Professor Andrew Dillon's presentation "Perspectives on the evidence, value and impact of LIS research: conceptual challenges" at the LIS Research Coalition conference, British Library Conference Centre, London 28 June 2010: http://lisresearch.org/conference-2010/, hashtag #lisrc10

1. Perspectives on the evidence, value and impact of LIS research: conceptual challenges Andrew Dillon School of Information University of Texas

2. MAIN POINTS Major background shifts in ecology of info Impact and value elusive to measure Designing our role around human and social responses Info as the field for accelerating discovery

3. BACKGROUND SHIFTS Emergence of an expansive cyberinfrastructure Data shift from standalone, controlled to networked, aggregated, and accessible Longer-lived population of potential lifelong learners More diverse educational experiences Leadership gap 2:1 ratio of those leaving: those entering the info workforce 99.99% of all new data is created digitally And a user population comfortable with this Concerns with curation, management, access are now widespread beyond the ‘owning’ discipline

5. 2bn anticipated by 2015

6. 150m adults in US use internet daily

7. Using Email ~ 100m

8. Search engine ~ 75m

9. Just for fun – 70m

10. Research ~ 21m

11. Watch video/music ~ 30m

12. 40m users claim the internet is their primary source of scientific information (and 80% of these check the info for accuracy)Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2010

13. On the horizon… The cell phone refusniks disappear– only 15% of US adults report not owning one By 2020 majority of info will be in the cloud, 72% of expert users anticipate this replacing their PC Collection development as we know it will cease Buildings won’t house collections Faculty view libraries as purchasers Rise of the ‘e-patient’ in all areas is likely

14. Shifts in sub-disciplines of information: L vs. I Human Factors – HCI – CSCW Now they don’t talk to teach other Management Information Systems Identity crisis post 2000 Computer Science Confidence crisis in the information age (Klawe and Shneiderman 2005)

15. Boundary confusion LIS Social Informatics Information Science/Studies/Technology Instructional/Educational Technology Information Architecture/Policy/Management/…… Credentials and jurisdiction under question

18. Professions shift (inelegantly) according to cultural and social forces Speed of digital development creates instability in expertise and credentialing This instability creates turf wars and fault-line thinking Paper v. digital Library v info Us v them

21. MARKING OUR PROGRESS….. 400 AD First copyright case 700 AD wood block prints 1100 Moveable type 1455 Gutenberg’s metal type 1583 first use of a digital classification system 1650 first daily newspaper in Leipzig 1714 first mechanical typewriter 1814 first photographs 1831 First electric telegraph

23. 1937 first photocopier

24. 1938 ballpoint pen

25. 1941 Z3 – software based computer

26. 1945 – As we may think published

27. 1947 - cellular phone invented

28. 1969 ARPANet

29. 1993 Mosaic browser released

30. 1999 Blackberry released

31. 2004 Facebook launched

32. 2005 Google print library

33. 2007 iPhone

35. “Nobody reads anymore”

36. And yet…

38. “we feel the ebook moment is finally here”. VP of Oxford University Press, Casper Grathwohl2009

39. The Gutenberg Parenthesis? The last 500 years an anomaly Oral culture shifted to written culture Words became contained in media Categorization flourished But it was ‘temporary’ The web is a return to pre-Gutenberg orality

40. The space for LIS Too much emphasis on search, location, retrieval Too little emphasis on longitudinal outcomes Meaning has proved an elusive quality Human engagement beyond target is untouched Sharing (not just pointing) under appreciated Large number of users for whom digital info remains non-accessible

42. Human Computer Inequality It’s the gap not the movement that matters

43. Truth is not tech-based Three real worries: A new literacy is emphasizing search over comprehension We study technology at expense of humans We lose the perspective of time

44. The ‘literacy’ of S-R Search & Retrieval: The new stimulus-response arc “It is clear …new forms of “reading” are emerging as users “power browse” horizontally through titles, contents pages and abstracts going for quick wins.”. 60% of e-journal users (over 5 year period) view no more than three pages, and the majority never return Ciber Briefing Paper, UCL, 2008

45. Speed is of limited value Australia moved from a monthly calendar in reporting its balance of trade figures to a quarterly calendar because it was felt that the noise in the monthly statistics were injecting too much volatility into the price signals from financial markets. Morris and Shin, 2002, The Social Value of Public Information

46. What makes information valuable? Friberg and Reinhardt 2009 A survey of 610 managers across 21 companies shows that 54% of see the biggest barrier against making good decisions is inconsistent, deficient, and incomplete information in organizations Major criteria for Info Quality: Comprehensibility Believability Relevance Timeliness [Completeness]

47. THE QUALITY CRUX Comprehensible? Timely? Believable? Choose any two

48. Studying reputation

49. Participants:100 university undergraduates (59 female)18-26 years old Read/listened to introductory text (half were told about focus group) Read 2 articles and evaluated their credibility (half read Article 1 as Wikipedia and Article 2 as Britannica) Took a series of personality and demographic measures

50. Main findings

51. The information professional? Any consideration of our role must include: knowing, designing for, reinforcing better information behaviors? The questions are about people, the technology is about supporting them We must identify the human rules and keep them to the fore in all info system discussion

52. context arc of interpretation data users mediation arc of exploration DATA IS STORED, INFORMATION IS EXPERIENCED

53. Measuring impact Evidence-based research models not well suited LIS has much qualitative work Hard to meta-analyze The drive for ‘impact’ encourages “trendy” work

54. Enabling it Accelerating it Retaining it Providing opportunities for it And designing spaces for it Physical and digital Curation Organization Interaction INFORMATION EXPERIENCED IN THE PURSUIT OF DISCOVERY

56. analysis of human learning

57. The provision of curated resources

58. The design of enabling spaces

59. the culture of open enquiry

60. It is art and science,

61. It is politics and economics

62. Its research and teaching