Showing posts with label framework. Show all posts
Showing posts with label framework. Show all posts

Monday, July 1, 2013

Applying my narrative information source framework to Twitter: Preliminary findings

Following from my previous blog post, I want to now demonstrate how my narrative information source framework is seemingly operational. After using Twitter to locate tweets on library consultants and library consulting, through the following queries, I began to see data that fit within the pattern of my theoretical framework:

Twitter query for library consultants: https://twitter.com/search?q=%22library%20consultant%22&src=savs

Twitter query for library consulting: https://twitter.com/search?q=%20%22library%20consulting%22&src=savs

Guide narrative information sources
Based on my preliminary results, many sources on Twitter functioned as guide or referral based information sources, pointing me to other types of narrative information sources. I would argue that Twitter can function as a type of search engine or reference tool to locating various types of narrative information sources. However, unlike Google, Twitter is updated by users or crowdsourcing, rather than a crawling spider program.

To show one example of how tweets located in Twitter function as a reference information source, pointing me to other sources is the tweet of a URL link to a blog commentary or review of http://www.librarian.net/

When accessed, the URL from this tweet, http://groundreport.com/blog-review-librarian-net/ functioned as a commentary on or guide to  library consultant blog - librarian.net. This librarian.net blog appears to be a narrative information source, narrating a specific library consultant's personal experience in her work of library consulting. This is just one of the many examples of  how tweets in my query lead me to other documents or types of narrative information sources.



Personal Narratives,  eulogies, biographies, memoirs (or mixed narrative/life-writing information sources)
Tweets can also lead one to the narrative information sources conveying personal reflections, reports of  personal experience or to information about the lives of library consultants. Blog postings directly retrieved from tweets included the following:

By Cindy Bajema：You Can’t Stop the Librarian in Action
04/23/2013
http://www.sambattrust.org/1/post/2013/04/by-cindy-bajemayou-cant-stop-the-librarian-in-action.html

from the tweet;





  • death and obituary of library consultant





    • First Project as Library Consultant
    http://uunpujiyaaa.tumblr.com/post/36746251325/first-project-as-library-consultant


    I have even been directed to vlog posting (or a YouTube video) where a library consultant tells her narrative or personal story of her work and what it involves from the following tweet:

    Non-fiction information sources (Events & Documents)
    Tweets in my Twitter queries have also led me to discovering non-fiction narrative information sources such as:
    • the retirement of a library consultant (which in a sense is also a life-writing type of narrative information source)
    • and job information or job advertisement
    One tweet even led me to another guide or referral based narrative information source, specifically a directory of over 41 library consultants: http://www.libraryconsultants.org/esearch.asp from the tweet:
    Event information and press releases are also popular in Twitter. One event tweet was:
    Tweets like the above tweet discussing an event usually point to a document such as a press release.

    My Twitter search on library consulting also lead me to  documents that related to the work of library consultants such as Pelham Public Library's  25th of March 2013 posting of "The report put together by BPC Library Consulting for Performance Concepts..."from the tweet:

    Or to Springfield City Library's June 22, 2013 posting of this tweet

    Tweets in my search results also pointed to information about places that used or needed consultant services. A church (Bethel Seventh-day Adventist church) is mentioned in one tweet by librarian Amy Patrick ‏@mom2sadie in 4 December, 2012:



    Or this tweet by the Telluride Planet reports on a public library making use of a library consultant to gather information from the public about their priorities for the library:
    Conclusion and viewpoint

    Hence, as you can see, my preliminary conceptual framework of narrative information sources is able to from preliminary selective observation to explain the types of narrative information and information sources that one can access via Twitter.

    Finally, while I did not deliberately set out to show you that Twitter is useful for finding or locating business information, you can perhaps obviously see this from the data I present. Twitter in my view has thus proved a useful business reference tool for finding/locating current business information, particularly in the library and information industry. Industry events, competitors and market information are all available and can be easily monitored with a saved Twitter query. This is due to the fact that people and organizations are posting and referring to content/information online through tweets. Hopefully in my next blog post, I can expand upon the idea of Twitter as a business information source or resource. Or should I more accurately say that Twitter can function as/like a business information search engine?
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    Thursday, June 27, 2013

    An introduction to my narrative information source analytical framework


    In my previous blog post, I made mention of my shifting focus to study library consultants. My study however, will still retain a focus on the study of blogs and tweets (or Twitter) as sources of information as well as social information spaces. It is on the point of categorizing information sources that I want to blog about in this post. Specifically, I want to discuss my framework for information source analysis of blogs and tweets

    I have created a theoretical or analytical framework for analysing the types of information sources that exist in blogs and tweets  that differs from the traditional categories of people and documents in much of library research literature. Instead I propose a method that classifies information into types of narratives, rather than into types of media/channels. In this sense, narrative information sources can transcend media and is increasingly applicable to the online and social media world, where the lines between storage medium and communication with people are blurred. In this framework, narrative refers to an account of either an event or an experience. This account can be told in varied ways where a person can either attempt to tell the account in a factual and objective way or can perform the account in an interestingly and aesthetically pleasing way to interest in one's audience (sacrificing some of the facts for emotional effect) (Gabriel, 2000).


    In my model narrative information sources fall into four main types or genres:
    • non-fiction (or objective) narrative information sources
    • fictional (or imagination based) narrative information sources
    • reality-based, but subjective narrative information sources and
    • interpretative or referral narrative information sources

    Non-fiction narrative information sources - is my term to cover categories of narratives such as those that exist in academic journals, newspapers, magazines and other documents that aim to be objective and present different viewpoints of an event or different experiences, or even the coverage of a single event or experience supported by fact gathering. The intention and purpose of non-fiction narrative information sources is to be accurate and objective in its reporting of an event or experience.


    Fictional narrative information sources - is my term used to cover the set of narratives that are based on imagination or even re-imaging one's world or reality (real event or experience). In this account of an event or experience, the creator may use imaginary characters, create an imaginary world, embellish and reconstruct reality or experience in ways that violate what we know about the real world or simply be creative with their event or experience in order to make it interesting and appealing to their audience's imagination and emotions. Sometimes fictional narrative information sources (like parables) aim to instruct others about real world events or experiences.

    Reality-based narrative information sources - for me are those narratives that are based on one's memory, viewpoint, or personal experience. These include biographical sources, auto-biographical sources, opinions and viewpoints, views or advice that comes out of knowledge that one possesses due to personal experience or the acceptance of the experience of others.


    Finally, interpretative or referral narrative information sources - is the term I ascribe to the category of narrative information sources that point to or refer to other sources, interpret other sources, provide viewpoints on other sources, or summaries commentaries or reviews. These sources are essentially based on and provide information (whether opinion or facts) about other narrative information sources.

    In conclusion, this is the framework that I hope to use when conducting my analysis of tweets and blog postings. However, it is still in the beta or development stage, and I welcome your comments on it. Nonetheless, my preliminary beta test analyses have made me excited about the framework. In my next upcoming post, I hope to blog about how I have been finding this analytical framework useful and effective in understanding blogs and tweets as business information sources. Stay tuned this blog for more exciting details.

    References:

    Gabriel, Y. (2000). Storytelling in organizations: Facts, fictions, and fantasies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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    Monday, July 23, 2012

    Story model applied to education can apply to libraries

    I recently discovered Drake et al's (1992) story framework or model, and how it can be applied to helping in bringing about organisational and personal change in education.

    Drake (2010) states in an article indicating:

    The purpose of this reflective essay is to explore a “story” conceptual framework that university faculties may find useful to deepen understanding of current educational issues. It has been used in a variety of ways including curriculum development and as an effective instructional strategy for analyzing complex issues and teaching future teachers to think analytically and critically.

    Drake (2010) also sees storytelling as a 'powerful way of making meaning of the world'. While Drake's model seems to be applied to education, I think it is fitting that librarians and information professionals also see the relevance of using this model to analyse libraries and our past and future directions.


    While her model is not directly related to my research (as I am more interested in applying a story model to developing web-based library services), I see the story model as important for assessing, evaluating and enhancing library education as well as the future of libraries. One of the contributions that I think the story model can do for the library profession is to help us think of the new story that we want to write for the future of libraries in relation to the stories that the media and society is writing about us. There is a new story being written about libraries today, and we need to participate in listening to the stories that others outside the profession are telling about us, as well as to participate in writing this new story.

    As I write this, I realise how influenced I have become by my organisational storytelling readings. Works of David Boje etc. have been internalised. As I see libraries as organisations, I also see the relevance of organisational storytelling to librarians and information specialists. I encourage you to read Drake (2010) or Drake et al. (1992) to be acquainted with the story model or framework, and try fitting libraries and LIS concerns and issues into the framework.



    References:




    Drake, S. M., Bebbington, J., Laksman, S., Mackie, P., Maynes, N., & Wayne, L. (1992).
    Developing an integrated curriculum using the Story Model. Toronto, ON: OISE Press.

    Drake, Susan M. (2010) "Enhancing Canadian Teacher Education Using a Story Framework,"The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Vol. 1: Iss. 2, Article 2.
    Available at: http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cjsotl_rcacea/vol1/iss2/2
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