So What? Library and Information Science Podcast

What is the role of the public library? Is it a bastion of high culture, dedicated to the betterment of the public? Or is it a refuge for the public, serving the most popular fare? The question of how the public library has been perceived is the subject of today's episode. We are joined by Sofia Beraldo, Chelsea Coubry-Forte, Erin Isings, Katrina Desjardins, Kate McCandless and Pam McKenzie, an interdisciplinary research team based at the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario.

Transcript: https://sowhat.fims.uwo.ca/2-3-the-public-library-is/

Episode producer: Alex Mayhew

"A language is a dialect with an army and navy" is an adage was popularized by sociolinguist and Yiddish scholar Max Weinreich. So what does this mean for our classification of languages? And, what impact does our classification of languages have on the people who speak them? In today's episode our guest Sarah Cornwell explores the largest systematic effort to classify languages: The Ethnologue, as well as its history, impact, and alternatives. 

Transcript: https://sowhat.fims.uwo.ca/2-2-what-is-a-language-the-ethnologue

Episode producer: Alex Mayhew

How we remember the past shapes our future. In this episode Joel Sherlock shares some of his experience as the manager of Genealogical and Archival Research at Indigenous Services Canada. What does research in an archives look like? Who goes to such an archives, and why? This interview offers a glimpse of these topics as well as the enduring legacy of the Canadian government's treatment of First Nations peoples.

[Editor’s note, the Jay Treaty was signed in 1794, not 1793]

This episode is part of a collaboration showcasing how research methods are practiced and applied in various settings. These episodes are developed in collaboration with Dr. Melissa Adler and the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at Western University in support of the Media, Information and Technoculture Research Methods coursework.

Episode transcript available online: sowhat.fims.uwo.ca/2-1-genealogical-and-archival-research

Episode producer: Alex Mayhew

Emerging Library & Information Perspectives (ELIP) - the open access, peer-reviewed journal managed by the students in the MLIS program at Western University and published by the FIMS Graduate Library - illustrates the importance of engaging LIS students as active participants in the scholarly communications ecosystem. It also highlights the voices of emerging scholars with important new perspectives.

Additional details and transcript available from our website: https://sowhat.fims.uwo.ca/1-10-emerging-library-information-perspectives

Episode producers: Alex Mayhew, Mike Ridley

In this interview Dr. Grant Campbell from the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at Western University discusses dementia, both his research and how it has affected his loved ones. He makes sometimes surprising connections between the interactions of people living with dementia and their caregivers and topics such as music theory, cataloguing, and information organization. From Ranganathan’s faceted classification to Grice’s implicatures, Campbell makes use of many LIS concepts to help grapple with this challenging topic.

Episode transcript available online: http://sowhat.fims.uwo.ca/1-9-dementia-and-information/

Episode producer: Alex Mayhew

Recently, three professors at the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at Western University, Jacquelyn Burkell, Alissa Centivany and Alison Hearn, spoke at the London Public Library about the concept of your data double. As you scan social media, search Google or Bing, or just aimless wander the net, data about you and your habits, interests and behaviours are being collected. Collected, sold and repurposed for purposes unbeknownst to you. Your data double, you might want to get to know it.

A transcript of this episode is available from our website: https://sowhat.fims.uwo.ca/1-8-data-doubles/

Episode producer: Mike Ridley

In Episode 1.5 of the So What? podcast released in December last year we interviewed Alan Harnum of the Inclusive Design Research Centre at OCAD University in Toronto. We talked about the IDRC, its philosophy, and the way it works. This episode continues that discussion and focuses on two specific projects that exemplify the challenges and opportunities in the inclusive design area: the Social Justice Repair Kit and Co-Designing Inclusive Cities project.

A transcript of this episode is available online: https://sowhat.fims.uwo.ca/1-7-the-social-justice-repair-kit-and-the-co-designing-inclusive-cities-project/

Episode producer: Mike Ridley

What a simple question and what an intriguing set of responses! This question (“What is the first thing you can remember about reading?”) has been asked by Catherine Ross for many years as part of her research into reading and readers. We asked a number of people this and then posed the question back to Dr. Ross and her two research colleagues, Lynne McKechnie and Paulette Rothbauer.

A transcript of this episode is available online: https://sowhat.fims.uwo.ca/1-6-what-do-you-first-remember-about-reading/

Episode producer: Mike Ridley

Alan Harnum is an Inclusive Developer at the Inclusive Design Research Centre (IDRC) at OCAD University in Toronto. His work, and that of the IDRC, is focused on ensuring that emerging information technologies and practices are designed inclusively. Using approaches such as co-design, community engaged scholarship, and an activist perspective, the IDRC epitomizes the “nothing about us without us” philosophy of the disability community. Alan talks about his role, key principles of software design, specific IDRC projects, and their engagement strategies.

A transcript of this episode is available online: http://sowhat.fims.uwo.ca/1-5-inclusive-design-and-the-idrc/

Episode producer: Mike Ridley

If a Troll is only semi-reformed are they now neutral? What would cause a person to turn neutral... Lust for gold? Power? Or were they just born with hearts full of neutrality? We join Yimin Chen as he describes his relationship with trolling in the context of modern issues like cyberbullying. This episode tracks Yimin’s evolving understanding of trolling, both for himself and others, and what it may mean for the future of our online lives.

A transcript of this episode is available from our website: http://sowhat.fims.uwo.ca/1-4-memoirs-of-a-semi-reformed-troll/

Episode producer: Alex Mayhew