CIRI Blog: Information Resources
Language Style Matching as a Measure of Librarian/Patron Engagement in Email Reference Transactions
Published: January 23, 2020 by Ann Agee
When two people are deep in conversation, they unconsciously mimic each other. Both will cross their arms, pick up their coffee cups, or touch their hair as they talk. Research shows that this mimicry is a signal of the high level of engagement between the conversationalists (Scheflen, 1964). Using a technique called language style matching (LSM), social psychologists discovered that similar synchronization appears in written correspondence (Niederhoffer & Pennebaker, 2002). Correspondents with a high level of engagement use similar words, down to the level of pronouns, articles, and prepositions. It is these function words that are used to calculate an LSM score. High LSM scores have been shown to be indicative of a sense of perceived support.
Resources for Planning Research and Writing
Published: October 14, 2018 by Dr. Michele A.L. Villagran
photo credit: Søren Mørk Petersen)
Over the summer before officially beginning as a new faculty, I had to prepare myself for the research and writing expectations of a tenure-track position. I spent at least one to two months seeking out resources beyond those I was aware of years ago when I was a doctoral student.
New Information Architecture course
Published: May 13, 2017 by Virginia Tucker
The School of Information is now offering an information architecture course that prepares students with the skills needed in the knowledge architecture and user-centered design professions. Students design and develop user-centered knowledge structures for the Web environment, and they create project documents developed around specific client requirements, covering the stages of planning, designing, prototyping, and informing stakeholders about a content-rich product. They learn best practices for designing information architecture products, and the course assignments provide real-world experience developing client deliverables from proposal stage through to concept, content inventory, user profiles, and final recommendations.
The Myriad Issues and Trends of Technology
Published: June 9, 2016 by Sue Alman
The wide range of new and sophisticated technological products impacts us as a society, as information professionals, and as individuals, and it’s incumbent on us to be aware of the issues and trends that will affect our local and global actions. The daily media barrage announcing new technologies makes it difficult, if not impossible, to keep track of developments and to understand their relevance in all facets of our lives.