Featured - Information Matters

Being an expert in information should surely facilitate professional information practices. Librarians are often thought of as experts in searching for information for others, but what about their own ways of finding things out? Given their extensive education in information-related fields, such as information searching and assessment, one might question whether librarians consistently adhere to systematic and planned approaches in their information-seeking, as taught in library schools. Accordingly, we asked 800 Swedish public librarians questions revolving around the kind of information seeking and use they do in their daily work for their own or their work team’s sake.

Featured Translation

July 2, 2024 Niloofar Sohjoo

The Emotional and Informational Lives of More-than-Humans

Living with other species isn’t just about companionship; it involves deep informational connections. Love plays a central role, helping humans and non-human animals understand and care for each other. It helps create meaningful information through daily interactions. Misunderstanding these connections can lead to problems, especially for the animals who have less power in this relationship.

Featured Translation

June 12, 2024 Irene Lopatovska

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.

Featured Translation

June 11, 2024 Rebekah Willson

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?

Editorial Featured

June 6, 2024 Chirag Shah

Are We Ok With “Overviews” For Our Information Needs?

Google’s recent announcement about “AI Overviews” has created divisive reception. On one hand, it’s helping us by giving a shortcut to an answer and saving us effort to sift through a bunch of results. On the other hand, this shortcut robs us of our agency and ability to verify, question, and learn. Is this the future we want for accessing and interacting with information?

Featured Original

May 22, 2024 Sheng-Hsiang Lance Peng

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.

Featured Translation

May 21, 2024 Lubna Daraz

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.

Featured Original

May 17, 2024 Quinn Remington

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.

Featured Original

May 16, 2024 Yhna Therese Santos

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.