Gregory H. Leazer

Comparing faculty information seeking in teaching and research: Implications for the design of digital libraries

ADEPT is a 5-year project whose goals are to develop, deploy, and evaluate inquiry learning capabilities for the Alexandria Digital Library, an extant digital library of primary sources in geography. We interviewed nine geography faculty members who teach undergraduate courses about their information seeking for research and teaching and their use of information resources in teaching. These data were supplemented by interviews with four faculty members from another ADEPT study about the nature of knowledge in geography. Among our key findings are that geography faculty are more likely to encounter useful teaching resources while seeking research resources than vice versa, although the influence goes in both directions. Their greatest information needs are for research data, maps, and images. They desire better searching by concept or theme, in addition to searching by location and place name. They make extensive use of their own research resources in their teaching. Among the implications for functionality and architecture of geographic digital libraries for educational use are that personal digital libraries are essential, because individual faculty members have personalized approaches to selecting, collecting, and organizing teaching resources. Digital library services for research and teaching should include the ability to import content from common office software and to store content in standard formats that can be exported to other applications. Digital library services can facilitate sharing among faculty but cannot overcome barriers such as intellectual property rights, access to proprietary research data, or the desire of individuals to maintain control over their own resources. Faculty use of primary and secondary resources needs to be better understood if we are to design successful digital libraries for research and teaching.

Derivative bibliographic relationships: the work relationship in a global bibliographic database

To contribute to the development of a sophisticated control of bibliographic works research must build on the growing understanding of the nature of the work and the constitution of bibliographic families. The present study was designed to address the following in the context of a global bibliographic database: the OCLC Online Computer Library Centers WorldCat: the proportion of works that are members of bibliographic families; the size of each family; bibliographic characteristics that can be associated with the existence or extent of derivative bibliographic relationships; the frequency with which each type of relationship appears; and the complexity of bibliographic families. A sample of bibliographic families was constructed. Results indicate that a core of works of similar character constitute the bibliographic population of American academic and research libraries (OCLC members). It seems that the canon of derivative works is greater in the academic sphere than in the bibliographic universe represented by OCLC at large. The size of a bibliographic family seems to be related to its popularity or its canonicity. Discipline, form, and genre all fail to demonstrate any influence on derivation of works. Further study of specific segments of the bibliographic universe, for instance the literature of particular disciplines, is clearly called for. The purpose of this research is to contribute to the development of a sophisticated control of bibliographic works and families. In particular, this research is designed to build on our growing understanding of the nature of the work and the constitution of bibliographic families.

How geography professors select materials for classroom lectures: implications for the design of digital libraries

A goal of the Alexandria Digital Earth Prototype (ADEPT) project is to make primary resources in geography useful for undergraduate instruction in ways that promote inquiry learning. The ADEPT education and evaluation team interviewed professors about their use of geography information as they prepare for class lectures, as compared to their research activities. We found that professors desired the ability to search by concept (erosion, continental drift, etc.) as well as geographic location, and that personal research collections were an important source of instructional materials. Resources in geospatial digital libraries are typically described by location, but are rarely described by concept or educational application. This paper presents implications for the design of an educational digital library from our observations of the lecture preparation process. Findings include functionality requirements for digital libraries and implications for the notion of digital libraries as a shared information environment. The functional requirements include definitions and enhancements of searching capabilities, the ability to contribute and to share personal collections of resources, and the capability to manipulate data and images.

Iterative Design and Evaluation of a Geographic Digital Library for University Students: A Case Study of the Alexandria Digital Earth Prototype (ADEPT)

We report on the first two years of a five-year project to design and evaluate the Alexandria Digital Earth ProtoType (ADEPT), a digital library of geo-referenced information resources, for use in undergraduate education. To date, we have established design principles, observed classroom activities, gathered baseline data from instructors and students, and evaluated early prototypes. While students and instructors are generally enthusiastic about ADEPT, they have concerns about the effort required and the effectiveness of computer-based technologies in the classroom. Instructors vary widely in their use of instructional materials and technologies, teaching styles, and areas of expertise. Results of our work are being incorporated in an iterative cycle of design and evaluation. The paper concludes by presenting research and evaluation methods, design principles, and requirements for educational applications of digital libraries.

Toward the bibliographic control of works: derivative bibliographic relationships in an online union catalog

This research is designed to build on our understanding of the nature of the work and the breadth of the bibliographic family. The specific objectives of this research are to confirm Smiraglias observations about the frequency and extent of the derivative relationship, to learn whether bibliographic families conform in reality to Leazers conceptual model, and to learn whether the data required for control of works using our conceptual model are available. It appears from this cursory examination of the data, that although there are fewer large bibliographic families than expected, the characteristics of bibliographic families are as Smiraglia predicted. Leazers proposed model for the control of bibliographic works seems to be accurate. Qualitative analysis of the most complex bibliographic families will lead directly to the development of a dictionary of works, which can then be tested as a searching implement for the Online Union Catalog

Evaluating the use of a geographic digital library in undergraduate classrooms: ADEPT

The evaluation plan for the Alexandria Digital Earth Prototype (ADEPT) centers on two investigations: a study of classroom use of the system by faculty and students and lab-based usability studies. The classroom-based study is primarily an investigation of the digital librarys impact on student learning, using multiple research methods. The five-year work plan includes investigations of the use of ADEPT in non-geography classes.

Use Scenarios in the Development of the Alexandria Digital Earth Prototype (ADEPT)

A user-centered, iterative design philosophy requires a common language between users, designers and builders to translate user needs into buildable specifications. This paper details the rationale, evolution and implementation of use scenarios—structured narrative descriptions of envisioned system use—in the development of the Alexandria Digital Earth Prototype. This paper discusses the strengths of the scenario approach, obstacles to their use, and lessons learned in the overall development process.

What porn says to information studies: The affective value of documents, and the body in information behavior

In this paper we examine will examine how the everyday life of information seeking of pornography reveals two things. In contradiction of the general theory that says documents are sought for their cognitive value, the commonplace phenomenon of browsing pornography online demonstrates that documents are sought for their affective value. Furthermore, affective response reveals ways that the information seekers own body is an important element in the negotiation of assessing and understanding documents during the seeking process. We also assess the degree to which these specific observations are true in more general settings.

From Prototype to Deployable System: Framing the Adoption of Digital Library Services

The Alexandria Digital Earth Prototype Project (ADEPT) is a 5-year (1999-2004) effort, with a goal of developing effective models for implementing digital libraries in undergraduate instruction. The ADEPT team has created a digital learning environment (DLE) that adds educational value to a digital library by offering a suite of services for teaching. Encouraged by the results of implementations in undergraduate geography classrooms, the team now shifts its focus from experimental prototype to deployable system. Everett Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations theories are used as frameworks for analyzing this complex transition. Recommendations for lowering the barriers to adoption related to complexity, trialability, and observability include the prioritization of development efforts focused on stabilizing the system, the creation of documentation and an online demonstration, and anonymous logins to the system. To increase perceived relative advantage, existing technical and copyright issues in integrating the Alexandria Digital Library must be overcome. To increase compatibility, the speed at which pedagogical change is achieved must be rethought. Finally, recruitment efforts should focus on innovators and early adopters before moving on to early majority, late majority, or laggard adopters.

Three Social Distance Measures for Film Rankings.

We describe the use of three alternative methods for ranking films for information retrieval (IR). A large film-person incidence matrix is generated using the principle cast, directors, producers and screenwriters for each film. These attributes are used to measure film-film distances by creating a distance matrix: two films are considered to be adjacent if there is any overlap in the people associated with each film. The distance between any two films is measured by the shortest path used to connect them through their adjacent members. The second and third methods involve the creation of a similarity matrix that expresses the amount of overlap in the people associated with any two films using Dices coefficient. A “product distance” matrix is then derived that express the distances between any two films based on the product of the similarity weights on a path that connects those films. The highest value is chosen when alternate paths connect the two films. We also describe an “accumulative difference distance” matrix that also expresses the distances among pairs of films. The distance, product distance and accumulative difference distance matrices are used to generate rankings for a random sample of films.