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The purpose of this paper is to respond to an earlier article in the Journal of Documentation: The Cult of the “I”.

The method is a form of critical response.

Numerous problems regarding the The Cult of the “I” article are discussed.

This paper puts forward views about the iSchools Movement.

Principled discussions on the economic value of data are frequently pursued through metaphors. This study aims to explore three influential metaphors for talking about the economic value of data: data are the new oil, data as infrastructure and data as an asset.

With the help of conceptual metaphor theory, various meanings surrounding the three metaphors are explored. Meanings clarified or hidden through various metaphors are identified. Specific emphasis is placed on the economic value of ownership of data.

In discussions on data as economic resource, the three different metaphors are used for separate purposes. The most used metaphor, data are the new oil, communicates that ownership of data could lead to great wealth. However, with data as infrastructure data have no intrinsic value. Therefore, profits generated from data resources belong to those processing the data, not those owning it. The data as an asset metaphor can be used to convince organizational leadership that they own data of great value.

This is the first scholarly investigation of metaphors communicating economic value of data. More studies in this area appear urgent, given the power of such metaphors, as well as the increasing importance of data in economics.

This study aims to propose the four different typologies for understanding local information.

This study applied a conceptual approach to analyze and clarify how the concept local information can be understood in wildly different ways. Furthermore, this study employed conceptual analysis of 36 studies. For the conceptual analysis, coding was applied to formulate and abstract four typologies for understanding local information with specific focus on the Thai cultural heritage setting.

The four different typologies include local information as an array of different interpretations as diverse meanings of local, local information as cultural heritage, local information as subject of information management and situated local information.

This study mainly focuses relevant typologies for understanding local information in the Thai context.

This study contributes and extends the literature in the local information field and the cultural heritage context. In addition, an eclectic strategy of using several alternative typologies for dealing with essentially contested concepts is suggested. This can be useful not only for supporting librarians working with local information but also in other practices dealing with broadly defined concepts.

A multitude of transparency movements have been developed and grown strong in recent decades. Despite their growing influence, scholarly studies have focused on individual movements. The purpose of this paper is to make a pioneering contribution in defining transparency movements.

An exploratory approach has been used utilizing movement-specific professional and scholarly documents concerning 18 transparency movements.

Different traditions, ideologies of openness and aspects involving connections between movements have been identified as well as forms of organization.

This is the first attempt at identifying and defining transparency movements as a contemporary phenomenon.

The purpose of this paper is to explore persuasive rhetoric by critically scrutinizing metaphorical devices utilized by leaders of the cloud industry. This paper introduces a critical approach to the promotion of cloud technology.

In total, 13 video clips from YouTube were analyzed, containing presentations and talks delivered by leaders of Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon – four of the most influential companies within the information technology industry, sometimes referred to as GAFA. With the help of conceptual metaphor theory, often-repeated metaphors for cloud technologies reveal what properties were promoted and hidden.

GAFA mainly used the same persuasive metaphors to promote cloud computing’s positive aspects. Potentially negative or complex issues were mostly avoided. Cloud technology was uniformly described in metaphors of control, empowerment, transformation and automation. Implicitly, GAFA exerts power through the extensive dissemination of their metaphors and these are used in order to negotiate and overcome doubts about cloud computing and related technologies.

This is the first study aimed at understanding the persuasive rhetoric of GAFA, seen as a uniform object of study.

The article aims to identify areas of potential research support that none of the traditional supportive actors (libraries, IT units, information units) have concerned themselves with, arguing for new tasks and roles for the academic library, specifically the special librarian.

Areas of “overload” in the digital practice of contemporary researchers are identified and then connected to various personalized digital tools. The article explores the idea that attention to new aspects of researchers information needs creates a potential for developing personalized meta-services at academic libraries.

It is possible to identify a wealth of new services that can, if put into practice, substantially redefine the relationship between academic librarians and researchers. This entails a turn from service aimed at novice users to sophisticated end-users. Such ideas also carry implications for LIS education programs and the need to build on special librarians who uphold competence in distinct knowledge domains. Two forms of domain-specific meta-services are explored: as support for collaboration and support for presentation.

It is suggested that academic libraries systematically utilize the “full cost” model of project funding in order to exhibit concrete benefits of personalized meta-services. The article holds implications for both academic libraries and for LIS educational institutions.

Personalized meta-services constitute a relatively fresh topic and have previously not been explored in connection with academic libraries.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate concepts that are used in depicting future visions of society, as afforded by technology, to map the extent of their use, examine the level of their dominance in different research areas and geographic boundaries, identify potential overlaps, analyse their longitudinal growth, and examine whether any of the identified concepts has assumed an overarching position.

In total, 14 concepts, each of which is used to depict visions of future information infrastructures, were identified. More than 20,000 scholarly documents related to 11 of these concepts (those with 20 or more documents) are analysed by various qualitative/quantitative methods.

The concepts most referred to are semantic web and ubiquitous computing (all years), and internet of things (Year 2013). Publications on some newer concepts (e.g. digital living, real world internet) are minimal. There are variations in the extent of use and preferred concepts based on geographic and disciplinary boundaries. The overlap in the use of these terms is minimal and none of these terms has assumed an overarching umbrella position.

This study is limited to scholarly publications; it would be relevant to also study the pattern of usage in governmental communications and policy documents.

By mapping multiplicity of concepts and the dispersion of discussions, the authors highlight the need for, and facilitate, a broader discussion of related social and societal implications.

This paper is the first to present a collective of these related concepts and map the pattern of their occurrence and growth.