In mid-December of each year, my YouTube channel, INFIDEOS, gives a gift to its subscribers and viewers. These multimedia creations are freely available to everyone in Information Science and are especially suited for students of the field.
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The 12th episode in the What Makes This Paper Great? video series features “Surfacing the ‘Silent Foundation’: Which Information Behaviour Theories are Relevant to Public Library Reference Service?” by Amy VanScoy, Africa S. Hands, Katarina Švab, and Tanja Merčun. The paper was presented at the 2024 Information Seeking in Context conference in Aalborg, Denmark. A new 12-minute video at INFIDEOS takes viewers through the highlights of the paper. For fun, an opinionated but cuddly group of Library and Information Science (LIS) students join the virtual conversation.
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Susan Leigh Star (1954-2010) was an American sociologist who ranged widely across disciplines, and she was a much-loved and respected contributor to Information Science. An 11th episode of the What Makes This Paper Great? video series at INFIDEOS focuses upon her masterful 1999 article, Ethnography of Infrastructure.
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Over 14 minutes, this 10th episode of the What Makes This Paper Great? video series unpacks, critiques, and celebrates Information as Thing. The video begins by noting its citation record; profiles the author; and explains the paper’s method of conceptual analysis. Information As Thing is then situated alongside other definitions that similarly cast information as having multiple types.
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A new video series at INFIDEOS, Information Science Workout, invites people to learn major concepts of Information Science through their bodies. This approach resonates with embodied cognition and multimodal pedagogy, two movements that recognize the important role the body plays in making sense of the world. As the Introduction to the Series declares, “Your body can be your teacher.”
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For 2023, a new video series, An Archipelago of Information Science. The 7-episode playlist is on YouTube at INFIDEOS. The series explores ideas on the frontier of Information Science. Altogether, the collection enacts the metaphor of an island chain—an archipelago—of incipient concepts existing still somewhat offshore, but within sight, of the Information Science mainland. (The mainland is our literature where many well-established tenets reside.) Viewers are taken on an archipelago adventure, following a tour guide who is my own seagull avatar. There are several destinations, namely the islands of: Embodied Information, Contemplation, a Multispecies Perspective, Love, and Psychedelic Information Theory. The video thumbnail for these “islands” are shown below. Each stop on the journey is a expeditious primer, and the featured concept is defined and situated within the history and literature of Information Science. The series is ideal for anyone curious about emergent concepts and new directions in Information Science.
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All educators occasionally wrestle with the matter of travel or other interruptions during the academic semester that take them away from the classroom. This posting offers a turnkey way for information science teachers to productively fill the gap: Hold an Information Science Video Festival!
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The video Learn Information Behavior, 1980s-Style! opens to Lauper’s famous melody and goes on to feature four great information behavior luminaries from the 1980s and their contributions. Specifically, Brenda Dervin’s Sense-Making (1983), Carol Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process (1988), Marcia Bates’ Berrypicking (1989), and Elfreda Chatman’s multiple social theories (1996) are the stars.
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“What is Library and Information Science?” in a 5-minute video. LIS is cast as the mediating force between publications and people. Further, the video distinguishes the academic discipline (library and information science) from the related concepts of its institution (the library) and profession (librarianship). Along the way, several key concepts are defined, such as the reference interview, reader’s advisory, bibliographic control, and information retrieval. Three distinct types of libraries are named (public, academic, special).
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The new 12-episode video series at INFIDEOS, Visual Research Methods, is designed for anyone who may wish to incorporate images, such as photographs or drawings, into a research project.
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