Research and Publications - School of Library and Information Studies
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Item Historical Text Datafication and Loss: Computational Recovery of Typographical Layout Logic on an RDF Graph Featuring ML Methods(Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIST), 2022-10-29) Liu, Huapu; MacCall, Steven L.Item A Guide to the Natural Resources Library at the Natural Resources Research Institute(1989-06-24) Sandy, John H.Item Caring is Connecting: AI Digital Assistants and the Surveillance of Elderly and Disabled Family Members in the Home(Routledge, 2023) Sweeney, Miriam E.This chapter provides an overview of AI digital assistants as surveillant data-gathering devices in the home that are marketed as ideal caregivers for modern home management. Using Alexa Together as one example, this chapter considers how the frame of caregiving may be leveraged to “smooth” people’s concerns about privacy and data gathering, while justifying intensified surveillance for elder adults and disabled family members as a function of market segmentation. The framing of surveillant technologies as caregivers both reflects and reproduces the extractive logics of algorithmic culture that transforms social relationships into opportunities for data gathering. This chapter argues that a key feature of AI urbanism is the access to intimate and personal data in the home as a resource that that can be commoditized and integrated into urban governance and planning. These concepts are critical for theorizing the role of AI digital assistants within broader autonomous processes of urban living and governance associated with AI urbanism.Item Natural Resources Library Duluth(1989-12-10) Sandy, John H.Item An Analysis of Journals Used in Research in Geomorphology(1974-05-15) Sandy, John H.Item Approval Plans Issues and Innovations: Introduction(1996-06-10) Sandy, John H.Item Implementation of an Online Catalog in a Special LibrarySandy, John H.; University of Alabama TuscaloosaItem Recruiting Entry-Level Sci-Tech Librarians: An Analysis of Job Advertisements and Outcome of Searches(2002) Jones, Mary Lou Baker; Lembo, Mary Frances; Manasco, James E.; Sandy, John H.; University of Alabama TuscaloosaThis research analyzed 167 job ads for science and technology librarian positions. Provides data on required and preferred qualifications listed in the ads. The outcome of selected searches is summarized.Item A Greater Need for Reference Librarians(2007) Sandy, John H.; University of Alabama TuscaloosaItem Susan Kantor: Scholar & LibrarianSandy, John H.; University of Alabama TuscaloosaItem Financial Tips for Librarians(2009) Sandy, John H.; University of Alabama TuscaloosaItem Filtering Google Search Results Using Top-Level Domains(2015) Sandy, John H.; University of Alabama TuscaloosaA book chapter: Simply by entering keywords into the primary Google search box, researchers usually find useful information. But even better results are obtained by applying filtering techniques. Top-level domains (TLDs) are an effective tool to sort information retrieved from the Internet and get highly relevant results. In scientific research on topics related to forestry, for example, filtering by the dot gov TLD, a user immediately finds publications from government departments and agencies, eliminating the need to drill down through dozens of pages which can be filled with less valuable and often general information.Item Guidance for Evaluating Library Program(1993) Sandy, John H.; University of Alabama TuscaloosaItem Round Rock Public Library Moves into New Building(1980) Sandy, John H.; University of Alabama TuscaloosaA new public library opened in the historical district of Round Rock, Texas, in 1980. The library offered new and expanded services for a rapidly growing community near Austin, Texas.Item Recruiting the Public Library Director(1981) Sandy, John H.; University of Alabama TuscaloosaItem Digitizing the ‘Ideal’ Latina Information Worker(2022-03) Sweeney, Miriam; Villa-Nicolas, Melissa; University of Alabama TuscaloosaRecent examples of virtual assistant technologies designed as Latina information service workers are noteworthy objects of study for their potential to bridge analyses of Latinas’ labor history and information technology. Latinas in the United States have traditionally worked in blue collar information technology sectors characterized by repetitive labor and low-wages, such as electronics manufacturing and customer service. Latinas information service workers, though fundamental to technoscience, have been largely invisible in histories of computing. Latina virtual assistants mark a shift in this labor history by relying on the strategic visibility of Latina identity in/as the technology interface. Our research explores Latina virtual assistants designed by Airus Media, and installed as airport workers in airports along the southwestern border of the United States. We situate the technocultural narratives present in the design and marketing of these technologies within the broader histories of invisible Latina information labor in the United States. We find continuities between the ways Latinas have historically been positioned as “ideal” information workers, and the use of Latina identity in the design of virtual assistants. We argue that the strategic visibility of Latina virtual assistants is linked to the oppressive structures of invisibility that have traditionally organized Latina information service workers.Item Alexa, are you listening? An exploration of smart voice assistant use and privacy in libraries(2020) Sweeney, Miriam; Davis, E.; University of Alabama TuscaloosaSmart voice assistants have expanded from personal use in the home to applications in public services and educational spaces. The library and information science (LIS) trade literature suggests that libraries are part of this trend, however there is a dearth of empirical studies that explore how libraries are implementing smart voice assistants in their services, and how these libraries are mitigating the potential patron data privacy issues posed by these technologies. This study contributes to this gap byreporting on the results of a national survey that documents how libraries are integrating voice assistant technologies (e.g. Amazon Echo, Google home) into their services, programming, and check-out programs. The survey also surfaces some of the key privacy concerns of library workers in regard to implementing voice assistants in library services. We find that although voice assistant use might not be mainstreamed in library services in high numbers (yet), libraries are clearly experimenting with (and having internal conversations with their staff about) using these technologies. The responses to our survey indicate that library workers have many savvy privacy concerns about the use of voice assistants in library services that are critical to address in advance of library institutions riding the wave of emerging technology adoption. This research has important implications for developing library practices, policies, and education opportunities that place patron privacy as a central part of digital literacy in an information landscape characterized by ubiquitous smart surveillant technologies.Item How Much Statistical Data can be Recovered from Alabama Football History?(2019) MacCall, Steven L.; Liu, Huapa; Anderson, Melissa; University of Alabama TuscaloosaWe presented on the results of a pilot project that investigated the recoverability of historical statistical play-by-play data from the documentary football collection at the Paul W. Bryant Museum at the University of Alabama using Wikibase as our data repository. The recovery of data from the historical record for purposes of reconstructing the past in digital form is an active area of research across many areas, such as the recovery of climate data from historical ships’ logbooks. Our crowdsourced approach included volunteers who transcribed documentary materials in order to “mine” statistical play-by-play data from the 1992 and 1961 Alabama football season.