The Irving K. Barber Learning Centre is pleased to present its webcast schedule for November 2010. Please see below for descriptions and webcast links; all webcasts will also be archived.
All events are hosted by UBC’s School of Library, Archival and Information Studies.
Wednesday, November 3
Noon – 1 pm, Dodson Room (Room 302, Learning Centre)
Speech Act Theory and Concepts of the Record
Presented by Geoffrey Yeo, Lecturer, Department of Information Studies, University College London and Visiting Professor, School of Library, Archival and Information Studies
The philosophers J.L. Austin and John Searle developed speech act theory in the 20th century. This talk will provide a brief introduction to the theory and explore aspects that seem relevant to concepts in archival science.
Mr. Yeo will focus on connections between speech act theory and a conceptualization of records as persistent representations, ideas about the role of representation in the performance of speech acts, the potential impact of speech act theory on perceptions of the record as a source of information, and/or the importance of societal conventions in understanding the affinities of records to human action. He will argue that records have performative characteristics and that speech act theory can help us comprehend the relations between records, actions and events.
The webcast will be available here.
Friday, November 5
11 am – noon, Lillooet Room (Room 301, Learning Centre)
Supporting the Reading of Digital Books
Presented by Dr. George Buchanan, Senior Lecturer at the Centre for HCI Design, City University, London
Libraries have traditionally stored large volumes of physical documents. In recent years, this has been supplemented by an increasing proportion of digital texts. While there has been extensive research into the reading of relatively short documents, there is a limited knowledge of how longer digital documents are found, chosen and read. With the emergence of Kindles, iPads and other portable digital reading devices, it is timely to re-investigate the use of longer electronic texts, such as digital books.
In this talk, Dr. George Buchanan will report the key findings of a four-year research project that has addressed the selection and reading of digital books. He will also suggest avenues for future investigation.
Dr. Buchanan has researched digital libraries for over 10 years, and has a particular interest in the difficulties that users have in finding information using computer-based systems. In addition to his studies of digital libraries, he has conducted extensive investigations into mobile human-computer interaction. Dr. Buchanan’s research has been recognized by the conferment of six best-paper awards and a life fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts.
The webcast will be available here.
Wednesday, November 17
Noon – 1 pm, Dodson Room (Room 302, Learning Centre)
Project VIEWS: Early Learning Initiatives That Work Successfully (or Do They?)
Presented by Dr. Eliza T. Dresang, Beverly Cleary Professor of Children’s Literature and Services, The Information School, University of Washington
How do we know whether early learning initiatives involving public libraries work? That is, what is the impact on early learners? Dr. Eliza Dresang, the Early Learning Public Library Partnership and the Foundation for Early Learning in Washington State have joined forces to address this challenging topic through Project VIEWS, funded through the Institute for Museum and Library Services.
Dr. Dresang will give an overview of early learning assessment research in Washington. She will then speak about the related research in which she is involved, and the potentially radical idea of how she will adapt her research with school‐age children to an early learning audience. There will be time for a discussion.
The webcast will be available here.
