, Part I: Theory and Methodological Framework

Abstract: Citation for the accompanying article: Dalbello, Marija. (2005). "A Phenomenological Study of an Emergent National Digital Library, Part II: Narratives of Development," The Library Quarterly 75 (4), pp. e28-e70.

Community-Embedded Learning

Abstract: Online learners often stay located in, and tied to, their communities, kinship networks, households, and workplaces. Institutions providing online education can thus create ties to communities as students draw their learning into networks in which they are already embedded. Frequent interactions across multiple media that are afforded by information and communication technologies (ICT) allow students to create strong ties with their fellow students and instructors. Those relationships provide a network of weak ties that is indirectly available to friends, coworkers, and community members who live and work near the students. Community‐embedded learning that takes advantage of these strong and weak ties and is appropriate to ICT modes of delivery is important for two reasons. The various clienteles served by students while they earn their degrees will affect library and information science (LIS) education and outcomes, and LIS distance education offered via interactive ICT can directly affect the clienteles...

The Concept of Collection from the User’s Perspective

Abstract: This study explores the concept and functions of collection from the perspective of the user. In‐depth interviews with ten professors from a social science discipline and a natural science department provided descriptions of their information seeking involving material sources and their perceptions of the library collection. Participants used the following parameters in perceiving the library collection: instant availability, selectivity, physical collocation, catalog representation, user privilege, material stability, and further parameters for subcollections, including subject and format. Additional components that were important in the users’ information environment were personal collections, the Internet, and other institutions’ collections. Analysis revealed that collections provided valuable functions, such as collocating sources for convenience and saving time and money, selectivity, narrowing the search scope to increase precision and ease of use, presenting choices, and assisting in clarification...

A Phenomenological Study of an Emergent National Digital Library, Part II: The Narratives of Development

Abstract: Institutional processes associated with technological innovation in the library context and the key transformative event, the completion of the National Digital Library Program (NDLP) at the Library of Congress (1995–2000), are discussed in this article and the accompanying article, Part I. Interviews with seven key participants of the program conducted in 2002 at the Library of Congress (with policy makers and digital library developers) are interpreted here in terms of loci of control (external/internal) shaping the process of innovation and its institutionalization—the coercive and normative pressures of society, and the professional field of librarianship. Their perceptions are synthesized into a realist narrative in which their voices are still recognizable. Their tales of development show that organizational change driven by external forces and involving individuals who crossed boundaries of organizational fields can be very successful in forcing organizational isomorphism and integration of digitiz...

Polygamy and the Public Library: The Establishment of Public Libraries in Utah before 1910

Abstract: Utah’s libraries were perceived as instruments for “the establishment of a recognized social order” by each successive group that came to power and were often founded as the result of conflict between Mormon culture and the larger American society. On their arrival, Mormons established libraries primarily to provide access to information necessary to the practical aspects of establishing their new utopian “Kingdom of God.” As conflict with the mainstream culture grew, religious, political, economic, and social groups in American society looked to libraries to eradicate polygamy; undermine the Mormon religion, culture, and political power; and establish the recognized American social order as the dominant culture in Utah. The period of conflict was followed by reconciliation, unification, and assimilation as the Mormon Church and society abandoned its utopian ideology and sought acceptance into the greater culture of the United States. Utah’s women, previously sharply divided, organized into women’s clubs ...

Partnerships and Collaboration among Public Libraries, Public Broadcast Media, and Museums: Current Context and Future Potential

Abstract: This article reports one part of a project that examined collaborations among public institutions providing informal lifelong learning opportunities to children and adults in the United States. It presents the results of a survey of chief executive officers and staff of public libraries, museums, public television stations, and public radio stations that investigated the extent and nature of collaborations between and among these institutions and forces driving or preventing collaboration. There are some potentially interesting asymmetries in the responses among organizations, suggesting that enhanced awareness among these institutions of institution‐specific types of resources can allow such institutions to partner and build on each other’s strengths and skills.

The Public Library as a Public Forum: The (De)Evolution of a Legal Doctrine

Abstract: When dealing with First Amendment free speech issues in the context of public libraries, courts have merely cited the supposition that constitutional public forum analysis leads to the conclusion that the public library is a limited public forum for the purposes of First Amendment analysis. By focusing narrowly on the issue of whether Internet access in libraries constitutes a public forum, and determining that it does not, the U.S. Supreme Court not only misses an opportunity to refine the concept of the public forum in modern‐day terms but also somehow implies that public library activities are different from other speech activities and are subject to the managerial authority of the government. This article makes the argument that a redefinition of the public forum doctrine would bring under its ambit the public library, to join the “traditional” public forums such as streets, sidewalks, and parks—a departure from the current designation of the public library as a limited public forum. This article also...

For poor nations a library service is vital : Establishing a national public library service in tanzania in the 1960S

Abstract: The Tanganyika Library Service (TLS) was the national public library service set up in Tanzania, East Africa, in the 1960s. By the end of the decade, it was generally regarded as a model of Western‐style public library development in Africa. This is an account of its establishment and early years based on accessible documentary sources in Tanzania and the United Kingdom, on printed sources, and on interviews with 1960s staff members in the two countries. Topics include the background of educational and library underdevelopment during the colonial era; the African Socialist philosophy of Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere; TLS readers and what they wanted to read in English or Kiswahili; the link with adult education and with literacy education in particular; the attempts to reach as many as possible with books and service in spite of resource constraints; the urban/rural debate; staffing and staff development; the contribution of E. M. Broome, TLS founding director; and the issue of overseas aid and cultu...

Transversality and the role of the library as fair witness

Abstract: Scholarship conducted in an increasingly online environment requires the services of a trusted third party in order to ensure that scholarly communication remains reliably accessible and applicable over the longer term. The library, by virtue of its most fundamental values and attributes, is probably better suited at this time than other information intermediaries to assume such a role. In order to understand the nature and responsibility of the trusted third party, or fair witness, it is essential to consider the key concept of transversality (especially as it is defined by the German philosopher Wolfgang Welsch) as it relates to information services. Assuming the role of trusted third party will also require that the academic library be prepared to undertake some fundamental changes in currently prevalent directions and values that will affect its relationship to other information intermediaries and, potentially, also to its parent institution.

A conceptual framework for digital libraries for k-12 mathematics education : Part 1, information organization, information literacy, and integrated learning'

Abstract: This article is the first of two that present a six‐part conceptual framework for the design and evaluation of digital libraries meant to support mathematics education in K–12 settings (see also pt. 2). This first article concentrates on (1) information organization, (2) information literacy, and (3) integrated learning with multimedia materials. The second article reviews (4) adoption of new standards for mathematics education, (5) integration of pertinent changes in educational policy, and (6) ensuring pedagogic and political accountability. Each article concludes with specific recommendations for digital libraries meant to support K–12 mathematics education appropriate to the topics the article discusses. This framework, which may be of some use to researchers and educators in many settings and countries, emphasizes the importance of communication, community building, and learning activities that use different media for the design of digital functionalities and online collections of mathematics learnin...

Digital Library Archaeology: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Library Use through Artifact-Based Evaluation.

Abstract: Archaeologists have used material artifacts found in a physical space to gain an understanding about the people who occupied that space. Likewise, as users wander through a digital library, they leave behind data‐based artifacts of their activity in the virtual space. Digital library archaeologists can gather these artifacts and employ inductive techniques, such as bibliomining, to create generalizations. These generalizations are the basis for hypotheses, which are tested to gain understanding about library services and users. In this article, the development of traditional archaeological methods is presented and used to create a conceptual framework for the artifact‐based evaluation in digital libraries.

Revitalizing Theory in Library and Information Science: The Contribution of Process Philosophy

Abstract: Two main traditions now operate in philosophy, influencing the choice about which theories are appropriate in library and information science (LIS). A third tradition, known as process philosophy, gives prominence to human knowledge as an organically integrated, self‐sustaining whole, thereby opening another avenue for the effort to revitalize theory in LIS. Drawing on process philosophy, this article argues that “library” is another level in the process of semantic innovation that includes “symbol,” “word,” “sentence,” and “narrative.” Because semantic innovation relies on imagining and reading as mediators and is central to the achievement of narrative identity, this philosophy opens a fresh perspective on the library in the life of a person.

Continuity and Change: The Integration of Oxford University's Libraries.

Abstract: Prior to 1997, the University of Oxford in Great Britain had approximately one hundred autonomous libraries with little coordination of services, collection development, or management among them. In that year a new director was hired with the mandate to integrate many of these libraries into one centralized system. Over the past seven years Oxford’s libraries have been reorganized; the restructuring has consolidated a number of previously independent libraries and changed the way library service is provided at Oxford. This longitudinal case study is based on visits to the libraries, interviews with participants, and examination of relevant print and electronic resources. The research provides an overview of the process that resulted in the founding of the Oxford University Library Services.

Factors Influencing Error Recovery in Collections Databases: A Museum Case Study

Abstract: This article offers an analysis of the process of error recovery as observed in the development and use of collections databases in a university museum. It presents results from a longitudinal case study of the development of collaborative systems and practices designed to reduce the number of errors found in the museum’s databases as museum employees packed and moved their collections over a period of five years. Drawing on a specific set of eighteen months' worth of records documenting error rates and error management techniques, this article identifies three factors that influenced the ability of museum staff members to recover from errors found in their collections databases. The article concludes by examining the potential impact of these factors on the design of future collections databases in order to shed light on the wider issue of error recovery procedures in all information organizations.

A Conceptual Framework for Digital Libraries for K-12 Mathematics Education: Part 2, New Educational Standards, Policy Making, and Accountability

Abstract: This paper is the second of two (see pt. 1) that describe a six‐part conceptual framework for designing and evaluating digital libraries for mathematics education in K–12 settings: information literacy, information organization, integrated learning, adoption of new educational standards, integration of pertinent changes in educational policy making, and ensuring accountability. This second paper explores the final three elements of the six‐part framework. Accountability has become the core of the educational reform initiated by federal policies and measured by state‐mandated educational standards. These political circumstances, as well as communication and collaboration, must be constitutively involved in the iterative design, implementation, and evaluation of digital libraries. The paper concludes with a series of recommendations for the design and implementation of digital libraries for K–12 mathematics education based on the authors’ discussion of these final three elements.