All posts tagged
LIS

Institute-wide task force on the future of libraries

Library, the computational version.

“In this report, we describe a bold new vision for the library as an open global platform rooted in our shared values and mission; supported by innovative approaches to community and relationships, discovery and use, and stewardship and sustainability; and informed and enabled by an expanded emphasis on research and development.”

MIT Ad Hoc Task Force on the Future of Libraries

The information professions: Knowledge, memory, heritage

After all the technology, we tend to forget the information. Info and Tech are brothers in arms.

“Along with leading to growth in the numbers of people doing information work, the increasing role of information in our contemporary society has led to an explosion of new information professions as well. The labels for these fields can be confusing and overlapping, and what does and does not constitute an information profession has become unclear. (…) The analysis makes possible the incorporation of popular new information disciplines into an overarching framework that includes pre-existing fields as well. The analysis provides a perspective that clarifies the relationships among the information disciplines as well as their relationship to other professional activities in society.”

(Marcia Bates ~ Information Research 20.1)

Improving library user experience with A/B testing: Principles and process

Another item to the acro soup: LUX. Great initiative this peer-reviewed journal.

“This paper demonstrates how user interactions can be measured and evaluated with A/B testing, a user experience research methodology. A/B testing entails a process of controlled experimentation whereby different variations of a product or service are served randomly to users in order to determine the highest performing variation. This paper describes the principles of A/B testing and details a practical web-based application in an academic library. Data collected and analyzed through this A/B testing process allowed the library to initiate user-centered website changes that resulted in increased website engagement and improved user experience. A/B testing is presented as an integral component of a library user experience research program for its ability to provide quantitative user insights into known UX problems.”

(Scott W. H. Young a.k.a. @hei_scott ~ Weave: Journal of Library User Experience 1.1)

(…) or ‘The user experience in the library’

Wandering through the structured space with information (a.k.a. the Library) has its UX too, made by librarians.

“It worries me that librarians still seem to think that the problem facing librarianship is that people aren’t visiting the librarians at the library. I haven’t read a really great world altering story anywhere about how a library has suddenly implemented a new program to get all the students rushing in to talk to the librarians, and basing future experience on past, I have to say no such program is about to fly in through the window to save the profession.”

(A Searching Librarian)

The nature of information science: Changing models

“This paper considers the nature of information science as a discipline and profession. It is based on conceptual analysis of the information science literature, and consideration of philosophical perspectives, particularly those of Kuhn and Peirce. It is argued that information science may be understood as a field of study, with human recorded information as its concern, focusing on the components of the information chain, studied through the perspective of domain analysis, in specific or general contexts. A particular aspect of interest is those aspects of information organization, and of human information-related behaviour, which are invariant to changes in technology. Information science can also be seen as a science of evaluation of information, understood as semantic content with respect to qualitative growth of knowledge and change in knowledge structures in domains. This study contributes to the understanding of the unique ‘academic territory’ of information science, a discipline with an identity distinct from adjoining subjects.” (Lyn Robinson and Murat Karamuftuoglu ~ Information Research 15.4)