Demystification: how librarians can bring order to algorithmically driven transactions; Running practice; @asist_ec #ist23

This is today's first liveblog from the Information Science Trends conference taking place in Uppsala, Sweden and online. First I'll blog Demystification: how librarians can bring order to algorithmically driven transactions, presented by Maureen Henninger and Hilary Yerbury (who presented virtually with a 16 time difference between them - one having to stay up very late and the other get up very early). The abstract is at https://zenodo.org/record/7911991
Algorithms are often considered as "black boxes" and there are frequent calls for people to be algorithmically literate, and this research probed the understanding of librarians. 30 university librarians from aross Australia were interviewed using a practice-based approach. The presenters used as a key note one interviewee's reflection that they had an "official brain and unofficial brain" (indicating a split between their professional and everyday practice). 

In terms of developing students' information literacy, interviewees talked about taking students from naive to autonomous learner, there was an emphasis of structured searching and also an emphsasis on evaluating information and identifying authoritative information. The autonomous student was seen as one who could identify trustworthy sources (rather than the emphasis on being able to engage with content to judge for yourself). Critical thinking was talked about in an academic education context (for example - health information seen in terms of what was needed for a medical and health course rather than in the context of everyday health).

Participants hadn't necessarily connected algorithms and literacy, and were not sure how they would explain algorithms to a student. Their responses were more socio-cultural (aware of issues around alogrithms affecting social media) than socio-technical. The metaphorical language (e.g. talking about "magic") in relation to algorithms illustrated this. Interviewees were aware of the role of algorithms in everyday life, and there was a notable concern about privacy (rather than concern about misinformation, with few exceptions). This could be interpreted as a tussle between the official and unofficial brain - which I interpret as a disconnect between people's everyday experience and practice of information  and their official identity as professional practitioners, the latter with a focus on a structured and focused approach to information literacy. 

The presenters felt that the picture was not particularly optimistic for librarian practice: information literacy education needed to be changed (so it didn't cling to over-structured approaches which were limited in scope). They felt librarians were capable of this, but there were challenges. The proposed responses were grouped under "utilise expertise in processes without fear or favour" and "emphasise a critical and reflexive approach to all information". (see the slide, above) As an educator of LIS students, I can see the implications for LIS students developing their professional identity (and reflecting more on the relationship with their personal identity) as well as teaching IL and IL education.

More briefly: Lee Pretlove talked about A record of a run: documenting running through self-tracking data and personal (digital) archive practices. He focused on the methods used in his research into runners' use of self tracking data, and also the data the participants collected about themselves. The study's mobile data collection showed how the runner pressed their tracking device at teh start and finish of the run. The data was uploaded using apps, and this process was something of a black box for most runners, and it involved little effort on the part of a runner. The complex digital records and any print records (e.g. in a diary) were used and valued in different ways, and there could be a strong emotional attachment to the records as a history of their running (particularly from male runners).

Also in this session was An information framework for research on difficult heritage, memory and identity practices on social network sites, presented by Costis Dallas, also authored by Ingrida Kelpšienė, Rimvydas Laužikas and Justas Gribovskis https://zenodo.org/record/8056443, a qualitative work.