ASIS&T Pre-conference Panel, 3/7/2008

Time: Fri. 3/7, 1pm
Location: GSB 2.124

Schedule Change

Because of ASIS&T pre-conference panel at the iSchool on 3/7/2008, the forum schedule is changed. S. C.'s talk will be moved to 3/28/2008.

M. G. 4/4/2008

Time: Fri. 4/4, 1pm
Location: SZB 556
Speaker: M. G. - Maria E. Gonzalez

Genre: Dissertation

Topic and Abstract:
Social field and symbolic capital in a sub-field of LIS

The work of Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002)
French philosopher, sociologist, late-life activist
Contemporary of Jacques Derrida at the Ecole Normale Superieure (1951-1952); More significantly, collaborated with Alain Touraine and Jean-Paul Benzecri

Overview:

1. Reflexivity and researcher position in the social field researched (that means you!)
2. Bourdieusian concepts in an interpretive theoretical framework: (funny language) social field, position, habitus, types of capital and conversion, symbolic violence
3. Correspondence analysis (mixed methods)
4. Collaborative research and publication (don't try this at home...)

Re Bourdieu - Dissertation Abstract

“Crises” in Scholarly Communications:
Insights from Forty-Years of the Journal of Library History,
1966 – 2005

Maria E. Gonzalez
The University of Texas at Austin, 2008
Diss. Comm. Chair: Patricia K. Galloway

The dissertation examines the first forty years of a humanities journal, Libraries & Culture (hereafter Journal). Founded in 1966 as Journal of Library History, its contributors shaped and reshaped the Journal according to the values, habits, and competencies that they brought to changing circumstances. Over a period of forty years marked by administrative, managerial, financial, editorial, and technical challenges, the editors transformed the Journal into an interdisciplinary and erudite publication distant from its earliest beginnings as a compendium of entertaining vignettes and didactic notes on the writing and uses of library history.

This study considers salient points of transformation during the life of the Journal, highlighting issues associated with various crises in scholarly communications. Key issues confronted by the Journal include the now familiar dilemmas over journal pricing structures, subscription cancellations, bibliographic control, prestige surveys and citation rankings, pressures on authors to publish, peer-review, and modes of dissemination. Historical and sociological contexts frame the resolutions of these dilemmas, treated chronologically as each erupted in the trajectory of the Journal.

The historical investigation draws on archival sources, secondary sources, interviews, participant observation, and close reading of the publication to construct a narrative about the Journal in the context of 1) changing priorities in higher education; 2) challenges faced by university presses and scholarly publication in general; and 3) professional and disciplinary developments in librarianship.

The characters, actions, and settings of the history are interpreted through a sociological lens, crafted from a beginner’s understanding of the work of Pierre Bourdieu. Bourdieu’s concepts of social field, multiple forms of capital, capital conversion, and habitus form the interpretive frame for the narrative.

The choice of Bourdieu’s heuristic approach implies a broader interest in framing scholarly communications as value negotiations among sets of players in interdependent social fields. The players struggle not just to preserve their positions in the production and dissemination of scholarship, but also contend with others in powerful social fields—state governments, university hierarchies, and job markets—about the creation of cultural capital and the power to define what is legitimate knowledge.

Attendance:

G. H. 3/28/2008 (S. C. is re-scheduled for this session)

Time: Fri. 3/28, 1pm
Location: SZB 556
Speaker: S. C. (Georgia Harper, earlier scheduled for this date, will be visiting colleagues at Yale University on the 28th)

Genre: Individual Studies

Topic and Abstract: Menu-Navigating Behavior (MNB). Details are in the previous post.



Attendance: 10

D. H. 4/11/2008 (Schedule is Changed)

Time: Fri. 4/11, 1pm
Location: SZB 556
Speaker: D. H.

Genre: Dissertation Proposal

Topic and Abstract: Building Connections in Cyberspace Through Synchronous Online Discussion

Adaptation in chat used in conjunction with live video and audio webcasting:
1) What adaptations on the part of instructors and students lead to satisfactory social interaction?
2) What actions on the part of instructors and students foster generative instances of meaning making?

Analytical elements include adaptive measures students and instructors employ in online social interaction, expectations for social interaction students and instructors bring to the online learning environment, and ways in which students and instructors negotiate new meanings within the online learning environment.

Attendance: 9

S. C. 3/28/2008 (Schedule is Changed)

Time: Fri. 3/28, 1pm
Location: SZB 556
Speaker: Sheng-Cheng (Hans) Huang

Genre: Individual Studies

Topic and Abstract: Menu-Navigating Behavior (MNB): A model of quantifiable and optimal user behaviors in finding paths within a limited information architecture

Today, when a user uses a computer to perform given tasks, his or her behaviors are mostly dominated by motor skills of operating hardware such as the mouse and the keyboard and by cognitive mechanisms of making either perceptive or integrated decisions to select correct items such as icons and labels on the screen. In this study, we will boldly characterize human-computer interaction (HCI) as a series of tasks of menu-navigating behaviors, which is to deductively define menu-navigating as a iterative behavior of choosing the correct visual stimulus among others by perceptive and cognitive mechanisms in order to reach the final destination of a target item.

Deriving from this definition, we assume that for a user to navigate a menu system and to successfully find the target information is analogous to the behavior of finding the correct path that is predefined by the designer of the system. Therefore, we are interested in finding the facts of how users make correct decisions that leads to form the correct path and vice versa. Also, based on the facts that we expect to identify and discover, we hope to develop a mathematic model of this particular HCI based on the statistical probability of user behaviors that will provide reasonable parameters to help us design better interfaces and predict user performance in the future.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the user behaviors in menu-navigating tasks, and to examine whether the current psychometric functions of Two Alternative Forced Choice (2AFC) task, Theory of Signal Detectability (TSD) and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) can be applied to understand this particular phenomenon. I also propose to develop new or adjust current psychometric functions based on the performance data to be collected in order to answer the question whether users always apply rational rules (e.g. "ideal" Bayesian decision rule) for probability judgment or decision-making in menu-navigating tasks.


Attendance: 10

P. A-R. 2/29/2008

Time: Fri. 2/29, 1pm
Location: SZB 556
Speaker: P. A-R.

Genre: Individual Studies

Topic and Abstract: Emotion Factors in Digital Library Project (Messages and Messangers)



Attendance: 14

G. C. 2/22/2008

Time: Fri. 2/22, 1pm
Location: SZB 556
Speaker: G. C.

Genre: Dissertation

Topic and Abstract: The Design of Wayfinding
Affordance and its Influence on Presence and
Playfulness in Desktop Virtual Environments

For the past few years, virtual environments (VEs)
have gained broad attention from both scholarly and
practitioner communities. However, in spite of intense
and widespread efforts, most VE-related research has
focused on the technical aspects of applications, and
the necessary theoretical framework to assess the
quality of interfaces and designs has not yet been
fully developed.  This research, as a response to such
challenges, concerns the usability of three
dimensional VEs. More specifically, this study aims to
investigate the effects of wayfinding affordance
design on users’ task performance and perceptual
experience in 3D desktop VEs.

For this purpose, four different wayfinding affordance
conditions were set up: fixed detached affordance
condition (FDAC), switchable detached affordance
condition (SDAC), portable embedded affordance
condition (PEAC) and fixed embedded affordance
condition (FEAC).  Maps and directional cues were
employed to implement wayfinding affordance. The
results show that the design of wayfinding affordance
has significant effects on users’ perceptual
experience as well as their task performance. The
stable interfaces (FEAC and FDAC) were found to
provide a better sense of presence for the users
whereas the manipulative interfaces (PEAC and SDAC)
offered a greater state of playfulness. Task
performance was significantly better where the maps
and cues were provided independently from the VE
interfaces (FDAC and PDAC).  The design of different
types of interfaces had a greater impact on non-expert
users than on expert users.   

Attendance: 13

Second Life Workshop

Second Life Workshop:
On-going Research and Learning in Second Life

Date: Friday, March 21, 2008
Time: 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon
Location: AVAYA Auditorium (ACE 2.302)

Info and Registration: http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/pdce/workshops/sl.html

T. N-H. 2/15/2008

Time: Fri. 2/15, 1pm
Location: SZB 556
Speaker: T. N-H.

Genre: Dissertation

Topic and Abstract: Marginalia and Colophons-- Study of Slavic Manuscripts



Attendance: 10 with D. D.'s nice contribution of delicious sub-sandwiches from Jason's Deli.

J. S. 2/8/2008

Time: Fri. 2/8, 1pm
Location: SZB 556
Speaker: J. S.

Genre: Qualifying Paper

Topic and Abstract: Virtual World Study



Attendance: 16

PS, after the PhDBS session this Friday please come over to Scholz Garten for Happy Hour.