Background/Objective: To determine the information needs, level of Internet access, and current and preferred formats and sources of information of adults with spinal cord injuries (SCIs). Individuals with SCIs have a high lifetime risk for medical complications and other health conditions secondary to their injury. Many secondary conditions can be prevented or mitigated through appropriate self-care and/or selfmanagement. People with SCIs need timely, high-quality information about health and medical issues after discharge and throughout their lifetime to improve self-care and maximize quality of life. Methods: A survey was administered as part of the third time point of a longitudinal research study on individuals with SCI. Results: A total of 80.2% of the 277 respondents reported having Internet access. The most frequently selected format used currently and preferred by respondents for receiving SCI information was ''Web pages/ Internet.'' The top-ranked current and preferred source of SCI information was from a ''Physician: SCI Expert/ Rehabilitation Specialist.'' Respondents reported needing information on medical issues the most. Significantly higher percentages of individuals identified as ''white'' and with higher education levels had access to the Internet and ranked the selection of Web pages/Internet as their top choice. Conclusions: Results confirm that, although people with SCI prefer to receive SCI information from SCI experts, the Internet is a more accessible and more currently used source. Educational level and race predicted current and preferred use of the Internet for obtaining SCI information, suggesting that Internet distribution of SCI information will exclude subgroups.
Purpose -This study aims to examine how systems for organizing information may present an authorial voice and shows how the mechanism of voice may work to persuasively communicate a point of view on the materials being collected and described by the information system. Design/methodology/approach -The paper synthesizes a conceptual framework from the field of rhetoric and composition and uses that framework to analyze how existing organizational schemes reveal authorial voice. Findings -Through textual analysis, the mechanism of authorial voice is described in three example information systems. In two of the examples, authorial voice is shown to function as a persuasive element by enabling identification, the rhetorical construct defined by the literary critic Kenneth Burke. In one example, voice appears inconsistently and does not work to facilitate persuasion. Research limitations/implications -This study illustrates the concept of authorial voice in the context of information systems, but it does not claim to comprehensively catalog all potential manifestations of authorial voice. Practical implications -By analyzing how information systems work as a form of document, we can better understand how information systems communicate to their users, and we can use this understanding to facilitate design. Originality/value -By creating designs that incorporate an enhanced conceptual grasp of authorial voice and other rhetorical properties of information systems, the construction of information systems that systematically and purposefully communicate original, creative points of view regarding their assembled collections can be facilitated, and so enable learning, discovery, and critical engagement for users.Even the trusty knife, however, is less neutrally instrumental than it might seem. A paring knife might be said to suggest sectioning an orange into supremes in a way that a cleaver does not, perhaps leading to a new idea for salad composition. A specific knife's affordances, in other words, advance certain interpretations of ingredients differently than another knife's features might. So it is as well with information systems. If it is difficult to retrieve documents about "urinary surveillance of people with spinal cord injuries" using the combination of MeSH vocabulary and keyword searching available in Medline, this may suggest that a systematic review of medical evidence on such a topic would be premature, as few studies have been conducted. While these system expressions may be viewed as unnecessary hindrances to one's original goals, they may also be productive contributions, enabling a new interpretation of the task situation, and perhaps altering one's perceptions in an interesting, if unanticipated, way.Moreover, because information systems are essentially language constructs (they both contain language, in the form of documents, and use language to structure access to the collected documents, in the form of subject categories and other metadata), their ability (or, perhaps, their inevitability) to be su...
The field of LIS is beset by recurrent debates as to its disciplinary status. For decades, the interdisciplinary nature of information science has been upheld without much proof from the ground. But if LIS is not an interdiscipline, is it then a meta‐, a trans‐ a pluri‐, a multi‐ or simply a discipline? The different proposals for qualifying the nature of LIS or for delineating its frontiers suggest that its fundamental nature remains unclear for its community. But is LIS alone in this dilemma and does it really matter? Does it stop the field from progressing?
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