Elizabeth Yakel

Looting hoards of gold and poaching spotted owls: data confidentiality among archaeologists & zoologists

Researchers in the social and health sciences are used to dealing with confidential data, and repositories in these areas have developed mechanisms to prevent unethical or illegal disclosure of this data. However, other scientific communities also collect data whose disclosure may cause harm to communities, cultures, or the environment. This paper presents results from 62 interviews and observations with archaeologists and zoologists. It focuses on how researchers’ perceptions of potential harm influence attitudes about data confidentiality, and how these, in turn, influence opinions about who should be responsible for managing access to data. This is particularly problematic in archaeology when harm is not to a living individual but is targeted at a community or culture that may or may not have living representatives, and in zoology when an environment or a species may be at risk. We find that while both archaeologists and zoologists view location information as highly important and valuable in facilitating use and reuse of data, they also acknowledge that location should at times be considered confidential information since it can be used to facilitate the destruction of cultural property through looting or decimation of endangered species through poaching. While researchers in both disciplines understand the potential dangers of allowing disclosure of this information, they disagree about who should take responsibility for access decisions and conditions.

Challenges to nurses' efforts of retrieving, documenting, and communicating patient care information

OBJECTIVE To examine information flow, a vital component of a patients care and outcomes, in a sample of multiple hospital nursing units to uncover potential sources of error and opportunities for systematic improvement. DESIGN This was a qualitative study of a sample of eight medical-surgical nursing units from four diverse hospitals in one US state. We conducted direct work observations of nursing staffs communication patterns for entire shifts (8 or 12 h) for a total of 200 h and gathered related documentation artifacts for analyses. Data were coded using qualitative content analysis procedures and then synthesized and organized thematically to characterize current practices. RESULTS Three major themes emerged from the analyses, which represent serious vulnerabilities in the flow of patient care information during nurse hand-offs and to the entire interdisciplinary team across time and settings. The three themes are: (1) variation in nurse documentation and communication; (2) the absence of a centralized care overview in the patients electronic health record, ie, easily accessible by the entire care team; and (3) rarity of interdisciplinary communication. CONCLUSION The care information flow vulnerabilities are a catalyst for multiple types of serious and undetectable clinical errors. We have two major recommendations to address the gaps: (1) to standardize the format, content, and words used to document core information, such as the plan of care, and make this easily accessible to all team members; (2) to conduct extensive usability testing to ensure that tools in the electronic health record help the disconnected interdisciplinary team members to maintain a shared understanding of the patients plan.

The challenges of digging data: a study of context in archaeological data reuse

Field archaeology only recently developed centralized systems for data curation, management, and reuse. Data documentation guidelines, standards, and ontologies have yet to see wide adoption in this discipline. Moreover, repository practices have focused on supporting data collection, deposit, discovery, and access more than data reuse. In this paper we examine the needs of archaeological data reusers, particularly the context they need to understand, verify, and trust data others collect during field studies. We then apply our findings to the existing work on standards development. We find that archaeologists place the most importance on data collection procedures, but the reputation and scholarly affiliation of the archaeologists who conducted the original field studies, the wording and structure of the documentation created during field work, and the repository where the data are housed also inform reuse. While guidelines, standards, and ontologies address some aspects of the context data reusers need, they provide less guidance on others, especially those related to research design. We argue repositories need to address these missing dimensions of context to better support data reuse in archaeology.

Inviting the user into the virtual archives

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss ways that Web 2.0 features are being used in archival access systems and how more might be incorporated in the future.Design/methodology/approach – This article uses a modified content analysis to highlight archives and special collections using features and functionalities associated with Web 2.0 and social navigation.Findings – A limited number of archives and manuscript collections have made forays into the world of the Web 2.0 and included interactive features on their web sites as well as tried to foster social navigation. The examples in the article do not represent all repositories employing these features, but demonstrate how they can be used to build different relationships with researchers and even among the researchers themselves.Practical implications – This article discusses ways that Web 2.0 features are being used in archival access systems and how these might be incorporated into other sites the future.Originality/value – This article ident...

Archival Education in North American Library and Information Science Schools.

American archival education at the graduate level developed gradually throughout the twentieth century. In the past decade, however, its development has accelerated, and firmer foundations were built in graduate library and information science (LIS) programs throughout North America. Our findings indicate strength and individualization in graduate level archival education programs, a dramatic increase in full-time, tenure-track faculty, a growing number of course offerings often eclipsing the LIS offerings in an archival students course of study, and the nascent development of degrees acknowledging the archives and records field. Despite the substantial growth of archival education within the LIS schools, there is confusion or lack of understanding about the archival field by these schools as well as a lack of commitment by archival professional associations to advocate for specific changes in archival education.

Perceptions and Experiences of Staff in the Planning and Implementation of Institutional Repositories

The MIRACLE (Making Institutional Repositories a Collaborative Learning Environment) Project team investigated issues and trends related to institutional repository planning and implementation, such as the purposes and roles of an institutional repository (IR), system selection criteria, system features, policies, services, and sustainability. Data were collected through telephone interviews with thirty-six IR staff and individuals who played important roles in the development of IRs at their respective institutions. Interviewees came not only from academic institutions where an IR had been implemented but also from those planning, pilot-testing, or having no plans to launch an IR. Regardless of the phase of IR development, interviewees consistently expressed enthusiasm for deploying IRs to provide access to and to preserve digital materials. The findings indicate that IR staff view the IR as the infrastructure for their university’s participation in the open access movement and are confident about IR’s long-term sustainability. Because branding and the scope of IRs have evolved over the years, IRs are increasingly being perceived in terms of this overarching goal or purpose, rather than as a set of specific functions, features, or services. Based on these results, it is suggested that IRs need to design value-added service models that would allow IR staff to better serve their learning communities.

Significant Properties as Contextual Metadata

Given the desire to maintain both long-term renderability and meaningfulness of data for reuse, increasing attention is being paid to contextual metadata, also known as significant properties. Both the data reuse and digital curation literatures identify significant properties but do not appear to build on one another, in part because of different methodological approaches. In this paper we discuss the significant properties research from both literatures and call for a more integrative approach. We conclude with a discussion of our project, Dissemination Information Packages for Information Reuse (DIPIR), which features the boundary spanning we advocate between these two research communities.

Institutional Repositories: The Experience of Master's and Baccalaureate Institutions

In 2006, MIRACLE Project investigators censused library directors at all U.S. academic institutions about their activities planning, pilot testing, and implementing the institutional repositories on their campuses. Out of 446 respondents, 289 (64.8 percent) were from masters and baccalaureate institutions (M&BIs) where few operational institutional repositories (IRs) were in place but where interest in learning more about the M&BI experience pertaining to IRs was high. Comments by these library directors in the MIRACLE study demonstrated their desire to learn more about IR planning and implementation at institutions like their own. We address their comments in this paper, which compares IR activities at M&BIs to research universities (RUs).

Standardized survey tools for assessment in archives and special collections

Purpose – User‐based evaluation in archives and special collections is in its infancy, and this paper aims to discuss the conceptualization, development, and testing of Archival Metrics Toolkits. The development and adoption of standardized metrics to support the management of both analog and digital collections is a critical need in archives and manuscript collections.Design/methodology/approach – The Archival Metrics Toolkits were created, and comprised five user‐based evaluation instruments for archives and special collections in colleges and universities: researcher, archival web sites, online finding aids, student researchers, and teaching support.Findings – The Archival Metrics Toolkits, as developed, represent a first step toward standardized evaluation created specifically for archives. Now it is up to the community to adopt these tools and report their use.Originality/value – These are the first standardized questionnaires to target archives and special collections and take into consideration the...

Digital assets for the next millennium

Over the past decade, a variety of digital imaging projects have been carried out in archives, libraries, and museums. This paper discusses the difficulties in moving from a series of digital projects to a digitization program, and the ensuing transformation in thinking from digital objects to digital assets that needs to occur. It also discusses the problems archives and museums face in managing, preserving, and providing continuing access to these digital assets and potential models for their long‐term management.