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EditorialFeatured
Chirag Shah

How Do You Like Them Agents?

As autonomous agent technologies rapidly permeate our digital landscape, a critical question emerges: what roles should computational agents fulfill to best augment human capabilities? The capabilities of today’s agents—from voice-activated personal assistants to code-generation systems—continue to expand dramatically, prompting urgent questions about their optimal design, function, and integration into human activities. Despite significant technical advances, we lack a coherent framework for conceptualizing the different relationships humans might have with agents, hampering both the evaluation of existing technologies and the principled design of future systems.

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FeaturedOriginal
Sheng-Hsiang Lance Peng

The Holy API: Ritual, Protocol and Papal Smoke

Every few decades, a curious thing happens in Vatican City: thousands of people turn their eyes to a chimney. And when the smoke is white, the world knows: Habemus Papam. We have a pope! This centuries-old moment feels ancient, mystical and perhaps even opaque. But let’s look again. What if, instead of dismissing this as quaint Catholic pageantry, we considered it a form of communication? A system. A protocol. In the language of information science and software engineering: an API.

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FeaturedTranslation
Yong Ju Jung

Academic Libraries’ Spending Matters for College Student Success

Do academic libraries, meaning libraries in colleges and universities, affect students’ graduation rates? Some might think that academic libraries are merely supplemental rather than a critical element for students’ academic success. For the last decade or so, colleges and universities, on average, reduced their total spending for academic libraries while increasing spending in other areas, including student services, research, and institutional support. In this situation, we examined the association between academic library spending and student graduation rates at four-year colleges and universities in the U.S.

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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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EducationFeatured
Joan Bartlett

Information and You: McGill’s Perspectives on Human-Information Interaction Research

From cybersecurity to archives, and everything in between, research at the McGill University School of Information Studies centers around human-information interaction (HII) – putting people, their experiences, their needs, and their priorities at the heart of the research. These vignettes highlight some of the research from SIS faculty, and how it connects people with the information that matters to them.

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EducationFeatured
Cameron Pierson

Colonial Tensions: Reconciling Intellectual Freedom and Indigenous Knowledge Systems in One Canadian iSchool

How do we further the enormous task of truth and reconciliation between the fundamental principle of intellectual freedom with the collective sovereignty due to our First Nations siblings? This is a recurring question and theme of the course Foundations of Intellectual Freedom in Librarianship at the iSchool of the University of British Columbia. In the winter of 2023, I was tasked with the development of a dedicated course on intellectual freedom. It is currently one of only three such courses in Canada, alongside the University of Alberta and the University of Toronto.

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FeaturedOpinion
Alissa Centivany

The Great Canadian Breakdown: What will it take to get a “Right to Repair” in Canada?

Fixing things in Canada has never been more difficult. Smartphones, laptops, refrigerators, washing machines, smart speakers, virtual assistants, cars, bicycles, wheelchairs, pacemakers, ventilators, tractors, tanks, fighter jets, and almost every other device or piece of equipment in our homes and workplaces is more costly, more inconvenient, and more difficult, if not impossible, to repair. Barriers to repair impact all industries, sectors, and regions. No one is spared from the Great Canadian Breakdown. As breakdown becomes more pervasive, the need for a comprehensive Canadian “right to repair”  becomes more critical.

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