Orthography development for Darma (The case that wasn’t)

As the discipline of language documentation and description evolves, so do the expectations placed on researchers. Current trends emphasize collaborative efforts that prioritize tangible contributions to the community, such as a pedagogical grammar, dictionary, or collection of texts. Some argue that for unwritten languages orthography development is imperative so that materials prepared by the researcher (perhaps in collaboration with the community) are accessible to speakers. In light of the current discussions of methodology and ethical issues related to endeavors to document and describe the world’s languages, this paper explores the challenges faced by a single researcher (the author) working on a single language (Darma) within a multilingual setting (in India). This project emphasizes ethnographic and discourse-centered research methodologies which reveal language ideologies that are discussed here to demonstrate that while orthography development is a reasonable objective in many cases, one must be sensitive to a variety of interconnecting issues including history, social relationships, language ideology, and local politics associated with writing and education. While orthography development has not been a viable option in the Darma Documentation and Description Project, it is nevertheless a matter that needs to be addressed for the benefit of the community as well as ongoing discussions of methodology and best practices in linguistic and anthropological research

Food insecurity trends in the Famine Early Warning Systems Network

[EN] Over last 30 years, periodic country analyses elaborated by FEWS NET (Famine Early Warning Systems Network of the United States Agency for International Development) enabled creation of a unique source of knowledge comprising consistent reporting in over two dozen countries. This paper proposes to systematically assess documentation from historical perspective to provide comprehensive overview of food insecurity in FEWS NET covered countries. We propose an integrated machine learning approach to systematically analyse available documentation and generate knowledge. In particular text mining algorithms have been implemented to analyse reports: automated retrieval of high-quality information from text, by finding patterns and trends through machine learning, statistics and linguistics. This enables analysis of large amounts of unstructured text to derive insights. Results show that there is a wide heterogeneity in what is relevant, and in what reports focus on at the territorial level. Many country-level topics are persistent over time with some interesting exception, as Guatemala, Malawi, Niger, and Somalia with more instability. Overall, the evidence show that advances in machine learning and Big Data research offer great potential for international development agencies to leverage the vast information generated from reports to gain new insights, providing analytics that can improve decision-making.Carneiro, B.; Perfetto, C.; Resce, G.; Ruscica, G.; Tucci, G. (2023). Food insecurity trends in the Famine Early Warning Systems Network. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 171-178. https://doi.org/10.4995/CARMA2023.2023.1643317117

The Digital Repository Service of the National Documentation Centre in Greece: a model for Digital Humanities data management and representation

Digital Humanities lie at the crossroads between technology and humanistic research. Contemporary technological advances significantly open up new avenues for humanities study and new ways to utilize the output of humanities endeavors for the communities that benefit from it, be it communities of practice, the education system, citizen scientists and society overall. The following article describes the development cycle of a new cloud service the Greek National Documentation Centre (EKT) offers to the domestic cultural and science organisations. The National Documentation Centre (EKT) is one of the most important digital content stakeholders in Greece, facilitating Humanities research through robust e-infrastructures and widening access to digital collections. The article describes the Digital Repository Service development from planning to delivery, describes the various components of the service and addresses the issues of engaging with the community of users to address their documentation needs and preferences. As part of designing the service and workflows, a survey was conducted in the GLAM sector organisations in Greece, in order to assess user needs and understanding of new and emerging technologies, as well as discern possible volume of digital content. Extensive literature and similar trends review took place and it was funneled into designing the documentation strategy used for the Repositories. The accompanying suit of services was developed (eLearning, eKnowledgeBase) and the project rolled out initially with some pilots, then managed to create 28 repositories with rich, varied content. The Repository Service was developed through national and EU funding during 2012-2015 and aims to support knowledge producers (in the fields of culture, education, science and research) to organize, document and disseminate their content on an open access basis. Overarching goal of the project was to aggregate quality science and cultural content and disseminate through search portals and aggregators such as Europeana

Recent Trends in Software Engineering Research As Seen Through Its Publications

This study provides some insight into the field of software engineering through analysis of its recent research publications. Data for this study are taken from the ACM\u27s Guide to Computing Literature (GUIDE) They include both the professionally assigned Computing Classification System (CCS) descriptors and the title text of each software engineering publication reviewed by the GUIDE from 1998 through 2001. The first part of this study provides a snapshot of software engineering by applying co-word analysis techniques to the data. This snapshot indicates recent themes or areas of interest, which, when compared with the results from earlier studies, reveal current trends in software engineering. Software engineering continues to have no central focus. Concepts like software development, process improvement, applications, parallelism, and user interfaces are persistent and, thus, help define the field, but they provide little guidance for researchers or developers of academic curricula. Of more interest and use are the specific themes illuminated by this study, which provide a clearer indication of the current interests of the field. Two prominent themes are the related issues of programming-in-the-large and best practices. Programming-in-the-large is the term often applied to large-scale and long-term software development, where project and people management, code reusability, performance measures, documentation, and software maintenance issues take on special importance. These issues began emerging in earlier periods, but seem to have risen to prominence during the current period. Another important discovery is the trend in software development toward using networking and the Internet. Many network- and Internet-related descriptors were added to the CCS in 1998. The prominent appearance and immediate use of these descriptors during this period indicate that this is a real trend and not just an aberration caused by their recent addition. The titles of the period reflect the prominent themes and trends. In addition to corroborating the keyword analysis, the title text confirms the relevance of the CCS and its most recent revision. By revealing current themes and trends in software engineering, this study provides some guidance to the developers of academic curricula and indicates directions for further research and study

The Professional Artist as Public School Educator: A Research Report of the Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education

Over the past eight years, the Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE) has undergone an extensive regimen of program research and evaluation, utilizing both staff members and external consultants to collect, analyze, and interpret information on program effectiveness. This information has been used to shape and strengthen the partnership program each year in response to the needs of students, teachers and teaching artists as well as to changing political and cultural pressures within the Chicago Public School System. In addition,the documentation and publication of insights and lessons learned through arts integration experiences in the schools has contributed significantly to the wider body of research in the field of arts education.During the early years of the program, evaluation efforts focused on general descriptions of the program goals and objectives along with initial impacts on student life.Positive trends were identified in terms of administrative and faculty attitudes and increased involvement in thearts partnerships, due mainly to student interest. More recently, a closer, more detailed analysis of CAPE's growing influence on student learning, teaching practice and school climate has highlighted the value of quality, arts integrated instruction, including evidence of positive effects on standardized math and reading test scores.Last year, our research turned to program sustainability, partly in light of reduced funding, as well as to the assimilation of new partnership schools and an increasing organizational focus on the professional development of participating teachers and artists. In the vast majority of cases, CAPE partnerships have evolved through trials and successes to bring lasting effects on administrators, teachers, and students.Through these studies, it is increasingly apparent that the participation of well-trained teaching artists is a valuable, and in some cases vital, addition to the general education of youth. The presence and artistic know-how brought to the classroom by these talented, dedicated professionals can, and is, having notable, sustainable influence on whole school improvement through transforming the daily learning experiences of educators and students alike. Not only does the presence of a quality arts program enliven a school atmosphere and promote the advancement of artistic skills and aesthetic knowledge, but a closer look at rigorous arts integrated activities in the classroom is revealing important insights into the cognitive benefits of arts education. Not only can artfully constructed lessons that authentically bridge the arts and academic content domains assist in the acquisition of artistic understanding, but they can enhance learning across the academic curriculum and, perhaps more importantly, the underlying thinking curriculu

Technical communication or information design? : a New Zealand perspective : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Business Studies

This research aims to investigate and analyse current trends in New Zealand technical communication. Specifically, it considers how these trends compare to those evident in the United States of America, where the research shows a contemporary paradigm shift occurring from technical communication to information design. The findings of this research show that New Zealand technical communicators do have the core competencies of information designers and that technical communication in New Zealand is, indeed, undergoing a similar change to that happening internationally, especially in the United States of America. The research methodology of this study uses data from two sources: • Current literature on trends in technical communication and information design • A qualitative survey of New Zealand technical communication practitioners. Current literature in the field describes trends that suggest a shift in the core competencies of contemporary technical communicators. This literature largely emerges from an American context. These trends include: • A need for technical communicators to be part of the iterative design process of products and to be user advocates • A change from paper-based documents to online information • The advent of the Internet • The advent of single sourcing and knowledge management computer tools. This study concludes that technical communicators need a broad range of competencies to adapt to the trends described, and that it is no longer adequate for a professional technical communicator to simply be a good writer and document designer. However, this study also shows that New Zealand practitioners currently do demonstrate the key competencies of information designers, including highly developed skills in problem solving, planning and managing the process of product development, information management, usability testing, while continuing to carry out the more obvious tasks of technical communication, such as writing, audience analysis and document design. The main difference between the American and New Zealand technical communication trends analysed here is that technical communication in New Zealand is just becoming recognised as a profession, whereas in the States it has existed since World War Two (WW2). Because of this historical difference, it seems that New Zealand practitioners are not bound by traditional job titles as their American counterparts are, and also tend to have position designations that are more readily recognised by clients and users, such as "documentation specialist", or "document developer". To date, no formal research on technical communication or information design has been completed in New Zealand. Further research is recommended then, in order to gain a more detailed profile of practitioners and practices. This research could be used to address areas such as training needs and, more widely, could continue to raise awareness of the profession in New Zealand. Further research should focus on gathering information on the geographical distribution of practitioners, profiling tasks, tools and jobs, analysing salaries, and examining potential academic programme profiles that could meet the needs of potential information designers

Historical Overview: The Parliamentary Library from Past to Present

Parliamentary libraries (also known under various terminologies such as federal libraries, legislative libraries, information resource centers, documentation centers, or reference services) enhance the research and information capacity of parliaments. As their histories show, however, some also came to consider their constituencies as lying beyond the confines of their parent legislature.published or submitted for publicatio

User Needs and Library Services in Agricultural Sciences

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Professional Development for Conservators in the United States: Report of the Directors' Retreat for the Advancement of Conservation Education

Provides a compendium of ideas and suggestions that aim to better define and effectively advance the profession of conservation