School
of Information and Library Science
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
INLS 881/882, Research
Issues and Questions I & II
Fall 2015 & Spring 2016
Schedule
Skip to current
session
This course covers a wide range of topics (denoted with a T in this schedule), as well as some of the skills that novice researchers need to acquire (denoted with an S in this schedule). Most class sessions include both type of activities.
Session 1: August 20, Introductions; Scope of ILS (T); Being a doctoral student (S)
What are your current interests? What does it mean to pursue those interests as a doctoral student? What subjects and approaches characterize information and library
science?
- Bates, M. (1999). The invisible substrate of information science. Journal of the American Society
for Information Science, 50(12), 1043-1050. [UNC libraries]
- Saracevic, T. (1999). Information science. Journal of the American Society for Information Science,
50(12), 1051-1063. [UNC
libraries]
- These two articles are back-to-back in a special issue of JASIST, and will provide a firm foundation for our discussion of the scope of the field.
- Buckland, M. (2012). What kind of science can information science be? Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 63(1), 1-7. [UNC libraries]
- Buckland's ideas challenge us in new ways, requiring us to re-think what we mean by some core concepts in the field.
- Tuomaala, O., Järvelin, K., & Vakkari, P. (2014). Evolution of library and information science, 1965-2005: Content analysis of journal articles. Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, 65(7), 1446-1462. [UNC libraries]
- Focus your attention on the results reported in Tables 2, 4, 5, 11 (or Appendix C), and 14, and the discussions of them. Just skim the rest quickly.
- More...
Session 2: August 27, Anatomy of a research question (S)
What subjects and approaches characterize information and library
science? What are the important research questions in information and library science today?
What is theory, and why do researchers use/need theory? What methods are used in ILS research, and why?
- Wildemuth, B.M. (2009). Applications of Social Research Methods to Questions in Information and Library Science. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited. [SILS Reserves - Z669.7 .W55 2009]
- Read Chapter 2 and at least one of the other chapters in Part II of the book. Consider possible sources for research questions in your area of interest.
- Leek, J.T., & Peng, R.D. (2015). What is the question? Science, 347(6228), 1314-1315. [UNC libraries]
- This brief article demonstrates that not only information and library science struggles with formulating research questions. Consider it in relation to questions you might pursue in your research.
- Alter, S., & Dennis, A.R. (2002). Selecting research topics: Personal experiences and speculations for the future. Communications of the AIS, 8, 314-329. http://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2786&context=cais
- Read the first sections, through the presentation of the framework; skim the two authors' personal stories as you wish; you can skip section V.
- Alter and Dennis provide a framework of things to consider as you select among the many research questions that might be interesting to pursue in your area. They then go on to describe their own experiences of choosing research questions to investigate.
Session 3: September 3, Representing/describing knowledge objects so they can be retrieved (T); Conducting a literature review search (S)
Information/knowledge objects may exist, but they are not useful unless the person needing them can discover them. One important role of the information professional is to represent/describe individual information/knowledge objects in ways that support effective information retrieval.
- Faculty participants: Stephanie Haas, Javed Mostafa
- Brachman, R.J., & Levesque, H.J. (2004). Section 1.1, The key concepts: Knowledge, representation, and reasoning. In Knowledge Representation and Reasoning. Amsterdam: Morgan Kaufmann, 2-4. [E-book in UNC libraries]
- While from a book on artificial intelligence, these definitions of knowledge and representation can give us a different perspective on these core concepts.
- Furner, J. (2012). FRSAD and the ontology of subjects of works. Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 50(5-7), 494-516. [UNC libraries]
- This article concentrates on representing the subject of a work. Focus your reading on pages 494-501 and 510-513. consider your own position on the ontology of aboutness.
- Blair, D.C. (2003). Information retrieval and the philosophy of language. Annual Review of Information Science & Technology, 37, 3-50.
- This review provides a good introduction to and overview of description as a problem of language and meaning. It also connects description with information retrieval concerns.
- More...
- Krathwohl, D.R., & Smith, N.L. (2005). The description of the problem. In How to Prepare a dissertation Proposal: Suggestions for Students in Education and the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, p45-74. [SILS reserves - LB2369 .K723 2005; in Sakai resources]
- Read pages 45-52, focusing on the problem description. We'll be working on search strategies during class, so you don't need to read beyond page 52.
- Locke, L.F., Spirduso, W.W., & Silverman, S.J. (2014). Content of the proposal: Important considerations. In Proposals that Work: A Guide for Planning Dissertations and Grant Proposals. Los Angeles: SAGE, 63-90. [SILS reserves - Q180.55 .P7 L814p 2014; in Sakai resources]
- Read the first two sections, on reviewing the literature, pages 63-77.
- More...
Session 4: September 10, Organizing knowledge objects so they can be retrieved (T); Reading literature reviews (S)
In addition to describing individual knowledge objects, information professionals develop schemes (including classification systems, semantic frameworks, ontologies, etc.) to organize collections of objects.
- Faculty participants: Melanie Feinberg, Stephanie Haas, Reagan Moore, Ryan Shaw
- Doctoral student guests: Jacob Hill
- Bowker, G.C., & Star, S.L. (1999). Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. [SILS Reserves - BD175 .B68 1999]
- Introduction: To classify is human, p1-32 (read p1-16 only)
- Chapter 10, Why classifications matter, p319-326
- These two sections provide a rationale for classification and why we need to focus some attention on classification.
- Tennis, J. (2012). The strange case of eugenics: A subject's ontogeny in a long-lived classification scheme and the question of collocative integrity. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 63(7), 1350-1359. [UNC libraries]
- This case study of one class/subject and its history in the Dewey Decimal Classification system raises the question of how to maintain the collocative integrity of a classification system over long periods of time in which worldviews and meanings of concepts may shift.
- Mai, J.-E. (2013). Ethics, values, and morality in contemporary library classification. Knowledge Organization, 40(4), 242-253. [UNC libraries]
- Mai considers the ethical dimensions of our classification schemes.
- More...
- Grant, M.J., & Booth, A. (2009). A typology of reviews: An analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies [Review article]. Health Information and Libraries Journal, 26, 91-108. [UNC libraries]
- Skim the background through the methods section, then focus your attention on four of the review types: critical reviews, literature reviews, state-of-the-art reviews, and systematized reviews. For the other types, you can just study Table 1. In the Discussion section, focus your attention on the subsection on using reviews.
- Boote, D.N., & Beile, P. (2005). Scholars before researchers: On the centrality of the dissertation literature review in research preparation. Educational Researcher, 34(6), 3-15. [UNC libraries]
- This article is based in education research, but almost all of it also applies directly to research in ILS. Read the first sections carefully, through the first column of page 9. Then you can skip to the section, Refining our conception of literature reviewing. You can skip the final section, Looking forward.
- More...
Session 5: September 17, Personal information management (T); Scientific data management (T); Managing the literature you find (S)
Today, we'll consider issues of description and organization in two particular contexts: personal collections, and collections of scientific data.
- Faculty participants: Reagan Moore, Javed Mostafa, Arcot Rajasekar
- Doctoral student participants: Angela Murillo, Sarah Ramdeen
- Jones, W. (2012). The Future of Personal Information Management, Part I: Our Information, Always and Forever. Synthesis Lectures on Information Concepts, Retrieval, and Services, Lecture #21. Morgan & Claypool. [UNC libraries]
- Read Chapter 2, The Basics of PIM. Jones examines the basic concepts of information, personal, and managing/management.
- Jones, W. (2014). Transforming Technologies to Manage Our Information: The Future of Personal Information Management, Part 2. Synthesis Lectures on Information Concepts, Retrieval, and Services, Lecture #28. Morgan & Claypool. [UNC libraries]
- Read Chapter 9, PIM transformed and transforming: Stories from the past, present, and future. It examines and compares Licklider's 1957 conception of PIM, Jones' current understanding of PIM, and his predictions of PIM in 2057.
- Good, K.D. (2013). From scrapbook to Facebook: A history of personal media assemblage and archives. New Media & Society, 15(4), 557-573. [UNC libraries]
- You could argue that this study was done outside our field, but I believe you'll find it pertinent to our discussions of PIM, particularly because it incorporates both physical and digital media. Pay particular attention to the section on functional comparisons, and consider her comments in relation to your own ideas about finding, keeping, and re-finding.
- Marshall, C.C. (2008). Rethinking personal digital archiving, Part 1 [and] Part 2. D-Lib Magazine, 14(3/4). http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march08/marshall/03marshall-pt1.html; http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march08/marshall/03marshall-pt2.html.
- Note that there are two parts to this reading. In the first part, Marshall echoes the argument of Star and Bowker, that people want to keep and organize their stuff. She also analyzes the challenges of this activity, for our digital stuff. In the second part, she makes suggestions for a way forward.
- More...
- Ailamaki, A., Kantere, V., & Dash, D. (2010). Managing scientific data. Communications of the ACM, 53(6), 68-78. [UNC libraries]
- The authors argue that, unless we figure out how to manage the large amounts of scientific data being produced, we cannot make significant scientific progress. They examine scientists' workflows to propose a solution.
- Ekbia, H., Mattioli, M., Kouper, I., Arave, G., Ghazinejad, A., Bowman, T., Suri, V.R., Tsou, A., Weingart, S., & Sugimoto, C.R. (2015). Big data, bigger dilemmas: A critical review. Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, 66(8), 1523-1545. [UNC libraries]
- We're now in an era of "big data" and scale is clearly becoming an issue. This review article highlights some of the questions with which we need to grapple over the next 5-10 years.
- More...
Session 6: September 24, Locating your research interests within this area; Two critical aspects of scholarly work: theory and methods (S)
- Doctoral student participant: Heejun Kim
- Case, D.O. (2012). Metatheories, perspectives and paradigms (section 7.1), [and] Theories (section 7.2). In Looking for Information: A Survey of Research on Information Seeking, Needs, and Behavior. 3rd ed. Amsterdam: Academic Press, 163-172. [SILS reserves - ZA3075 .C36 2012; also available in class Sakai site]
- Case provides an introduction to theories and their role in information and library science.
- Truex, D., Holmström, J., & Keil, M. (2006). Theorizing in information systems research: A reflexive analysis of the adaptation of theory in information systems research. Journal of the AIS, 7(12), 797-821. [UNC libraries]
- This article focuses on the challenges of importing a theory from another discipline into your own work. Since this practice is fairly common within information and library science, we'll want to become familiar with the possible pitfalls of this approach.
- More...
Session 7: October 1, Current research issues in archives and curation (T); Writing a literature review (S)
A variety of questions are now being addressed in the area of archives and curation. We'll be introduced to several of them during this discussion.
- Faculty participants: Denise Anthony, Reagan Moore
- Doctoral student participants: Alex Chassanoff, Thu-Mai Christian
- DCC Curation LIfecycle Model. Digital Curation Centre. 2014-2015. http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/curation-lifecycle-model.
- Review the components of this model, with an eye toward identifying research questions related to each component.
- Lee, C.A. (2011). A framework for contextual information in digital collections. Journal of Documentation, 67(1), 95-143. [UNC libraries]
- Read the first five sections (p95-115) to understand how the framework is built. Lee is arguing that we need to preserve aspects of a digital object's context in order to adequately describe the object.
- Couture, C., & Ducharme, D. (2005). Research in archival science: A status report. Archivaria, 59, 41-68. [Available online at http://journals.sfu.ca/archivar/index.php/archivaria]
- This review of research in archival science divides the research into nine areas. Skim through it to get a general overview of recent research completed.
- Todd-Diaz, A., & O'Hare, S. (2014). If you build it, will they come? A review of digital collection user studies. In Hastings, S.K. (ed.), Annual Review of Cultural Heritage Informatics, 2012-2013. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 257-275. [SILS Reserves - CC135 .A56 2014; copy in Sakai Resources]
- This article reviews studies of use of digital collections, published in 2012, and the factors that might affect amount of use. Quickly skim the section on methods (p.258-261), so that you can see what they found.
- Yakel, E., Faniel, I., Kriesberg, A., & Yoon, A. (2013). Trust in digital repositories. International Journal of Digital Curation, 8(1), 143-156. [UNC libraries]
- While there is a technical standard for a repository's trustworthiness, this study examines users' views. If we expect people to deposit their important materials in a repository, a trust relationship must be developed and maintained. Skim the introduction, literature review, and methods, and focus your attention on the study findings (p.149-153).
- Lynch, C. (2013). The future of personal digital archiving: Defining the research agendas. In Hawkins, D.T. (ed.), Personal Archiving: Preserving our Digital Heritage. Information Today, 259-277. [UNC libraries, e-book]
- Lynch takes another look at some of the issues raised by Marshall (2008), that we discussed a couple of weeks ago. Be on the lookout for new perspectives in relation to personal digital archiving.
- More...
- Webster, J., & Watson, R. (2002). Analyzing the past to prepare for the future: Writing a literature review. MIS Quarterly, 26(2), xiii-xxiii. [UNC libraries]
- This article provides some editors' perspectives on what a good review looks like and how to write one.
- Lunenburg, F.C., & Irby, B.J. (2008). Writing the literature review [and] Synthesizing the literature. In Writing a Successful Thesis or Dissertation: Tips and Strategies for Students in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 142-164. [SILS reserves - LB2369 .L814 2008; also available in Sakai Resources]
- This portion of a chapter provides some useful advice on writing a literature review. It includes many examples.
- More...
Session
8: October 8, Social issues in archives and curation (T); Peer reviewing (S)
Some of the research issues being raised in relation to archives are focused on their role in society. Today, we'll look at some examples of work raising social/political issues, as well as Web archiving and its implications.
- Faculty participant: Denise Anthony
- Doctoral student participant: Sumayya Ahmed
- Short, J. (2014). Take ten to tag! Smithsonian Gardens public tagging initiative. Technical Services Quarterly, 31(4), 319-331. [UNC libraries]
- This is a case study of a crowdsourcing approach to developing the metadata in an archives collection. Focus your reading on the introduction sections (p.319-323) and the lessons learned (p.328-331).
- Flinn, A., Stevens, M., & Shepherd, E. (2009). Whose memories, whose archives? Independent community archives, autonomy and the mainstream. Archival Science, 9(1-2), 71-86. [UNC libraries]
- The community archives movement arose from the perspectives of communities under-represented in mainstream archives. This article reviews the state of the art in the UK, where the movement originated.
- Byrne, D.S. (2010). Access to online local government public records: The privacy paradox. Legal Reference Services Quarterly, 29(1), 1-21. [UNC libraries]
- As collections containing information about people are digitized, the protection of practical obscurity is disappearing. Byrne examines this issue, using case studies from Florida and Rhode Island. Focus your reading on the introductory sections (p.1-8) and the study findings (p.14-19).
- Masanes, J. (2006). Web archiving: Issues and methods. In Web Archiving. Berlin: Springer, 1-53. [UNC libraries]
- An introduction to web archiving. Read sections 1.1-1.3 (p.1-18) and 1.5-1.6 (p.40-46) to get a sense of the issues involved.
- SalahEldeen, H.M., & Nelson, M.L. (2012). Losing my revolution: How many resources shared on social media have been lost? In Zaphiris, P., Buchanan, G., Rasmussen, E., & Loizides, F. (eds.), Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries: Second International Conference, TPDL 2012, Proceedings. LNCS 7489. Heidelberg: Springer, 125-137. [UNC libraries]
- The archiving of social media raises additional issues related to archiving web content. This study used six cases to estimate how quickly we're losing event-centric data shared in social media. Read it quickly, just to get a general sense of the issues.
- More...
- Lee, C.J., Sugimoto, C.R., Zhang, G., & Cronin, B. (2013). Bias in peer review. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 64(1), 2-17. [UNC libraries]
- The introductory and concluding sections of this article will give you an overview of how peer reviewing fits into the scholarly publishing process. Read p. 2-4 and 10-13; quickly skim the section on bias, the main focus of the article.
- Donovan, S.K. (2014). How to be an effective peer reviewer: Some personal thoughts. Journal of Scholarly Publishing, 46(1), 89-95. [UNC libraries]
- Donovan provides concrete advice for those asked to review a research paper for a journal.
- Romanelli, E. (1996). Becoming a reviewer: Lessons somewhat painfully learned. In Frost, P., & Taylor, M. S. (eds.), Rhythms of Academic Life: Personal Accounts of Careers in Academia. Thousand Oaks: SAGE, 263-267 (Chapter 26). [SILS reserves - LB1778.2 .R59 1996; also available as an e-book]
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October 15, Fall Break: No class
Session 9: October 22, Locating your research interests within this area (T); Project management (S)
- Faculty participant: Denise Anthony
- Doctoral student participant: Anita Crescenzi
- Lauriol, J. (2006). Proposals for designing and controlling a doctoral research project in management sciences. Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods, 4(1), 31-38. [UNC libraries]
- Gosling, P. (2006). Mastering Your PhD: Survival and Success in the Doctoral Years and Beyond. Berlin: Springer. [Davis - LB2386 .G67 2006; also available as an e-book]
- Chapter 3, Setting goals and objectives, p11-19
- Chapter 6, Charting your progress month by month, p37-42
- Chapter 13, Celebrate your success, p101-104
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Session 10: October 29, Information/technology services (T); Information professions and the workforce (T)
Information professionals provide information and technology services. Today, we'll consider the nature of these services, as well as the characteristics of the information professionals that design and provide them.
- Saracevic, T., & Kantor, P. B. (1997). Studying the value of library and information services. Part I. Establishing a theoretical framework. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 48(6), 527-542. [UNC libraries]
- Taking an evaluative approach, this article provides us with a framework for thinking about a variety of services offered by libraries and similar information organizations.
- Maglio, P.P., & Spohrer, J. (2008). Fundamentals of service science. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 36(1), 18-20. [UNC libraries]
- Service science, management and engineering was an are developed primarily at IBM in the early 2000s. It takes a more unifying approach to services and sees them as examples of co-creation.
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- Moore, R., & Wildemuth, B. (2012). Information trends: Summary of the symposium discussion. In Moran, B.B., & Marchionini, G. (eds.), Information Professionals 2050: Educational Possibilities and Pathways. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Information & Library Science, 145-154. http://sils.unc.edu/sites/default/files/news/Information-Professionals-2050.pdf
- Papers on the evolution of libraries, the technology changes affecting the information professions, some of the issues associated with "big data", and information use for research and teaching are summarized, along with the discussion that occurred during this session of the 2012 symposium.
- Gallagher, K.P., Kaiser, K.M., Simon, J.C., Beath, C.M., & Goles, T. (2010). The requisite variety of skills for IT professionals. Communications of the ACM, Virtual Extension, 53(6), 144-148. [UNC libraries]
- Using data from a multi-year research project sponsored by the Society for Information Management, the authors propose six IT skill categories: foundational skills, operational skills, and essential skills (all technical), and project management skills, problem/opportunity skills, and relationship skills (non-technical).
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Session 11: November 5, Information organizations and their management (T); Information behaviors within organizational contexts (T); Diversity, inclusion, and cultural competency (S)
Information activities happen within organizational settings, and many of the activities are supported by professionals working in those organizations. In this session, we'll consider some of the organizational and staffing issues associated with the information professions, as well as the information behaviors that have been studied within an organizational context. In addition, we'll consider the importance of diversity and cultural competency among and for information professionals.
- Faculty participants: Barbara Moran
- Doctoral student guests: Amanda Click, Ericka Patillo
- Gilstrap, D.L. (2009). A complex systems framework for research on leadership and organizational dynamics in academic libraries. portal: Libraries and the Academy, 9(1), 57-77. [UNC libraries]
- This article reviews a number of theories of organizational behavior, as they pertain to libraries. They can also be applied in studies of IS/IS organizations, so get familiar with all of them.
- Winter, S., Berente, N., Howison, J., & Butler, B. (2014). Beyond the organizational 'container': Conceptualizing 21st century sociotechnical work. Information & Organization, 24(4), 250-269. [UNC libraries]
- The sociotechnical systems (STS) approach is often used to conceptualize information system design and implementation. We'll use this new look at the STS approach to get acquainted with it. Read sections 1-2 (p.251-258) and more if you have a chance.
- Weick, K.E., Sutcliffe, K.M., & Obstfeld, D. (2005). Organizing and the process of sensemaking. Organization Science, 16(4), 409-421. [UNC libraries]
- Weick's work on sensemaking, in contrast to Dervin's theory, takes an organizational view. Read at least the introduction and first section (p.409-413). If you have time, review the other sections of the paper, too.
- Jones, M.R., & Karsten, H. (2008). Giddens's structuration theory and information systems research. MIS Quarterly, 32(1), 127-157. [UNC libraries, via JSTOR]
- Structuration theory has been relatively influential in information systems research, so we should get a taste of that work. Read these sections: Structuration Theory (p129-130), Table 1 (p135), and The Use of Structuration Theory in IS Research (p.138-142). If you have time, skim the rest, too.
- Choo, C.W., Bergeron, P., Detlor, B., & Heaton, L. (2008). Information culture and information use: An exploratory study of three organizations. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 59(5), 792-804. [UNC libraries]
- This study explored the link between organizational culture and information use in a law firm, a public health agency, and an engineering company. The details of the study are interesting, but focus your attention on the Introduction, Literature Review and Conceptual Framework, and Summary and Discussion of Results sections (p.792-795, 802-803).
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- Overall, P.M. (2009). Cultural competence: A conceptual framework for library and information science professionals. Library Quarterly, 79(2), 175-204. [UNC libraries]
- Skim as much of this article as you can. Focus your reading on the framework itself, pages 190-198.
- Pawley, C. (2006). Unequal legacies: Race and multiculturalism in the LIS curriculum. LIbrary Quarterly, 76(2), 149-168. [UNC libraries]
- Pawley identifies four models in LIS research and teaching that continue to perpetuate white privilege, but that also have potential for positive transformation.
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Session 12: November 12, Professional ethics (T); Information policy (T); Locating your research interests within the areas of information services and the organizations that provide them
Information professionals are guided by codes of ethics, as well as their own moral reasoning about emerging information issues. These considerations often evolve into federal information policies. Today's discussion will touch on a variety of current ethical and policy issues.
- Faculty participants: Brian Sturm (2-3)
- Doctoral student guests: Nina Exner
- Gorman, M. History and philosophy. In Our Enduring Values Revisited: Librarianship in an Ever-Changing World. Chicago: ALA Editions, 23-38. [SILS Reserves - Z716.4 .G673 2015; copy of chapter in Sakai Resources]
- This chapter quickly reviews some of the philosophical underpinnings of librarianship, many of which also apply to related information professions. Core values of the profession are also listed; we'll discuss them in terms of their role in ILS education.
- ALA Code of Ethics. (2008, January 22). American Library Association. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/proethics/codeofethics/codeethics
- ACM code of ethics and professional conduct. (1992, October 16). Association for Computing Machinery. http://www.acm.org/constitution/code.html.
- ASIS&T professional guidelines. Adopted 5/30/92. http://www.asis.org/AboutASIS/professional-guidelines.html.
- Read at least two of these three codes of ethics, so that we can discuss similarities and differences between them.
- Jaeger, P.T., & Bertot, J.C. (2010). Transparency and technological change: Ensuring equal and sustained public access to government information. Government Information Quarterly, 27(4, special issue), 371-376. [UNC libraries]
- E-government and social media services may be seen as a means to make government policymaking more accessible to citizens; this article explores the challenges of this approach.
- Holt, J., & Malcic, S. (2015). The privacy ecosystem: Regulating digital identity in the United States and European Union. Journal of Information Policy, 5, 155-178. [UNC Libraries]
- Differing regulatory strategies for governing privacy in digital space (i.e., the cloud) have been taken in the European Union and the United States, and are compared here.
- Epstein, D., Nisbet, E.C., & Gillespie, T. (2011). Who's responsible for the digital divide? Public perceptions and policy implications. Information Society, 27(2), 92-104. [UNC libraries]
- The authors present two different ways to frame the concept of the digital divide, and then use survey results to demonstrate that the two different view have different policy implications.
- Brief description of "Looking outward" review, on information services and the organizations that provide them, due; be prepared to discuss your ideas about this review
- Be prepared to discuss your evolving ideas for the "Looking inward" review
Session 13: November 19, Research ethics, including research with human subjects (S); Reflections on what we've learned so far
Particular issues arise when your research involves human subjects/participants. This session will cover research ethics generally and, more specifically, the ethical issues associated with working with human subjects.
- Locke, L.F., Spirduso, W.W., & Silverman, S.J. (2014). Doing the right thing: "The habit of truth". In Proposals that Work: A Guide for Planning Dissertations and Grant Proposals. Los Angeles: SAGE, 25-40. [SILS reserves - Q180.55 .P7 L814p 2014; copy in Sakai Resources]
- This chapter discusses the ethical issues that arise during both the process of conducting research and the process of writing it up and publishing it.
- The Belmont Report: Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research. Office of the Secretary, The National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. April 18, 1979. http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/humansubjects/guidance/belmont.html.
- This brief report is the basis for most of our IRB regulations to date.
- A guide to the IRB process. http://ohre.unc.edu/guide_to_irb.php
- Complete the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative online training course for human subjects research, linked from http://research.unc.edu/offices/human-research-ethics/getting-started/training/.
- To conduct human subjects research at UNC, you need to be familiar with these resources and complete the required training module.
- Allen, G.N., Ball, N.L., & Smith, H.J. (2011). Information systems research behaviors: What are the normative standards? MIS Quarterly, 35(3), 533-551. [UNC libraries, via EBSCOhost]
- This article reports on a study of AIS members and their ethical reasoning related to research. Read pages 533-545. We'll speculate about whether the survey results would be different if it had been conducted among members of our own professional associations.
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Session 14, Saturday, December 5, noon (final exam period)
READING ASSIGNMENTS LISTED BELOW ARE TENTATIVE
Session 15: January 14, Information needs and their expression; Presenting orally
It could be argued that the raison d'etre of the ILS profession is to bring together information that has been created with the people who need it for their own purposes. This will be the first of a series of sessions examining the processes by which this professional goal can be reached. We'll begin from the perspective of the person needing information.
- Wilson, T. D. (1997). Information behaviour: An interdisciplinary perspective. Information Processing & Management, 33(4), 551-572. [UNC libraries]
- Belkin, N. J. (1980). Anomalous states of knowledge as a basis for information retrieval. Canadian Journal of Information Science, 5, 133-145. [SILS Library; also available via Course Tools: Resources on class Sakai site]
- Borlund, P. (2003). The concept of relevance in IR. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 54(10), 913-925. [UNC libraries]
- Taylor, R. S. (1968). Question-negotiation and information seeking in libraries. College & Research Libraries, 29(3), 178-194. [SILS Library; also available via Course Tools: Resources on class Sakai site]
- More...
- Gallo, C. (2006, Nov. 21). Your audience will thank you. Bloomberg Business. http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/stories/2006-11-21/your-audience-will-thank-youbusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice
- Browse the resources available at http://www.effectivemeetings.com/presenting/index.asp
Session 16: January 21, Information seeking behaviors: models and frameworks; Information seeking processes: empirical studies and methods
When someone experiences an information need, what happens next? What theoretical models and frameworks can we use to anticipate people's information seeking behaviors?
The processes by which people find the information they need are of interest to both practitioners and researchers in ILS. How can we study people's responses to their information needs?
- Marchionini, G. (2008). Human-information interaction research and development. Library & Information Science Research, 30(3), 165-174. [UNC libraries]
- Wilson, T.D. (2010). Fifty years of information behavior research. Bulletin of ASIST, 36(3), 27-34. [UNC libraries]
- Burnett, G., & Erdelez, S. (2010). Forecasting the next 10 years in information behavior research: A fish bowl dialogue. Bulletin of ASIST, 36(3), 44-48. [UNC libraries]
- Tabak, E. (2014). Jumping between context and users: A difficulty in tracing information practices. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 65(11), 2223-2232. (Read p.2223-2226.) [UNC libraries]
- Savolainen, R. (1993). The sense-making theory: Reviewing the interests of a user-centered approach to information seeking and use. Information Processing & Management, 29(1), 13-28. [SILS Library; also available via Course Tools: Resources on class Sakai site]
- Kuhlthau, C. C. (1991). Inside the search process: Information seeking from the user's perspective. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 42(5), 361-371. [UNC libraries]
- Vakkari, P. (2001). A theory of the task-based information retrieval process: A summary and generalisation of a longitudinal study. Journal of Documentation, 57(1), 44-60. [UNC libraries]
- Bates, M. (1989). The design of browsing and berrypicking techniques for the online search interface. Online Review, 13(5), 407-424. [SILS Library; also available via Course Tools: Resources on class Sakai site]
- Ellis, D. (1993). Modeling the information-seeking patterns of academic researchers: a grounded theory approach. Library Quarterly, 63(4), 469-486. [SILS Library; also available via Course Tools: Resources on class Sakai site]
- Marchionini, G. (2006). Exploratory search: From finding to understanding. Communications of the ACM, 49(4), 41-46. [ACM Digital Library]
- Fallis, D. (2006). Social epistemology and information science (part 1). Annual Review of Information Science & Technology, 40, 475-486 (only). [UNC libraries]
- Chatman, E. (1996). The impoverished life-world of outsiders. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 47(3), 193-206. [UNC libraries]
- Fisher, K.E., & Naumer, C.M. (2006). Information grounds: Theoretical basis and empirical findings on information flow in social settings. In Spink, A., & Cole, C. (eds.), New Directions in Human Information Behavior. Springer, 93-111. [UNC libraries, online book]
- Buente, W., & Robbin, A. (2008). Trends in internet information behavior, 2000-2004. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 59(11), 1743-1760. [UNC libraries]
- Rieh, S.Y. (2004). On the web at home: Information seeking and web searching in the home environment. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 55(8), 743-753. [UNC libraries]
- Vakkari, P., Pannanen, M., & Serola, S. (2003). Changes of search terms and tactics while writing a research proposal: longitudinal case study. Information Processing & Management, 39(3), 445-464. [UNC libraries]
- Renear, A.H., & Palmer, C.L. (2009). Strategic reading, ontologies, and the future of scientific publishing. Science, 325(5942), 828-832. [UNC libraries, or at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/325/5942/828.pdf.
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Session 17: January 28, Information sources: documentary, social; Collaboration and interdisciplinary work
Most social science research today is conducted in collaborative teams. What's the most effective way to identify potential collaborators? What skills are needed to collaborate successfully?
Bates (1999) positioned ILS as a meta-discipline, and it's certainly true that ILS researchers often collaborate with scholars from other disciplines. Why is interdisciplinary research important and what are its key characteristics?
- Wuchty, S., Jones, B.F., & Uzzi, B. (2007). The increasing dominance of teams in production of knowledge. Science, 316(5827), 1036-1039. [UNC libraries]
- Chua, A.Y.K., & Yang, C.C. (2008). The shift toward multi-disciplinarity in information science. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 59(13), 2156-2170. [UNC libraries]
- Reychav, I., & Te'eni, D. (2009). Knowledge exchange in the shrines of knowledge: The "how's" and "where's" of knowledge sharing processes. Computers & Education, 53(4), 1266-1277. [UNC libraries]
- Cronin, B. (2004). Bowling alone together: Academic writing as distributed cognition. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 55(6), 557-560. [UNC libraries]
- Nissani, M. (1997). Ten cheers for interdisciplinarity: The case for interdisciplinary knowledge and research. Social Science Journal, 34(2), 201-216. [UNC libraries]
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Session 18: February 4, Locating your research interests within this area
- Faculty participants: Brian Sturm
- Current doctoral students working in this area
Session 19: February 11, Information retrieval systems; Recommender systems; Creating and presenting a poster
Information retrieval systems provide access to recorded information/knowledge objects. The design and evaluation of such systems is a core area of research in ILS.
- Fuhr, N. (2012). Information retrieval as engineering science [Salton Award lecture]. SIGIR Forum, 46(2), 19-28. [UNC libraries]
- Baeza-Yates, R., & Ribeiro-Neto, B. (1999). Modern Information Retrieval. ACM Press, Addison-Wesley. [SILS reserves - Z667 .B34 1999]
- Chapter 1, Introduction, 1-18 [Available via Course Tools: Resources on class Sakai site]
- Huang, X., & Soergel, D. (2013). Relevance: An improved framework for explicating the notion. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 64(1), 18-35. [UNC libraries]
- Kekalainen, J., & Jarvelin, K. (2002). Evaluating information retrieval systems under the challenges of interaction and multidimensional dynamic relevance. Proceedings of the 4th CoLIS Conference, 252-270. [http://www.info.uta.fi/tutkimus/fire/archive/JK05.pdf]
- Callan, J., Allan, J., Clarke, C.L.A., Dumais, S., Evans, D.A., Sanderson, M., & Zhai, C.X. (2007). Meeting of the MINDS: An information retrieval research agenda. SIGIR Forum, 41(2), 25-34. [ACM Digital Library]
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- Hess, G., Tosney, K., & Liegel, L. (2013). Creating effective poster presentations: An effective poster. http://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters/
- Designing effective posters. UNC Health Sciences Library. (2015). http://guides.lib.unc.edu/posters
- Guide to creating research posters. University of Texas at Austin, Office of Undergraduate Research. (2015). http://www.utexas.edu/ugs/our/poster
- Rose, F. (n.d.) Tips for creating academic posters. Oberlin Center for Technologically Enhanced Teaching. http://octet1.csr.oberlin.edu/wp/OCTET/files/2012/09/Creating-Academic-Posters.pdf
Session 20: February 18, Interactive information retrieval
- Belkin, N.J. (1990). The cognitive viewpoint in information science. Journal of Information Science: Principles and Practice, 16(1), 11-15. [SILS Library; also available via Course Tools: Resources on class Sakai site]
- Belkin, N.J. (1993). Interaction with texts: Information retrieval as information-seeking behavior. In Information retrieval '93. Von der Modellierung zur Anwendung. Konstanz: Universitaetsverlag Konstanz, 55-66. [Available via Course Tools: Resources on class Sakai site]
- Ingwersen, P., & Willett, P. (1995). An introduction to algorithmic and cognitive approaches for information retrieval. Libri, 45(3/4), 160-177. [SILS Library; also available via Course Tools: Resources on class Sakai site]
- Savage-Knepshield, P.A., & Belkin, N.J. (1999). Interaction in information retrieval: Trends over time. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 50(12), 1067-1082. [UNC libraries]
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Session 21: February 25, Human-computer interaction; Developing a research proposal
Writing a research proposal is a critical skill that doctoral students must develop; in addition, you need to be able to manage a research project,if approved/funded. Some of these basic skills will be discussed in this session.
- Trochim, W.M.K. (2006). Research Methods Knowledge Base.
- Wildemuth, B.M. (2009). Developing a research question. In Applications of Social Research Methods to Questions in Information and Library Science. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 11-20. [SILS Reserve - Z669.7 .W55 2009; copy of draft version available in Sakai resources]
- Brause, R.S. (2000). Writing your dissertation proposal while designing your dissertation research. Writing Your Doctoral Dissertation: Invisible Rules for Success. London: Falmer, 97-110. [UNC libraries, online text]
- Robson, C. (2002). Appendix A: Writing a project proposal. In Real World Research.2nd ed. Blackwell, 526-533. [SILS Library - H62 .R627 2002; additional copy avaialble in Sakai resources]
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Session 22: March 3, Locating your research interests within this area
- Current doctoral students and faculty working in this area
Session 23: March 10, Information use; Grant writing and finding funding
March 17, Spring break: No class
Session 24: March 24, Information and data sharing; Social media; Data management
- Shirky, C. (2009). How social media can make history. TED: Ideas Worth Spreading. http://www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_cellphones_twitter_facebook_can_make_history.html.
- Gazan, R. (2011). Social Q&A [Advances in Information Science]. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 62(12), 2301-2312. [UNC libraries]
- De Jaegher, H., Di Paolo, E., & Gallagher, S. (2010). Can social interaction constitute social cognition? Trends in Cognitive Science, 14(10), 441-447.
- Reagle, J. (2009). Wikipedia: The happy accident. interactions, 16(3), 42-45. [UNC libraries]
- Harper, F.M., Raban, D., Rafaeli, S., & Konstan, J.A. (2008). Predictors of answer quality in online Q&A sites.ACM SIG CHI Proceedings, 865-874. [UNC libraries]
- Thelwall, M. (2008). Social networks, gender, and friending: An analysis of MySpace member profiles. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 59(8), 1321-1330. [UNC libaries]
- Cao et al., 2015 - see ProCite
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Session 25: March 31, Creation of knowledge; The scholarly publication process; Writing refereed articles and conference papers
The information life cycle begins when someone records their current knowledge. These information objects are of great interest to information professionals, and their later use is affected by how they are created and recorded. They are also the means by which scholars' work can have an impact, and so may be viewed as an indicator of scholarly productivity.
- Friedman, B. (2014). Structural challenges and the need to adapt [Viewpoint]. Communications of the ACM, 57(7), 34-37. [UNC libraries]
- Ashford, S. J. B. (1996). The publishing process: The struggle for meaning. In Frost, P., & Taylor, M. S. (eds.), Rhythms of Academic Life: Personal Accounts of Careers in Academia. Thousand Oaks: SAGE, 119-127. [SILS reserves - LB1778.2 .R59 1996; also available via Course Tools: Resources on class Sakai site]
- Birnholtz, J.P. (2006). What does it mean to be an author? The intersection of credit, contribution, and collaboration in science. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 57(13), 1758-1770. [UNC libraries]
- Shaw, D., & Vaughan, L. (2008). Publication and citation patterns among LIS faculty: Profiling a "typical professor". Library & Information Science Research, 30(1), 47-55. [UNC libraries]
- Lane, N. (2008). US science and technology: An uncoordinated system that seems to work. Technology in Society, 30(3-4), 248-263. [UNC libraries]
- Nitecki, D.A. (2010). Finalizing a research paper -- Findings through conclusion [Guest editorial]. Library & Information Science Research, 32(1), 1-3. [UNC libraries]
- Lee, A.S. (2007). Crafting a paper for publication. Communications of the AIS, 20, article 7, 33-40. [CAIS online]
- Mingers, J. (2002). The long and winding road: Getting papers published in top journals. Communications of the AIS, 8, article 22. [CAIS online]
- Gilbert, E. (2009). Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity. TED talks. http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html.
- Axtell, J. (1998). Twenty-five reasons to publish. In The Pleasures of Academe: A Celebration & Defense of Higher Education. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 48-68. [SILS Reserve - LA227.4 .A98 1998; also available on Sakai site]
- Syrett, K.L., & Rudner, L.M. (1996). Authorship ethics. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 5(1). http://PAREonline.net/getvn.asp?v=5&n=1
- Clarke, R. (2009). Journal self-citation XIX: Self-plagiarism and self-citation: A practical guide based on underlying principles. Communications of the AIS, 25(Article 19), 155-164. [UNC libraries]
- Stoilescu, D., & McDougall, D. (2010). Starting to publish academic research as a doctoral student. International Journal of Doctoral Studies, 5. [UNC libraries]
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Session 26: April 7, Impact of scholarly communication; Bibliometrics, webmetrics, altmetrics
- Antelman, K. (2004). Do open-access articles have a greater research impact? College & Research Libraries, 65(5), 372-382. [UNC libraries]
- Norris, M., Oppenheim, C., & rowland, F. (2008). The citation advantage of open-access. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 59(12), 1963-1972. [UNC libraries]
- Bollen, J., Van de Sompel, H., Smith, J.A., & Luce, R. (2005). Toward alternative metrics of journal impact: A comparison of download and citation data. Information Processing & Management, 41(6), 1419-1440. [UNC libraries]
- Bornmann, L. (2012). What is societal impact of research and how can it be assessed? A literature survey. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 64(2), 217-233. [UNC libraries]
- Cronin, B., & Meho, L. (2006). Using the h-index to rank influential information scientists. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 57(9), 1275-1278. [UNC libraries]
- Lariviere, V., Sugimoto, C.R., & Cronin, B. (2012). A bibliometric chronicling of library and information science's first hundred years. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 63(5), 997-1016. [UNC libraries]
- Meho, L.I., & Sugimoto, C.R. (2009). Assessing the scholarly impact of information studies: A tale of two citation databases -- Scopus and Web of Science. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 60(12), 2499-2508. [UNC libraries]
- Onodera, N., & Yoshikane, F. (2014). Factors affecting citation rates of research articles. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 2014. [UNC libraries]
Session 27: April 21, Locating your research interests within this area
- Current doctoral students and faculty working in this area
Session 28: Final exam period, TBD: Year-end review: What have you learned?; Poster session based on one of the papers
What have you learned? Re-read the description of your interests that you posted to the class list last August. Have they changed? In what way? What research opportunities and hot topics interest you? How do you want to contribute to them in the next year? During the rest of your doctoral studies? Afterwards? What do you need to learn to accomplish these goals?
- Gallos, J.V. (1996). On becoming a scholar: One woman's journey. In Frost, P.J., & Taylor, M.S. (eds.), Rhythms of Academic Life: Personal Accounts of Careers in Academia. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 11-18. [SILS reserve - LB1778.2 .R59 1996; copy of chapter in Sakai Resources]
- Lovitts, B.E. (2008). The transition to independent research: Who makes it, who doesn't, and why. Journal of Higher Education, 79(3), 296-325. [UNC libraries]
- Gardner, S.K. (2008). "What's too much and what's too little?": The process of becoming an independent researcher in doctoral education. Journal of Higher Education, 79(3), 326-350. [UNC libraries]
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Syllabus / Assignments / Sakai class site
The INLS 881-882 website, UNC-CH, 2015-2016, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Address all comments and questions to Barbara M. Wildemuth at wildem@ils.unc.edu.
This page was last modified on October 30, 2015, by Barbara M. Wildemuth.