Information Studies Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2780
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Item Information Avoidance in the Archival Context(2024) Beland II, Scott; St. Jean, Beth; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Information avoidance (IA) has been researched across several disciplines like psychology, economics, consumer health informatics, communications, and the information sciences, but the exploration of this phenomenon in archives is nearly non-existent. As information professionals, IA should be seen as a relevant concern to archivists as it may impact how people interact with archival materials, and more importantly how they may avoid certain materials, or the archives altogether. My study provides an extensive overview of IA in the archival context with a systematic literature review across disciplines and through qualitative interviews with 12 archivists across the United States of varying experience levels and from varying institution types. The aim is to explore how they think about IA in archives and how they may have experienced it in their work to answer the two research questions: 1) What abstract ideas do archivists have about IA as it relates to archives? 2) How do archivists experience IA in their daily work? Thematic analysis and synthesis grids were used to converge the transcripts into five key themes and findings about who is susceptible to IA, the contributing variables that impact and are impacted by IA, how IA manifests, real life applications of IA, and specific archival practices and concepts that impact and are impacted by IA in the context of archival work and research. Interpretations of this data resulted in theoretical models and implications that draw on existing understandings, as well as new understandings of IA that impact the information lifecycle of archival records and how people interact with them. These contributions to the archival and IA literatures can be used as a roadmap that will allow archivists to approach their work with a more mindful, and hopefully empathetic, ethic of care in handling information, understanding the costs and benefits of those decisions and actions, and better serving their patrons.Item Archival Workers as Climate Advocates(2024) Wickner, Amy; Shilton, Katie; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Real-life examples of climate response under material constraints capture the risks facing archives, records, and archival workers amid environmental change, and the factors that complicate climate action. In this dissertation, I sought to understand how climate, environment, and ecology shape archival workers' experiences, practices, and perspectives on the future, including their norms and expectations for making change. I used three interconnected methods: a critical review of six decades of scholarly and professional literature; a literary analysis of archival practices in seven climate fiction texts; and interviews with 13 archivists concerned about climate change. The core argument of this dissertation is that forms of slow violence – Nixon's term for harm that “occurs gradually and out of sight” – produce unresolvable double binds, which catalyze archival workers into a community of climate advocates. This research finds that archival workers are trying to pursue principled work in conditions that prevent them from doing so – not only the material limitations of work sites, but also political obstacles to taking climate action. They develop politically expedient strategies and tactics in response to local circumstances, while using public statements and campaigns to extend their advocacy across the field. As climate advocates, they oscillate between positions as insiders and outsiders in the field, never settling in one stance from which to effect change. While they share a commitment that archives matter to climate response, complexity and contradiction hold them together as a community of advocates. Two key points of disagreement lie at the buzzing center of this community: first, whether archives are primarily resources or obstacles to climate action; and second, to what extent archival climate responses should align with or resist power relations that organize the state of the field (and the planet). There's ample knowledge in the archives field of the significance of climate change, the environmental impacts to and of archival work, the need for archivists to respond to the crisis, and methods for responding. However, such answers make little difference in everyday change-making, if they don't also face head-on the material conditions of archival work and the political relations that determine and reproduce those conditions.Item Virtual Library Events Catered Towards Teens: Surveying Event Wants and Ideas in Order to Increase Engagement in the Fairfax County, VA Library System(2023) Bowman, Melissa June; Sturge, Jennifer; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)During the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020, many public libraries systems turned to virtual programming to increase engagement during the time of lockdowns and stay-at-home orders. Three years out of the pandemic, many libraries have scaled back the virtual programming catalog, focusing instead on in-person events. In the Fairfax County, Virginia Public Libraries System, a programming gap existed in the virtual events catered towards teens. This thesis uses interviews with Fairfax County Public Libraries staff and a survey of local teens to discern what kind of virtual programming teens attend; and what virtual events teens would like to see in the future. Library Staff indicated that virtual events were scaled back in favor of in-person events to increase engagement with the other library services. Teens surveyed stated that while in-person events were often attended, there was a need for more virtual events. The conclusion from the interviews and from the survey results indicate that library systems do not need to come up with a specific “virtual only” programming, but rather find a balance of in-person and virtual programming, perhaps by streaming in-person events, to meet the wants and needs of the teen users.Item TOWARDS AN ETHICAL IMPERATIVE: TRACKING THE REPARATIVE GROUNDSWELL IN VIRGINIA’S ACADEMIC LIBRARIES & ARCHIVES(2023) Hale, Martha Grace; Marsh, Diana; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study aims to understand an uptick of interest in reparative information work in the field of library and information science using the lens of Virginia academic libraries (Jaeger et al., 2016; Poole et al., 2021). The researcher used a web based, self-administered survey instrument to sample memory workers in 101 institutions of higher learning from around Virgina in order to gather data on what kinds of restorative and social justice work is taking place in these institutions as well as regional attitudes towards those efforts. The results and discussion form a platform for the lived experience of memory professionals across a range of power differentials and seeks to understand what praxes assist or hinder these efforts.Item "I love that they exist, even if imperfectly:" Disability, Music Archives, Descriptive Language, and Symbolic Annihilation(2023) Pineo, Elizabeth; Marsh, Diana E; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Drawing on scholarship that addresses symbolic annihilation, this thesis brings together three related studies to argue that music archivists need to address the symbolic annihilation of Disabled individuals within their materials. It offers an assessment of the current state of representation of Disabled individuals in music and non-music archives (chapter 2) and in Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) (chapter 3). From there, it explores the ways in which music and non-music archives are perceived by Disabled individuals with ties to music (chapter 4). Following the presentation of these three studies, the thesis relates combined implications, considerations for further research, and suggestions for methods archivists might use to combat symbolic annihilation and its underlying causes. The author provides practical steps for combatting symbolic annihilation of Disabled individuals throughout, but the final chapter (chapter 5) focuses exclusively on this topic.Item THE QUEST FOR I-LITERACY: IDENTIFYING AND ADDRESSING GAPS IN INFORMATION LITERACY EDUCATION IN INFORMATION SCIENCE UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS(2022) Douglass, Courtney L.; Jaeger, Paul; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Information scholars, educators and librarians have grappled with defining the concept of information literacy for decades – at least as far back as the 1970’s – with the most prominent common thread being as a set of skills. In pedagogy and practice, what higher education currently calls information literacy is delivered more akin to research skills or the ability to effectively conduct and share research in its myriad forms. It is problematic that for so long the emphasis on research and academic skills has wholly devalued those sources deemed non-traditional by academic measures, including popular sources, pop-culture entertainment, and the power of observation. Ironically this emphasis on academic research skills diminishes the extreme societal impact non-traditional sources and stories have had throughout the information age in which we currently find ourselves. In this dissertation, I provide a curriculum map for the required courses in five Undergraduate Information Science Programs, with the dual purpose of aligning instruction practices and gaps with the aforementioned impacts as they determine what information literacy should mean, and encouraging iSchools to adopt and promote a socially constructed model of information literacy, which I am terming i-Literacy. This study demonstrates how iSchool undergraduate programs emphasize understanding that different information mediums are required based on audience, user needs, and the information problem, but may not highlight social and civic responsibility with information use and sharing. The map also shows a strong alignment between the seemingly antiquated ‘Bibliographic Instruction’ practices from the 1980’s and 90’s, and the current pedagogy based on the ACRL Framework.Item “Just Like the Library”: Exploring the experiences of former library student assistants' post-graduation careers and perceptions of job preparedness as impacted by library work(2022) Ofsthun, Franklin; O'Grady, Ryan; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Career success is a major component of assessing student success, and at the Universities at Shady Grove (USG), a small campus supporting nine state universities, post-graduation success is understudied. Students employed by USG’s Priddy Library are subject to a professional development (PD) program that emphasizes skill building, professional experiences, and career competencies. This thesis uses interviews from seven former student employees to determine what students retain from the program a year after graduation, to explore their feelings on early career experiences, and to determine what Priddy Library and USG can do to better prepare students for their post-graduation careers. Job satisfaction was most positively correlated with workplace social support and most negatively correlated with overwork. Participants felt overall positively about their experiences at USG and the library, and emphasized the role that social support played in their success. Participants identified many career competencies developed at the library that they continue to use in their post-graduation careers, most notably, customer service, communication, critical thinking, time management, and professionalism. Participants shared feelings of self-doubt and inadequacy despite degree and skill acquisition, indicating that more effort should be made to build students’ professional confidence.Item Teaching Methods and Partnership Development Patterns for Non-University Archivists(2022) Keefer, Scott; Marsh, Diana E; Van Hyning, Victoria A; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Teaching has become a more prevalent and rigorous part of the archival profession over the last two decades. While the majority of the established literature and case studies on the subject focus on university settings, this thesis examines the results of qualitative interviews with teaching archivists in institutions outside of university settings. The results show that the active learning methods of universities have largely been embraced by non-university archivists, but also show that the profession remains in flux in terms of training and transitioning away from more passive methods. This study can be used to implement or improve teaching programs in non-university institutions of all sizes and reflect a need for wider training in teaching and encouragement of pedagogical training in institutions and library science schools.Item YOUNG ADULTS SEEKING, ENCOUNTERING, AND EVALUATING SEXUAL HEALTH INFORMATION ONLINE(2021) Behre, Jane Ingram; St Jean, Beth; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Although earlier studies have examined the online sexual health information seeking and evaluation skills of young adults, the majority of them are at least five years old and few have utilized inclusive, LGBTQ+-friendly language in their data collection instruments. This online survey study aimed to fill these gaps in the literature by conducting a more up-to-date study incorporating inclusive language, with the goal of using these findings to support the improvement of information literacy instruction. The findings suggest that the most popular online health information evaluation strategies amongst young adults may be unreliable and, while this population may understand reliable methods for evaluating online information in an academic context, they appear to struggle to apply the same critical information evaluation skills to their everyday life information seeking, thus providing support for an argument towards improved and updated information literacy instruction.Item Archives in the Attic: Exile, Activism, and Memory in the Washington Committee for Human Rights in Argentina(2019) Pyle, Perri; Rosemblatt, Karin; History/Library & Information Systems; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Spurred by the human rights violations committed by the last Argentine dictatorship (1976-1983), exiled Argentines in Washington, D.C. formed the Washington Committee for Human Rights in Argentina (WCHRA) to facilitate the transnational exchange of information between those under threat in Argentina and political actors in the United States. This thesis outlines the story of the WCHRA through the records they created - kept for nearly forty years in an attic - and oral interviews with former members. The collection consists of letters, testimonies, petitions, and notes that reflect the group’s extensive network and provide insight into how Argentine exile groups inserted themselves into the larger human rights movement. By critically examining how one small group of activists came together, I explore how archival records enhance, challenge, and reveal new insights into the politics of exile, activism, and memory, as seen through the lens of the records they kept.