Depository libraries,the Internet,and the 21st century?

The convergence of Internet technology and federal information policy are encouraging federal information producers and users to adopt a new direct model of information dissemination of federal information from producing agency to end user. On the surface, this trend would appear to remove the traditional middlemen—the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) and depository libraries—from the dissemination model. To assess the impact of the Internet model on the future viability of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), the traditional GPO/depository library model of information dissemination is examined in four areas, keeping in mind the underlying intent of the FDLP to assure access to federal information in all congressional districts.     

Structure or Predisposition? Exploring the Interaction Effect of Discussion Orientation and Discussion Heterogeneity on Political Participation

Past research on how discussions with non-like-minded others impacts political participation has focused mostly on structural attributes of discussion networks, and—as a result—has produced inconsistent findings. This study, therefore, introduced the concept of discussion orientation—one's willingness to express and listen in political discussion, even when disagreement exists—as a predispositional explanation of the impact of discussion heterogeneity on political participation. Based on the national telephone survey data, during the course of the 2004 election, we find a strong main effect of individual predisposition to express different opinions on political participation. In addition, the link between discussion heterogeneity and political participation is significantly stronger for those respondents who exhibit a willingness to express different opinions during those conversations.     

Just another Brick in the Wall … or Not? A Paradigm Introduction Activity

Courses: Research Methods; Theory

Objectives: To begin the semester with an engaging activity that introduces students to basic metatheoretical assumptions and help them find themselves in the world of research     

Deceiving or disrupting the pink aisle? GoldieBlox,corporate narratives,and the gendered toy debate

Using the coordinated management of meaning theory as a guide, this article examines critiques and commendations of toy company, GoldieBlox Inc.’s, goal of “disrupting the pink aisle.” Notwithstanding capitalistic enterprise, it is argued that GoldieBlox’s corporate narrative engages in an imperative social skill that its toys still lack: critical reflection. Although GoldieBlox’s toys are rudimentary in their science, technology, engineering, and math designs, the company’s corporate narrative—driven by its origin story, mission and vision statements, and marketing strategies—challenges a 100-year-old gendered toy tradition and prompts significant questions of gender representation and improbable beauty ideals in our children’s toys.     

Whose memories, whose archives? Independent community archives, autonomy and the mainstream

Over the last three or four decades in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, an enormous variety of grassroots projects and initiatives have sprung up dedicated to recording and preserving the memories and histories of different communities, often under-voiced and under-represented within the mainstream heritage. The impetus for such projects arose from a range of motivations but in general all were responding to the desire to document, record and preserve the identity and history of their own locality and community. Some custodians and creators of these collections remain suspicious of the mainstream archival profession and are determined to preserve their independence and autonomous voice by retaining direct ownership and physical custodianship of their collections, at least for the foreseeable future. In this context, seeking to ensure that these valuable materials are preserved and possibly made accessible presents a number of challenges and opportunities, including an encouragement to re-examine some aspects of traditional professional practice. By examining independent community archive activity in the UK, and in particular in London, and its implications for community interaction and identity within the multicultural context of contemporary British culture and society, this article seeks to contribute a different but relevant perspective to international debates about contemporary professional archival theory and practice.     

A Marriage of Friends or Foes? Radio,Newspapers, and the Facsimile in the 1930s

The 1930s represent a contentious period between the radio and newspaper industries. In the middle of the press-radio war, a new technology, the broadcast radio facsimile, emerged with the potential to bring together the warring industries. Although the radio facsimile was short lived, its story, seen through the lens of the press-radio war, provides an interesting look at the forces shaping a new technology.

Envisioned as a technology that would allow subscribers to receive the newspaper via a radio receiver, the facsimile presented an interesting dilemma: Who would control the creation and dissemination of news—the newspaper or radio industry? This article explores this question through an examination of industry narratives about the facsimile. In analyzing the discourses, this study focuses on how the newspaper and radio industries envisioned the future of the facsimile. Was the facsimile viewed as a means for cooperation or as a point of contention?     

Will You Listen? An Examination of Parasocial Interaction and Credibility in Radio

A quasi-experiment was designed to examine the effects of social media on parasocial relationships and credibility for on-air radio hosts. Hypotheses and research questions were tested using 4 experimental conditions. A sample of 240 participants were randomly assigned to a condition and then asked to complete a survey. Results showed that social media appeared to have a negative effect on the strength of a parasocial relationship as well as on credibility.     

Change the Space,Change the Practice?

This paper explores the results of the introduction of the Pop-Up Newsroom, a virtual, temporary citizen journalism-style mobile news operation, to university student journalists. The results revealed two categories of response: those who embraced change and began to develop networked journalism identities; and those who advocated for the traditional brick-and-mortar newsroom and accompanying practices as preserving professional journalism identities.     

Trusted by whom? TDRs,standards culture and the nature of trust

The first part of this paper examines the notion of trust within the suite of standards that anchor the trustworthy digital repository (TDR) concept. The second part traces the short and confusing trajectory of the TDR project at Library and Archives Canada (LAC) and explores the extent to which the failure of LAC TDR should be understood in relation to organizational funding, operational decisions, TDR standards culture or other factors. In the conclusion I suggest that the notion of trust within TDR standards culture is itself evolving in a positive direction that emphasizes user perceptions of trust rather than seeking to establish objective evidence of trust.     

Relations among the h-, g-, ψ-, and p-index and offset-ability

We show that the h-index, g-index, ψ-index, and p-index, are related through the inequalities: h ≤ p ≤ g ≤ ψ. Moreover, this relation is proved theoretically in the mathematical framework of Lotkaian informetrics and is verified empirically by using two datasets from the Web of Science in the fields of electrochemistry and gerontology. For quantifying their relations, we estimate the g-index, ψ-index, and their cores and ratios of cores via a second-order Taylor series when the e-index, h-index, and C₁ (the maximum number of citations received by a paper) are known. Then we find for the two empirical cases, that ratios of cores and average citations are approximately stable. Compared with the g-index, the offset-ability of the h-index decreases by 20% but the average citations increase by 20%. A similar observation holds for the comparison of the g-index and ψ-index. To explore the possible applications of cores of different indices, we apply them to extract the core structure of a network. The h-core is the most efficient, while the ψ-core includes more nodes with high betweenness.     

A Landscape Archive: Methods for Interaction Design,Preservation, Access,and Mapping—A Case Study

ABSTRACT

The National University of Ireland, Galway (NUI Galway) acquired the archive of Tim Robinson in 2013. Robinson is a cartographer and writer who lived, studied, and documented the landscape surrounding Galway Bay over the course of 40 years. This article describes the methods taken for the digital preservation, access provision, discovery, and digital mapping of this landscape archive. It describes a user interface that allows exploration and discovery of the landscape archive on a digital map, linked to the archive, which allows the user to interact with the material from a perspective of place. The aim of this is to provide an enhanced user experience and create potential for teaching, research, and community engagement. The archive can also be accessed using more traditional hierarchical archival discovery interfaces and is selectively digitally preserved and accessible as a digital archive.