Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science-revue Canadienne Des Sciences De L Information Et De Bibliotheconomie, 2016
Embedded librarianship has become increasingly common; however, this concept has not been widely ... more Embedded librarianship has become increasingly common; however, this concept has not been widely applied to other information professions. We first survey the literature on embedded librarianship as a model of service delivery with a view to identifying those criteria that are considered essential to its success. Next, we demonstrate how best practices in embedded librarianship can inspire and inform a similar practice in another sector of the information professions, namely records management. We present and evaluate a pilot project where a records manager was embedded within the quality assurance team in the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at the University of Ottawa. In particular, we consider how community-building efforts contributed to the success of this project.Résumé:Bien que la notion de bibliothéconomie intégrée soit de plus en plus connue, cette pratique n’a pas été si bien intégrée dans d’autres métiers de l’information. Nous présentons un survol de la littérature portant sur le bibliothécaire intégré comme modèle de prestation de service afin d’en identifier les critères essentiels de succès. Ensuite, nous démontrons comment les meilleurs pratiques pour la bibliothéconomie intégrée peuvent inspirer et informer des pratiques semblables dans le domaine de gestion des documents électroniques. Finalement, nous présentons et évaluons un projet pilote d’intégration d’un gestionnaire de documents électroniques au sein de l’équipe d’assurance qualité à la Faculté des études supérieures et postdoctorales de l’Université d’Ottawa. Nous considérons particulièrement l’importance des efforts de création de communauté pour le succès du projet.
Purpose-This case study aims to explore the benefits of embedding a records manager into a team o... more Purpose-This case study aims to explore the benefits of embedding a records manager into a team of university administrators to help them address their information management needs. Design/methodology/approach-The article describes an experience that was inspired by reports of successful experiences with embedded librarianship. The literature on records management culture and embedded librarianship is reviewed to identify best practices and criteria for success. These criteria are used to design and implement a pilot project where, rather than hiring a consultant, a records manager is embedded into a quality assurance team working at a large university in Canada. Findings-The project is a success in conventional terms (e.g. active files reduced; duplicates deleted; inactive files archived; naming conventions, version control and access rights applied); however, similar results could have been achieved using a consultant. More interesting are the added benefits achieved through embedding. Added benefits included identifying workflow inefficiencies, identifying terminological inconsistencies, iterative training opportunities, and useful knowledge sharing outside the project's scope. The argument is made that an embedded information professional is better able to appreciate the organizational culture, which in turn facilitates the establishment of trusted relationships and produces an overall added value for the entire team. Originality/value-There is very little, if any, current literature that explores the value of embedding a records manager into a team, rather than simply hiring a consultant to address information management needs. The outcome of this pilot project will benefit those who are seeking to develop a model for embedding an information professional into their organization to gain an added value.
Embedded librarianship has become increasingly common; however, this concept has not been widely ... more Embedded librarianship has become increasingly common; however, this concept has not been widely applied to other information professions. We first survey the literature on embedded librarianship as a model of service delivery with a view to identifying those criteria that are considered essential to its success. Next, we demonstrate how best practices in embedded librarianship can inspire and inform a similar practice in another sector of the information professions, namely records management. We present and evaluate a pilot project where a records manager was embedded within the quality assurance team in the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at the University of Ottawa. In particular, we consider how community-building efforts contributed to the success of this project.Résumé:Bien que la notion de bibliothéconomie intégrée soit de plus en plus connue, cette pratique n’a pas été si bien intégrée dans d’autres métiers de l’information. Nous présentons un survol de la littérature portant sur le bibliothécaire intégré comme modèle de prestation de service afin d’en identifier les critères essentiels de succès. Ensuite, nous démontrons comment les meilleurs pratiques pour la bibliothéconomie intégrée peuvent inspirer et informer des pratiques semblables dans le domaine de gestion des documents électroniques. Finalement, nous présentons et évaluons un projet pilote d’intégration d’un gestionnaire de documents électroniques au sein de l’équipe d’assurance qualité à la Faculté des études supérieures et postdoctorales de l’Université d’Ottawa. Nous considérons particulièrement l’importance des efforts de création de communauté pour le succès du projet.
The Journal of Internationalization and Localization
In late 2020, the free online translation tool Microsoft Translator began to offer the option of ... more In late 2020, the free online translation tool Microsoft Translator began to offer the option of translating into “French (Canada)” as a target language, alongside the previously offered “French”. Using a list of ten COVID-19 terms previously identified by Bowker (2020) as having different equivalents in Canadian French and European French, we evaluate the ability of Microsoft Translator to localize these terms into the two varieties of French. The findings indicate that while this tool does a good job of localizing the terms into Canadian French, it also uses a high number of Canadian French terms when the target language is set to “French”. One potential reason for this may be that the corpus used to train the tool for “French” contains a disproportionate number of examples from Canadian sources, and so there may be a problem of bias where the tool is amplifying Canadian French in the machine translation output.
Lynne Bowker and Jairo Buitrago Ciro introduce the concept of machine translation literacy, a new... more Lynne Bowker and Jairo Buitrago Ciro introduce the concept of machine translation literacy, a new kind of literacy for scholars and librarians in the digital age. This book is a must-read for researchers and information professionals eager to maximize the global reach and impact of any form of scholarly work.
o INTRODUCTION Classification research is a well-established area of investigation which is integ... more o INTRODUCTION Classification research is a well-established area of investigation which is integral to many disciplines, including Linguistics, Philosophy, Biology, Information Science, Cognitive Psychology and Computer Science. To be truly effective, classification schemes in any discipline must be carefully managed; however, since these schemes can often be complex and unwieldy, careful management is not always easy.
Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship, 2020
As the number of non-Anglophone students studying business through the medium of English continue... more As the number of non-Anglophone students studying business through the medium of English continues to increase, there is a growing interest in the potential of machine translation for helping these students with English-language writing. Language instructors recognize the futility of trying to ban the use of such tools, but they are apprehensive about their use. Academic librarians already deliver various forms of digital literacy instruction, and this article describes the design and delivery of a machine translation literacy workshop for international business students and their language instructors. Feedback was largely positive, but it may be helpful to customize future workshops for specific language groups. The target audience could also be expanded to include non-Anglophone faculty as well as students since the former are under increasing pressure to publish in English. The overall experience points to the benefit of collaboration between librarians and other experts in order to adapt to the changing needs of the campus community and to offer meaningful services and support in this period of rapid change.
Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 2019
Investigations into college-to-university transfers have focused largely on the experiences of st... more Investigations into college-to-university transfers have focused largely on the experiences of students, staff, and college faculty, while relatively little attention has been paid to the perspective of university faculty. This article first reviews the literature, which presents the views that the other stakeholders attribute to university faculty. Next, results from a survey and follow-up interviews conducted with faculty at a large Canadian university are presented. While there is some overlap between the concerns presented indirectly in the literature and the concerns expressed directly in the survey and interviews, there are also areas of divergence. The article concludes by noting that university faculty do have opinions on transfer and that their voices are worth listening to, not least because doing so will allow universities to establish how best to direct their resources to more effectively support a culture of transfer. While student transfer from college to university has been the subject of a growing volume of literature, most of this work focuses on either the policies and administrative issues involved in developing and implementing transfer partnerships between colleges and universities (e.g.
Proceedings of the Annual Conference of CAIS / Actes du congrès annuel de l'ACSI, 2016
The paper begins with a brief institutional context, including a summary of the main information ... more The paper begins with a brief institutional context, including a summary of the main information management challenges facing the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies team. This is followed by a brief analysis of some potential solutions that were explored and the rationale for eventually selecting an embedded information professional. Next, we review some relevant literature and identify seven key criteria for successfully embedding an information professional, with a particular emphasis on those criteria concerned with community-building. Cet article commence par une brève mise en contexte institutionnelle, y compris un résumé des principaux défis de gestion de l'information auxquels l’équipe de la Faculté des études supérieures et postdoctorales fait face. Elle est suivie par une brève analyse de quelques solutions possibles qui ont été explorées et la raison qui pourrait conduire éventuellement à la sélection d'un professionnel de l'information intégré. Ensui...
Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship, 2019
Prior research into the role of business librarians in academic program reviews has relied on sur... more Prior research into the role of business librarians in academic program reviews has relied on surveys and interviews, revealing that librarians perceive that they are marginalized in the review process. Using a collection of program review documentation produced for the reviews of nine graduate programs offered at a Canadian business school, this study employs corpus-based techniques to obtain direct measures of librarian involvement. The findings provide objective confirmation that business librarians are not well integrated into program reviews overall, and that their contribution to the reviews of professional programs is even more limited than their contribution to the reviews of research-oriented programs. Based on best practices and missed opportunities observed as part of this study, seven strategies are suggested for integrating business librarians more fully in the program review process for the benefit of all program stakeholders.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to generate awareness of and interest in the techniques used... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to generate awareness of and interest in the techniques used in computer-based corpus linguistics, focusing on their methodological implications for research in library and information science (LIS). Design/methodology/approach This methodology paper provides an overview of computer-based corpus linguistics, describes the main techniques used in this field, assesses its strengths and weaknesses, and presents examples to illustrate the value of corpus linguistics to LIS research. Findings Overall, corpus-based techniques are simple, yet powerful, and they support both quantitative and qualitative analyses. While corpus methods alone may not be sufficient for research in LIS, they can be used to complement and to help triangulate the findings of other methods. Corpus linguistics techniques also have the potential to be exploited more fully in LIS research that involves a higher degree of automation (e.g. recommender systems, knowledge discovery sys...
Purpose This paper aims to investigate the potential benefits and limitations associated with ali... more Purpose This paper aims to investigate the potential benefits and limitations associated with aligning accreditation and academic program reviews in post-secondary institutions, using a descriptive case study approach. Design/methodology/approach The paper describes two Canadian graduate programs that are subject to both external professional accreditation and institutional cyclical reviews, as they underwent an aligned review. The process was developed as a collaborative effort between the academic units, the professional associations and the university’s graduate-level quality assurance office. For each program, a single self-study was developed, a single review panel was constituted, and a single site visit was conducted. The merits and challenges posed by the alignment process are discussed. Findings Initial feedback from the academic units suggests that the alignment of accreditation and program reviews is perceived as reducing the burden on programs with regard to the time and...
Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science-revue Canadienne Des Sciences De L Information Et De Bibliotheconomie, 2016
Embedded librarianship has become increasingly common; however, this concept has not been widely ... more Embedded librarianship has become increasingly common; however, this concept has not been widely applied to other information professions. We first survey the literature on embedded librarianship as a model of service delivery with a view to identifying those criteria that are considered essential to its success. Next, we demonstrate how best practices in embedded librarianship can inspire and inform a similar practice in another sector of the information professions, namely records management. We present and evaluate a pilot project where a records manager was embedded within the quality assurance team in the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at the University of Ottawa. In particular, we consider how community-building efforts contributed to the success of this project.Résumé:Bien que la notion de bibliothéconomie intégrée soit de plus en plus connue, cette pratique n’a pas été si bien intégrée dans d’autres métiers de l’information. Nous présentons un survol de la littérature portant sur le bibliothécaire intégré comme modèle de prestation de service afin d’en identifier les critères essentiels de succès. Ensuite, nous démontrons comment les meilleurs pratiques pour la bibliothéconomie intégrée peuvent inspirer et informer des pratiques semblables dans le domaine de gestion des documents électroniques. Finalement, nous présentons et évaluons un projet pilote d’intégration d’un gestionnaire de documents électroniques au sein de l’équipe d’assurance qualité à la Faculté des études supérieures et postdoctorales de l’Université d’Ottawa. Nous considérons particulièrement l’importance des efforts de création de communauté pour le succès du projet.
Purpose-This case study aims to explore the benefits of embedding a records manager into a team o... more Purpose-This case study aims to explore the benefits of embedding a records manager into a team of university administrators to help them address their information management needs. Design/methodology/approach-The article describes an experience that was inspired by reports of successful experiences with embedded librarianship. The literature on records management culture and embedded librarianship is reviewed to identify best practices and criteria for success. These criteria are used to design and implement a pilot project where, rather than hiring a consultant, a records manager is embedded into a quality assurance team working at a large university in Canada. Findings-The project is a success in conventional terms (e.g. active files reduced; duplicates deleted; inactive files archived; naming conventions, version control and access rights applied); however, similar results could have been achieved using a consultant. More interesting are the added benefits achieved through embedding. Added benefits included identifying workflow inefficiencies, identifying terminological inconsistencies, iterative training opportunities, and useful knowledge sharing outside the project's scope. The argument is made that an embedded information professional is better able to appreciate the organizational culture, which in turn facilitates the establishment of trusted relationships and produces an overall added value for the entire team. Originality/value-There is very little, if any, current literature that explores the value of embedding a records manager into a team, rather than simply hiring a consultant to address information management needs. The outcome of this pilot project will benefit those who are seeking to develop a model for embedding an information professional into their organization to gain an added value.
Embedded librarianship has become increasingly common; however, this concept has not been widely ... more Embedded librarianship has become increasingly common; however, this concept has not been widely applied to other information professions. We first survey the literature on embedded librarianship as a model of service delivery with a view to identifying those criteria that are considered essential to its success. Next, we demonstrate how best practices in embedded librarianship can inspire and inform a similar practice in another sector of the information professions, namely records management. We present and evaluate a pilot project where a records manager was embedded within the quality assurance team in the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at the University of Ottawa. In particular, we consider how community-building efforts contributed to the success of this project.Résumé:Bien que la notion de bibliothéconomie intégrée soit de plus en plus connue, cette pratique n’a pas été si bien intégrée dans d’autres métiers de l’information. Nous présentons un survol de la littérature portant sur le bibliothécaire intégré comme modèle de prestation de service afin d’en identifier les critères essentiels de succès. Ensuite, nous démontrons comment les meilleurs pratiques pour la bibliothéconomie intégrée peuvent inspirer et informer des pratiques semblables dans le domaine de gestion des documents électroniques. Finalement, nous présentons et évaluons un projet pilote d’intégration d’un gestionnaire de documents électroniques au sein de l’équipe d’assurance qualité à la Faculté des études supérieures et postdoctorales de l’Université d’Ottawa. Nous considérons particulièrement l’importance des efforts de création de communauté pour le succès du projet.
The Journal of Internationalization and Localization
In late 2020, the free online translation tool Microsoft Translator began to offer the option of ... more In late 2020, the free online translation tool Microsoft Translator began to offer the option of translating into “French (Canada)” as a target language, alongside the previously offered “French”. Using a list of ten COVID-19 terms previously identified by Bowker (2020) as having different equivalents in Canadian French and European French, we evaluate the ability of Microsoft Translator to localize these terms into the two varieties of French. The findings indicate that while this tool does a good job of localizing the terms into Canadian French, it also uses a high number of Canadian French terms when the target language is set to “French”. One potential reason for this may be that the corpus used to train the tool for “French” contains a disproportionate number of examples from Canadian sources, and so there may be a problem of bias where the tool is amplifying Canadian French in the machine translation output.
Lynne Bowker and Jairo Buitrago Ciro introduce the concept of machine translation literacy, a new... more Lynne Bowker and Jairo Buitrago Ciro introduce the concept of machine translation literacy, a new kind of literacy for scholars and librarians in the digital age. This book is a must-read for researchers and information professionals eager to maximize the global reach and impact of any form of scholarly work.
o INTRODUCTION Classification research is a well-established area of investigation which is integ... more o INTRODUCTION Classification research is a well-established area of investigation which is integral to many disciplines, including Linguistics, Philosophy, Biology, Information Science, Cognitive Psychology and Computer Science. To be truly effective, classification schemes in any discipline must be carefully managed; however, since these schemes can often be complex and unwieldy, careful management is not always easy.
Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship, 2020
As the number of non-Anglophone students studying business through the medium of English continue... more As the number of non-Anglophone students studying business through the medium of English continues to increase, there is a growing interest in the potential of machine translation for helping these students with English-language writing. Language instructors recognize the futility of trying to ban the use of such tools, but they are apprehensive about their use. Academic librarians already deliver various forms of digital literacy instruction, and this article describes the design and delivery of a machine translation literacy workshop for international business students and their language instructors. Feedback was largely positive, but it may be helpful to customize future workshops for specific language groups. The target audience could also be expanded to include non-Anglophone faculty as well as students since the former are under increasing pressure to publish in English. The overall experience points to the benefit of collaboration between librarians and other experts in order to adapt to the changing needs of the campus community and to offer meaningful services and support in this period of rapid change.
Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 2019
Investigations into college-to-university transfers have focused largely on the experiences of st... more Investigations into college-to-university transfers have focused largely on the experiences of students, staff, and college faculty, while relatively little attention has been paid to the perspective of university faculty. This article first reviews the literature, which presents the views that the other stakeholders attribute to university faculty. Next, results from a survey and follow-up interviews conducted with faculty at a large Canadian university are presented. While there is some overlap between the concerns presented indirectly in the literature and the concerns expressed directly in the survey and interviews, there are also areas of divergence. The article concludes by noting that university faculty do have opinions on transfer and that their voices are worth listening to, not least because doing so will allow universities to establish how best to direct their resources to more effectively support a culture of transfer. While student transfer from college to university has been the subject of a growing volume of literature, most of this work focuses on either the policies and administrative issues involved in developing and implementing transfer partnerships between colleges and universities (e.g.
Proceedings of the Annual Conference of CAIS / Actes du congrès annuel de l'ACSI, 2016
The paper begins with a brief institutional context, including a summary of the main information ... more The paper begins with a brief institutional context, including a summary of the main information management challenges facing the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies team. This is followed by a brief analysis of some potential solutions that were explored and the rationale for eventually selecting an embedded information professional. Next, we review some relevant literature and identify seven key criteria for successfully embedding an information professional, with a particular emphasis on those criteria concerned with community-building. Cet article commence par une brève mise en contexte institutionnelle, y compris un résumé des principaux défis de gestion de l'information auxquels l’équipe de la Faculté des études supérieures et postdoctorales fait face. Elle est suivie par une brève analyse de quelques solutions possibles qui ont été explorées et la raison qui pourrait conduire éventuellement à la sélection d'un professionnel de l'information intégré. Ensui...
Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship, 2019
Prior research into the role of business librarians in academic program reviews has relied on sur... more Prior research into the role of business librarians in academic program reviews has relied on surveys and interviews, revealing that librarians perceive that they are marginalized in the review process. Using a collection of program review documentation produced for the reviews of nine graduate programs offered at a Canadian business school, this study employs corpus-based techniques to obtain direct measures of librarian involvement. The findings provide objective confirmation that business librarians are not well integrated into program reviews overall, and that their contribution to the reviews of professional programs is even more limited than their contribution to the reviews of research-oriented programs. Based on best practices and missed opportunities observed as part of this study, seven strategies are suggested for integrating business librarians more fully in the program review process for the benefit of all program stakeholders.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to generate awareness of and interest in the techniques used... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to generate awareness of and interest in the techniques used in computer-based corpus linguistics, focusing on their methodological implications for research in library and information science (LIS). Design/methodology/approach This methodology paper provides an overview of computer-based corpus linguistics, describes the main techniques used in this field, assesses its strengths and weaknesses, and presents examples to illustrate the value of corpus linguistics to LIS research. Findings Overall, corpus-based techniques are simple, yet powerful, and they support both quantitative and qualitative analyses. While corpus methods alone may not be sufficient for research in LIS, they can be used to complement and to help triangulate the findings of other methods. Corpus linguistics techniques also have the potential to be exploited more fully in LIS research that involves a higher degree of automation (e.g. recommender systems, knowledge discovery sys...
Purpose This paper aims to investigate the potential benefits and limitations associated with ali... more Purpose This paper aims to investigate the potential benefits and limitations associated with aligning accreditation and academic program reviews in post-secondary institutions, using a descriptive case study approach. Design/methodology/approach The paper describes two Canadian graduate programs that are subject to both external professional accreditation and institutional cyclical reviews, as they underwent an aligned review. The process was developed as a collaborative effort between the academic units, the professional associations and the university’s graduate-level quality assurance office. For each program, a single self-study was developed, a single review panel was constituted, and a single site visit was conducted. The merits and challenges posed by the alignment process are discussed. Findings Initial feedback from the academic units suggests that the alignment of accreditation and program reviews is perceived as reducing the burden on programs with regard to the time and...
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Papers by Lynne Bowker