The Changing Landscape of Digital Access: Public-Private Partnerships in US State and Territorial Archives.

This dissertation examines the network of public archives and private sector organizations engaged in the work of digitizing historical records. It focuses on the recent expansion of public-private partnerships involving US state and territorial archives and their effects on citizens’ access to digitized materials. It seeks to understand the ways in which government archives engage with the private sector around digitization of records documenting birth, death, land ownership, and other events central to life in a democratic society. I employ a theoretical framework combining ideas from archival studies, government information, public finance, and economics. I argue that archival materials are public goods as understood by economists and public policy scholars, and assert that this designation merits a new perspective on government archives. The dissertation project employs a mixed-methods research design, combining a survey, interviews, and document analysis to follow the trajectory of these partnerships, from the motivations of each group of organizations through contract negotiation, records selection, digitization work, challenges, and the implications for access to digitized government records. My results demonstrate widespread engagement between state and territorial archives and private sector organizations. More than 75% of survey respondents reported that their organization engaged in public-private partnerships. These partnerships largely focus on genealogical records which contain information about individuals. This makes sense from a business standpoint but threatens to undermine the public goods designation which protects government archives from market forces. I identify the negotiation period as a time when archivists have learned to leverage their unique holdings in order to advocate for their institutional interests. Through information sharing among government archives, they work to obtain the best contract terms on behalf of their holdings and users. I also highlight the impact of public records and freedom of information laws on the interactions between public archives and private firms. This dissertation documents an information environment in transition. The number of partnerships has increased in recent years but research has not kept pace. This project is the first comprehensive study of public-private partnerships involving state and territorial archives in the US, and serves as a basis for future work.PhDInformationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/111584/1/akriesbe_1.pd

Data reuse and sensemaking among novice social scientists

We know little about the data reuse practices of novice data users. Yet large scale data reuse over the long term depends in part on uptake from early career researchers. This paper examines 22 novice social science researchers and how they make sense of social science data. Novices are particularly interested in understanding how data: 1) are transformed from qualitative to quantitative data, 2) capture concepts not well‐established in the literature, and 3) can be matched and merged across multiple datasets. We discuss how novice data users make sense of data in these three circumstances. We find that novices seek to understand the data producer's rationale for methodological procedures and measurement choices, which is broadly similar to researchers in other scientific communities. However we also find that they not only reflect on whether they can trust the data producers' decisions, but also seek guidance from members of their disciplinary community. Specifically, novice social science researchers are heavily influenced by more experienced social science researchers when it comes to discovering, evaluating, and justifying their reuse of other's data.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/96429/1/14504901068_ftp.pd

Looting Hoards of Gold and Poaching Spotted Owls: Data Confidentiality Among Archaeologists & Zoologists

Researchers in the social and health sciences are used to dealing with confidential data, and repositories in these areas have developed mechanisms to prevent unethical or illegal disclosure of this data. However, other scientific communities also collect data whose disclosure may cause harm to communities, cultures, or the environment. This paper presents results from 62 interviews and observations with archaeologists and zoologists. It focuses on how researchers’ perceptions of potential harm influence attitudes about data confidentiality, and how these, in turn, influence opinions about who should be responsible for managing access to data. This is particularly problematic in archaeology when harm is not to a living individual but is targeted at a community or culture that may or may not have living representatives, and in zoology when an environment or a species may be at risk. We find that while both archaeologists and zoologists view location information as highly important and valuable in facilitating use and reuse of data, they also acknowledge that location should at times be considered confidential information since it can be used to facilitate the destruction of cultural property through looting or decimation of endangered species through poaching. While researchers in both disciplines understand the potential dangers of allowing disclosure of this information, they disagree about who should take responsibility for access decisions and conditions.The DIPIR Project was made possible by a National Leadership Grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services, LG-06-10-0140-10, “Dissemination Information Packages for Information Reuse.”Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/115883/1/Frank_etal_ASIST2015_Looting_Hoards_of_Gold_postprint.pdfDescription of Frank_etal_ASIST2015_Looting_Hoards_of_Gold_postprint.pdf : Conference pape

The role of data reuse in the apprenticeship process

The availability of research data through digital repositories has made data reuse a possibility in a growing number of fields. This paper reports on the results of interviews with 27 zoologists, 43 quantitative social scientists and 22 archaeologists. It examines how data reuse contributes to the apprenticeship process and aids students in becoming full members of scholarly disciplines. Specifically, it investigates how data reuse contributes to the processes by which novice researchers join academic communities of practice. We demonstrate how projects involving data reuse provide a unique opportunity for advisors to mentor novices through the process of creating knowledge. In these situations, senior researchers model general reuse practices and impart skills for their students to use in the future when selecting, evaluating, and analyzing data they did not collect. For novices, data reuse constitutes a form of legitimate peripheral participation, a way for them to enter the community of practice by analyzing data that has been previously collected and reflecting on others' methodologies. Our study findings indicate that reuse occurs across each target community studied. They also suggest how repositories can help foster a reuse culture by providing access to data and building trust in research communities.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106839/1/14505001051_ftp.pd

SOME CHANGES REQUIRED TO INCREASE THE PUBLIC'S UTILIZATION OF PREVENTIVE DENTISTRY *

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65250/1/j.1752-7325.1968.tb03923.x.pd

Transforming the Archival Classroom for a Connected Reality

The Archival / Preservation Education SIG panel engages with interconnected external pressures and curricular goals in the archival classroom. Four moderated presentations focus on innovative classroom pedagogy, including modeling and visualizing collection data, the digital and physical interconnectedness of digitization activities in pre-professional training, and practical experience and deliverables with unique archival collections; presenters bring perspectives from three states and two countries. “Inclusive Collection Visualization and Arrangement” by Sarah Buchanan discusses the data practice of visualization as a creative response to archival arrangement and metrics for aggregating collection attributes. “Paradigm Shift in LIS Education from Digital Revolution to a Cyber-Physical System” by Najim Babalola examines how emerging and immersive information and communication technologies (ICT) such as digitization are changing service deliveries, with a view to preparing prospective professionals in Nigeria with knowledge and critical skills. “Closing Doors Opens Others: Exploring Pedagogical Opportunities through Temporary Custody of Records” by Katherine Wisser, Adam Kriesberg, and Sarah Pratt reviews how faculty, archives staff, and students across levels are processing and learning with the American Textile History Museum records, before eventual transfer to UMass Lowell. “Education to Support Language Data Archives and Preservation: Experiential Learning and Community Collaboration in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Course at University of North Texas” shares lessons learned in teaching a multi-modal, team-based, and experiential course with South Asian language materials and UNT Digital Collections

Agricultural data management and sharing: Best practices and case study

Agricultural data are crucial to many aspects of production, commerce, and research involved in feeding the global community. However, in most agricultural research disciplines standard best practices for data management and publication do not exist. Here we propose a set of best practices in the areas of peer review, minimal dataset development, data repositories, citizen science initiatives, and support for best data management. We illustrate some of these best practices with a case study in dairy agroecosystems research. While many common, and increasingly disparate data management and publication practices are entrenched in agricultural disciplines, opportunities are readily available for promoting and adopting best practices that better enable and enhance data-intensive agricultural research and production

The Normative Agency of Regional Organizations and Non‐governmental Organizations in International Peace Mediation

This article analyzes the increasingly prominent role of regional organizations (ROs) and non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) in promoting norms in mediation processes. In particular, we seek to understand the processes by which RO and NGO mediators promote the inclusivity norm to negotiating parties and the outcomes that result. We employ the concepts of local agency and social practices in examining the normative agency of ROs and NGOs in promoting and redefining the inclusivity norm. Through illustrative case studies of peace processes in South Sudan and Myanmar, we argue that ROs’ and NGOs’ mediation practices reflect their claims to alternative resources of power, such as long‐standing expertise and insider status in the context, and build congruence with strong local norms. We provide nuanced theoretical insights on RO and NGO mediators’ claims to agency and provide empirical illustrations on how these claims contribute to constitutive changes to norms

Social media conflicts during the financial crisis: Managerial implications for retail banks

Social media can be used proactively to disseminate accurate corporate information and address undesirable consumer behaviors online in order to help counteract negativity in the business environment in the wake of a financial crisis. Social media thus has become a popular open forum for financial institutions such as retail banks to engage in corporate dialogue with consumers. We recommend that financial services firms preemptively use their social media?based online communities in order to disseminate accurate corporate information in times of a financial crisis. Particularly, firms can choose between a range of reactive and proactive strategies to manage social conflict in the wake of a financial crisis