Primacy of Paper: The Importance of the Medium in Records Management

ABSTRACT This poster presents findings from a group ethnographic study of records managers at four different sites. At the site that is the focus of this analysis, research participants' tasks primarily consisted of examining individual case files to determine if the files should be kept or destroyed under the relevant rules set by records managers. Close observation of work practices showed that application of records management rules varied depending on the medium of the records. This study begins the work of bridging a gap between archival and records management policies for interactions with records across varying media, and empirical research on how people interact with objects on varying media

21st Century Information Workers: What Core Competencies Should MSIS Students Learn?

The day-to-day work of information workers charged with information creation, organization, presentation, preservation, analysis, and retrieval is changing dramatically because of rapid advances in technology, the ubiquitous availability of information, and the increasing diversity and globalization of users, patrons, and co-workers. Further, the jobs themselves are changing, such that information workers are not likely to focus on one traditional information task, but must integrate other knowledge and skills, such as data analysis (with large data) and social media. The array of jobs and tasks leads us to ask: what are the core competencies for all information studies students? The authors conducted a survey of more than 2,000 information professionals focusing on six information work roles (archivy, data analysis, librarianship, records/digital assets management, social media, and user experience) to find out about their day-to-day work and their recommendations for formal curriculum. In this special session, we will organize a lively discussion debating professionals’ conflicting recommendations for formal iSchool curriculum.ye

Using physical and digital artifacts to make us who we are : the case of paper and e-books

Material culture research has demonstrated how relationships to physical artifacts are central to human lives, and that people use artifacts in processes of constructing their own identities and representing those identities to other people—and that the display of artifacts is central to these practices (Douglas & Isherwood, 1979; Miller, 1987; 2010). Recent human-computer interaction (HCI) research has suggested that digital artifacts do not function in the same ways as physical artifacts for these (and other) purposes (Kirk & Sellen, 2010; Odom et al. 2014). Research on human interactions with physical and digital artifacts over the past decade has revealed that people see digital artifacts as less reliable, less “real,” and therefore less valuable than their physical counterparts (Golsteijn et al., 2012; Kirk & Sellen, 2010; Odom et al., 2012; 2014; Petrelli & Whittaker, 2010). Although we increasingly rely on digital technologies, we tend to see them (and the digital artifacts that they support) as “throwaway” things—exciting and even essential for a time, but quickly outdated and replaced with new versions. This has serious ramifications for the roles that digital artifacts and the technologies that support them can play in human lives more generally. This dissertation investigates interactions with physical and digital artifacts through an in-depth examination of two types of artifacts: paper and e-books. It examines vii readers’ everyday and long-term book-related practices through a multi-method approach consisting of a month-long diary study, home tours, and interviews with twenty-seven participants. This investigation revealed new nuances in the complexities of interactions with physical artifacts in home settings, and additionally found that participants valued digital artifacts differently depending on the rules for interaction with artifacts that applied within the digital system that supported access to those artifacts. This finding revealed, then, that it is possible to create digital systems that promote the value of the artifacts within them through supporting the visibility of digital artifacts, and supporting people in taking maintenance and collection management actions with those artifacts— that is, it is a combination of artifacts’ visibility and having reliable control over them (through ownership) that allows artifacts to become valuable for their owners

Open data from the first and second observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo

Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo are monitoring the sky and collecting gravitational-wave strain data with sufficient sensitivity to detect signals routinely. In this paper we describe the data recorded by these instruments during their first and second observing runs. The main data products are gravitational-wave strain time series sampled at 16384 Hz. The datasets that include this strain measurement can be freely accessed through the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center at http://gw-openscience.org, together with data-quality information essential for the analysis of LIGO and Virgo data, documentation, tutorials, and supporting software

Search for intermediate-mass black hole binaries in the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo

International audienceIntermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) span the approximate mass range 100−105 M⊙, between black holes (BHs) that formed by stellar collapse and the supermassive BHs at the centers of galaxies. Mergers of IMBH binaries are the most energetic gravitational-wave sources accessible by the terrestrial detector network. Searches of the first two observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo did not yield any significant IMBH binary signals. In the third observing run (O3), the increased network sensitivity enabled the detection of GW190521, a signal consistent with a binary merger of mass ∼150 M⊙ providing direct evidence of IMBH formation. Here, we report on a dedicated search of O3 data for further IMBH binary mergers, combining both modeled (matched filter) and model-independent search methods. We find some marginal candidates, but none are sufficiently significant to indicate detection of further IMBH mergers. We quantify the sensitivity of the individual search methods and of the combined search using a suite of IMBH binary signals obtained via numerical relativity, including the effects of spins misaligned with the binary orbital axis, and present the resulting upper limits on astrophysical merger rates. Our most stringent limit is for equal mass and aligned spin BH binary of total mass 200 M⊙ and effective aligned spin 0.8 at 0.056 Gpc−3 yr−1 (90% confidence), a factor of 3.5 more constraining than previous LIGO-Virgo limits. We also update the estimated rate of mergers similar to GW190521 to 0.08 Gpc−3 yr−1.Key words: gravitational waves / stars: black holes / black hole physicsCorresponding author: W. Del Pozzo, e-mail: [email protected]† Deceased, August 2020