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FeaturedInfoFire
Shalini Urs

Reframing Information: From “Information as Thing” to “Everything as Document” to the Identity of iSchools — Conversations with Michael Buckland

Michael Buckland, a pivotal figure in information science, has profoundly shaped the field through his scholarship and leadership. In this episode of InfoFire, Buckland engaged with me on foundational concepts, practical applications, and historical perspectives, offering provocative critiques that challenge conventional thinking. He declared “information” a problematic term— “It is a bad word; it is to be abolished”—arguing that its overloaded meanings obscure clarity. Similarly, he labeled bibliometrics a “pseudoscience,” questioning its methodological rigor. These rhetorical provocations underscore his effort to reframe information science around precise, document-centric frameworks.

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graphic of AI in education with books and tablet
FeaturedOriginal
A. Miller

Integrating AI in Education: Educational Technology Practices, Tools, and Accessibility

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly a topic of interest and concern in higher education. Much of the current research focuses on AI policies, how AI is changing education, and the AI use cases that include benefits (e.g., new insights) and concerns (e.g., academic integrity) of AI use. This article focuses on AI integration and builds on an earlier article on AI tools, algorithmic literacies, and educational technology, demonstrating how inclusive design impacts accessibility and the design of AI in education. With this understanding, educators can evaluate existing educational technologies and AI tools as options they may consider adding to their curriculum. The integration ideas presented may help educators plan for educational technology practices, such as scaffolded lessons and assessments for AI literacy (which include digital and AI literacy frameworks and the benefits and challenges of AI). Additionally, these ideas may help educators get started with AI by offering suggestions on technologies to evaluate.

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FeaturedOriginal
Ali Shiri

Digital Self-Determination: Data Sovereignty in Inuvialuit Communities of Canada’s Western Arctic

Since 2013, researchers from the University of Alberta School of Library and Information Studies and the Inuvialuit elders, leaders, and community members in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR), Northwest Territories have collaborated to develop digital library and digital storytelling platforms to support Inuvialuit cultural heritage digitization, revitalization, preservation and access.

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FeaturedProfessional Development
Atticus Hawk

Naloxone Now! Canadian Librarians Save Lives

Nearly 50% of library workers in Canada have responded to an opioid overdose at work, while only half of library workers who had responded to a suspected overdose on the job felt that they had been properly trained or were confident in how they handled the situation. This situation should give us pause: most library workers are unequipped to handle this very real part of the job. As iSchool educators, we ought to ask ourselves: what are we going to do about this? Can saving lives be considered a core LIS principle?

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library shelves with sunny window
EducationFeatured
Lisa Shamchuk

Tracing “CanCon” in Library and Information Science Research

LIS professionals and practitioners may find it challenging to access current research that supports library decision-making, program development, or service evaluation through a distinctly Canadian lens. Public, school, and special libraries did not seem to have the same kind of representation in the research, and it made me wonder: what is the state of Canadian LIS research content?

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FeaturedTranslation
Cansu Ekmekcioglu

Toward Sustainable Data Governance in Refugee and Immigrant Serving Sector in Canada

For governments across the world, evaluating the impact of social service programs is a growing challenge – and they are increasingly turning to data and technology to help manage it. This is especially true for programs serving refugees and immigrants to settle in a new country. From tracking who needs settlement support to deciding who gets benefits first, digital systems and artificial intelligence (AI) are becoming key tools in how social services support refugees and immigrants. But what happens when data systems try to capture something as human and complex as “support”?  

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FeaturedOriginal
Elisa Tattersall Wallin

All Talk and Few Facts: Reflecting on the Role of Podcasts in Climate Obstruction

What role do podcasts play in spreading information about climate change? For a research project on environmental communication, I explored how these issues are discussed in podcasts. I found that serious channels with the ambition to inform about climate change issues share the space with channels with a dubious agenda and a loose relationship to facts.

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FeaturedTranslation
Jaihyun Park

Rethinking Reuse in Data Lifecycle in the Age of Large Language Models

In the world we are living in, a digital world, some data slips past our awareness, but very little data ever truly disappears. As we, information scientists, are concerned with reproducibility and responsibility of research, data lifecycle models have been developed to manage the complexity. To foster open, transparent, and collaborative science, data is often archived in a repository at the end of the project according to such data lifecycle models. This is often followed by the last step of the lifecycle models, data reuse. Traditionally, this model is cyclical, with reused data leading to new questions and fueling subsequent rounds of research.

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FeaturedInfoFire
Shalini Urs

LLMs, AI, and the Future of Research Evaluation: A Conversation with Mike Thelwall on Informetrics and Research Impact

In this episode of InfoFire, I sit down with Professor Mike Thelwall, a well accomplished scholar of Informetrics, to explore the intersections of Large Language Models (LLMs) and research evaluation. We delve into how LLMs are reshaping the landscape of research assessment, examining the promises they hold and the challenges they present in ensuring fair, meaningful, and context-aware evaluations.

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