Discursive power and resistance in the information world maps of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual community leaders

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Kitzie ◽  
Travis Wagner ◽  
A. Nick Vera
Keyword(s):  
South Carolina ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Community Leaders ◽  
Situational Analysis ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Information Practices ◽  
Discursive Power

PurposeThis qualitative study explores how discursive power shapes South Carolina lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual (LGBTQIA+) communities' health information practices and how participants resist this power.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 28 LGBTQIA+ community leaders from South Carolina engaged in semi-structured interviews and information world mapping–a participatory arts-based elicitation technique–to capture the context underlying how they and their communities create, seek, use and share health information. We focus on the information world maps for this paper, employing situational analysis–a discourse analytic method for visual data–to analyze them.FindingsSix themes emerged describing how discursive power operates both within and outside of LGBTQIA+ communities: (1) producing absence, (2) providing unwanted information, (3) commoditizing LGBTQIA+ communities, (4) condensing LGBTQIA+ people into monoliths; (5) establishing the community's normative role in information practices; (6) applying assimilationist and metronormative discourses to information sources. This power negates people's information practices with less dominant LGBTQIA+ identities and marginalized intersectional identities across locations such as race and class. Participants resisted discursive power within their maps via the following tactics: (1) (re)appropriating discourses and (2) imagining new information worlds.Originality/valueThis study captures the perspectives of an understudied population–LGBTQIA+ persons from the American South–about a critical topic–their health–and frames these perspectives and topics within an informational context. Our use of information world mapping and situational analysis offers a unique and still underutilized set of qualitative methods within information science research.

‘Access necessitates being seen’: Queer visibility and intersectional embodiment within the health information practices of queer community leaders

2021 ◽  
pp. 016555152110406
Author(s):  
Travis L Wagner ◽  
Vanessa L Kitzie
Keyword(s):  
South Carolina ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Community Leaders ◽  
Health Information Seeking ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Queer Identity ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Information Practices ◽  
Information Professionals

Navigating healthcare infrastructures is particularly challenging for queer-identifying individuals, with significant barriers emerging around stigma and practitioner ignorance. Further intersecting, historically marginalised identities such as one’s race, age or ability exacerbate such engagement with healthcare, particularly the access to and use of reliable and appropriate health information. We explore the salience of one’s queer identity relative to other embodied identities when navigating health information and care for themselves and their communities. Thirty semi-structured interviews with queer community leaders from South Carolina inform our discussion of the role one’s queer visibility plays relational to the visibility of other identities. We find that leaders and their communities navigate these intersectional visibilities through unique and iterative approaches to health information seeking, sharing and use predicated upon anti-queer, racist, ableist and misogynistic sentiments. Findings can inform queer-inclusive, intersectionally informed interventions by health and information professionals such as non-profit advocacy organisations and medical librarians.

scholarly journals “I found what I needed, which was a supportive community”: an ethnographic study of shared information practices in an online cosplay community

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Vardell ◽  
Ting Wang ◽  
Paul A. Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Information Science ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Community Culture ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Information Practices ◽  
Shared Information ◽  
Supportive Community

PurposeThis study explored the information practices of cosplayers, as well as the social norms, social types and information infrastructure of an online cosplay Facebook group, the Rey Cosplay Community (RCC).Design/methodology/approachTo better understand individual behavior, the authors made use of ethnographic methods and semi-structured interviews. Observation of the RCC was combined with information gleaned from select participant interviews.FindingsThe results suggest that the RCC can be conceived of as an information community where fans obtain and share information about cosplay costume making. Sufficient and well-organized information and positive community culture greatly help community members make their costumes.Originality/valueThis works serves as a bridge between fan studies and information science research in its exploration of online communities, shared information practices and creating non-toxic virtual environments. It also lends support to the idea that positivity, respect for community rules and a tight-knit connection between members play essential roles in building a non-toxic fan and information community.

Considering the local and the translocal

2019 ◽  
Vol 71 (6) ◽  
pp. 703-719 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole K. Dalmer
Keyword(s):  
Health Information ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Institutional Ethnography ◽  
Practice Research ◽  
Library And Information Science ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Information Practices ◽  
Information Practice ◽  
Everyday Life Information Seeking

Purpose Institutional ethnography is a method of inquiry that brings attention to people’s everyday work while simultaneously highlighting broader sites of administration and governance that may be organising that work. The purpose of this paper is to argue that the integration of institutional ethnography in health information practice research represents an important shift in the way that Library and Information Science professionals and researchers study and understand these practices. Design/methodology/approach This paper first explores the key tenets and conceptual underpinnings of Dorothy Smith’s institutional ethnography, illuminating the importance of moving between translocal and the local contexts and identifying ruling relations. Drawing from a library and information science study that combined interviews and textual analyses to examine the social organisation of family caregivers’ health-related information work, the paper then explores the affordances of starting in the local particularities and then moving outwards to the translocal. Findings The paper concludes with an overall assessment of what institutional ethnography can contribute to investigations of health information practices. By pushing from the local to the translocal, institutional ethnography enables a questioning of existing library and information science conceptualisations of context and of reappraising the everyday-life information seeking work/non-work dichotomy. Ultimately, in considering both the local and the translocal, institutional ethnography casts a wider net on understanding individuals’ health information practices. Originality/value With only two retrieved studies that combine institutional ethnography with the study of health information practices, this paper offers health information practice researchers a new method of inquiry in which to reframe the application of methods used.

Journal packing density of library and information science research journals at the global level: a study

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramesh Pandita ◽  
Shivendra Singh
Keyword(s):  
Packing Density ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Library And Information Science ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Journal Publishing ◽  
Research Journal ◽  
The Usa

Purpose This study aims to find out the average journal packing density (JPD) of Library and Information Science (LIS) research journals published across the world. The concept, JPD, means the average number of research articles published by a research journal in one volume. Accordingly, the undergoing study evaluates the average number of research articles published in each volume of each research journal published in the field of LIS at the global level. Some other key aspects evaluated include the number of LIS research journal publishing countries, average JPD of LIS research journals at the continental level, etc. Design/methodology/approach This study is purely based on secondary data retrieved from SCImago, which is SCOPUS data. Keeping in view the objectives of this study, the data about research articles published in all LIS research journals during the period 2015 through 2019 were retrieved to undertake the study. Findings From the data analysis, it emerged that 256 research journals duly indexed by SCOPUS are published in the field of LIS across 36 countries. In all 48,596 research articles were published from 2015 to 2019 in these research journals at an average of 44.71 research articles per journal per volume. More than 75% of LIS research journals are published from Germany, Spain, Netherlands, the USA and the UK. Research journals published from the USA have higher JPD of 53.09 research articles per journal per volume, which is 18.74% higher than the average global JPD of LIS research journals. 50% of LIS research journal publishing countries are from Europe and the majority 52.55% LIS research articles were published in European LIS research journals. The average JPD of LIS research journals published from North America is 51.73 research articles per journal per volume, which is the highest across continents. Research limitations/implications Standardization of JPD of research journals irrespective of the subject discipline they are published in is important for many reasons and the foremost being, such standardization helps in keeping at bay the predatory research journals, which normally float such packing density norms, with the sole aim to earn money in the shape of manuscript handling charges, thereby publishing a far greater number of research article in each issue of a journal than the average research articles published by a research journal. Originality/value Very few studies have been conducted around the concept JPD, especially by the authors of this particular study. This study has however been particularized to the LIS subject discipline, while the findings add to existing lot of study already undertaken, hence outcome can be generalized.

Seven information practices for alleviating information vulnerability

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Devendra Dilip Potnis ◽  
Joseph Winberry
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Information Access ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Information Practices ◽  
Information Professionals ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Real World Problems

PurposeThis literature review aims to identify conscious, intentional, repetitive and transferrable information-related decisions and activities (i.e. information practices) for individuals to alleviate their information vulnerability. Information vulnerability refers to the lack of access to accurate, affordable, complete, relevant and timely information or the inability to use such information, which can place individuals, communities or society at disadvantage or hurt them.Design/methodology/approachConceptual literature review.FindingsThis review presents seven conscious, intentional, repetitive and transferrable information practices to alleviate information vulnerability.Practical implicationsDue to the transferability potential of the seven information practices, diverse populations in varied contexts could refer to, adapt and benefit from appropriate combinations of information practices and their manifestations. The framework can be used by individuals for alleviating information vulnerability. Thus, this paper responds to the call for conducting action-driven research in information science for addressing real-world problems. Information professionals can help individuals select and implement appropriate combinations of seven information practices for alleviating information vulnerability.Originality/valueWe propose (1) a parsimonious, episodic framework for alleviating information vulnerability, which depicts the inter-relationship among the seven information practices and (2) a three-dimensional plot with information access, use and value as three axes to map the manifestation and outcome of alleviating information vulnerability.

scholarly journals Information security frameworks for assisting GDPR compliance in banking industry

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-244
Author(s):  
João Serrado ◽  
Ruben Filipe Pereira ◽  
Miguel Mira da Silva ◽  
Isaías Scalabrin Bianchi
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Information Security ◽  
Design Science ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
The Body ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
General Data Protection Regulation

Purpose Data can nowadays be seen as the main asset of organizations and data leaks have a considerable impact on the organization’s image, revenues and possible consequences to the affected clients. One of the most critical industries is the bank. Information security frameworks (ISF) have been created to assist organizations and other frameworks evolved to update these domain practices. Recently, the European Union decided to create the general data protection regulation (GDPR), applicable to all organizations dealing with personal data of citizens residing in the European Union. Although considered a general regulation, GDPR implementation needs to align with some industries’ laws and policies. Especially in the Bank industry. How these ISF can assist the implementation of GDPR is not clear. Design/methodology/approach The design science research process was followed and semi-structured interviews performed. Findings A list of practices to assist the bank industry in GDPR implementation is provided. How each practice map with assessed ISF and GDPR requirements is also presented. Research limitations/implications As GDPR is a relatively recent subject, it is hard to find experts in the area. It is more difficult if the authors intend to find experienced people in the GDPR and bank industry. That is one of the main reasons this study does not include more interviews. Originality/value This research provides a novel artefact to the body of knowledge. The proposed artefact lists which ISF practices banks should implement to comply with GDPR. By doing it the artefact provides a centralized view about which ISF frameworks (or part of them) could be implemented to help banks comply with GDPR.

Black men, religiosity and desistance: exploring Islam, desistance and identity

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shona Robinson-Edwards ◽  
Craig Pinkney
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Black Men ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Father Absence ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Efficient Manner ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Uk

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of Ibrahim, an ex-offender who has embraced Islam. Ibrahim professes Islam to be the influential element to his desistance process. This study explores Ibrahim’s journey, emphasising and reflecting upon youth; criminality and religiosity. Much of the current research relating to Black men and offending is limited to masculinity, father absence, gangs and criminality. The role of religiosity in the lives of offenders and/or ex-offenders is often overlooked. The authors suggest that identity, religiosity and desistance can raise a host of complexities while highlighting the unique challenges and benefits experienced by Ibrahim, following the practice of religion. Design/methodology/approach This paper took a qualitative, ethnographic approach, in the form of analysing and exploring Ibrahim’s personal lived experience. The analysis of semi-structured interviews, and reflective diaries, utilising grounded theory allowed the formation of the following three core themes: desistance, religion and identity. Findings The findings within this paper identify an interlink between desistance, religion and identity. The role of religiosity is becoming increasingly more important in academic social science research. This paper highlights the complexities of all three above intersections. Research limitations/implications This paper explores the complexities of religiosity in the desistance process of Ibrahim. Research in relation to former gang members in the UK and the role of religiosity in their lives is fairly under-researched. This paper seeks to build on existing research surrounding gang, further exploring religiosity from a UK context. Practical implications Time spent with Ibrahim had to be tightly scheduled, due to the work commitments of both Ibrahim and the researcher. Therefore, planning had to be done ahead in an efficient manner. Social implications Researching the way individuals experience the world is a “growing phenomenon”. This paper aimed to explore the lived experience of religiosity from the perspective of Ibrahim. However, it was important to not stereotype and label all Black males who have embraced Islam and desisted from crime. Therefore, this paper’s intention is not to stereotype Black men, but to raise awareness and encourage further discussion surrounding the role of religiosity in the lives of ex-offenders’. Originality/value To the authors’ knowledge, studies specifically focusing on the role of Islam in the life of an ex-offender are few and far between. Therefore, findings from this study are important to develop further understanding surrounding religiosity, offending and desistance. This study explores the lived experiences of Ibrahim, an former gang member and ex-offender who professes Islam to be a fundamental source to his desistance process.

Holograms in libraries – the potential for education, promotion and services

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Wójcik
Keyword(s):  
Information Science ◽  
Swot Analysis ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Library And Information Science ◽  
Situational Analysis ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
Network Resources ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Current State ◽  
State Of Research

Purpose The subject of this paper is the application of holograms in cultural institutions. The purpose of this paper is to define the potential areas of hologram use in libraries, particularly in education and promotion, and also in services. Design/methodology/approach The method of analysis and criticism of literature was used. Based on a search conducted through Google Scholar for the 2006-2016 period, the current state of research on the use of holograms in cultural institutions was established. Subsequently, in order to find examples of hologram use in libraries, museums, galleries, and social organizations, an established set of queries was used to systematically search network resources using global search engines and metasearch engines. The initial list of results was narrowed down to the most relevant. On the basis of the above fact, the main areas of hologram use in cultural institutions were defined and examples of best practices were selected according to chosen criteria. The comparative method then was used to determine potential areas of application of holographic techniques in libraries. Finally, SWOT analysis – the situational analysis method known to management sciences – was used to determine opportunities and threats related to the use of holograms in cultural institutions. Findings Holograms have broad potential use in libraries that is even broader than initially assumed because they are not limited to education, promotion and services, and can also be used in documentation, research and exhibitions. The use of holograms can bring many benefits, but it is also associated with certain risks that need to be considered. Practical implications The results can be widely used in practice as a framework for the implementation of holographic techniques in libraries. Social implications The paper can help initiate debate on the opportunities and risks of using holograms in cultural institutions. Originality/value The issue of the use of holograms has not yet been widely discussed in library and information science scientific journals.

The employment landscape and LIS education in Pakistan: challenges and prospects

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amara Malik ◽  
Kanwal Ameen
Keyword(s):  
Information Science ◽  
Future Orientation ◽  
Library And Information Science ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Job Market ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Job Titles ◽  
The Future ◽  
Information Landscape

Purpose This study aims to explore the current and future employment opportunities for library and information science (LIS) graduates. It identifies future employers and emerging competitors in the information landscape. The strategies that may be used to respond to and capture the future job market are also presented for LIS schools in the light of the study findings. Design/methodology/approach The qualitative approach coupled with the interview technique was used for collecting insight into the phenomena. Face-to-face and telephonic semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 faculty members (professors, associate professors and assistant professors) from 8 LIS departments. A thematic analysis approach was used to analyze the data to present the participants’ opinions regarding various aspects of the job market in the country. Findings It was found that the job market was still traditional (library) and would continue to be so for the next five to seven years. However, the findings also indicated the emergence of a non-traditional job market in the country. New job titles and functions relevant to the emerging job sector other than libraries in the information environment were noted. Originality/value Findings may have a direct impact on the future orientation, survival and sustainability of LIS programs in the country. The study may inform curriculum revision and updating efforts to make it more relevant and responsive to future needs.

scholarly journals Eye tracking in library and information science: a literature review

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 585-614 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haakon Lund
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Library And Information Science ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Reference Databases ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
Published Research ◽  
Tracking Technology

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic literature review of the application of eye-tracking technology within the field of library and information science. Eye-tracking technology has now reached a level of maturity, which makes the use of the technology more accessible. Subsequently, a growing interest in employing eye tracking as a methodology within library and information science research must be anticipated. Design/methodology/approach The review follows the guidelines set in the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses recommendations. Two reference databases are searched for relevant references: Library and Information Science Abstracts and Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts. The main selection criteria are peer-reviewed literature that describes the experimental setting, including which eye-tracking equipment was used, the number of test persons and reports on the eye-tracking measures. Furthermore, this study will report which other methods were applied in combination with eye tracking. Findings The number of published research utilizing eye-tracking technologies within library and information science (LIS) is still limited although an increase in the use of eye-tracking technologies is observed during recent years. Originality/value To the knowledge of the author, this is the first systematic review on eye-tracking technology and application in LIS.

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