Upload
nebraska-library-commission
View
353
Download
0
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
NARRATING THE OPAC: How Can Storytelling and Narrative Analysis Improve the User-Friendliness of the
Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC)
Presented by:
Mark-Shane Scale
PhD Candidate
University of Western Ontario,
Canada
1
Introduction:
Libraries and librarians have many stories to
tell.
Main goals are to:
Change how we think about the OPAC
Get us to see how we can narrate our
collections through the OPAC
Get us to see how we can apply
storytelling to our library communication
Goals for this presentation
2
My premise:
While new media & technologies create new forms of storytelling, ancient storytelling practices can and are impacting the design and development of new technologies.
3
Where
organizations are
now creating
online narratives
and engaging in
online storytelling
4
Question is:
Can the same
principles be applied
to informing the
design of the library‟s
OPAC?
The OPAC:
• Resource discovery tool
• Tells a narrative about human knowledge
• A narrative of the knowledge accessible
through the library
5
Literature
Various works indicate how
storytelling and narrative
can be applied to
technology for the purposes
of information provision.
(Powell, 1999; Kendall & Losee,
1986; Domokos, 2007)
Storytelling genres of science
fiction, folklore and
mythology (including Old
Testament) has impacted
the development of new
technologies
(Laurel, 2001; Weizenbaum,
1976)
6
LIS literature on narratives and stories
Bates (2005) online databases not
designed based on how people
actually conduct searches.
People pick up fragments of
information from various sources and
constructs a final story to organize the
bits of information (Orr, 1996)
Also use personal experience
(Schank, 1999; Orr, 1996)
Dervin‟s sense-making metaphor
includes narratives and stories as
means by which people reduce
uncertainty and bridge information
gaps.
Exchange of information often
accompanied by the exchange of
stories (Orr, 1996; Fisher, 2005)
Berrypicking Sense-Making
The Bricolage Information grounds
7
Literature on stories
Stories in learning
The way people approach new
knowledge acquisition is through the
reliance on stories from others
(experts) combined with their own
experience in order to learn
something new (Kolodner, 1997;
Schank, 1999)
Organizational storytelling
Boje‟s (2008) definition of stories –
more than one voices
Gabriel (2000) – stories are wish-
fulfilling fantasies between fiction and
reality
Reality based, but not necessarily
truth/fact
Artful manipulation of facts
8
Metaphor for the
OPACFollowing Laurel (1993) and Fisher (2005),
rather than perceiving the OPAC as a tool
for resource discovery, let us conceptualize
the OPAC as
a medium facilitating storytelling about
humanity‟s knowledge as well as
A medium facilitating resource discovery.
Laurel (1993) critiques the
metaphors of the computer as a
tool, and proposes instead the
metaphor of the computer as
medium.
Fisher‟s idea of information
grounds: liminal space for
exchange of stories as well as
information
9
Technology Prototypes for storytelling
First person (journalistic) narratives (Miller, 2008)
Video performance
Text and images (usually photographs)
Timeline approaches (beginning, middle and end)
10
Laurel, 1993
prototype:
Fictional personal
storytelling demonstrates the feasibility of using fictional
characters to provide access to non-fiction
information sources.
features 3 agent characters/guides that
provide multimedia access and narrative
approach to navigating information in a
database.
the 3 agent characters or guides embodied 3
alternative perspectives about various topics
in American history: a frontiersman, a Native
American and a settler woman.
11
Laurel, 1993
prototype:
Fictional personal
storytelling
These agents are
designed based first person narrative account
of incidents and topics related to the
westward expansion in America.
cast as anthropomorphic storytellers
performing stories in video format.
characters represent and provide context to
information sources in the database.
Sources of these accounts are derived from
diaries and journals of real historical persons that
experienced the expansion.
12
Laurel, 1993
prototype:
Fictional personal
storytelling
Credibility of the agent performers established
through a video segment
introducing themselves,
describing their real-life professions and
the source materials used and lessons learned.
This establishes the agents as storytellers rather
than fictitious characters, thereby reinforcing their
credibility.
13
Laurel, 1993
prototype:
Fictional personal
storytelling
The agents
represent varied point of views allowing for
multiple representations of events and
knowledge,
give the user various perspectives from which
to explore the content and the knowledge in
the knowledgebase.
This approach is natural in that in the real world
human beings do not “navigate to” information,
but rather experience information coming to
them from a variety of sources (page 183).
14
Lombardo &
Damiano‟s (2012)
Cultural heritage
spider tour guide
Carletto: a fictional Italian anthropomorphic spider, acting as a
virtual guide to a historical site.
• Designed for mobile devices
• Virtual representative of the
interface of the application using
storytelling to guide visitors touring
an old Italian palace.
• is the single-character narrator
performing dramatically, communicating
factual and fictional information
about places and objects within the
site.
15
Lombardo &
Damiano‟s (2012)
Cultural heritage
spider tour guide
Carletto:
• produces mobile dramatic performance
on the handheld devices of users, alternating between information
provision of facts and anecdotes that
actually occurred in the space with
fictional experiences.
• professionally guides the visitor by discussing and formally describing
rooms, their functions, historic events and
the artistic features and objects in the
room.
• Template or script-based storytelling approach that responds to visitors
movement
16
Lombardo &
Damiano‟s (2012)
Cultural heritage
spider tour guide
With Carletto,
• fictional world is superimposed on to
the real world.
• follows the visitor by a webcam, by
which he can give contextually
relevant information to the current
room in which the visitor occupies.
augmented reality?
User‟s presence in
a room is input to
Cartello to provide
information on the
location.
17
Carletto
Not all information is
provided at once.
Some retained, in case
the user later returns to
the room.
Developers use
ontological
approach to
fragment the
communicative
knowledge into
units from the
most general to
specific.
Carletto reacts to users‟
location on the mobile
screen through
annotated scripts.
18
What can we learn from the
literature?
The idea of representing viewpoints in information sources
(Laurel, 1993)
Non-fiction information can be presented by imposing and combining
fictional representation with real world factual information (Laurel, 1993;
Lombardo
Such an effort can create an unforgettable experience for those who also
access the information.
(Laurel, 1993; Lombardo & Damiano, 2012)
19
Method:
1st narrative:
fictional – based on imagination about how the world should be (similar to philosophy‟s thought experiment?)
Sense-making of future possibilities using historical advances
2nd narrative:
created from dialogue with artificial intelligent conversational agent, modifying the agent‟s response to more interesting and relevant responses.
Sense-making of the present (about how the world currently operates & problems)
One query
2 narratives
(real &
fictional)
find information resources on restaurants20
Fictional story
In a parallel universe, John, a designer, steps into the virtual public library
to use its online catalogue to search for information resources on
restaurants.
21
The query
He types into the search box and launches into his search
22
The results in the fictional world
On analysis, he realizes that the library‟s catalogue retrieves 3 categories of
results
1. Non-fiction sources
2. Life-writing sources – autobiographies, memoirs of restaurant founders and workers
3. Fiction – stories with restaurant settings
23
Under non-fiction results, John sees the
following:
Magazines and Newspaper articles:
Reviews of restaurants
News features on restaurants
Books:
Hospitality industry textbooks
Food and beverage service text books
Scholarly journal articles
Operating and managing restaurants
Studies, issues and problems in restaurant management
24
Under life-writing results, John sees the
following:
Memoirs, autobiographies or biographies of:
Restaurant founders or owners
Employees /former employees
Books, newspaper and magazine articles:
Company documents and publications from
Restaurants
Industry and trade associations for restaurant service providers
Institutions and agencies that monitor restaurants
25
Analysis of the results that John sees:
Nonfiction Magazines and Newspaper articles:
Reviews of restaurants
News features on restaurants
Books:
Hospitality industry textbooks
Food and beverage service text books
Scholarly journal articles
Operating and managing restaurants
Studies, issues and problems in restaurant management
Life-writing
Memoirs, autobiographies or biographies of:
Restaurant founders or owners
Employees /former employees
Books, newspaper and magazine articles:
Company documents and publications from
Restaurants
Industry and trade associations for restaurant service providers
Institutions and agencies that monitor restaurants
26
Analysis of the results that John sees:
Nonfiction Magazines and Newspaper articles:
Reviews of restaurants
News features on restaurants
Books:
Hospitality industry textbooks
Food and beverage service text books
Scholarly journal articles
Operating and managing restaurants
Studies, issues and problems in restaurant management
Life-writing
Memoirs, autobiographies or biographies of:
Restaurant founders or owners
Employees /former employees
Books, newspaper and magazine articles:
Company documents and publications from
Restaurants
Industry and trade associations for restaurant service providers
Institutions and agencies that monitor restaurants
27
So what if we tried Laurel‟s approach
to presenting such results
J. McDonnel, a journalist from
the Public library press.
Hi, I am J. McDonnel, a journalist from the Public library press. I have a number of media articles on restaurants to bring to your attention.
Breaking news on the trends in the restaurant industry
Reviews and reports of restaurants
Special news features on restaurants
28
So what if we tried Laurel‟s approach
to presenting such results
J. McDonnel, a professor at the
Public Library school of
hospitalityHi, I am Prof. J. McDonnel, a professor at the Public Library school of hospitality. I have a number of research articles and monographs on restaurants to bring to your attention.
For an overview of the basics see:
Hospitality industry textbooks
Food and beverage service text books
For more current research, check out these databases
29
So what if we tried Laurel‟s approach
to presenting such results
J. Chin, restaurant ownerHi, I am J. Chin, manager of family owned restaurant for a number of years. I want to bring to your attention a number of:
memoirs, autobiographies and biographies of:
Restaurant founders or owners
Employees /former employees
30
So what if we tried Laurel‟s approach
to presenting such results
Customer of restaurants
Hi, I am J. Fisher, and I have been a customer of restaurants for years. I want to bring to your attention these:
Reviews of restaurants
Tips on etiquette
Tips for eating out at restaurants
Consumer guides
31
Practical application of results page
Potential solution: Facebook‟s principle of:
“View as specific person”
32
Narrative 2:
Actual search in the real world
Let me tell you about what happened to me the other day when I was searching the library catalogue of the London Public library
No, not that London. London
in Canada.
I hear that England is a
great place.
I‟m sorry. First thing that
comes to mind when I
think London is England
with tea and scones.
33
Narrative 2:
Actual search in the real world
Anyway… The other day I experimented
with the library's online catalogue, and
typed in restaurants. And in my analysis of
the results, I noticed that the first
assumption of the system is that the user
wants non-fiction information.
34
Books are listed first
and then articles.
Isn‟t that something you
would expect
35
But a person using the
library catalogue may
not want to see non-
fiction first.
To be fair, I also
noticed that to the
side, one can select
format –
Fiction, picture
book, DVD etc. But still
that might not be
sufficient.
I‟m quite sure that the
system provides some
way of filtering the
results so that you can
find just fiction
36
I checked out the non-fiction section for a life-writing source,
and curiously noted the title:
So I checked it out on Amazon to
see what it was about as well as
any reviews on the book.
37
Here is what I found based on
Amazon‟s book description:
Temporarily putting aside his role as playwright, director,
and screen-writer, David Mamet digs deep and delivers
thirty outrageously diverse vignettes. On subjects
ranging from the vanishing American pool hall, family
vacations, and the art of being a b****, to the role of
today's actor, his celebrated contemporaries and
predecessors, and his undying commitment to the
theater, David Mamet's concise style, lean dialogue,
and gut-wrenching honesty give us a unique view of the
world as he sees it.
38
You see.
Titles are often misleading. The book
entitled Writing in restaurants by Mamet
has nothing to do with restaurants at all.
While the book is indeed non-fiction, it is
more life-writing or reality based, and
should not be confused in the non-fiction
information category.
39
Fiction results:
Next, I checked the fiction
category. Key to my observation
was whether or not I could find a
fictional work is set in a restaurant
setting. For this I saw a few results
that matched what I was
expecting to find
Like these 2 resources that
showcase fiction stories in
restaurant settings.
40
Fiction results:
So I clicked on the title: Simmer
down
And further found that the library
in its subject description has a
category for restaurants under
fiction.
I‟m not sure persons
would be looking for
fiction works based on
settings. I don‟t think that
would be a normal
expectation of any
fiction reader.
41
Fiction results:
Perhaps not, but, did you
also see that this fiction
book contains recipes?
Hmmm…I get you. So
people can get non-
fiction information out of
supposedly fiction books.
42
That‟s right!
But I still had some unanswered questions:
1. How do we observe reality-based writing
or more accurately life-writing set in a
restaurant setting?
2. What is provided by the system to facilitate
discovery of restaurant life-writing ?
Like what?
43
But I‟m sure that one
can modify the query
to get more specific
results.
In my view, there is no direct way provided
for the user to locate autobiographies and
memoirs of restaurant CEOs, owners or
employees in book formats if they do not
already know the titles or authors.
44
45
You are right. Indirectly, one can expand the
query term 'restaurant„, like including
„memoir‟ with it.
Summarizing
learning
Stories have representational
value, placing information in the
context of view points.
Storytelling also makes sharing and
accessing information an experience
46
Conclusion:WE CAN TELL STORIES ABOUT
OUR COLLECTIONS
47
4 Questions for the OPAC of the future
Can we
1. have fictional (imaginary), historical or even real characters as narrators
representing the perspective of information resources/knowledge available
through the library?
2. combine the time line view for browsing purposes or use a “view as”
interface to filter results?
3. base narrators on the demography of users, creating characters that are imagined experts or others that represent people that users would consult for
advice based on their task requirements?
4. represent dialogic voices, disagreement or disputes over knowledge
(neutrally) without taking sides and let the users decide which voice(s) to
listen to?
48
Other questions and issues:
Can such principles be used for our information literacy sessions and
training?
Once exposed, user may no longer need the storytelling tutorial or guide
to use the OPAC.
Should the OPAC storytelling be an opt-in or opt-out
experience, considering that some users are already experts and do need
guidance?
49
Comments, Criticisms and Queries
50
References
Bates, M. J. (2005). Berrypicking. In K. E. Fisher, S. Erdelez & L. McKechnie (Eds.), Theories of information behavior (pp. 58-62). Medford, N.J.: American Society for Information Science and Technology by Information Today.
Boje, D. M. (2008). Storytelling organizations. Los Angeles: Sage.
Dervin, B. (2005). What methodology does to theory: Sense-making methodology as exemplar. In K. E. Fisher, S. Erdelez & L. McKechnie(Eds.), Theories of information behavior (pp. 25-29). Medford, N.J.: Published for the American Society for Information Science and Technology by Information Today.
Domokos, Mariann. 2007. Folklore and mobile communication. Fabula 48, no. 1/2: 50-9.
Fisher, K. E. (2005). Information grounds. In K. E. Fisher, S. Erdelez & L. McKechnie (Eds.), Theories of information behavior (pp. 185-190). Medford, N.J.: American Society for Information Science and Technology by Information Today.
Gabriel, Y. (2000). Storytelling in organizations :Facts, fictions, and fantasies. Oxford ;; New York: Oxford University Press.
Kendall, K. E. & Losee, R. D. (1986). Information system FOLKLORE: A new technique for system documentation. Information & Management 10, no. 2: 103-11.
Kolodner, J. L. (1997). Educational implications of analogy: A view from case-based reasoning. American Psychologist, 52(1), 57-66. doi: 10.1037//0003-066X.52.1.57
Laurel, B. (2001). Utopian entrepreneur. A mediawork pamphlet. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Laurel, B. (1993). Computers as theatre. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.
Lombardo, V. & Damiano, R. (2012). Storytelling on mobile devices for cultural heritage. New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia 18, no. 1-2 (March-June 2012): 11-35.
Miller, C. H. (2008). Digital storytelling :A creator's guide to interactive entertainment (2nd ed.). Boston: Focal Press/Elsevier.
Orr, J. E. (1996). Talking about machines :An ethnography of a modern job. Ithaca, N.Y.: ILR Press.
51
References
Polletta, F., Chen, P. C. B., Gardner, B. G., & Motes, A. (2011). The sociology of storytelling. Annual Review of Sociology, 37, 109-130. doi: 10.1146/annurev-soc-081309-150106
Powell, Kevin. 1999. Structure versus context: Understanding the design and use of computer tools in social settings. Library Trends 47, no. 3 (Winter): 473-84.
Schank, Roger C. 1999. Dynamic memory revisited. 2d ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sturm, Brian (2009). Storytelling. In Marcia J. Bates and Mary Niles Maack (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences. 3rd edition. (pp. 5042-46). New York: Taylor & Francis.
Weizenbaum, J. (1976). Computer power and human reason: From judgement to calculation. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman.
52
Presented by:
Mark-Shane Scale
PhD Candidate
University of Western Ontario,
Canada