Online Mental Health Information Behaviours of Emerging Adults: A Web Usability and User Experience Study

This study aims to employ usability study technologies to learn how emerging adults interact online with mental health information

Finding emotional-laden resources on the World Wide Web

Some content in multimedia resources can depict or evoke certain emotions in users. The aim of Emotional Information Retrieval (EmIR) and of our research is to identify knowledge about emotional-laden documents and to use these findings in a new kind of World Wide Web information service that allows users to search and browse by emotion. Our prototype, called Media EMOtion SEarch (MEMOSE), is largely based on the results of research regarding emotive music pieces, images and videos. In order to index both evoked and depicted emotions in these three media types and to make them searchable, we work with a controlled vocabulary, slide controls to adjust the emotions’ intensities, and broad folksonomies to identify and separate the correct resource-specific emotions. This separation of so-called power tags is based on a tag distribution which follows either an inverse power law (only one emotion was recognized) or an inverse-logistical shape (two or three emotions were recognized). Both distributions are well known in information science. MEMOSE consists of a tool for tagging basic emotions with the help of slide controls, a processing device to separate power tags, a retrieval component consisting of a search interface (for any topic in combination with one or more emotions) and a results screen. The latter shows two separately ranked lists of items for each media type (depicted and felt emotions), displaying thumbnails of resources, ranked by the mean values of intensity. In the evaluation of the MEMOSE prototype, study participants described our EmIR system as an enjoyable Web 2.0 service

Final Report: ASIS&T Task Force on Webinars

This report was submitted to the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) Board of Directors. In June 2011, an ASIS&T Task Force on Webinars was appointed. This is the final report discusses the findings of this task force and recommendations

News photography image retrieval practices: Locus of control in two contexts.

This is the first known study to explore the image retrieval preferences of news photographers and news photo editors in work contexts. Survey participants (n=102) provided opinions regarding 11 photograph searching methods. The quantitative survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, while content analysis was used to evaluate the qualitative survey data. In addition, news photographers and news photo editors (n=11) participated in interviews. Data from the interviews were analyzed with phenomenography. The survey data demonstrated that most participants prefer searching by events taking place in the photograph, objects that exist in the photograph, photographer-provided keywords, and relevant metadata, such as the date the picture was taken. They also prefer browsing. Respondents had mixed opinions about searching by emotions elicited in a photograph, as well as the environmental conditions represented in a photograph. Participants' lowest-rated methods included color and light, lines and shapes, and depth, shadow, or perspective. They also expressed little interest in technical information about a photograph, such as shutter speed and aperture. Interview participants' opinions about the search methods reflected the survey respondents' views. They discussed other aspects of news photography as well, including the stories told by the pictures, technical concerns about digital photography, and digital archiving and preservation issues. These stated preferences for keyword searching, browsing, and photographer-provided keywords illustrate a desire for a strong internal locus of control in digital photograph archives. Such methods allow users more control over access to their photographs, while the methods deemed less favorable by survey participants offer less control. Participants believe they can best find their photographs if they can control how they index and search for them. Therefore, it would be useful to design online photograph archives that allow users to control representation and access. Future research possibilities include determining the preferences of other image retrieval system users, performing user studies with moving image information retrieval systems, and uniting content-based and concept-based image retrieval research

A new wave of government information management: The implementation of a function-based classification structure in a Canadian government organization

In an effort to improve government information management, people in Canadian government organizations have implemented a number of information management initiatives that are designed to meet the needs of their organizations. Industry Canada is developing its own information classification methodology, known as Business-based Classification Structure (BCS). BCS is unique in the sense that it is a function-based structure, as opposed to widely used subject-based structures. This article will explore the BCS as an information classification structure, how it can improve government information management regardless of shared information repository types, and its costs and benefits

Is what you see what you get? Medical subject headings and their organizing work in the violence against women research literature

In this paper we argue that the broader definition of classification offered by sociologists and by Geoffrey Bowker and Susan Leigh Star addresses pertinent knowledge organization processes that we can use to investigate the moral, scientific, and aesthetic implications of different kinds of knowledge organization systems. We do so by systematically investigating the organization of the violence against women research literature by medical, allied health, and social sciences bibliographic databases and in particular by the National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). Our findings indicate that underlying these knowledge organization systems are certain discourses on violence against women that may reinforce a gender-neutral understanding of violence

Social tagging & folksonomies: Indexing, retrieving...and beyond?

The purpose of this panel is to look back on seven years of research on folksonomies and tagging systems and to summarize its main contributions as well as to try forecasting the evolution folksonomies will make in the future. Research findings which show the advantages and drawbacks of folksonomies and tagging systems in various scenarios and which may reduce the reluctance of the professional side will be presented. Additionally, the panellists and audience will discuss the new breed of 'folksonomies' formed by hashtags, geo-tags, system-tags etc. in order to find the best definitions for folksonomies and folksonomy-like structures