UT iSchool Research-A-Palooza 10/28/2003

Transcript UT iSchool Research-A-Palooza 10/28/2003

Research-a-Palooza

Randolph Bias, Sergeant-at-Arms School of Information The University of Texas at Austin October 28, 2003

Objective

- Allow us all to answer the question: “What sort of research is going on in the iSchool”? -

- Give us some time to make contact with those whose research interests us.

From Foundations of Experimental Research

 “Science is basically a highly social enterprise in which new developments in knowledge are almost completely dependent upon the existing state of knowledge. This is why scientists are always eager to disseminate their findings and why they continually maintain communication with other scientists through journals and other channels [such as research-a paloozas].” (Plutchik, 1968, p. 49) 3

Ground Rules

- Each person gets 90 seconds to describe one of his/her research threads, accompanied by one PowerPoint slide.

- When I change the slide to introduce the next person, you have 10 seconds to finish up.

- If you find me rude, please get over it.

Think of this as your . . .

 Elevator Pitch. “The goal is to explain your product [or research] in the time it takes to ride up in an elevator.” “Your elevator pitch is a short speech on your [research’s] proposition — its promise to deliver!” “Being succinct with your pitch demonstrates clarity, focus, and purposefulness.” 5

 Randolph Bias  The effect of ClearType on programmer productivity 6

The effect of ClearType on programmer productivity

ClearType is a font-rendering technology designed to make on-screen text easier to read.

Microsoft has sponsored research at a bunch of schools – Clemson, Ohio State, Wichita State – to see if CT truly improves performance.

Dean Dillon (with Lisa Kleinman and Gilok Choi) is completing work on a large gift to study the effects of CT on office tasks. Early results are promising.

Microsoft awarded me a $100,000 gift to see if CT improves programmer performance. I’m working with the UT Director of Enterprise Information Services to study her programmers next semester.

Real-world applicability – but steeped in basic visual processing.

   Ellen Cunningham-Kruppa (PCS), Abby Haywood (PCS conservator student), & Dr. Timothy Rowe (Geological Sciences)  In what instances can High-Resolution Computed X ray Tomography be used effectively to reveal “hidden” components in binding structures?

Question: In what instances can High-Resolution Computed X ray Tomography be used effectively to reveal “hidden” components in binding structures?

       A collaborative research project: Ellen Cunningham-Kruppa (PCS), Abby Haywood (PCS conservator student), and Dr. Timothy Rowe (Geological Sciences) What will be done?

*Create a mock-up binding to display a variety of qualities that are oftentimes “hidden” from a conservator as she researches the provenance of a bound structure in preparation for treatment.

*Use conventional x-ray to obtain 2-dimensional images of the mock structure.

*Use computed x-ray tomography to obtain 3-dimensional images of the the mock structure.

*Compare the resultant 2- and 3-dimensional images for informational content.

 Loriene Roy  Various research efforts 10

Loriene Roy Current Research

    I. Longitudinal Study of Spectrum Scholars for ALA 2. Evaluation of 9 Tech Centers in Indian Country in AZ 3. Evaluation of Ysleta del Sur Library/Education Center 4. Native community response to virtual museums of indigenous material culture    4. Webjunction.org: marketing in Indian Country and LIS education 6. A National Reading Club for Native Children 7. LIBRA: book recommender 11

Information Retrieval in the Texas Archival Resources Online (TARO) System

Vidya Narayan Dr. Patricia Galloway The University of Texas at Austin School of Information Acknowledgements:

Kris Kiesling (HRC, UT Austin) Chris Prom (Univ of Illinois) Fred Gilmore (PCL, UT Austin) Minnie Rangel (PCL, UT Austin) 12

Information Retrieval in the

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Texas Archival Resources Online (TARO) System Description (EAD) tags in the TARO system.

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Develop an EAD tag based retrieval system using Greenstone / Managing Gigabytes (open source, Digital Library Software)

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Tags to be used include , and the like.

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Use text clustering ideas, to explore the idea of identifying related finding aids and building a web of connected finding aids.

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Performed a preliminary study of the TARO (1226 finding aids) and identified the frequently used and rarely used EAD tags.

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Notable was the different usage of the required tags (e.g., and the like) among repositories.

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While EAD provides tags for electronically linking related finding aids, no such linkages between these were found in the TARO finding aids.

Working on identifying a vocabulary for a sample of tags within the repositories of TARO with a goal of extracting indexing terms.

 Hannah Fischer  DC and the Down Under 14

DC and the Down Under

   Parliaments and Congresses have very different procedures These procedures lead to different information needs I am interested in comparing these legislative information needs, in part because of the role the U.S. plays in setting up legislative branch research resources.

 Karen Pavelka and Victoria Naipavel-Heiduschke  Who put the ass in acetate 16

Acetate Negative Project Karen Pavelka and Victoria Naipavel-Heiduschke Mary Coutts Library, TCU Before treatment After treatment

 Oliver Chen  Repositioning Art and History Museums in the Virtual World 18

Re-positioning Art and History Museums in the Virtual World / Hsin-liang (Oliver) Chen

The purpose of this project is to establish a common ground, acknowledged by the administrators and practitioners, which will re-position virtual museum collections at the National Archives in the United Kingdom. A number of issues including organizational missions, services, employees’ requirements and rewards, departmental functions, user studies, and community educational programs will be examined in this study. 19

 Linda Barone  Investigation of Scrapbook Structures 20

 Pat Galloway  People as Boundary Objects in Historical Archaeology 21

People as Boundary Objects in Historical Archaeology Pat Galloway  Historical archaeology process and practice: deposition, archivization, interpretation  How field observers construct people: text proxies  How historians construct people: composite texts  How archaeologists construct people: object proxies  Using ANT to frame the nonequivalence 22

 Jane Fleming  Information/Data Exchange & Privacy: Vocabulary and Conceptualizations found in “a Texas State Agency.” 23

Information/Data Exchange & Privacy: Vocabulary and Conceptualizations found in “a Texas State Agency.” Fleming 10/23/03    Why?

 There are a lot of ways of looking at it (“multiple theoretical frameworks” for us intellectuals) How?

 Case study; document review, semi-structured interviews, key informant surveys, ? Where?

 TBD; multiple missions, privacy & security requirements; traceable (mandated?) paths of internal and external information/data flow.

 Bill Lukenbill  The Small Public Library as a Distribution Agent for Consumer Health Information: Problems and Prospects 25

The Small Public Library as a Distribution Agent for Consumer Health Information: Problems and Prospects  Central Question: can the small public library in rural areas be effective as agents for the collection and distribution of consumer health information ?

 Purpose and Methods  Will assess the central role of the public library in the life of the rural community and the delivery of community health information.

 Will seek to determine both the strengths and weaknesses that the library might bring to the table as a health information provider. Traditional role as information provider  Will employ field methods: interviews, questionnaires, observations, and participation  Will offer recommendations for implementation.

 Glynn Harmon  Unconscious Cognition in Query Formulation 27

Unconscious Cognition in Query Formulation Glynn Harmon  1. Classic problem: Initial queries tend to be poor representations or misrepresentations of underlying cognitive-emotional need structures;  2. About 80% of cognitive operations reside at unconscious or “tacit” levels;  3. A key task for search engine and interface design is to help elicit complete but largely embedded need structures;  4. Interface devices needed to entrain users to fashion queries below 10 Hz brainwave states.

 Andrew Dillon  Shaping Information Use 29

Shaping information use  Some examples:  How do image quality issues impact real reading of electronic documents?

 What factors most impact learning and use in multimedia?

 What are the major determinants of user acceptance of new information tools?

 With specific emphasis on Aesthetics and Power  What methods for design yield the best outputs?

 List behavior, especially the inference of meaning and motive in text messages  Macro-evaluation of information tool use and impact  Role of theory in design 30  What is the shape of information?

 Irene Owens  Contexts for examining affects of technology upon management 31

Contexts for examining affects of technology upon management

 Moore’s Law and change management  POSCORB-functions of management (strategic planning and marketing)  Hierarchy/Bureaucracy (Accountability)  Ways of viewing technology  Efficacy issues which may be examined via Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA), usability studies, etc.

 David Gracy 

Making Information Happen: ON THE TRAIL OF THE LITs and LFDs

MAKING INFORMATION HAPPEN

ON THE TRAIL OF THE LITs and LFDs

 Julie Hallmark  Access and Retrieval of Recent Journal Articles: Geologists and Chemists 35

Access and Retrieval of Recent Journal Articles: Geologists and Chemists  Summary Data – 1998/2002 Return Rate # of Journals Represented in Original Citations # of Journals Represented in Returned Questionnaires Use of Internet to Access Use of Internet to Retrieve Respondents Reporting Problems with Access and Retrieval of Articles Training Available in Local Institution 58% / 57% 55 / 52 32 / 35 83% / 85% 5% / 96% 41% / none 35% / none

Geology

74% / 87% 53 / 49 46 / 40 72% / 82% 4% / 88% 32% / none 22% / none 36

 Oliver Chen  The Use of Videos in Biology Education for College Students 37

The Use of Videos in Biology Education for College Students / Hsin-liang (Oliver) Chen

Using audio-visual materials is not new in the classroom; however, teaching and learning activities have been influenced by the latest digital AV technologies and devices. It is important for instructors to recognize the power of the new digital technologies and integrate them into their curricula. On the other hand, it is vital to investigate students’ related knowledge of computing technology and their perception of the use of AV materials in class.

 Randolph Bias  “Your call is important to us”: Minimizing perceived hold times 39

“Your call is important to us”: Minimizing perceived hold times SBC (“your local phone company”) receives millions of Customer Support calls a year.

Telephony and software professionals work on minimizing customers’ hold times.

Then they call in the information scientists to minimize the PERCEIVED length of the wait.

In concert with human factors folks at SBC, we’re testing: Options to fill the wait time Various types of music An ability to choose type of music 40

 Patrick Williams and Sam Burns  Evaluating a tool for Collection Understanding 41

Evaluating a tool for Collection Understanding  Texas A&M CSDL: Leggett & Chang  Collection Understanding  Research Questions  Experimental Design 42

 Sam Burns  Knowledge Gateway 43

Find Yours.

 Knowledge Gateway class this summer  Phase 1: Information Architecture  Analysis, Site Maps , Wire frames/Schematics , User Testing  Next Phases: Content Curator, Writing, Designing, Building, Testing.

 Opportunities abound 44