Trusting the Internet: New Approaches to Credibility Tools

Part of the Volume on Digital Media, Youth, and CredibilityThis chapter argues that digital media create a paradox whereby information consumers are simultaneously expected to be more independent in their information use and evaluation but also increasingly dependent on digital information and tools. It also discusses how digital media separate credibility from authority and argues that this necessitates a different approach to credibility assessment. The author then explores opportunities to leverage the special characteristics of digital media to create new methods and tools for credibility assessment

The Digital Reference Research Agenda

This article presents a research agenda for the study of digital reference. The agenda stems from a research symposium held at Harvard in August 2002. The agenda defines digital reference as “the use of human intermediation to answer questions in a digital environment.” The agenda also proposes the central research question in digital reference - “How can human expertise be effectively and efficiently incorporated into information systems to answer user questions?” The definition and question are used to outline a research agenda centered on how the exploration of digital reference relates to other fields of inquiryInformatio

Building an Education Infrastructure for Allied Health

This article discusses the emerging Education Information Infrastructure. It uses a five part framework (aggregating, organizing, using, tool building, and policy making) to describe this infrastructure and then uses the same framework to argue for a tightly coupled education information infrastructure specifically for allied health. This tightly coupled education resource would allow educators, allied health professionals and the general public to gain improved access to education resources on the Internet through metadata and digital reference services. Specific benefits of the building effort are discussed.Informatio

The Digital Reference Electronic Warehouse (DREW) Project: Creating the Infrastructure for Digital Reference Research through a Multi-Disciplinary Knowledge Base

One of the valuable offerings of librarians in the digital age is the human intermediation of information needs. In physical libraries, these reference questions are answered and few artifacts remain from the transaction; therefore, the knowledge created through the work of the librarian leaves with the patron. Due to the medium of communication, digital reference transactions capture the knowledge of information professionals. There are hundreds of digital reference services generating knowledge every day; however, the lack of a schema for archiving reference transactions from multiple services makes it difficult to create a fielded, searchable knowledge base. This schema will also allow researchers to develop tools that practitioners can employ; this will create a collaborative environment for digital reference evaluation. The goal of this work is to outline the steps needed to develop this schema, present the results of a survey of digital reference services, explore some of the pitfalls in the process, and envision the future uses of this Digital Reference Electronic Warehouse (DREW).Informatio

Costing Reference: Issues, Approaches, and Directions for Research

The Assessing Quality in Digital Reference project is a first step toward understanding the cost of digital reference services in libraries. This article presents three measures isolated by project participants as being most useful for their immediate needs: total cost of providing digital reference service, the cost of digital reference service as a percent of the total reference budget, and the cost of reference as a percent of the total library or organizational budget. In addition, it reviews selected outstanding issues in the ongoing question of how to determine the cost of reference services in libraries and offers direction for further study toward a general cost model for information servicesInformatio

LIS programs in pandemic: Challenges, resilience & opportunities

Panel overview: Library & information science programs and their parent schools and universities are no strangers to experiencing natural disasters. Many are situated in environments prone to hurricanes, flood, winter storms and wildfires and have experienced one or more of such events in the past. As a field that prides itself for supporting people’s informational needs, especially of those under-served populations, we as LIS educators have often stepped up to support our students and broader communities in a time of need. However, the experience of global COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges to not only our organizations and profession but also to our personal lives. In this difficult and complex situation how are LIS programs coping and looking into the future? A panel of four LIS Program/School directors and program chairs will share their personal experiences in leading their organizations during the time of COVID-19. The panelists will reflect upon challenges that their programs experienced as the pandemic crisis emerged and evolved, the lessons we are learning about our preparedness and resilience to function during the time of crisis and the emerging opportunities for the future. Panel structure: The panel will be organized into three thematic units. Each unit will start with panelists’ sharing their reflections through illustrative examples and narrative stories reflecting their own experiences and experiences of their faculty, staff and students. Following introductory remarks on each of the themes, the audience will be invited to contribute their own experiences and observations. Panel Topics: - COVID-19 is here! This topic will focus on the first signs of pandemic and how the LIS programs were prepared, especially the emergency activation mechanisms, immediate challenges and first responses. From the perspectives of their different geographical locations and settings (large urban, small urban, rural) and program modalities, the panelists will share how they experienced “pivot” to functioning under conditions of COVID-19. - It’s a marathon, not a sprint! In this topic the panelists will discuss the issues and creative solutions for organizing continuity and success of educational processes in their programs under the conditions of pandemic. The panelists will discuss actions taken to ensure physical safety and mental health of both faculty and students; academic accommodations that were provided and monitoring mechanisms for ensuring engagement and feedback from LIS communities in their programs. - Challenges are new opportunities! The final topics will explore challenges that still need to be addressed (such as the impact of pandemic on faculty productivity; concerns about student enrollment) and new ideas that are emerging about providing LIS education (e.g., flexibility of instructional formats; online collaboration; unique LIS research contributions). The panelists will identify lessons learned and changes that are being evaluated and planned in their programs. Prior to the panel the panelists will create a collaborative digital whiteboard (Google Jamboard - https://jamboard.google.com/) that will include the three main themes of the panel. During the presentation, audience participants will have an opportunity to contribute personal comments and artifacts related to the panel topic. Following the panel, this digital white board will be preserved to commemorate our collective experience with pandemic. Panelists: Sanda Erdelez, Professor and Director at Simmons University School of Library and Information Science. She is a human information behavior researcher and educator with more than 25 years of experience in the LIS field, including teaching at University of Texas and Austin and University of Missouri- Columbia. Dr. Erdelez’ contribution to the panel will focus on the importance of effective and participatory communication processes during pandemic and on LIS programs/schools taking on a leadership role at their home institutions in the areas of specialized expertise, such as online learning and information needs and uses research. Jenny Bossaller, LIS Program Chair and Associate Professor at the iSchool at the University of Missouri – Columbia. Her teaching and research focus encompasses public libraries, information policy, and the history of libraries and information. She co-developed a public library leadership program, with Denice Adkins, that emphasizes community and professional immersion (PuLL). She is currently working on an interdisciplinary team to revitalize the iSchool's health librarianship program, which focuses on community engagement, which has proven to be especially difficult to manage during COVID. Dr. Bossaller will discuss problems and opportunities that arose during COVID regarding students’ community engagement and practicum options. Lisa O’Connor is Chair and Associate Professor of the Department of Library and Information Science at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. Previously, she taught at the University of Kentucky and was an academic librarian, serving as both an information literacy education coordinator and business librarian. She has published in the areas of IL assessment and information behavior. Dr. O’Connor’s contributions to the panel will address the challenges of managing growth in the midst of the pandemic, including enrollment management and onboarding and mentoring new faculty. R. David Lankes, Professor and Director of the School of Information Science and Associate Dean, College of Information and Communications at the University of South Carolina. He has served on advisory boards and study teams in the fields of libraries, telecommunications, education, and transportation including at the National Academies. Lankes has been a visiting fellow at the National Library of Canada, The Harvard School of Education, France’s national library school Enssib, and was the first fellow of ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy. Dr. Lankes will present how through active research and advocacy agendas with a focus on equity, diversity, and inclusion LIS programs are well situated to help our society in a time of need

An enhanced model for digital reference services

Digital Reference Service (DRS) play a vital role in the Digital Library (DL) research. DRS is a very valuable service provided by DL. Unfortunately, the reference service movement towards digital environment begins late, and this shift was not model based. So, a journey towards a digital environment without following a proper model raises some issues. A few researchers presented a general process model (GPM) in the late 1990s, but this process model could not overcome the problems of DRS. This paper proposes an enhanced model for DRS that use the storage and re-use mechanism with other vital components like DRS search engine and ready reference for solving the issues in DRS. Initially, storage and re-use mechanism are designed and finally, DRS search engine is designed to search appropriate answers in the knowledge base. We improved the GPM by incorporating the new components. The simulation results clearly states that the proposed model increased the service efficiency by reducing the response time from days to seconds for repeated questions and decreased the workload of librarian