Laurie J. Bonnici

• Doctorate, Information Studies
• Professor (Associate) at University of Alabama

This paper examines the limitations of historical documentation, focusing on the lives of mill girls in Manchester, New Hampshire’s textile mills through photographic images and family memories. While photographs, like those by Lewis Hine, provide insight into the physical conditions and harsh realities faced by young workers, they do not capture t...

Disciplinary webs of proximity frequently overlap at the periphery of a topic where interests intersect for problem-solving. Failure to account for disciplinary differences can result in dis-ease – tension that interferes with meaning-making. This can be especially problematic in just-in-time information settings. An unexpected social media case st...

We present here considerations of three trans-medial translations that have caused dis-ease. We look at novel to film, poem to cantata, and novel to film to television series translations to examine various strains of dis-ease. Upon early consideration, we realized Wilson’s call for a “turn to the functional” provides a means of determining whether...

We propose Epidata as a term for all the sorts of clues to finding, encountering, and understanding/making use of information that exist outside the ordinarily available tools of data and metadata. Our retelling of the Ariadne and Theseus tale presents the utility of a single clue. Our example of intellectual connections presented in Chap. 2 demons...

Our interest in proximity began two decades ago when a mutual friend introduced us because of our common passion for kayaking. As we chatted about types of kayaks and paddles, our conversation drifted to our work. We each began to think about some of the other’s comments: “I’ve heard this before.” The simple question “Who was your major professor?”...

Why does Laurie’s neighbor have a small private collection of official US Presidential photos?

As false and debunked claims about the COVID‐19 virus and vaccines were pervasively disseminated across online social networks, their detrimental effects necessitated that social media companies track down and remove the disinformation. To explore the lingering vaccine hesitancy and resistance within a vaccine discussion group on Facebook, this stu...

Vision gives us proximity at a distance. Human vision is a matter of photons exciting receptors; so, in a general sense, photographs require little in the way of decoding.

We look at three photographs, each made at a time of profound crisis, in order to tease out notions of proximity. Vision gives us proximity at a distance. Photographs may give us a similar proximity. Human vision depends on experience built up from individual events of seeing. Can a photograph made in a fraction of a second by someone else at some...

Weather-predictive tasks during high risk severe weather events are carried out for the common good of the community by virtual teams of weather professionals. Severe weather predictors are responsible for producing the early warnings that inform people in harms way and potentially save lives. Should we be concerned with the use of “other-generated...

The global resurgence of vaccine preventable diseases is garnering attention amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccination information debates in a Facebook group give participants access to second-hand knowledge conveying personal experiences. Through the lens of Speech Act Theory, this study analysed discourses on pro-and anti-vaccination perspectives...

We propose monsters are documents. Monsters show us, make evident to us, teach us. An exploration of five monsters, both popular and unknown, reveals they fit within a standard model of message making; the binary nature of that model separates meaning from message enabling explanation of evolving interpretations of a monster. We examine the coding...

Words cannot describe photographs in the same sense that key words or subject headings can describe verbal documents because words are not native elements of photographs. Words can describe anecdata – reactions and associations that might be functional. Some form of data is coded in some medium, transmitted, received, and decoded. Some forms of cod...

Social determinants of health beckon partnerships to empower citizens to make healthy choices. This dual case study explores the roles of public library engagement in a planned community health initiative known as the Blue Zones (BZ) project. Two cases were examined through interviews, facility environmental scans, and passive footprinting. Results...

Social Tagging for Linking Data Across Environments - by Diane Pennington September 2018

The realm of online social networks (OSN) has evolved rapidly over the last decade. While literature has primarily focused on Twitter, Facebook presents a unique forum for seeking secondhand knowledge on highly specialized topics including life-threatening medical conditions. Cognitive authority expressed through accounts of personal experiences au...

Subjective information in the form of online social media (OSM) opinion posts increasingly functions as useful information in times of uncertainty. Sentimentality frequently expressed in OSM posts includes emotions such as excitement, disbelief, and rhetoric such as expressions of sarcasm. Sentimentality is conveyed through glyphs expressed in isol...

Altmetrics, or non-traditional methods of measuringscholarly impact, are increasingly relevant across arange of disciplines. This paper reports results of anonline survey of faculty and higher-educationadministrators in many disciplines about their use ofacademic social media and their attitudes towardsaltmetrics.L’alternative en métrique (Altmetri...

In The End of College, Carey (2015) presents the notion that new modes and cultures of learning couched in social justice will allow many people to, for the first time in their lives, attain higher learning. The author’s insights are informed by over twenty-five years of artificial intelligence data. In what Carey refers to as the ‘university of ev...

This paper reports on an ongoing study of altmetrics in academe, which started with a survey of Deans, Directors, and Chairs of LIS programs (Julien & Bonnici, 2013), followed by an analysis of social media profiles of representative faculty members in the field (Bonnici & Julien, 2014). A subsequent phase analyzed official tenure and promotion pol...

This paper reports on an ongoing study of altmetrics in LIS, which started with a survey of Deans, Directors, and Chairs of LIS programs (Julien & Bonnici, 2013), and moved to an analysis of the social media profiles of representative faculty members in the field (Bonnici & Julien, 2014). The current phase reported here explores official documentat...

Through the lens of Diffusion of Innovations theory, the researchers investigate the attitudes of administrative heads of Library & Information Science schools regarding adoption of alt metrics for promotion and tenure review.

Purpose – This study aims to determine the state of library services to people with disabilities in the USA since the last study conducted in 2008. Social capital theory provides a lens to reconceptualize equal access in a global context, and to offer insights on the effects of new information technologies for re-envisioning universal access. Strat...

Altmetrics, or non-traditional methods of measuring scholarly impact, are increasingly relevant across a range of disciplines. This paper reports results of an online survey of faculty and higher-education administrators in many disciplines about their use of academic social media and their attitudes towards altmetrics.

This case study examined student preference for delivery mode of online courses in two graduate degree programs in Library and Information Science. Within-group and between-groups comparisons indicated a distinct preference across the institutions. Findings from focus groups conducted with two cohorts of students enrolled in a federally funded proj...

Purpose – This study aims to examine the usability of three popular electronic reading devices (e-readers) to determine which device provides the best functionality for individuals with print disabilities. Adaptability and flexibility for use with assistive technology are also evaluated. Design/methodology/approach – This study reports the results...

This article takes a look at how images have been used through history as metaphors or models to illustrate (philosophical) ways of thinking with a special focus on figures of the tree and the net. It goes on to look at how classificatory thought depends on the epistemological framework in which it originates. Also examined is the Western model of...

To mark the 75th anniversary of ASIS&T this panel addresses the nature and recent history of the field of information science. It uses as a springboard The Study of Information: Interdisciplinary Messages, a collection of writings edited by economist Fritz Machlup and Una Mansfield (1983). More than a quarter of a century ago, The Study of Informat...

This study reports the results of a survey of library and information science (LIS) deans and directors and a content analysis of LIS schools’ curricula as it relates to issues of physiological access. A conceptual framework of social justice is applied to analyze curricular approaches to diversity. Results indicate that LIS curricula include both...

This poster presents preliminary research on the relationship between the iSchools movement and the development of disciplinary identity between 2004 and 2009, the period during which the iSchools organization was officially founded. The goal is to explore whether it is possible to identify trends that emerge from articles written by iSchool facult...

Co-citation analysis of articles by ALISE authors published in five high impact journals between 2004 and 2009. Emergent intellectual structures and relationships that constrain or enhance their development are examined.

This research will develop time-series fractal maps of LIS and CIS. The maps will be used to trace the trajectory of Information Science from its beginnings in 1965 into the future. Following Machlup and Mansfield (1983), we plan to analyze the logical, methodological, and pragmatic relations among and between these two areas of study centered on i...

Purpose The paper seeks to determine the state of library services to people with disabilities in the USA. It aims to use social capital theory to provide a lens to reconceptualize equal access in a global context, and to offer insights on the effects of new information technologies for re‐envisioning universal access. Design/methodology/approach...

This article reports the results of research to determine whether the iSchools project, an undertaking of twenty-two institutional caucus members, represents a deliberate split from the discipline of library and information science (LIS) as previously constructed, a conflict in approach to traditional LIS education, or an ingestion of traditional d...

This paper reports the results of research to determine if the I-School movement represents a deliberate split in disciplinary approach from library and information science as previously constructed; a conflict in approach to traditional library school programs; or an ingestion of traditional disciplinary content into a new iField. Beginning in the...

Decision theory is the mathematics of making decisions under certain conditions of uncertainty. A major shortcoming in the application of decision theory to human problem-solving is that it is difficult to sufficiently account for the influence of specific instances of human social-psychological conditions in making value judgments. Equally challen...

The development of a facet analysis system to code and analyze data in a mixed-method study is discussed. The research goal was to identify the dimensions of interaction that contribute to student satisfaction in online Web-supported courses. The study was conducted between 2000 and 2002 at the Florida State University School of Information Studies...

This article explores the future trajectory of librarianship and its status as a profession in the context of the contested terrain of the information professions and particularly the development of a differentiated information technology workforce. Andrew Abbott's theory of the system of professions informs the historical comparison and future for...

No Abstract. Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/34563/1/1450410184_ftp.pdf

Panel presentation

Panel presentation

This Panel examines the lives and work in information science of six pioneering women – Helen Brownson, Elfreda Chatman, Edith Ditmas, Margaret Egan, Barbara Kyle, and Phyllis Richmond. In careers that collectively span more than seventy years, these women have had tremendous impact on our field. Yet the full extent of their influence has often gon...

Drawing on reference group and socialization theories, this article examines the social norms of online communities. These theories are modified through an examination of the history of Usenet and a review of the scholarly literature related to social norms and normative behavior in Usenet newsgroups and other virtual communities. The article propo...

This research presents the story behind the formulation of the Library Leadership Institute at Snowbird.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2001. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 207-212). Microfiche.