Information Management

From Open‑Ended Text to Taxonomy: An LLM‑based Framework for Information Sources for Disability Services

People with disabilities (PWD) and their family members often find it difficult to find information about available services. One of the approaches to address this information access problem is by understanding the ecology of available information sources. However, identifying the landscape of information sources is challenging due to the variety of sources and their varying visibility. This study proposes a computational approach to processing open-ended survey answers by constructing a hierarchical taxonomy of information sources.

News Deserts as Information Problems: A Case Study of Local News Coverage in Alabama

This paper explores the phenomenon of news deserts as information problems to navigate research opportunities and theorize its dynamics. Drawing on the theory of local information landscapes, news deserts are conceptualized as more than merely an absence of news organizations or content; rather, emphasizing the structural and material dimensions of local news ecosystems, such as fragmentation, transience, and inconsistent distribution. We argue that news deserts should be understood as material pre-conditions of people’s access, interpretation, and engagement with information.

Bridging Traditional Digital Humanities and Archives through Computational Archival Science

As libraries and archives across the world are planning an increasingly digital records future, there is a critical need to strengthen digital and computational literacy and training for future librarians and archivists. Acute “skills and management gaps in libraries” have been recognised which highlight the need for greater automation in library work, the facilitation of computational research, and the need for library managers to understand and value the benefits of in-house data science skills.

2024 Assessment of Virginia’s Information Ecology of the Disability Services System

Access to disability services information depends on many factors, from an individual’s digital literacy, social connections and physical mobility to the interface design of websites. However, it is also true that the availability of disability services information (e.g., how to apply for a Medicaid Waiver) and how such information is managed and provided to end users in Virginia are also critical factors that shape people’s information access. This assessment focuses on understanding the latter, namely, the “information ecology” of disability services in Virginia.

Understanding Information Managers: A Thematic Analysis of Information Challenges of Disability Service Providers

This paper details an investigation into the information management challenges encountered by disability service providers. Prior research has mainly focused on understanding the information management challenges related to user records or internal organizational systems. However, this study posits that the information access patterns of disability services users are significantly influenced by their interactions with service providers’ information management practices in localized settings.

AI or Authors?: A Comparative Analysis of BERT and ChatGPT’s Keyword Selection in Digital Divide Studies

Author keywords attached to academic papers are often used in intellectual structure analysis. However, the length and selection criteria for keywords vary across publications and, even some publishers do not require keywords for their articles. To explore the opportunity to overcome such keyword inconsistency issues, this study compared author keywords from papers focused on the digital divide with those extracted using the language models, BERT and ChatGPT.

Visualizing Local Information Inequality in South Korea: An AI-Based Approach Using Public Library Data

The goal of the project is to understand information inequality across geographical regions in South Korea and visualize them using an AI-backed visualization tool. Our plan, spanning three years, revolves around the development of an intuitive platform for the purpose of visualizing these disparities. During the first year, we aim to construct comprehensive metrics for assessing the level of informational inequality, based on the theory of local information landscapes (LIL theory).

The NYC311 App & Community Engagement in Coproducing Municipal Services

In the public sector, governments and the people they serve increasingly collaborate to coproduce public services. To support the coproduction of municipal services, specifically, local governments have incorporated various digital technologies into their information systems. How do digital technologies affect community residents' engagement in coproducing municipal services?

Mapping Information Ecology: Understanding the Fragmentation of Disability Service Information

As organizations and individuals provide various information to multiple systems within a region, the information becomes fragmented, making it difficult for people to access the necessary information. Individuals have limited resources to navigate all the sources and use only part of the available ones. Disability service information is further fragmented due to diverse actors, ranging from government agencies to for-profit organizations, who often provide only partial information.

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