Search results

1 – 10 of 14
Article
Publication date: 11 September 2007

Mindy Whipple and James M. Nyce

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of using qualitative research methods, such as ethnography, in community analysis within the library and information…

1525

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of using qualitative research methods, such as ethnography, in community analysis within the library and information science (LIS) community.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors review the LIS literature on community analysis up to May 2004, critique a representative case study and compare its results to what emerged from the research carried out in rural Romania summer of 2004. Students and faculty from Emporia State University and Ball State University in May 2004 gathered qualitative data on the rural information infrastructure and the information needs and of residents in the Romanian community of Lunca Ilvei. The research team used ethnographic methods to collect data and found this method to be effective in the analysis and understanding of the community's information behavior.

Findings

Community analysis in LIS has relied primarily on quantitative methods. While quantitative methods can give the researcher some information about a given community, these methods cannot always produce community sensitive and appropriate statements. Ethnography can produce this kind of data which can be used to assess and plan library services.

Research limitations/implications

The argument rests on a single village study. However, the paper's review of the literature and its analysis of a key example of community analysis strengthen the argument.

Originality/value

As libraries strive to serve communities and remain relevant to their users research methodologies, like ethnography, that are effective in revealing information needs, wants, behaviors, and fulfillment need be accepted as legitimate and distributed throughout the library community.

Details

Library Review, vol. 56 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0024-2535

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 May 2009

Cheryl Klimaszewski and James M. Nyce

The purpose of this paper is to present the findings from a field study in Viscri, a village in Transylvania, Romania, to investigate the current state of information and…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present the findings from a field study in Viscri, a village in Transylvania, Romania, to investigate the current state of information and communication technology (ICT) development in the village.

Design/methodology/approach

Researchers interviewed villagers in May 2007. Ethnographic methods were used to collect data and to assess villagers' information needs. The information landscape in Viscri is presented and analyzed in local and national contexts. The national policies shaping Romania's emerging information society are discussed and literature on the impact of ICT development at the community level is also reviewed.

Findings

Romania's ICT policy goal of universal access needs to be better targeted. In Viscri, few adults showed interest in learning about or using computers. However, villagers understood that a good education that included computer education was necessary to assure better economic futures for their children. In light of the demographics, social conditions and cultural beliefs in Viscri, the most appropriate access point for ICT initiatives there should be programs aimed at school‐aged children.

Research limitations/implications

The paper describes and discusses the information needs of one village. Further field investigation at the community level is necessary to discern the relevance of the findings to other villages both in Romania and elsewhere.

Practical implications

Further research, especially in the most underserved communities, will help to identify ways in which the information society and related policies can be more equitably implemented in Romania. What is learned in Romania can have implications for ICT development policy elsewhere.

Originality/value

The paper assesses critically the rhetoric of universal access. If universal access is going to remain an ICT policy goal, more research is needed at the community level in order to ensure that policy emphasis on access for all actually translates into equitable, meaningful ICT access for underserved communities.

Details

New Library World, vol. 110 no. 5/6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 March 2010

Cheryl Klimaszewski, Gail E. Bader, James M. Nyce and Brian E. Beasley

The purpose of this paper is to argue that those involved in cultural heritage preservation efforts must look more critically at how preconceived notions of “history” and…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to argue that those involved in cultural heritage preservation efforts must look more critically at how preconceived notions of “history” and “tradition” affect both the design and outcomes of preservation efforts. This paper also adds to the limited library and information science (LIS) discourse on the problematic nature of significance as it relates to selecting aspects of cultural heritage for preservation, which is of particular importance to LIS practitioners as they work to help others capture, preserve and represent their traditional knowledge and ways of life.

Design/methodology/approach

The argument is based on research carried out in rural Romania in the summer of 2007. Faculty from Ball State University with students from several US universities collected qualitative data using ethnographic methods for an ongoing historic preservation effort in the community of Viscri. In addition to the community case study, the LIS literature on the problem of assigning significance to cultural objects for preservation is reviewed.

Findings

Cultural preservation efforts tend to rely on legitimate lay understandings of history, tradition and culture that, in turn, inform social life in a community. Such limited understandings influence the program choices and resource allocations made in cultural preservation efforts. It also tends to finesse the role the elite and powerful have over these programs. Viscri provides a real‐world example that illustrates some lessons to be learned about how the LIS community thinks about tradition and modernity and the relationship both have to cultural heritage preservation.

Research limitations/implications

The argument rests on a single community study. However, a literature review and an in‐depth analysis of a particular historical preservation effort strengthen the paper's argument.

Originality/value

In order for preservation efforts to more equitably preserve cultural heritage, the LIS community has to ask more analytic questions about what history and tradition are in the context of the communities it serves. Those involved in cultural preservation efforts must bring to their work an awareness of the consequences of selecting certain aspects of culture and heritage over others have for preservation efforts.

Details

Library Review, vol. 59 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0024-2535

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 July 2006

Mary Ann Littrell, James M. Nyce, Jeanie Straub and Mindy Whipple

To report on the findings obtained through a field study in information infrastructure of rural areas of Romania.

568

Abstract

Purpose

To report on the findings obtained through a field study in information infrastructure of rural areas of Romania.

Design/methodology/approach

Researchers interviewed Romanian villagers using the same interpreter regarding a village's information needs and requirements. The village's information infrastructure was also surveyed. Because the literature on information infrastructures has focused primarily on macro issues (those national and international in scale), this project centered on micro (local) issues. A history of Romania's information infrastructure is presented and relevant literature reviewed. This is followed by a discussion of research methods used, and then the findings are presented and analyzed.

Findings

The research determined that global information infrastructure (GII) and national information infrastructure (NII) literature is incomplete and needs to give more attention to local and rural (micro level) issues. The findings also raise the question of whether the term equity is “misused” in today's discussions of national and international information infrastructures.

Research limitations/implications

This was not an exhaustive study. Further studies in the information infrastructure and information requirements of those who live in rural communities are needed in order to fully understand them.

Practical implications

Further research will help to identify ways to help improve rural information infrastructures in less developed nation/states.

Originality/value

Little attention in GII/NII literature has been given to the information infrastructure of rural or local areas (micro‐level issues). Focusing research on this subject will help those who live in areas like these.

Details

New Library World, vol. 107 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 13 April 2015

Alenka Šauperl

164

Abstract

Details

Library Review, vol. 64 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0024-2535

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1996

Mark Stover and Steven D. Zink

The World Wide Web (WWW) has become the most visible application of the Internet. Newspapers and popular magazines publish stories on a regular basis about Web sites. The most…

Abstract

The World Wide Web (WWW) has become the most visible application of the Internet. Newspapers and popular magazines publish stories on a regular basis about Web sites. The most ubiquitous symbols of the World Wide Web, its Uniform Resource Locator (URL) addresses, are even becoming commonplace on many television commercials. Over the past few years the World Wide Web (along with client applications like Netscape to assist in navigating the Web) has literally brought the Internet to life and to the attention of the general public.

Details

Reference Services Review, vol. 24 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0090-7324

Article
Publication date: 2 March 2023

Cheryl Klimaszewski

Personal museums provide the conceptual catalyst for liking as a research approach and inclusivity around “idiosyncratic” knowledges within information research. An adapted…

Abstract

Purpose

Personal museums provide the conceptual catalyst for liking as a research approach and inclusivity around “idiosyncratic” knowledges within information research. An adapted research paper format echoes the approach of personal museums: as a commentary on the limits of institutional shaping for the field.

Design/methodology/approach

Personal museums are conceptualized as spaces of knowing in-formation, ontological openings that are literally and figuratively entered into, that make a difference to human and material ways of knowing. Karen Barad's agential realism and Sianne Ngai's vernacular aesthetic categories provide the theoretical lenses through which the researcher's 2018 visit to one personal museum is revisited.

Findings

An ethnographic account of the author's visit to the Communist Consumer Museum (CCM) in Timişoara, Romania shows how its improvisational, friendly and intimate atmosphere exposes it as a space of entanglements in a quantum sense, emphasizing the inseparability of human and material realms and how knowledges are always in-formation. Such entanglements create atmospheres generative of different ways of thinking about information and knowledge.

Originality/value

Human expressions of liking reveal material agencies as ways of knowing and information beyond the realm of human experience and meaning. A vernacular aesthetics of liking is presented as a way to resist the marginalizing tendencies of knowledges classified as unconventional, idiosyncratic or eccentric. This approach is one way of resisting the assumptions of channel thinking that often shape how information is studied.

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1994

Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina

This paper reports on an Internet‐based system for hypermediainformation discovery and retrieval and wide‐area distributedasynchronous collaboration designed and built at the…

551

Abstract

This paper reports on an Internet‐based system for hypermedia information discovery and retrieval and wide‐area distributed asynchronous collaboration designed and built at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). The system, called NCSA Mosaic, integrates cleanly into existing Internet protocols, formats, data sources, and environments, and provides powerful new capabilities for using and sharing information across the Internet.

Details

Internet Research, vol. 4 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1066-2243

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 November 2018

Tim Gorichanaz

The purpose of this paper is to first articulate and then illustrate a descriptive theoretical model of documentation (i.e. document creation) suitable for analysis of the…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to first articulate and then illustrate a descriptive theoretical model of documentation (i.e. document creation) suitable for analysis of the experiential, first-person perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

Three models of documentation in the literature are presented and synthesized into a new model. This model is then used to understand the findings from a phenomenology-of-practice study of the work of seven visual artists as they each created a self-portrait, understood here as a form of documentation.

Findings

A number of themes are found to express the first-person experience of art-making in these examples, including communicating, memories, reference materials, taking breaks and stepping back. The themes are discussed with an eye toward articulating what is shared and unique in these experiences. Finally, the themes are mapped successfully to the theoretical model.

Research limitations/implications

The study involved artists creating self-portraits, and further research will be required to determine if the thematic findings are unique to self-portraiture or apply as well to art-making, to documentation generally, etc. Still, the theoretical model developed here seems useful for analyzing documentation experiences.

Practical implications

As many activities and tasks in contemporary life can be conceptualized as documentation, this model provides a valuable analytical tool for better understanding those experiences. This can ground education and management decisions for those involved.

Originality/value

This paper makes conceptual and empirical contributions to document theory and the study of the information behavior of artists, particularly furthering discussions of information and document experience.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 75 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 October 2021

Xinyi Liu, Jun Wen, Metin Kozak, Yangyang Jiang and Zhiyong Li

COVID-19 is currently the most serious crisis facing the world, and scholars in the medical and social sciences are working to save lives and mitigate the societal effects of the…

1348

Abstract

Purpose

COVID-19 is currently the most serious crisis facing the world, and scholars in the medical and social sciences are working to save lives and mitigate the societal effects of the pandemic. This global public health emergency requires interdisciplinary work to provide comprehensive insight into a rapidly changing situation. However, attempts to integrate the medical and social sciences have met several barriers. This paper aims to identify feasible research opportunities for interdisciplinary studies across tourism and public health regarding COVID-19.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents a critical review of the literature and generates corresponding conceptual and theoretical frameworks to provide an in-depth discussion.

Findings

Tourism-related issues of destination management policies and capital are addressed from an interdisciplinary perspective. The conclusions encourage interdisciplinary research into global health problems, which will promote tourism’s renaissance and sustainable development while enhancing social welfare.

Practical implications

This study focuses on integrating tourism and public health to offer stakeholders recommendations regarding destination management and tourism industry recovery amid COVID-19.

Originality/value

This paper represents a frontier study, critically uncovering a host of innovative interdisciplinary research directions and tourism-focused collaboration opportunities related to COVID-19.

新冠疫情危机下的跨学科实践谈判:旅游研究的机遇和挑战

研究目的

新冠疫情是当今世界面对的最严重的危机, 医学和社会科学领域的学者们在共同努力, 拯救生命, 减轻疫情的社会影响。基于快速变化的形势, 这项全球突发的公共卫生事件亟需跨学科工作来进行全面的调查, 但目前医学和社会科学的融合存在一些阻碍因素。为了应对新冠疫情的爆发, 本文旨在探讨旅游与公共卫生跨学科合作的可行性和研究机会, 并总结潜在的研究主题和未来的研究议程。

研究设计/方法

本研究对文献进行了批判性的回顾, 并生成了相应的概念和理论框架, 以提供一个全面的, 深入的主题讨论。

研究结果

研究结果从跨学科的角度讨论了旅游产业中的目的地管理、政策和资本问题。我们的结论鼓励对全球健康问题进行跨学科研究, 这将促进旅游业的复兴和可持续发展, 同时提高社会福利。

研究局限/启示

目前的研究重点是旅游研究和公共卫生的融合, 为利益攸关方提供关于在危机中目的地管理和旅游业复苏的建议。

原创性/价值

本文是一项前沿研究, 批判性地、全面地确定了一系列与新冠疫情相关的旅游领域的跨学科研究方向和合作机会。

关键词:医学, 社会科学, 公共健康, 旅游管理, 跨学科研究, 新冠肺炎

文章类型: 研究型论文

Diseño/metodología/enfoque (límite 100 palabras)

Este trabajo presenta una revisión crítica de la literatura y genera los correspondientes marcos conceptuales y teóricos para proporcionar una discusión en profundidad.

Objetivo (límite 100 palabras)

El COVID-19 es actualmente la crisis más grave a la que se enfrenta el mundo, y los especialistas en ciencias médicas y sociales están trabajando para salvar vidas y mitigar los efectos sociales de la pandemia. Esta emergencia de salud pública mundial requiere un trabajo interdisciplinario para proporcionar una visión completa de una situación que cambia rápidamente. Sin embargo, los intentos de integrar las ciencias médicas y sociales han encontrado varios obstáculos. El objetivo de este artículo es identificar las oportunidades de investigación viables para los estudios interdisciplinares entre el turismo y la salud pública en relación con la COVID-19.

Conclusiones (límite 100 palabras)

Las cuestiones relacionadas con el turismo en materia de gestión de destinos, políticas y capital se abordan desde una perspectiva interdisciplinar. Nuestras conclusiones alientan la investigación interdisciplinaria de los problemas de salud global, lo que promoverá el renacimiento del turismo y el desarrollo sostenible, al tiempo que aumentará el bienestar social.

Implicaciones prácticas (límite 100 palabras)

Este estudio se centra en la integración del turismo y la salud pública para ofrecer a las partes interesadas recomendaciones relativas a la gestión de los destinos y la recuperación de la industria turística en medio de COVID-19.

Originalidad/valor (límite 100 palabras)

Este trabajo representa un estudio de frontera, que descubre de forma crítica una serie de direcciones innovadoras de investigación interdisciplinaria y oportunidades de colaboración centradas en el turismo en relación con COVID-19.

Palabras clave

Palabras clave Ciencias médicas, ciencias sociales, salud pública, gestión del turismo, investigación interdisciplinaria, COVID-19

Tipo de artículo

Investigación

Details

Tourism Review, vol. 77 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1660-5373

Keywords

1 – 10 of 14