OU - Faculty and Staff Publications

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Browsing OU - Faculty and Staff Publications by College/Department "College of Arts and Sciences::School of Library and Information Studies"

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    An automatic approach to weighted subject indexing – An empirical study in the biomedical domain
    (2015) Lu, Kun; Mao, Jin
    Subject indexing is an intellectually intensive process that has many inherent uncertainties. Existing manual subject indexing systems generally produce binary outcomes for whether or not to assign an indexing term. This does not sufficiently reflect the extent to which the indexing terms are associated with the documents. On the other hand, the idea of probabilistic or weighted indexing was proposed a long time ago and has seen success in capturing uncertainties in the automatic indexing process. One hurdle to overcome in implementing weighted indexing in manual subject indexing systems is the practical burden that could be added to the already intensive indexing process. This study proposes a method to infer automatically the associations between subject terms and documents through text mining. By uncovering the connections between MeSH descriptors and document text, we are able to derive the weights of MeSH descriptors manually assigned to documents. Our initial results suggest that the inference method is feasible and promising. The study has practical implications for improving subject indexing practice and providing better support for information retrieval.
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    Engage, Enrich, Enlighten, Energize: Explorations in Instructional Humor
    (2021-04) Van der Veer Martens, Betsy
    This chapter describes the use of classroom humor in the teaching of a government information course, employing the four Es (engage, enrich, enlighten, energize) to educate and empower library & information science students in a proactive approach to government information in order to help their communities both understand and make better use of these critical information resources, which are intended to facilitate the government "of the people, by the people, and for the people."
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    Practical and scholarly implications of information behavior research: A pilot study of research literature
    (2015-12) Koh, Kyungwon; Rubenstein, Ellen; White, Kelvin
    Introduction. This pilot study examined how current information behaviour research addresses the implications and potential impacts of its findings. The goal was to understand what implications and contributions the field has made and how effectively authors communicate implications of their findings. Methods. We conducted a content analysis of 30 randomly selected refereed research papers on information behaviour published between 2008 and 2012 in the U.S. and Canada. Analysis. Analysed elements included journal, year, author affiliation, types of implications, theory, methodology, context and scope of implications, location of implications, intended audience, beneficiaries, and future research. Results. Twenty-three papers offered practical implications; seven included both practical and scholarly implications. Only eight papers referenced theory and of these, only three generated theoretical implications. Seventy percent of studies discussed practical implications for librarians and archivists. Implications were often context-bound in that they related to a particular group or environment. Conclusion. The impact of information behaviour research encompasses a range of areas. A stronger relationship between theory, practice and research must be achieved to advance the field. To facilitate generation of stronger implications, we proposed six components of implications and suggested criteria for strong, moderate and weak research implications.
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    Race and culture : an ethnic studies approach to archival and recordkeeping research in the United States
    (2017) White, Kelvin L.; White, Kelvin L.; McKemmish, Susan Marilyn; Gilliland, Anne; Lau, Andrew
    This paper focuses on conceptual frameworks developed in ethnic studies and contemplates what these might contribute in terms of approaching archival and recordkeeping research through an African American lens. The paper explores the epistemological lineage of ethnic studies, its emergence and evolution in the US context; defines and discusses key concepts and contexts salient to ethnic studies, including cultural environments; and comments on the relationships between ethnic studies ideas and those drawn from both traditional and postmodern archival thinking. Lastly, the paper discusses some of the considerations in using conceptual frameworks from ethnic studies in research related to archival practice and recordkeeping in the United States.