Featured

FeaturedTranslation

Take Care of Yourself

Studies show an increase in pandemic and post-pandemic burnout caused by transition to new teaching or research modes, increased emotional labor required to support students, colleagues and families, uncertain work conditions, unbalanced research, teaching and service expectations, and other factors (Dali et al., 2023; Douglas et al., 2022; Harris, et al., 2024; McClure & Fryar, 2022). During the recent iConference’24, we organized a panel to share faculty’s post-pandemic experiences and identify strategies for improving faculty mental health and well-being.

Read More
FeaturedTranslation

Fail Club: Reflections on What Happens When Research Does Not Go To Plan

Failure in research remains a taboo topic for many academics and students. The pressure to be the perfect researcher can make discussing failure with peers and mentors extremely difficult, if not impossible. Academic publishing – not unreasonably – tends to favor the publication of “successful” research. The resulting culture of silence around failure often extends beyond complete failures, leading to the avoidance of discussing what did not go well or what could have gone better in any meaningful way. What opportunities are being missed by not having conversations about failure? 

Read More
FeaturedOriginal

D(igital)éjà Vu: AI, Mnemohistory, and the Future of Memory

Mnemohistory, a term coined by German Egyptologist Jan Assmann, refers to the study of how societies remember and construct their historical narratives. Unlike traditional historiography, which focuses on the objective recording and analysis of past events, mnemohistory emphasises the subjective processes through which memories are formed, preserved, and transmitted across generations. It explores the ways in which collective memory shapes, and is shaped by, cultural, social, and political contexts. Mnemohistory investigates the symbols, rituals, and narratives that communities use to create a sense of shared identity and continuity with the past. Originating from the Greek word “mnemos” meaning memory, and “historia,” meaning enquiry or knowledge, mnemohistory looks into the interaction between memory and history, recognising that our understanding of the past is not static but constantly reinterpreted through the lens of present concerns and future aspirations.

Read More
FeaturedTranslation

Deadly Fiction versus Living Facts: Tackling the Covid-19 Information Virus

The COVID-19 pandemic has tragically claimed the lives of over 7 million people globally. This toll has been exacerbated by widespread suspicions information regarding the origins and transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, leading to the proliferation of false beliefs and conspiracy theories. The dissemination of misinformation and disinformation (MIDI) has further fueled this phenomenon throughout the pandemic.

Read More
FeaturedOriginal

Resource “Accessibility” Is More Than Just “Posting It Online”

Not everyone has the time and money to book a flight across the world to look at an artifact in person, so how do researchers with limited funding access one-of-a-kind resources? The Internet is a godsend for collaboration, letting us share photos of ancient pottery fragments, 3D scans of mummified tissue, and create virtual tours of ancient Egyptian tombs. However, sharing becomes a little more complicated when that artifact contains thousands of individual pages in 61 diaries, handwritten by a steamship clerk living in nineteenth-century Iraq. The Svoboda Diaries Project (SDP) focuses on exactly that. For nearly two decades, this project has used new and exciting digital preservation methods and extensive collaboration to make these diaries accessible to everyone.

Read More
FeaturedOriginal

Harmonizing Strong Voices: A Case for Collaborative Interpretation

The beauty of qualitative research is that it allows flexibility and embraces nuance in interpretation. Of course, this comes with the recognition that reflexivity is essential to interpretation. However, interpretation becomes challenging when it involves varying perspectives. We (Irish, Gerard, and Yhna) provide an account of our collaborative interpretation experience in, analyzing the Out of the Box Media Literacy Initiative’s Media and Information Literacy for Democracy Handbook.

Read More
FeaturedOriginal

Collaborative Audio Responses to an Online Collection/Archive  

I am the curator of A David Bomberg Legacy – The Sarah Rose Collection, a group of Modern British artworks by selected members of the David Bomberg and the Borough Group. In my role as the curator of the collection, I have expanded the site of curatorial production to include the Internet, and the archive of digitised material associated with the collection. One of the methods I have experimented to engage users in interpreting the digital collection is to create polyvocal audio recordings.  

Read More
FeaturedOriginal

Facilitating Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Collaborative Research: How Elicitation Storyboards Help

How can we foster equitable discussions between different groups of people with very different backgrounds and experiences? In our study on embedding equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in usability testing we used storyboards to facilitate collaboration between people who are underrepresented in usability testing with usability researchers. We discuss how storyboards were used to ensure everyone has a voice and can take an active part in discussions.

Read More
FeaturedTranslation

Exploring the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Information Retrieval Systems

The study aims to comprehensively explore the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on information retrieval systems, analysing the evolution, challenges, and future directions. It explores the role of AI in enhancing search relevance, user experience, and ethical considerations in information retrieval contexts. The findings highlight AI’s transformative capabilities in enhancing relevance, personalisation, and semantic understanding within information retrieval systems. Ethical considerations, such as bias mitigation and data privacy, are also addressed.

Read More