Merging Special Collections with GIS Technology to Enhance the User Experience

This analysis evaluates how PhillyHistory.org merged their unique special collection materials with geospatial-based progressive technology to challenge and educate the global community. A new generation of technologically savvy researchers has emerged that expect a more enhanced user experience than earlier generations. To meet these needs, collection managers are collaborating with community and local institutions to increase online access to materials; mixing best metadata practices with custom elements to create map mashups; and merging progressive GIS technology and geospatial based applications with their collections to enhance the user experience. The PhillyHistory.org website was analyzed to explore how they used various geospatial technology to create a new type of digital content management system based on geographical information and make their collections accessible via online software and mobile applications

Film and moving image studies: re-born digital? Some participant observations

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Supporting exploratory browsing with visualization of social interaction history

This thesis is concerned with the design, development, and evaluation of information visualization tools for supporting exploratory browsing. Information retrieval (IR) systems currently do not support browsing well. Responding to user queries, IR systems typically compute relevance scores of documents and then present the document surrogates to users in order of relevance. Other systems such as email clients and discussion forums simply arrange messages in reverse chronological order. Using these systems, people cannot gain an overview of a collection easily, nor do they receive adequate support for finding potentially useful items in the collection. This thesis explores the feasibility of using social interaction history to improve exploratory browsing. Social interaction history refers to traces of interaction among users in an information space, such as discussions that happen in the blogosphere or online newspapers through the commenting facility. The basic hypothesis of this work is that social interaction history can serve as a good indicator of the potential value of information items. Therefore, visualization of social interaction history would offer navigational cues for finding potentially valuable information items in a collection. To test this basic hypothesis, I conducted three studies. First, I ran statistical analysis of a social media data set. The results showed that there were positive relationships between traces of social interaction and the degree of interestingness of web articles. Second, I conducted a feasibility study to collect initial feedback about the potential of social interaction history to support information exploration. Comments from the participants were in line with the research hypothesis. Finally, I conducted a summative evaluation to measure how well visualization of social interaction history can improve exploratory browsing. The results showed that visualization of social interaction history was able to help users find interesting articles, to reduce wasted effort, and to increase user satisfaction with the visualization tool

Digital humanities is text heavy, visualization light, and simulation poor

This article examines the question of whether Digital Humanities has given too much focus to text over non-text media and provides four major reasons to encourage more non-text-focused research under the umbrella of Digital Humanities. How could Digital Humanities engage in more humanities-oriented rhetorical and critical visualization, and not only in the development of scientific visualization and information visualization

Innovate Magazine / Annual Review 2011-2012

This year\u27s issue highlights some of the ways the SJSU School of Library and Information Science is being a catalyst for global innovation, explores the tools SJSU SLIS master\u27s students and faculty use to interact in our innovative online learning environment, and describes some of the exciting career pathways our alum are pursuing.https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/innovate/1000/thumbnail.jp

Visualization of and Access to CloudSat Vertical Data through Google Earth

Online tools, pioneered by the Google Earth (GE), are facilitating the way in which scientists and general public interact with geospatial data in real three dimensions. However, even in Google Earth, there is no method for depicting vertical geospatial data derived from remote sensing satellites as an orbit curtain seen from above. Here, an effective solution is proposed to automatically render the vertical atmospheric data on Google Earth. The data are first processed through the Giovanni system, then, processed to be 15-second vertical data images. A generalized COLLADA model is devised based on the 15-second vertical data profile. Using the designed COLLADA models and satellite orbit coordinates, a satellite orbit model is designed and implemented in KML format to render the vertical atmospheric data in spatial and temporal ranges vividly. The whole orbit model consists of repeated model slices. The model slices, each representing 15 seconds of vertical data, are placed on the CloudSat orbit based on the size, scale, and angle with the longitude line that are precisely and separately calculated on the fly for each slice according to the CloudSat orbit coordinates. The resulting vertical scientific data can be viewed transparently or opaquely on Google Earth. Not only is the research bridged the science and data with scientists and the general public in the most popular way, but simultaneous visualization and efficient exploration of the relationships among quantitative geospatial data, e.g. comparing the vertical data profiles with MODIS and AIRS precipitation data, becomes possible