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1 – 10 of 19The workplace is a context of increasing interest in information literacy research, if not necessarily the most visible (Cheuk, 2017). Several studies have described contextual…
Abstract
Purpose
The workplace is a context of increasing interest in information literacy research, if not necessarily the most visible (Cheuk, 2017). Several studies have described contextual, relationship-based experiences of this subjective, knowledge-development focussed phenomenon (Forster, 2017b). What research contexts and methods are likely to be most effective, especially in workplaces which contain professions of widely differing ontologies and epistemological realities? The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
An analysis and description of the value and validity of a “qualitative mixed methods” approach in which the thematic form of phenomenography is contextualised ethnographically.
Findings
This paper describes a new research design for investigation into information literacy in the workplace, and discusses key issues around sampling, data collection and analysis, suggesting solutions to predictable problems. Such an approach would be centred on thematic phenomenographic data from semi-structured interviews, contextualised by additional ethnographic methods of data collection. The latter’s findings are analysed in light of the interview data to contextualise that data and facilitate a workplace-wide analysis of information literacy and the information culture it creates.
Originality/value
Insights from recent research studies into information literacy in the workplace have suggested the possibility of an epistemologically justifiable, qualitative mixed methods design involving an ethnographic contextualisation of a thematic phenomenographic analysis of the information culture of an ontologically varied and complex workplace – with the potential for descriptive contextualisation, categorisation and generalisability.
Details
Keywords
– The purpose of this paper is to describe how an “experience framework” for an evidence-based information literacy educational intervention can be formulated.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe how an “experience framework” for an evidence-based information literacy educational intervention can be formulated.
Design/methodology/approach
The experience framework is developed by applying the qualitative methodology phenomenography to the analysis of the variation in the experience of a phenomenon by a target group, making specific use of one of its data analysis methods, that pioneered by Gerlese Akerlind. A phenomenographic study’s descriptions of the limited but related experiences of the phenomenon, and the detail of context and complexity in experience achieved through the Akerlind data analysis technique, are essential to a framework’s structure and educationally valuable richness of detail.
Findings
The “experience framework”, an example of which is set out in this paper, is formed from a detailed range of contexts, forms and levels of complexity of experience of a phenomenon, such as information literacy, in a group or profession. Groupings of aspects of that experience are used to formulate, through the application of variation theory, an education theory developed from previous phenomenographic research, learning contexts and aims which can form the focus of educational activities.
Originality/value
The framework can be used to form the basis of an evidence-based educational intervention to enrich the experience of any concept within LIS that Information professionals work to develop in their users.
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Keywords
Carolyn Caffrey, Hannah Lee, Tessa Withorn, Maggie Clarke, Amalia Castañeda, Kendra Macomber, Kimberly M. Jackson, Jillian Eslami, Aric Haas, Thomas Philo, Elizabeth Galoozis, Wendolyn Vermeer, Anthony Andora and Katie Paris Kohn
This paper presents recently published resources on library instruction and information literacy. It provides an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper presents recently published resources on library instruction and information literacy. It provides an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering various library types, study populations and research contexts. The selected bibliography is useful to efficiently keep up with trends in library instruction for busy practitioners, library science students and those wishing to learn about information literacy in other contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
This article annotates 424 English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations, theses and reports on library instruction and information literacy published in 2021. The sources were selected from the EBSCO platform for Library, Information Science, and Technology Abstracts (LISTA), Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), Scopus, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, and WorldCat, published in 2021 that included the terms “information literacy,” “library instruction,” or “information fluency” in the title, abstract or keywords. The sources were organized in Zotero. Annotations summarize the source, focusing on the findings or implications. Each source was categorized into one of seven pre-determined categories: K-12 Education, Children and Adolescents; Academic and Professional Programs; Everyday Life, Community, and the Workplace; Libraries and Health Information Literacy; Multiple Library Types; and Other Information Literacy Research and Theory.
Findings
The paper provides a brief description of 424 sources and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions.
Originality/value
The information may be used by librarians, researchers and anyone interested as a quick and comprehensive reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy within 2021.
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The sixth Library Technology Fair was held at Hatfield Polytechnic on 11–12 September 1991. The fair has grown steadily in size since it was first held, in 1985, as a training…
Abstract
The sixth Library Technology Fair was held at Hatfield Polytechnic on 11–12 September 1991. The fair has grown steadily in size since it was first held, in 1985, as a training event for the staff of HERTIS college libraries. HERTIS, which is based at Hatfield Polytechnic, has provided an information and consultancy service to member firms since the 1960s and, since 1979, has co‐operated with Hertfordshire Library Service in providing a commercial information service. A description of its experiences in the development and publication of a business databank of companies was given by Forster and others.
VINE is produced at least four times a year with the object of providing up‐to‐date news of work being done in the automation of library housekeeping processes, principally in the…
Abstract
VINE is produced at least four times a year with the object of providing up‐to‐date news of work being done in the automation of library housekeeping processes, principally in the UK. It is edited and substantially written by The Information Officer for Library Automation based in Southampton University Library and supported by a grant from the British Library Research and Development Department. Copyright for VINE articles rests with the British Library Board, but opinions expressed in VINE do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the British Library. The subscription for 1983 for VINE is £22 for UK subscribers and £25 for overseas subscribers. The first copy will be charged at normal rate, but all others will be supplied for only £12 per year UK and £14 per year overseas. VINE is available in either paper copy or microfiche and all back issues are available on microfiche.
Marc J. Epstein and Kristi Yuthas
The purpose of this paper is to thoroughly examine sources of mission diffusion and mission drift in the microfinance industry and to identify consequences of and remedies to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to thoroughly examine sources of mission diffusion and mission drift in the microfinance industry and to identify consequences of and remedies to these problems.
Design/methodology/approach
Extensive field experience relating to individual microfinance institutions (MFIs) and industry trends provides the grounding for a review of the trade and academic literatures in microfinance and social enterprise management.
Findings
Mission diffusion arises from pursuing diverse approaches to poverty alleviation and addressing disparate and changing stakeholder interests. Mission drift arises from commercialization and conversion activities aimed toward enhancing ratings and achieving scale. Mission clarity can be regained through clarification of the mission along with more effective corporate governance and performance management systems.
Practical implications
The tension between financial and social performance is not merely ideological – economic realities make it almost impossible to stay on mission. Understanding these realities can help MFIs maintain and regain clarity of mission.
Originality/value
The paper sheds new light on reasons the microfinance industry has not been able to deliver on promises of poverty alleviation during a period of heavy demand rapid scaling.
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Keywords
Wilfred Ashworth and Ian Pettman
This is a most important study of an essentially modern situation. The first part, “Getting in Print”, introduces the way short‐run publications can be produced without…
Abstract
This is a most important study of an essentially modern situation. The first part, “Getting in Print”, introduces the way short‐run publications can be produced without sacrificing quality or being priced out of the market. There has been considerable polarisation in the publishing trade as huge multinational combines have continued to take over smaller units and now dominate the publishing, marketing and distribution of English language titles worldwide. This could well have made it difficult indeed for authors of low‐volume, less profitably saleable works to find a publisher. Paradoxically, however, helped by computer technology it has opened up the field for enterprising new small‐scale publishers, with an eye for scholarly specialist subjects and new authors, to issue short‐run editions and even to achieve a better return on capital and higher profit ratios than do the major publishers. The total number of titles produced has actually grown, causing bibliographical problems for librarians who need to keep track of publication, and greatly increasing the number of works going out of print before they can be acquired. The reprint trade is similarly in confusion because the economics of reprinting have become more chancy for some works and potentially easier for others.
The ISHM‐Benelux Chapter will organise a one‐day conference at the Antwerp Crest Hotel, on Thursday 29 October 1987. The conference will be aimed at applications of hybrid…
Abstract
The ISHM‐Benelux Chapter will organise a one‐day conference at the Antwerp Crest Hotel, on Thursday 29 October 1987. The conference will be aimed at applications of hybrid circuits rather than technology.