[sigCR] Plenary Speakers and Workshops: 5th Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries International Conference, 4 - 7 June 2013, "La Sapienza" University, Rome Italy

[Conf at qqml.net]

New Abstract submission deadline: 28 February 2013,  http://www.isast.org
<http://www.isast.org/> 
 
It is our honour to announce the Plenary Speakers of the 5th Qualitative and
Quantitative Methods in Libraries International Conference (QQML2013), 4 - 7
June 2013, “La Sapienza” University, Rome Italy. 
 
Workshops 
Impact evaluation workshop / Organized by Mr. Markku A. Laitinen, Planning
Officer, The National Library of Finland and Ms. Anna Niemelä, Service
Coordinator, The National Library of Finland
The libraries have a long tradition in collecting statistical data and other
evidence - user survey data etc. - about their operations. In practice, the
utilization of data collected may not be as versatile as possible. However,
the evidence of effectiveness and impact of library services may be of
crucial importance for libraries to survive in the current economic
atmosphere. 
Hence, we invite library experts around the world to unite their forces to
find new good practices to show impact and value of libraries!
In the workshop, we seek together answers to following questions: 
- To which quarter do you prove impact and value of your library?
- How do you show that services provided by your library give additional
value to your customers/target group? 
- What kind of information or data is necessary to collect in order to show
the impact and benefits of your library? 
The workshop is carried out in 3 sessions with same content during the
conference

Information Grounds: A field method and design workshop for supporting how
people experience everyday information in informal social settings /
Organized Dr. Karen E. Fisher, Professor, University of Washington
Information School, USA 
Information Grounds are informal social settings where people create, remix,
and share everyday information all while attending to another activity—cafes
and pubs, hair and tattoo salons, grocery stores, football games, waiting
rooms, parks, libraries and book stores, public transport, the beach
 online
settings too, including Warcraft, Etsy, Pinterest and more. Fisher (writing
as Pettigrew, 1999, p. 811), defined information grounds as synergistic
“environment(s) temporarily created when people come together for a singular
purpose but from whose behavior emerges a social atmosphere that fosters the
spontaneous and serendipitous sharing of information,” and later developed
propositions and a typology (Fisher, Landry & Naumer, 2007; Counts & Fisher,
2010; pie.uw.edu). In this all-day, two part-workshop, participants will (a)
learn the information ground “people-place-information” conceptual framework
and basic field methods for studying information grounds, (b) conduct
fieldwork in Rome, and (c) analyze their observations using a design
thinking approach that considers how their information ground might be
served and utilized by tweaking people, place, information factors via
applications, services and policy. Implications for how libraries can be
promoted as information grounds are a key highlight. Note: this workshop is
a blast—very conceptual, but practical and hands-on: bring your walking
shoes, sun block, note pad/sketch book, digital camera and Euros for
espresso and biscotti. 
Counts, S., & Fisher, K. E. (2010). Mobile Social Networking as Information
Ground: A Case Study. Library & Information Science Research, 32.2, 98-115.
Fisher, K. E., Landry, C. F., & Naumer,, C. M. (2007). Social spaces, casual
interactions, meaningful exchanges: An information ground typology based on
the college student experience. Information Research, 12.2. 
 
Plenary Speeches
Looking Out and Looking In - The Universe of Information
Lynne Marie Rudasill 
Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 
Member of the IFLA Governing Board 
We are all aware of the fact that the forces of globalization are not just
felt in the spheres of economics, politics, and sociology. Library and
information science is also facing the challenges brought on by vast
technological changes that are having an increasingly foundational impact
upon the field. The concepts of interdisciplinarity, problem-solving, and
big data are explored here in an effort to understand the intricacies of
measurement in a rapidly changing field, the tools that can be provided to
our institutions and, most importantly, to our users. Beginning with a look
at a galaxy of clickstream data that provides a striking example of
interdisciplinarity, we can explore the information universe where competing
methodologies, both quantitative and qualitative, demand our attention and
resources. We will also try to see the expanding edges of our universe to
understand where we might be going next.
Lynne Marie Rudasill is Associate Professor and Global Studies Librarian at
the University Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
She is fully embedded in the Center for Global Studies, a Title VI National
Resource Center supported by the U.S. Department of Education, and holds the
unique distinction of being the first professional full-time digital
librarian in the emerging field of global studies. Lynne provides library
instruction, reference services, and collection management support in the
fields of global studies, European Union studies, political science and
United Nations documents. Like most professional university librarians,
Lynne regularly offers subject-area training and instruction for students,
faculty, K-12 teachers, and specialized audiences, such as the military. In
her capacity as Associate Professor of Library and Information Science,
Lynne has taught graduate courses at the University of Illinois Graduate
School of Library and Information Science including, “Information,
Libraries, and Society” and “Social Science Research Methods and Resources”.
GSLIS is the top-ranked library school in the nation, and the University
Library is the largest public university research library in the United
States. With her colleague, Barbara Ford, Director of the Mortenson Center
for International Librarianship, Lynne currently teaches an undergraduate
global studies course “The Power of Information in Development,” which
provides a multidisciplinary and information-intensive approach to the study
of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations.
Lynne’s scholarly research focuses on access to information, especially
access by users to information on digital platforms and access by scholars
to fugitive literature. She isauthor of numerous journal articles, book
chapters, reference works, conference presentations, and edited books, the
most recent of which is Open Access and Digital Libraries: Social Science
Libraries in Action (2013), co-edited with Maria E. Dorta-Duque of the
Instituto Superior de Relaciones Internacionales (ISRI) in Cuba. This volume
isthe first fully bilingual publication in the IFLA “greenback” series.
Lynne isa member inlong standing of the American Library Association (ALA)
and the Association for College and Research Libraries (ACRL). She was
awarded the ACRL Law and Political Science Section’s Marta Lange/CQ Press
Award in 2009 for her contributions to that group. She has served as the
Chair of the Social Science Libraries Section of the International
Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and currently is
a member of the IFLA Governing Board and Professional Committee as Chair of
Division 1, Library Types. In her teaching, research and her professional
service, Lynne emphasizes the importance of multi-disciplinary and
interdisciplinary scholarship to help solve the problems of a population of
over 7 billion people inhabiting the same planet.
 
Collaboration—the most wicked enabler to fabulously successful research
Dr. Karen E. Fisher 
University of Washington Information School
Collaboration signals bringing together people whose assets—professional
skills and expertise, social capital, work styles, personalities, and more
work in harmony towards achieving a common goal. A complex notion,
collaboration ranges in degree of formality, whether required or voluntary,
and extent and type of participation. Most research, like other human
endeavors, comprises some element of collaboration. Yet stories approach
urban myth of collaborations that were hard to create, wasted time, damaged
relations, and left unfinished business leading to nowhere. However,
collaboration can go remarkably well, showing the power of many, the
creation of gold from dust. Two such examples are shared—macro and
micro—that have several commonalities and yet vary widely in team size,
budget, resources, and genesis. The U.S. Impact Study (2010-12) of how
people use computers and the Internet in public libraries led by Fisher,
Crandall and Becker was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and
the Institute of Museum & Library Services. In addition to the PIs,
assistants and consultants, the study comprised an expert committee and
partnered with about 500 libraries. Mixed-methods—an unprecedented web
survey (continuing today), telephone survey and case studies—were used to
study 50,000 people. The second study, InfoMe, is an ethnographic-design
study that brings together public libraries, community-based organizations,
corporate agencies and university researchers to understand how ethnic
minority youth seek information and use technology on behalf of other
people, especially older family members, and how this information mediary
phenomenon can be supported through information technology, services and
policy. This study—being exploratory, qualitative and design-focused but
also involving survey techniques and community training workshops is vastly
smaller in nature and entirely dependent on collaboration for success with
its myriad partners. Funded by Microsoft and the Institute of Museum and
Library Services, InfoMe led from the U.S. Impact Study that showed 63% of
people used library technology on behalf of another person in the past 12
months, which has strong implications for how we design information systems,
support information literacy, and determine impact. Together these two
studies illustrate how collaboration can elevate the doing of research,
turning every moment into a state of flow and igniting research programs
with long-reaching effects.
Dr. Karen E. Fisher is a Professor in the University of Washington
Information School and Adjunct Professor of Communication. She teaches and
conducts research on how people experience information as part of everyday
life, with emphasis on the interpersonal aspects of information behavior,
the role of informal social settings or “information grounds” in information
flow, as well as the broad impacts of information and communication
technologies. Her current work supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and
Library Services and Microsoft asks how ethnic minority youth seek
information and use technology on behalf of other people, especially older
family members, and how this phenomenon can be supported through information
technology, services and policy. A second current area involves online
dating as an information problem, the development of instrumental ties, and
relevance to other dyadic relationships—business, creative—especially
long-term. Dr. Fisher’s 2009-2011 work addressed the multiplex value of
public libraries in communities across the United States. In this mixed
methods study (with Crandall, Becker, et al.,) of 50,000 people conducted
for the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation, a key finding is that 63% of people use library technology
on behalf of another person, which has strong implications for how we design
information systems, support information literacy, and determine impact.
Co-author of Theory in Motion: Using theories of information behavior to
design applications, policy and services (in progress, with S. Erdelez),
Digital Inclusion: Measuring the Impact of Information and Community
Technology (2009, with M. Crandall), Theories of Information Behavior (2005,
with S. Erdelez & L. McKechnie), and several monographs about community
services in public libraries, her supporters include the National Science
Foundation, Microsoft Research, the United Way of America, and the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Recipient of the 2005
and 2008 ALA Jesse H. Shera Award for Distinguished Published Research, Dr.
Fisher has been recognized for her research by the Hawaii Int'l Conference
on System Sciences, American Society for Information Science & Technology,
and the Association for Library and Information Science Education. An alum
of the University of Western Ontario (PhD & MLIS) and Memorial University of
Newfoundland (BA), she held a postdoc at the University of Michigan, and was
a Visiting Researcher at Microsoft Research, and a NORSLIS Visiting
Professor at Oslo University College, Norway. She serves on the
international program committees for ISIC: The Information Behavior
Conference and i3: Information: Interactions and Impact; and was co-program
chair of the 2011 iSchool Conference. A past member of ASIST’s Board of
Directors, Prof. Fisher was inducted to the ASIST SIG USE Academy of Fellows
in 2009. To learn more, visit infome.uw.edu and tascha.uw.edu/usimpact. The
only Newfoundlander in Seattle, Karen lives in Seattle’s Fremont houseboat
community and can be found biking the Burke-Gilman Trail when she’s not at
hot yoga, belly dancing at the Visionary Dance Studio or contemplating
moving to Tuscany.
 
New Abstract submission deadline: 28 February 2013. 
Indicative themes are in http://www.isast.org <http://www.isast.org/>   
 
Special Sessions – Workshops
You may send proposals for Special Sessions (4-6 papers) or Workshops (more
than 2 sessions) including the title and a brief description at:
Conf at qqml.net 
You may also send Abstracts/Papers to be included in the following sessions,
to new sessions or as contributed papers at the web page:
http://www.isast.org/abstractregistration.html  
Contributions may be realized through one of the following ways 
a. structured abstracts (not exceeding 500 words) and presentation; 
b. full papers (not exceeding 7,000 words);
c. posters (not exceeding 2,500 words);
d. visual presentations (Pecha kucha). 
All abstracts will be published in the Conference Book of Abstracts and in
the website of the Conference. 
The papers of the conference will be published in the
<http://www.qqml.net/> e-journal QQML after the permission of the author(s).
Student submissions. Professors and Supervisors are encouraged to organize
conference sessions of Postgraduate theses and dissertations.
Please direct any questions regarding the QQML 2013 Conference and Student
Research Presentations to the secretariat of the conference at:
Conf at qqml.net 
 
On behalf of the Conference Committee 
Dr. Anthi Katsirikou, Conference Co-Chair
University of Piraeus Library Director
Head, European Documentation Center
Board Member of the Greek Association of Librarians and Information
Professionals  <mailto:anthi at asmda.com> 
anthi at asmda.com 
Professor Carla Basili, Local Co-Chair
EnIL - The European network on Information Literacy, co-ordinator
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
Istituto di Ricerca sull'Impresa e lo Sviluppo sede di Roma
via dei Taurini, 19 - 00185 Roma, Italy
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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