Plenary Speakers
Lynne Marie Rudasill
Associate Professor, University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Title: Looking Out and Looking In - The Universe of Information
We are all aware of the fact that the forces of globalization are not just felt in the spheres of economics, politics, and sociology. Library and information science is also facing the challenges brought on by vast technological changes that are having an increasingly foundational impact upon the field. The concepts of interdisciplinarity, problem-solving, and big data are explored here in an effort to understand the intricacies of measurement in a rapidly changing field, the tools that can be provided to our institutions and, most importantly, to our users. Beginning with a look at a galaxy of clickstream data that provides a striking example of interdisciplinarity, we can explore the information universe where competing methodologies, both quantitative and qualitative, demand our attention and resources. We will also try to see the expanding edges of our universe to understand where we might be going next.
Biography: Lynne Marie Rudasill is Associate Professor and Global Studies Librarian at the University Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is fully embedded in the Center for Global Studies, a Title VI National Resource Center supported by the U.S. Department of Education, and holds the unique distinction of being the first professional full-time digital librarian in the emerging field of global studies. Lynne provides library instruction, reference services, and collection management support in the fields of global studies, European Union studies, political science and United Nations documents. Like most professional university librarians, Lynne regularly offers subject-area training and instruction for students, faculty, K-12 teachers, and specialized audiences, such as the military. In her capacity as Associate Professor of Library and Information Science, Lynne has taught graduate courses at the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science including, “Information, Libraries, and Society” and “Social Science Research Methods and Resources”. GSLIS is the top-ranked library school in the nation, and the University Library is the largest public university research library in the United States. With her colleague, Barbara Ford, Director of the Mortenson Center for International Librarianship, Lynne currently teaches an undergraduate global studies course “The Power of Information in Development,” which provides a multidisciplinary and information-intensive approach to the study of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations.
Lynne’s scholarly research focuses on access to information, especially access by users to information on digital platforms and access by scholars to fugitive literature. She is author of numerous journal articles, book chapters, reference works, conference presentations, and edited books, the most recent of which is Open Access and Digital Libraries: Social Science Libraries in Action (2013), co-edited with Maria E. Dorta-Duque of the Instituto Superior de Relaciones Internacionales (ISRI) in Cuba. This volume is the first fully bilingual publication in the IFLA “greenback” series. Lynne is a member in long standing of the American Library Association (ALA) and the Association for College and Research Libraries (ACRL). She was awarded the ACRL Law and Political Science Section’s Marta Lange/CQ Press Award in 2009 for her contributions to that group. She has served as the Chair of the Social Science Libraries Section of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and currently is a member of the IFLA Governing Board and Professional Committee as Chair of Division 1, Library Types. In her teaching, research and her professional service, Lynne emphasizes the importance of multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary scholarship to help solve the problems of a population of over 7 billion people inhabiting the same planet.
Dr. Karen E. Fisher
University of Washington Information School, Adjunct Professor of Communication, USA
Title: Collaboration - the most wicked enabler to fabulously successful research
Collaboration signals bringing together people whose assets—professional skills and expertise, social capital, work styles, personalities, and more work in harmony towards achieving a common goal. A complex notion, collaboration ranges in degree of formality, whether required or voluntary, and extent and type of participation. Most research, like other human endeavors, comprises some element of collaboration. Yet stories approach urban myth of collaborations that were hard to create, wasted time, damaged relations, and left unfinished business leading to nowhere. However, collaboration can go remarkably well, showing the power of many, the creation of gold from dust. Two such examples are shared—macro and micro—that have several commonalities and yet vary widely in team size, budget, resources, and genesis. The U.S. Impact Study (2010-12) of how people use computers and the Internet in public libraries led by Fisher, Crandall and Becker was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Institute of Museum & Library Services. In addition to the PIs, assistants and consultants, the study comprised an expert committee and partnered with about 500 libraries. Mixed-methods—an unprecedented web survey (continuing today), telephone survey and case studies—were used to study 50,000 people. The second study, InfoMe, is an ethnographic-design study that brings together public libraries, community-based organizations, corporate agencies and university researchers to understand how ethnic minority youth seek information and use technology on behalf of other people, especially older family members, and how this information mediary phenomenon can be supported through information technology, services and policy. This study—being exploratory, qualitative and design-focused but also involving survey techniques and community training workshops is vastly smaller in nature and entirely dependent on collaboration for success with its myriad partners. Funded by Microsoft and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, InfoMe led from the U.S. Impact Study that showed 63% of people used library technology on behalf of another person in the past 12 months, which has strong implications for how we design information systems, support information literacy, and determine impact. Together these two studies illustrate how collaboration can elevate the doing of research, turning every moment into a state of flow and igniting research programs with long-reaching effects.
Biography: Dr. Karen E. Fisher is a Professor in the University of Washington Information School and Adjunct Professor of Communication. She teaches and conducts research on how people experience information as part of everyday life, with emphasis on the interpersonal aspects of information behavior, the role of informal social settings or “information grounds” in information flow, as well as the broad impacts of information and communication technologies. Her current work supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services and Microsoft asks how ethnic minority youth seek information and use technology on behalf of other people, especially older family members, and how this phenomenon can be supported through information technology, services and policy. A second current area involves online dating as an information problem, the development of instrumental ties, and relevance to other dyadic relationships—business, creative—especially long-term. Dr. Fisher’s 2009-2011 work addressed the multiplex value of public libraries in communities across the United States. In this mixed methods study (with Crandall, Becker, et al.,) of 50,000 people conducted for the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a key finding is that 63% of people use library technology on behalf of another person, which has strong implications for how we design information systems, support information literacy, and determine impact. Co-author of Theory in Motion: Using theories of information behavior to design applications, policy and services (in progress, with S. Erdelez), Digital Inclusion: Measuring the Impact of Information and Community Technology (2009, with M. Crandall), Theories of Information Behavior (2005, with S. Erdelez & L. McKechnie), and several monographs about community services in public libraries, her supporters include the National Science Foundation, Microsoft Research, the United Way of America, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Recipient of the 2005 and 2008 ALA Jesse H. Shera Award for Distinguished Published Research, Dr. Fisher has been recognized for her research by the Hawaii Int'l Conference on System Sciences, American Society for Information Science & Technology, and the Association for Library and Information Science Education. An alum of the University of Western Ontario (PhD & MLIS) and Memorial University of Newfoundland (BA), she held a postdoc at the University of Michigan, and was a Visiting Researcher at Microsoft Research, and a NORSLIS Visiting Professor at Oslo University College, Norway. She serves on the international program committees for ISIC: The Information Behavior Conference and i3: Information: Interactions and Impact; and was co-program chair of the 2011 iSchool Conference. A past member of ASIST’s Board of Directors, Prof. Fisher was inducted to the ASIST SIG USE Academy of Fellows in 2009. To learn more, visit infome.uw.edu and tascha.uw.edu/usimpact. The only Newfoundlander in Seattle, Karen lives in Seattle’s Fremont houseboat community and can be found biking the Burke-Gilman Trail when she’s not at hot yoga, belly dancing at the Visionary Dance Studio or contemplating moving to Tuscany.
Anna Galluzzi
Senate Library in Rome, Italy
Title: Libraries and public perceptions: A comparative analysis of the European press. Methodological insights
Over the last years there has been much research and discussion about the future of libraries, particularly public libraries, in relation with the state of society and welfare. The economic crisis has exacerbated the situation of libraries in terms of budget cuts and their usefulness in the digital age has been put in doubt.
In these difficult times, many methods have been applied to prove the social and economic impact of libraries. An alternative method to measure the relevance and the public perception of libraries could come from the analysis of newspapers, considering that they still are an important means in building public opinion.
In this speech the methodology and the first findings of an ongoing research on this topic will be presented. The research is based upon a comparative textual analysis of 8 newspapers of national interest coming from 4 different European countries (UK, Italy, France and Spain) and concerns the quantity and quality of articles on libraries published since 2008 on.
Biography: In 1997 Anna Galluzzi graduated at University of Tuscia in Viterbo in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage, Specialization for Archivists and Librarians; then she gained a Degree in Library and Information Science at the University of Rome “La Sapienza and a PhD in Library Science at the University of Udine in 2008.
Since 2003 she has been working as Parliamentary Administrator and Librarian at the Senate Library in Rome.
She was contract professor in Library and Information Science and Library Management at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, as well as teacher in professional classes and speaker at many national and international conferences.
In addition to numerous articles and papers, she is the author of the following books:
1. La valutazione delle biblioteche pubbliche. Dati e metodologie delle indagini in Italia. Firenze, Olschki, 1999
2. Biblioteche e cooperazione. Modelli, strumenti, esperienze in Italia. Milano: Editrice Bibliografica, 2004
3. Biblioteche per la città. Nuove prospettive di un servizio pubblico. Roma: Carocci, 2009
In English she has published:
1. (2009) New public libraries in Italy: trends and issues. International Information and Library Review, 41, 52-59
2. (2010) Parliamentary libraries: an uncertain future? Library Trends, 58 (4), 549-560,
available on:https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/16680/58.4.galluzzi.pdf?sequence=2
3. (2011) Cities as long tails of the physical world: a challenge for public libraries, Library management, 32 (4/5), 319-335 (Highly Commended Award Winner at the Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2012: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/literati)
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