Here's to the things themselves: Outcomes of a discussion panel on phenomenology in LIS (original) (raw)
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Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science, 2010
In this exploratory study, the researcher reflects on personal experience as a student at an academic library over the course of one year of PhD study.Data were gathered using an autoethnographic methodology, and the reflectionson these data are presented in the form of three two-minute video clips narrated with accompanying poems. This study assumes that the different paradigms and theories about information behaviour affect how the individual is understood within this system. These reflections raise questions about the influences our models have at ground level of the library profession and the people libraries claim to serve.
Library and Information Research, 2018
Currently there is an embarrassment of riches with regards to research in areas such as library and information studies [LIS] – a range of possibilities, both qualitative and quantitative – added to which we now have the potential for ‘mixed methods’ and the lure of ‘Big Data’ as a resourced that appears to offer a readily available and potentially fruitful basis for investigative studies. All of this provides a rich body of resources for researchers, but this abundance also has a downside leading to confusion and perplexity. Contributions such as this special issue are intended to resolve and ameliorate this, and so we seek to address some of these issues in the form of an interchange between two researchers with interests that include, but are not limited to, research in LIS. The aim of this is to seek some clarification of key issues involved; although we realize that this is unlikely to provide any definitive outcome, it may assist those seeking some guidance on these matters.
This article discusses digital library development at the Library of Congress focusing on institutional processes associated with technological innovation in the library context and key transformative event, the completion of the National Digital Library Program (NDLP) (1995-2000). Interviews with seven key participants of the program conducted in 2002 at the Library of Congress (from policy-makers to digital library developers) are interpreted here in terms of loci of control (external/internal) shaping the process of innovation and its institutionalization — the coercive and normative pressures of society, and the professional field of librarianship. The perceptions of individuals are synthesized into a realist narrative in which their voices are still recognizable. Their tales of development show that organizational change driven by external forces and involving individuals who crossed boundaries of organizational fields can be very successful in forcing organizational isomorphism and integration of digitization in the library processes. The accompanying article, Part I, presents theories of social change and organizational rationality, and the social construction of technology (SCOT) as well as the methodological framework for this phenomenological study.
Experiences of the Library in the Digital Age
2006
Abstract Libraries as physical structures embody the cultures within which they are situated and provide access to archive materials that represent the evolution of culture over time. Digital libraries serve similar roles to traditional ones in capturing and making available the written cultural heritage. However, the experience of interacting with materials in the digital library is very different to that in the traditional one. Access is democratised, but may be impoverished in other ways.
Inspiration, information: Libraries and Society in an age of change
The aim of this thesis paper is to understand the change in the relationship between libraries and society as part of the effects of today’s changes in technology, to analyze how this change is a reflection of how the very structure of information is being altered by the ways it is conveyed through digital platforms, and to trace its social impact. We are a culture of the book, the way we perceive and interact with the world has been shaped by the implications of print culture, and now this way is being transformed by the implications of digital culture. The different properties attributed to digital technologies enable people to have a more active and significant role in the construction of knowledge in culture.
Advancing Research for Library and Information Science with Qualitative Secondary Analysis
2016
This paper presents the results of a study utilizing a seldom-used method in Library and Information Science (LIS): Qualitative Secondary Analysis. The data is drawn from two phenomenological studies about experiences of Reference and Information Services (RIS) librarians. We discuss how we repurposed the interview data in this study, and also the strengths, weaknesses, and wider applications of the method across LIS.
An evaluation of phenomenography
Library and Information Research, 2017
Cossham, A. F. (2017). This article briefly evaluates phenomenography as a research approach. Drawing on findings from a recently-completed research project, it explains the phenomenographic approach, outlines how it was used in the research project, and presents the advantages and disadvantages of phenomenography. It identifies three issues with using phenomenography that do not seem to have been raised elsewhere. Two issues apply generally to all such research: the nature of phenomenographic data, and an inconsistency in phenomenography itself. The third is around mental models and phenomenographic conceptions and is applicable to this research project, but has wider implications for the concept of mental models in the cognitive viewpoint of library and information studies (LIS) research.