Kerstin Rydbeck, Jamie Johnston, Ágústa Pálsdóttir, Mahmood Khosrowjerdi, Andreas Vårheim, R. Audunson, Casper Hvenegaard Rasmussen
{"title":"Social reading and the public sphere in Nordic public libraries: a comparative study","authors":"Kerstin Rydbeck, Jamie Johnston, Ágústa Pálsdóttir, Mahmood Khosrowjerdi, Andreas Vårheim, R. Audunson, Casper Hvenegaard Rasmussen","doi":"10.47989/colis2234","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47989/colis2234","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents research on how public librarians in Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden view the importance of social reading and related professional roles. Previous research findings from a questionnaire administered to public librarians are analysed in depth in order to identify trends that can be further investigated in a subsequent qualitative study. The previous findings broadly show variation in the importance of social reading activities and related professional roles at the country level. A detailed understanding of the variations is elicited through a more comprehensive analysis at the country and community levels. Social reading plays a more important role in Danish and Icelandic libraries than in Norwegian and Swedish libraries, however it is more important in larger communities in Iceland and Sweden and smaller communities in Denmark and Norway. The role of literary mediator appears to correspond highly to librarians’ professional role across all countries and community sizes whereas that of a literary critic somewhat less. The results establish a need for further research on social reading in public libraries, especially concerning the types and nature of activities generally included in social reading and the extent digital solutions are used.","PeriodicalId":47431,"journal":{"name":"Information Research-An International Electronic Journal","volume":"40 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84552066","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Marika Kawamoto, Motoko Yamagishi, Håkon Larsen, M. Koizumi
{"title":"Promoting public libraries as democratic spaces through governmental and municipal library strategies: Norwegian library strategies post 2014 law changes","authors":"Marika Kawamoto, Motoko Yamagishi, Håkon Larsen, M. Koizumi","doi":"10.47989/colis2226","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47989/colis2226","url":null,"abstract":"This study aims to clarify what kinds of specific strategies have been planned for public libraries in Norway and how they have changed over time following the Norwegian Public Library Act, amended in 2014. We have analysed government strategies and municipality plans and strategies for Oslo. Document study of the Public Library Act, national strategies concerning public libraries, and library management plans. We review 11 policy documents carefully and organise what specific plans are being made for public libraries to function as public places, according to the mission in the Public Library Act of 2014. Regarding dissemination of information and independent meeting place, the government and Oslo municipality made specific plans such as developing the national digital library and building a new central library in Oslo. Concerning dissemination of education and cultural activities, and an arena for public discussions and debates, there were partial strategies in both the government and the municipality. Various projects, financial support, building maintenance, and events have been conducted to accomplish libraries’ missions as places, as stated in the Act. Public libraries should facilitate a cultural offering that meets the needs of a diverse citizenry.","PeriodicalId":47431,"journal":{"name":"Information Research-An International Electronic Journal","volume":"51 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79541834","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unfolding material constraints and opportunities in biodiversity citizen science information practices","authors":"Björn Ekström","doi":"10.47989/colis2235","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47989/colis2235","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of this paper is to outline an approach for understanding how information practices in biodiversity citizen science are enabled and constrained through participants’ interactions with material objects such as cameras, artificial intelligence-supported smartphone applications and information systems. The approach draws on the theory of objectual practice; how knowledge is constructed iteratively through interaction with epistemic objects. Epistemic objects are understood as objects sustained by projections of knowledge, open for interpretation and question-generation, rather than clearly defined things. The approach is empirically contextualised through a study of biodiversity citizen science activities in relation to a bioblitz, a short-term, intensive period of species observations in a given geographical setting. Three empirical units of analysis are to be studied: binoculars, cameras, and loupes for observing species; field guides, identification keys and smartphone applications for identifying species; and standardising, large-scale information systems for reporting identified observations. The approach opens up for studying how material objects enable and constrain biodiversity citizen science information practices. The objectual practice approach in relation to a multifaceted empirical setting such as biodiversity citizen science extends sociomaterial aspects to citizen science studies by enabling practice-oriented observation and trace investigations of large-scale phenomena.","PeriodicalId":47431,"journal":{"name":"Information Research-An International Electronic Journal","volume":"23 6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83463024","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From words to actions: assessing the impact of antiracist declarations in library and information science","authors":"J. Furner, Fidelia Ibekwe, B. Birdi","doi":"10.47989/ircolis2202","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47989/ircolis2202","url":null,"abstract":"The aims of this paper are to reaffirm calls for the global elimination of racism in library and information science, to specify ways of making progress towards such elimination, and to indicate how to assess the extent to which the declarations made by international bodies have had an impact on the success of antiracist strategies in which library and information science professionals engage at the local level. A review is undertaken of the declarations on racism made by the United Nations (UN), and by two professional organisations: the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), and the International Society for Knowledge Organization (ISKO). A case study approach is then taken in identifying antiracist strategies in library and information science in the United States. International declarations on racism are numerous and expansive, and are suggestive of several important categories of antiracist strategy. A means of assessing the relationship between declarations and strategies is proposed. It is concluded that the impact of declarations has not been substantial. Affirmative action policies, hate speech bans, reparative taxonomies, and actions decentring whiteness are few and far between in library and information science. Renewed effort should be made to engage in antiracist strategies of the kinds promoted in the declarations.","PeriodicalId":47431,"journal":{"name":"Information Research-An International Electronic Journal","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90766950","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Arenas for conflict or cohesion? Rethinking public libraries as potentially democratic spheres","authors":"Lisa Engström","doi":"10.47989/colis2220","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47989/colis2220","url":null,"abstract":"In policies and research, public libraries are often put forth as public spheres promoting inclusion and shared values. This article investigates possible implications of replacing the idea of the library as public sphere with a plurality of public spheres, thereby acknowledging existing inequalities and conflicts between adversaries. The paper is conceptual, focusing on deepening the theoretical analysis. Fraser’s elaboration on the concept public sphere is utilized alongside Chantal Mouffe’s concept agonism to critically discuss the perception of libraries as public spheres, and to explore the library as a place enabling multiple public spheres where different groups can strengthen their social identity and make claims of power. Two main risks with a consensus-oriented starting point are identified: Firstly, marginalized groups may be silenced when inclusion and shared values are emphasized rather than plurality. Secondly, when cultural and social hierarchies are ignored, the ‘others’ are turned into enemies and antagonism replace agonism. If the notion of libraries as promoters of democracy and inclusion shall not result in upholding the status quo, we must go beyond what we know and make room for pluralistic communities and agonistic conflicts.","PeriodicalId":47431,"journal":{"name":"Information Research-An International Electronic Journal","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82507339","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Derrida and digital libraries: exploring the (im)possibility of virtual hospitality","authors":"Juliana Mestre","doi":"10.47989/colis2204","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47989/colis2204","url":null,"abstract":"Derridean hospitality provides a way to complicate and elevate service models of librarianship, yet its implications in a virtual environment are unclear, clouded by debate within Derrida’s scholarship and surrounding literature. Applying his theory to digital libraries raises questions involving responsibility, labour, and ethics. I review a selection of theoretical and topical literature, exploring the (im)possibility of virtual Derridean hospitality in relation to digital libraries before establishing contact points for this discussion in existent library and information science literature. Articles are selected and analysed based off relevance. Some hold philosophical relevance, representing contributions to conversations surrounding Derridean and Levinasean conceptions of hospitality. Others hold field relevance, representing pieces of literature that relate to questions of hospitality from within library and information science. In addition to relevance, they have all been assessed for quality and timeliness with the goal of capturing a sample indicative of current conversations surrounding this topic. Derridean hospitality provides a novel and productive theoretical foundation for working through ethical tension unique to digital libraries. Though the theory is new to library and information science, there are existent scholarly conversations surrounding library hospitality and digital civics that provide a basis for theoretical integration.","PeriodicalId":47431,"journal":{"name":"Information Research-An International Electronic Journal","volume":"46 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81424744","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Risk, vaccine hesitancy and information literacy during the COVID-19 pandemic","authors":"A. Hicks, A. Lloyd","doi":"10.47989/colis2211","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47989/colis2211","url":null,"abstract":"Introduction. This study seeks to identify how vaccine-hesitant people inform themselves about the Covid-19 vaccine. Prior research has positioned insufficient information or a lack of information skills as linked to vaccine hesitancy but has neglected to account for the role that information literacy plays within processes of becoming informed. Method. 14 semi-structured interviews were held online with vaccine-hesitant people in the UK. Interviews were audio-recorded and professionally transcribed;questions explored the information sources and activities that participants used to become informed about the COVID-19 vaccine. Analysis. Data were coded by each researcher using constant comparative techniques used in constructivist grounded theory methods before being jointly discussed in several online sessions. Results. Initial outcomes of this study suggest that vaccine hesitant and hesitant- influenced action is shaped through the employment of information strategies that bring multiple forms of vaccination risk into being, including social and other health risks. Conclusions. The study has implications for the teaching of information literacy, in particular the conceptualisation that being informed is an affirmative action.","PeriodicalId":47431,"journal":{"name":"Information Research-An International Electronic Journal","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88015542","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A proto-paradigm for information science research","authors":"M. Bates","doi":"10.47989/colis2201","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47989/colis2201","url":null,"abstract":"The lack of a commonly accepted research paradigm for information science has been noted in the field and is the focus of this paper based on a plenary speech given at the Conceptions of Library and Information Science (CoLIS) conference in Oslo on May 30, 2022. The paper revisits the originating definition of the field in the 1960’s, with particular attention to the requirements for an adequate definition and understanding of the core concept of information. Starting with the author’s definition of information, aspects of a proto-paradigm are developed in some detail, including a range of ancillary concepts that describe information of certain types and in certain contexts. Information in both living and non-living contexts is discussed and embedded in the same framework, so as to cover all manifestations of information. Research approaches in relation to human beings and information are also analysed. The paper models information through four channels and in both carbon and silicon forms. Information in relation to human beings is modelled in six frameworks—self, body, ecology, society, discourse, and documentation. Fifteen methodological and theoretical metatheories are placed in relation to the six frameworks. With the core conceptualization of information of all types and in an all contexts, coupled with the theoretical groupings of research approaches to the study of humans in relation to information, we have the interconnected initial elements of a research paradigm for information science.","PeriodicalId":47431,"journal":{"name":"Information Research-An International Electronic Journal","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88340317","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Are we there yet? Feminist approaches in information science","authors":"Mary Greenshields, L. Given","doi":"10.47989/colis2207","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47989/colis2207","url":null,"abstract":"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.","PeriodicalId":47431,"journal":{"name":"Information Research-An International Electronic Journal","volume":"1989 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90357482","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Performing information: exploring conceptualisations of embodied information","authors":"Laura M. Williams","doi":"10.47989/colis2223","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47989/colis2223","url":null,"abstract":"Embodied information researchers have described bodies as performative. The body forms an important information source for leisure pursuits such as running but bodies remain under- theorised as sources of information. This paper explores how performance theories can contribute new conceptualisations of embodied information practices. A review of information science literature was conducted to identity use of Goffman’s dramaturgical model or descriptions of bodies as performing. Embodied information is conceptualised through analysis of performance theory literature, focusing Goffman’s dramaturgical model. The strengths and limitations of Goffman’s dramaturgy are discussed using examples from embodied information literature. Dramaturgical metaphors, such frontstage and backstage, can explain how individuals perform identity in everyday interactions. Dramaturgical principles can deepen understanding of how bodies create and share embodied information. Goffman’s dramaturgical model can be used to address gaps in understanding about how embodied information is created and shared. The complex theoretical underpinnings of performance should be further examined to develop new conceptualisations of embodied information practices.","PeriodicalId":47431,"journal":{"name":"Information Research-An International Electronic Journal","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87494607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}