Graduation Portfolio

Introduction

As an information professional, I aim to bring the practices and values of librarianship to bear on issues of access, equity, and sustainability in the information society. I view librarianship as an approach to stewardship for all collections, local and global, implicit and explicit, and by extension the communities that rely on collections to serve and represent them and their memories.

On this page, you will find a portfolio of some of the projects I completed during my pursuit of my MS in Library and Information Science at the Pratt School of Information. My emphasis is on remediating issues of representation and access in digital collections and, in particular, supporting the work of librarians, archivists, and community members interested in changing their institutional or collection level practices. My research also looks at institutional practices and collaborations, such as mutual aid and environmental sustainability. I employ methods informed by but not unique to library science such as metadata management and analysis, conservation, archival methods, user research, programming, and visualization.

CRITLOD: A Strategic Framework for Linked Open Data

By Jack O’Malley, Gabriel Palisano, and Claire Mooney

Link to the SAA Research Open House poster.

Course: INFO-670 Linked Open Data

Description: This group project is styled as a grant proposal that outlines how the principles of linked open data might remediate issues of diversity and representation in digital collections. In particular, the proposal focuses on the representation of African American female visual artists on Wikidata as a case study. I presented a summary of this proposal as a poster at the 2021 SAA Research Forum Open House.

Methods: As outlined in the references and appendix, this proposal brings together a wide variety of methods. Some of the prominent methods include environmental scans, application of academic sources (from Black studies, Feminist studies, Digital Humanities, and library science) to novel technology (Linked Open Data), data modeling and analysis, project and outreach planning, and grant writing. The common thread of these methods is their application to critical analysis of an emerging platform, Wikidata, and the development of a case study addressing widely recognized concerns in the field.

Role: I completed this project with Claire Mooney and Gabriel Palisano. I led the completion of many of the technical components of the project, such as the development of SPARQL queries, data models, and visualizations. This work is reflected in appendix items 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. I also presented on this aspect of the grant. I led the academic research, as reflected in the references. I wrote the “Linked Open Data” portion of the environmental scan, the proposal narrative, and the “Benefits to Communities” and “Benefits to Open Source” portions of national impact section. I prepared the poster for the SAA Research Open House independently, with Claire and Gabe’s permission. We worked collaboratively on the concepts, intellectual organization, and editing process.

Learning objective 1: Foundations of Library and Information Science

Rationale: This project served as an opportunity to apply core theories and concepts developed in courses on cataloging, technology, and archival management, many of which were disrupted by the pandemic, to novel methods of information collection and representation. For instance, the project extends some of the key ideas of radical cataloging, which critiques the traditional design of authority records, to the design of crowd-sourced entries on Wikidata. At the same time, it relies on a strong practical understanding of the function and importance of authority records for information management. The proposal also takes into account the emerging role Wikidata plays in cultural heritage, highlighting both opportunities and limitations of the platform. Finally, the proposal applies critical thinking and develops remediation strategies grounded in diversity, equity, and inclusion, an essential area of focus for librarianship.

Learning objective 2: Technology

Rationale: For this project, I used several programming languages and language libraries, including SPARQL, the Wikidata API, Juypter notebooks, and the data science Python library pandas to retrieve, analyze, format, visualize, and store digital collections data. I also learned to use web-based tools such as OpenRefine, Wikidata, and Wikibase that are becoming cultural heritage standards. Technical problem-shooting techniques I used included reviewing open source documentation, watching tutorials, iterative design, and error checking.

Remaking the Museum: A Network Visualization of Siloed Artists Sharing Space

Link to the interactive website

Course: INFO-658 Information Visualization

Description: This project has two parts, a web-based visualization and a written report. The visualization is a network visualization that serves as an instructional tool. The network visualizes two digital collection “communities,” where the connections are based on their shared Wikidata properties. Users are invited to treat the network like a “playlist” that invites surprising or unconventional associations. The report analyzes, evaluates, and critiques this visualization.

Methods: I conducted user interviews with librarians and students. I constructed an enriched dataset using the Wikidata API and formatted it as network data using the Python library pandas. I then visualized the data from a CSV in the software program Gephi. After I exported the network graph to GitHub pages, I further enriched the data with images. My report included further analysis in Gephi and an instructional demo.

Role: I was the sole author of this work.

Learning objective: User centered

Rationale: This project is aimed at academic communities, with a particular emphasis on art historical or research methods instruction for undergraduates. The visualization and instructional demo take into account, based on user interviews, the diverse, intersecting, and sometimes competing information needs of students, faculty, and librarians in an instructional setting, by actively challenging normative approaches to information dissemination. It also multi-modal (appropriate for both open ended exploration and directed instruction), open source, and freely available on the web. This project is intended as a provocation that raises critical questions about the role of information in society and the reproduction of information in libraries. It is meant to challenge, for instance, the idea that we can or should represent collections as data, rather than as unique or as ethical representations of personhood. At the same time, the project tries to meaningfully intervene in the areas of teaching, digital representation, and digital preservation by thinking critically about the idea of the “user” and user feedback. Finally, the project continues to give me the opportunity to think critically about how I digest, represent, and talk about information, develop my own design paradigms, and relate to communities.

Where the Money Went

Link to the published article

Course: INFO-679 Museums & Digital Culture

Description: This project is a research report analyzing the impact of federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans on libraries, archives, and museums. The thesis of the report is that the New York Transit Museum provided greater employment security to staff by using the PPP loan forgiveness period to expand their digital capacity. The report concludes that the specific application of the PPP loan did, in this case, improve employment security and work conditions during the loan period, in contrast to cultural heritage organizations that chose to fire staff during the pandemic despite receiving loans.

Methods: The paper draws its evidence from three major areas: a case study of the New York Transit Musuem’s, secondary research into the use of PPP loans by other organizations, and analysis of publicly available federal loan data. The primary basis of the report is the case study of the New York Transit museum. Research for the case study included an interview with the head of visitor services at the museum, engaging with the Transit Museum’s online content and exhibitions, and reviewing publicly available information about the Museum, such as articles, their annual report, and their loan application. Secondary research included a review of news articles, mutual aid forums, and writing about work conditions during remote work. For the loan analysis, I used Python to assess and visualize information on loans from the Small Business Administration and ProPublica.

Role: I was the sole author of this work.

Learning objective: Research

Rationale: For this project, I formulated a thesis that reflected a goal of better understanding the needs and experiences of information workers and service providers during the pandemic, which I argue is an important research area as the field recovers from massive job instability during 2020 and 2021. I used a variety of research methods including interviews, primary source research, secondary textual research, and data analysis to evaluate my thesis and draw meaningful conclusions. This research is also an original contribution to the field. I presented this research at the Visual Resource Association annual conference and published a non-academic version in the archivists magazine Acid Free.

Child Privacy and Online Safety for Caretakers of Young Children LibGuide

By Jack O’Malley, Sumi Matsumoto, and Simi Best

Link to LibGuide

Course: INFO-652 Reference and Instruction

Description: This LibGuide provides topical resources for the caregivers or minors (children under thirteen) who are below the age of consent. The resources contain information, recommendations, and discussion topics on educational technology and privacy, as well as shorter sections on law, developmental psychology, and international children rights.

Method: This LibGuide provides research around child privacy and online safety from different domains. It also includes links and annotations of resources for users to conduct their own research. The user group for this project is imagined as caregivers coming to the topic with a set of already established ideas, seeking information on their options to manage unfamiliar changes to technologies and digital rights.

Role: I am the primary author of the sections titled “Research Perspectives,” “Informative Blogs,” “PBS - Future of Digital Learning,” and “General Resources.” In general, I adopted a stronger perspective on protecting children’s digital agency.

Rationale: The LibGuide is an extension of the library space, where information access can lead to conflict between caregivers and children. As long as the ACRL frame leads us to design for an individual “novice” user, it will obscure “the fact that any real change would actually require collective understanding and action” (Beilin, 2015). We can describe this activity in the same way the ALA describes a librarian’s obligation not to “restrict or monitor” minors - as an assumption that minimal restrictions on information align with the maximal protection of rights. Rather than solely apply this assumption to children’s rights, we can imagine it as a design paradigm for collective action. Radical information access requires that we call out socially motivated information production, like the kind found in our LibGuide, and replace individualized instruction with reciprocal information exchange. I would direct “resistance…against the very structure of information and knowledge” at the scope of the guide. A reciprocal scope would explicitly describe the network of actors implicated in the protection of caregiver’s rights and design for their simultaneous information needs.