Philip Doty

Information micro-practices in Texas rural courts: methods and issues for E-Government

Abstract This paper reports on an empirical study of the information behavior of governmental actors in rural Texas courts. The study used multiple data collection and data analysis methods to produce a rich, thick description of the participants’ behavior which is contextualized and used to identify important challenges to e-government. The paper argues that moving beyond the silo-based approach to reporting and information technology implementation that characterizes the current policy environment can be done only with a strong and detailed understanding of governmental actors’ job responsibilities and their information and communication patterns. Doing so is important to achieving the vision of e-government.

OMB and the development of a government-wide information inventory/locator system

Abstract Access to U.S. public information could be enhanced by developing and implementing a government-wide information inventory/locator system (GIILS). Based on a policy analysis of 51 legislative and regulatory instruments, interviews with a range of spokespersons for various stakeholder groups, and responses to a request for public comments on a GIILS, some preliminary design criteria and recommendations for such a system can be identified. Overall, there is wide support for the Office of Management and Budget to move forward by assisting in the design and implementation of such a system.

Library assessment and data analytics in the big data era: practice and policies

Emerging technologies have offered libraries and librarians new ways and methods to collect and analyze data in the era of accountability to justify their value and contributions. For example, Gallagher, Bauer and Dollar ( ) analyzed the paper and online journal usage from all possible data sources and discovered that users at the Yale Medical Library preferred the electronic format of articles to the print version. After this discovery, they were able to take necessary steps to adjust their journal subscriptions. Many library professionals advocate such data‐driven library management to strengthen and specify library budget proposals.

U.S. homeland security and risk assessment

Abstract Risk is constitutive of homeland security policy in the United States, and the risk apparatus supports growing concentration of executive power, increased surveillance, and secrecy. For example, the Transportation Security Administration in the Department of Homeland Security employs risk assessment particularly against groups considered “other.” Using the work of mostly European scholars, especially the literatures about Foucaults governmentality and Becks risk society, the paper combines theory with empirical work by governmental agencies on transparency, secrecy, and risk assessment methods used in the Department of Homeland Security, providing insight into the securitization of the American state. Risk is a means to futurize threats to the polity, to create the security imaginary , a fictionalization that creates a moral panic and a climate of fear in seeking to cope with uncertainty. With those limitations of risk in mind, we can question four important elements of risk in U.S. security practice: “connecting the dots”; the quantitative bases of risk assessment algorithms; how risk assessment tends to ignore the important if circular intentionality of terror; and the difficulties inherent in controlling populations by classification, especially other-ed populations. The paper concludes with suggestions about unmasking the uncertainty of risk assessment and enabling oversight of its practice by legislative, judicial, and public actors.

The National Information Infrastructure and electronic publishing: a reflective essay

The United States government has been active in the establishment of national and other levels of networking to connect various kinds of persons and groups throughout the country. This article briefly examines the history and present state of federal initiatives in electronic networking (particularly the National Information Infrastructure [NII] and the National Research and Education Network [NREN]); looks at current trends and issues for electronic publishing that come from this federal activity; and identifies topics of fundamental interest to, and with major implications for, national policy that arise from electronic publishing. The goal of this discussion is to explore electronic publishing in the context of federal networking initiatives and to consider the implications of the growth of electronic publishing for national policy.

Toward an understanding of fiction and information behavior: Toward an Understanding of Fiction and Information Behavior

The study of information science and technology has expanded over the years to include more kinds of people, more kinds of behavior, more methods, and a broader inclusion of fields. There is at least one area, however, where very few information studies scholars have tread: entertainment, particularly fiction. Yet many fields indicate that information studies should consider fiction. In this paper, we discuss how fiction is an informative genre and reasons why information studies scholars have mostly ignored fiction. We also identify potential research directions for studying fiction. We provide a summary of works about fiction and information, discuss motivations for expanding (and not expanding) information studies beyond what it is and has been, and we use an exploratory study of one example of a fiction‐interaction – reading Young Adult novels – to illustrate how fiction is important to information behavior.