Hullistic

It has been a good week for the oral history project though the project has morphed into essentially a digitization effort for the semester. No trouble though, since I plan to keep working as a volunteer. There is still room for someone to work with me in the Spring for directed project credit.

I received the sample files digitized from the reels. They sound decent and match up to the print material in the 3-ring binders so I received permission to move forward and get all of the reels digitized which should be done in the next week. Of course digitization is only the first of a multi-step process. For these recordings to actually be useful I need to combine files because some single interviews span multiple tapes. I also need to clean up the noise and levels of the recordings. I think I can manage this in Audacity but it will take some time.

Also, now that I know the print material matches, it can be marked for digitization as well. I have not looked at every page but random sampling suggests that there are typewritten transcripts, deeds of gift and even some subject matter indexing for all of the reel interviews. I am going to ask my employer to donate conversion of this material because they use the absolute best OCR technology in the industry.

Of course I still have to catalog and classify so there is still some library work, but digitization had become the primary issue for the semester and rightly so given the people whose histories are contained in these recordings.

I spent the last two days at the Oral History Symposium in Oklahoma City which was fun. I met some nice people, got my copy of “Doing Oral History” signed by Donald Ritchie and saw overviews of several existing projects. I will post more in the future as I have the opportunity to look them over more fully but Murmur and Celebrate Oklahoma Voices are particularly interesting…I wish I had known about them during Dr. Martens’ Digital Collections course.

This is so much fun…what if I am an archivist?

Met at the Historical Society on Saturday and discussed the current status of the oral history project and looked into the available technology. As previously noted the Society uses Past Perfect version 4.0. Some investigation shows that this version has an oral history module so next week I’ll be spending some time on site at the Society and on the phone with tech support to learn how to activate this module. Once it is activated I will work with it to learn how to use for cataloging, indexing and otherwise organizing oral history recordings and related files & documents.

Based on Saturday’s conversation the scope of my project has become better focused. The preliminary scope is to:

1. Create an overall project management plan including phases and a work breakdown structure to meet the immediate project needs and allow the project to continue beyond the fall 2009 semester.
2. Develop a funding strategy for immediate needs and for the ongoing project
3. Install & Configure the oral history module of past perfect
4. Digitize existing analog reels & cassettes delivering the audio on both compact disk audio tracks and MP3 files
5. Preserve existing analog reels & cassettes
6. Digitize existing paper documents to PDF format
7. Develop and implement a plan to organize all content, both physical and digital using the Past Perfect 4.0 oral history module. This strategy will carry forward as new content is added.
8. Insure that digitized files (MP3 audio and PDF documents) are included in the present backup strategy

These items represent the scope and not the specific tasks required which will be in the project work breakdown structure.

So it turns out that I have really just completed most of what PMI calls the “Initiating” phase of this project and I only just now am entering the real planning phase. It is tempting to jump right in to the “Executing” phase and in some sense that is happening as I work on Past Perfect, finish and submit the RFP, and plan for funding but to insure the continuation of the project beyond my “running” it, I think a solid project plan is worth the time and it has been part of the list of deliverables for course credit since the beginning anyway.

My list from last week included 3 items: 1). Completion of the RFP to convert analog tape to digital format, 2). Completion of the historical society technology audit and a wish list, and 3). A list of realistic grant opportunities.

I have the list of grant opportunities, and have completed the tech audit as far as is possible without incurring charges from the Society’s IT vendor. As to the RFP, I thought I had it close but after attending a preservation workshop sponsored by SLA presented by Amigos Library Services where I learned more about the process I am going to revisit the RFP and talk to a contact at Amigos for some advice…I want to get it right so that I need not do it again and so that I can rely on the responses for gaining funding.

I was recently introduced to Nicholas J. Belkin’s “Anomalous States of Knowledge.” Belkin’s position is meant to inform study of human information behavior and design of information retrieval systems.

One is in an Anomalous State of Knowledge when one is aware that they have a gap in knowledge but are uncertain as to how to fill it and also uncertain as to what counts as filled. Said another way, when you know you don’t know and you aren’t sure how to learn what you don’t know and how to tell when you come to know, you are in an anomalous state of knowledge. For Belkin this state is in relation to a goal one wants to achieve or a problem one wants to solve so the anomalous state of knowledge is relative to those particulars.

For example, suppose a child is diagnosed with a disease. The parents of the child naturally desire to get the best care possible for their child but how do they know what counts as the best care? In order to learn, they decide they first must know all they can about the disease, how it’s been treated, what studies have been and are being done and which doctors are experienced in treatments, the success rates of those doctors, which are involved in the research, in clinical trials and so on and so forth. Getting their child the best care is the parent’s first milestone to achieve with the ultimate goal of making their child well. At the moment that that becomes the goal and they recognize the gap in their knowledge along with the uncertainty of how best to fill it, they are in Belkin’s Anomalous State of Knowledge. And they stay in an Anomalous State of Knowledge as they seek out information to fill the gap and as they grapple with the uncertainty of whether the gap is truly filled properly. Now these parents may be in different anomalous states of knowledge along the way, but each cognitive state is still anomalous and so still fits Belkin’s description.

With that example in mind then we can consider where these parents go for information and how they acquire it in order to fill the gaps, achieve the goal and solve the problem. That is, we can reflect on their information behavior.

Belkin supposed that the written word was a message that contained not only the explicit content but also the cognitive state of the sender of the message (the author). Belkin explicitly says that the author’s cognitive state includes his or her purpose, intention, desire and also their beliefs about who the recipient might be and the recipient’s state of knowledge vis-à-vis the subject of the message.

This latter part looks to me a like Belkin is saying that the author is makes assumptions about the recipient and that those assumptions are part of the information of the text or message they are sending. Not wild guesses exactly but nevertheless assumptions based in part on the author’s own beliefs, desires and intentions regarding the potential audience for the message.

Recalling the parents in the example, they are engaging in information behavior because of their own purpose, intention and desire and they select information based on their beliefs about the author and his or her state of knowledge vis-à-vis the subject of the message. Thus the parents, the seekers of information, are making assumptions too. Again, not wild guesses, but nevertheless assumptions based in part on the parent’s own beliefs, desires and intentions regarding the author of the message AND ALSO assumptions about their own states of knowledge.

To me, it is reasonable to describe both the authors and the information seekers in Belkin’s view as operating under hypotheses about the other. And I’ll quote Willard Quine who says “People adopt or entertain a hypothesis because it would explain, if it were true, some things they already believe.”

I suggest that Belkin’s anomalous states of knowledge are states in which information seekers develop, tacitly and rapidly in most cases, hypotheses about themselves, their knowledge gaps, the information they need, the places to get information, and even about the mediums of delivery and the authors of the information they do find. I further suggest that these hypotheses are required as a means to “hook in” what seekers are looking for and finding, to what they already know. If this is right then it means that information retrieval systems must include tools to exploit those hooks while also adding to, or altering, the stock of knowledge already connected to them.

This may not imply anything new to information studies. Then again, maybe considering people as hypothesizing during their information search can be a useful way of describing the situation.

The required text for one of my Fall 2009 Master’s courses is Looking for Information by Donald O. Case. I am only 4 chapters into this book and it’s already the best I’ve read in 27 credit hours. Possibly my previous courses prepared me to find so much value in this text, I cannot say for sure. What I can say is that Case does an excellent job of giving the reader the lay of the land with respect to information studies.

Some may debate the value of Case’s work to Knowledge Management but I consider it immensely relevant and important. Of course I am already sold on KM belonging quite rightly under the rubric of information studies but that is not necessarily a requirement to see how the book can be useful for knowledge managers. Any organization that relies on information and knowledge must build it’s culture and systems with as full and understanding as possible of how staff behaves vis-a-vis that information & knowledge.

Said a different way, if you want your people to be engaged, you have to learn about and care about them and their approach to accessing and using information & knowledge. This book is an excellent starting point to thinking about that very issue.

“The growth areas are library management, taxonomy building, and deep understanding of business processes…”  This according to Bryant Duhon in the latest issue of Infonomics. 

It is good to see these areas in demand not just because they are the areas in which I work but because they are truly valuable. Every organization has a collection of information needing managed (a library). The information should be meaningfully organized (taxonomy building), and actually used efficiently (via business processes). 

Full disclosure demands recognizing that I am possibly expanding the context of Bryant’s quote beyond the boundary he intended, but my goal is not support any claim, just to think about the application of these growth areas, particularly librarianship and taxonomy building, to the enterprise in general. 

It might seem strange to think of enterprise content as a library needing taxonomy. Even the term ‘library’ might seem archaic and nondescript for the enterprise. In fact the SLA is going through a rebranding effort because many believe that the ‘L’ no longer fits. 

Whether a collection is called a library or information workers titled librarians ultimately makes no difference. The important thing is to realize that libraries have been built for people. Interestingly, even in 2009, many business processes are carried out by people. And classification and categorization seem to be innate in the brains of people.

 Good librarians organize and manage information with the ultimate goal of delivering to people so they can use it to learn and achieve goals. Indeed librarians were doing this long before electronics of any kind existed, let alone computer technologies. 

Is thinking of the enterprise content collection as a library for people to use the real growth area embedded in Bryant’s quote?

In considering the  “Digital Collection Proposal Framework’s” basic questions for my digital collection, the first 2 items on the list keep ringing in my ears. That they are the first two items is important too.

1. What is the purpose?

2. Who are the targeted users, what do they need…?

When I consider a particular collections idea these two questions resonate a a little differently with me. Effectively the question I ask myself is “who cares?”

In part this is fueled by the response I received from 10 random folks when I floated last week’s LinkedIn idea past them…100% responded saying they would not participate in, or contribute to such a system. They all gave slightly diferrent reasons but  essentially there was a 50/50 split between “what’s in it for me?” and “who cares?” I actually think I can handle the first but confronted with the second, I am forced to wonder who really does care?

I am not complaining mind you because the point I think is to build something of value to others (even if “others” is a small number). The point is that in this framework it’s the first question to answer. What if the answer is only that I care?

Thinking this way has me reaching for my marketing hat where on the one hand the answer is that if I care and I think others *should* care I have to create a sales message. If, on the other hand I first identify what a group cares about, create something for them and then create a message to notify them that what I have is available.

If I am comfortable pushing what I care about, I build one type of collection, if I a prefer instead having what others care about pulled from me, I build a different type. Ideally, it is a little of both but there has to be enough pull in the first place according to the framework.

Of course this push-pull issue is not limited to digital collections. Libraries (and everybody else I guess) probably need to constantly be asking themselves whether they are content to serve the pull (which I think libraries at least must do) or whether they in fact have something more than that that’s worth pushing.

Before you critize just remember that when it comes to my opinion, which is all this is, I ask the same question…who cares?

Tonight’s meeting of 5033 in concert with the writing assignment due for that class really has me wondering what I am doing. I spent time trying to write about Michael Buckland and finally just gave up and went for the self assessment which in the end was not a lot easier.

This experience with Buckland reminds me of taking Philosophy of Logic as an undergraduate. I had to write about the redundancy theory of truth and I just could not wrap my mind around it. I could not tell whether I did not understand the idea or did not agree with it. In the end I finally learned that it was both. The whole idea of considering truth in the way that it was presented was so far afield from the view of truth that I already held that there just wasn’t enough connection between the views for me to make sense of it. I think that’s what is happening with my view of information and the Buckland piece.

In the end I am content to just let the piece stand as an accurate depiction of the way documents and data are treated which is to my mind a fairly trivial conclusion to draw from an essay nine pages long with two columns per page.

The upshot is though that my own epistemic interests in information are stronger than ever. I am fairly well convinced that the right way to think about information is to stick to epistemic concerns like truth, meaning and rational belief. Whether or not there are distinct enterprises called information studies and information science or whether there is only one “best” approach, I think that it has to account for the filter of background experiences, beliefs and desires of those in a position to judge the value and efficacy of information. It is this filter that I find most interesting perhaps because I have myself experienced the discomfort of having mine clogged as in the example above.

To teach how to live with uncertainty, yet without being paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy can do. -Bertrand Russell

 ”Organizational effectiveness is increasingly dependent on developing a learning environment which fosters learning and the sharing of information as a foundation to deal with uncertainty.” -Penny West in “The concept of Learning Organizations”  (Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 18 No. 1, 1994, pp. 15-21)

These quotes show a common interest for the fields of philosophy and information studies. I should think that this common interest, dealing with uncertainty, is of concern to all fields of study, all organizations and indeed all individuals. But my own experience suggests that many individuals and most American organizations simply declare that they are certain rather than admitting uncertainty and considering strategies to deal with it. It is this experience, among others that motivated me to get into the graduate program in information studies at OU (MLIS) as an extension of the BA in philosophy I received in December 2006.

For my first class I am required to maintain a blog related to my course of study. I like the idea and I thank Dr. Martens for providing me the motivation to open The Informulary. I have high hopes for this blog in that I desire it to be an enteraining, accurate and informative account of my experiences and thoughts throughout my graduate experience. But more than that my hope is that it will provide a vehicle whereby some contribution may be made to the fields of both Philosophy and Information Studies.

That said, the future direction and content of this blog and in fact my education and career are of course…uncertain. I make no apologies for believing that I have what it takes to not only cope with that uncertainty, but to enjoy it.

TTFN