22 Nor th Carolina Libraries Volume 81 2023/24 D R A FT UNC Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science Master’s Paper and Dissertation Abstracts 2022–2023 Summer 2022 Samantha Aamot. Indigenous Data Governance and Sovereignty: A Crosswalk Comparison of Four Metadata Schemas. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. July 2022. 86 pages. Advisor: Melanie Feinberg This study critically examines metadata infrastructures related to archival materials and Indigenous data sovereign- ty and data governance frameworks. By analyzing national- ly and internationally recognized metadata content stan- dards for archival materials, this study explores how rights, ownership, and access are defined and conceptualized in metadata standards conceived through different theoretical frameworks. Further, this study provides crosswalk maps for standards in relation to Murkutu, a metadata standard used primarily by Indigenous communities and Tribal enti- ties to ensure culturally appropriate and legally sufficient intellectual property considerations, ownership, and access rights. Within the framework of internationally recognized rights for Indigenous peoples and nuanced understandings of ownership and property rights, this study adds to dis- cussions within cultural heritage institutions and archival repositories by moving towards broadening understandings of appropriate stewardship of Indigenous archival materials and consultation with Tribal entities and communities. Mayra Bonet. Pedagogical, Critical, and Intercultural Transformations in Librarianship. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. July 2022. 114 pages. Advisor: Ronald Bergquist The ethos of higher education institutions is entrenched in a core of principles, values, and goals that demarcate their contribution to bolster knowledge, inquiry, research, and a broader understanding of the human condition. Furthermore, universities embrace individuals from vari- ous socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnicities, geographi- cal regions, gender identities, and language groups who reconfigure the prototypical canonical discourse. The aforementioned framework epitomizes the foundation for the four chapters wherein the focus is on “Critical Peda- gogy in Librarianship: Decolonizing the Curriculum,” an “Annotated Bibliography: Themes and Sample Resources,” “Myth and Reality in Librarianship,” and a “Collection on Social Justice and Inclusion Competency in Librarianship.” These intersecting essays link together the significance of the graduate curriculum to enhance critical thinking processes through the lens of feminist pedagogy, cultural competence, and social justice in librarianship. This project endeavors to underpin the importance of increasing venues of dialogue amidst schools of information and library sci- ence and librarians. Sarah E Bulger. Modern Hate and Historicizing the Medieval: Exposing White Supremacist Pseudo-History on Stormfront through Qualitative Content Analysis. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. July, 2022. 37 pages Advisor: Francesca Tripodi Pseudo-historical narratives on the European Middle Ages form the root of many white supremacist’s identities, but the specific language used by these white supremacists when discussing the medieval have yet to be analyzed in peer-reviewed literature. In this study, posts from the white supremacist forum Stormfront referencing medieval history will be collected and analyzed through qualitative content analysis to discover what myths of the Middle Ages white supremacists identify with most, to further document how their rhetoric affects popular conceptions of history. Academic medievalists have been battling the misrepresentations of medieval history for decades and the intervention of other sectors of academia may be neces- sary to enact change. By adding the LIS perspective on the specific topic of white supremacist medievalisms, this study will hopefully spark deeper conversation between academic fields in combatting misinformation on the Middle Ages. Master's Paper Abstracts Volume 81 2023/24 23 Nor th Carolina Libraries D R A FT Anna C. Dallara. A Robot Recommends: GPT-3 An- swers Readers’ Advisory Questions. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. August 2022. 114 pages. Advi- sor: Brian Sturm Generative transformers like GPT-3 are sophisticated question-answering tools with many real-world applica- tions. This study explored a possible use for GPT-3 in a public library setting answering Readers’ Advisory ques- tions. GPT-3 was asked real-world readers’ advisory ques- tions gleaned from social media and asked to explain its answers. These responses were coded using qualitative content analysis to characterize GPT-3’s answers and ability to handle the nuance and complexity inherent to readers’ advisory questions. Though GPT-3 revealed several weak- nesses, including inconsistency and a tendency towards repetition, it was able to recommend books in a variety of contexts and speculate about a user’s underlying experience. At times, its nonjudgmental answers were reminiscent of active listening techniques that library professionals prac- tice, hinting at an emerging librarian persona. This study aims to open the door for further research on AI in public libraries and demonstrate GPT-3’s capabilities in a particu- lar context. Ian Daniel. Analysis of Postpartum Patients in a Survey of New Mothers in North Carolina. A Master’s Paper for the M.S in I.S. degree. July, 2022. Advisor: Amelia Gibson The postpartum period represents a formative time when new mothers face waves of physical and mental changes and health and wellness concerns, many of which were exacerbated by the COVID pandemic. Using survey data from mothers who gave birth during COVID, I aim to extract a narrative that highlights some of the potential shortcomings in postpartum care in the context of COVID and examine their demand for telehealth-based postpartum care. The survey was administered in September 2020 to 254 new and expecting mothers in North Carolina. I employed mixed methods to examine characteristics of new mothers who gave birth during the early portion of the COVID pandemic, find commonalities between them, and examine their perspectives on care. More specifically, (1) describe the sample population (2) examine patient perspectives on their care, and (3) determining correlations between tele- health use and insurance, telehealth use and demographic characteristics, and telehealth use and patient experience. Together, I hope my findings will draw a clear picture from the survey data and inform my advisor’s future work. Robin Haley. Digital Preservation Initiatives for Local Media: A Study on North Carolinian Academic Ar- chives’ Local Media Collections and Digitization Ef- forts. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. July 2022. 64 pages. Advisor: Megan Winget This qualitative assessment consists of interviews and surveys with archivist, or related library staff, across North Carolinian academic libraries. The purpose of the study is to identify and gain perspectives from archives in academic libraries in North Carolina that have digitally preserved lo- cal broadcast media materials, like radio and television, or have interest in doing so. This study addresses digital pres- ervation actions and drives open conversation on digitizing artifacts for long-term preservation. Discussion of addition- al digital preservation components like policy development, external and internal resources, various storage, and access with emphasis on discoverability through reference services are also encapsulated. The study also navigates library and community relationships in concurrence with the necessity of local broadcast media collections. Daniel Wilson Hockstein. Making it Work: Germinat- ing an Information Framework for Knowledge Dis- semination Surrounding Legacy Equipment Usage and Repair. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. August, 2022. 40 pages. Advisor: Christopher A. Lee Preservation concerns around dissemination of in- formation face professionals, consumers, and hobbyists performing tasks that are heavily reliant on unsupported legacy equipment. This paper seeks to acquire information that may be used to develop a broadly applicable ontologi- cal framework and intentional support community for a structured knowledge base of equipment issues, parts, and details. This will be accomplished by conducting structured interviews that seek to better understand the information- seeking behavior of technicians and consumers in a variety of disciplines reliant on skills, practices, and information surrounding “old gear.” Beliz Ilica. Sustainable User Interface Generation for Digital Devices: A Case Study. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. July 2022. 52 pages. Advisor: Fei Yu The Internet has become an integral part of people’s lives. However, any digital activity results in energy con- 24 Nor th Carolina Libraries Volume 81 2023/24 D R A FT sumption and greenhouse gas emissions, which are the prime drivers of global warming and climate change. The environmental cost calls for the practice of sustainable web design or green human-computer interaction. While there is substantial research on ways to reduce the energy consumption of the back-end information systems, such as data centers, few studies focus on the front-end infor- mation systems, such as web design. This study aims to analyze the impact of web design on energy consumption by conducting a case study on an institutional website. A set of major web tracking and performance metrics tools will be adopted to collect data on energy consump- tion, web performance optimization, web design, and user experience. Descriptive analysis of the data will help gener- ate actionable insights into environmentally friendly user interface design strategies for digital devices. Meredith Jeffers. Out of the Box: Multimodal Book Club Toolkits for Young Adult Librarians. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. July 2022. 24 pages. Advisor: Sandra Hughes-Hassell My project addresses the ways in which youth librarians can engage with young adult literature within a framework that encourages activism, expands what counts as a “text,” and creates an environment for young patrons to tell their stories in their own voices. For this project, I created a website repository for a number of young adult (YA) books to serve as a toolkit for youth librarians. The information provided in this toolkit can be used in the school or public library setting as either one-off sessions or recurring series with patrons, and the format will provide youth librarians with the opportunity to create their own programs. Alia Kempton. A Case Study: Reparative Description in Archival Settings. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. July 2022. 34 pages. Advisor: Megan Winget Within the last ten years (2010 – 2020) there has been a shift within archival studies to make changes in the ways that archives, and collecting institutions present and make the material housed in their organizations accessible, discoverable, and usable to the communities they serve with a focus on social and racial justice. It seems that some archives have considered ways that collection description affect and impact the narrative of a collection and how collections are interpreted and understood by users through the created narrative. Archival description tells a story, and it is essential to examine whose stories are being elevated and whose are not through description and what members within any given archive’s community of users is being left out and/or lacking representation. My intent in this paper is to analyze two reparative description guideline sets which have been created to share widely among archivists and library professionals. Sara Kittleson. Assessing Use of Local Holdings of Latin American Books in Doctoral Research: A Case Study of UNC Chapel Hill Libraries. Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. July 2022. 33 pages. Advisor: Rebecca Vargha This study investigates where Spanish-language books are used in UNC graduate student research in Humani- ties and Social Science disciplines in order to assess current Latin American area studies collections policies. Using a citation analysis of UNC dissertations on Latin American topics approved between 2011 and 2020, the study shows which disciplines cited books in Spanish at the highest rates and whether a subsection of those books are available in local holdings at UNC and in the Triangle Research Librar- ies Network. The data produced in this study is meant to be used in guiding collections policies at UNC and to provide an adaptable case study for other departments or institu- tions. Sydney C. Macomson. #Hydroxycloquine: Misinforma- tion Narratives Flourish in Absence of Public Health on Twitter. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. July, 2022. 33 pages. Advisor: Francesca Tripodi This paper is a qualitative analysis of tweets collected from searching the hashtag hydroxychloroquine on Twitter during the summer of 2022. Using the constant compara- tive method of grounded theory, this paper seeks to identify key narratives surrounding hydroxychloroquine and what public health organizations are doing to control the narra- tive. While the sample size is limited and cannot be used to generalize about medical misinformation on social media as a whole, this research will hopefully be useful to other students studying medical misinformation in the future. Amanda McLaurin. The Tangibility of Summer Read- ing Programs and Community Connection. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. July 2022. 46 pages. Advisor: Ronald Bergquist The effects of COVID-19 have highlighted the tangible aspects of summer reading programs and their importance Volume 81 2023/24 25 Nor th Carolina Libraries D R A FT to the success of programs in their communities. These tangible aspects are more than the rewards secured for com- pleting allotted time requirements. They are the important physical signifiers of the programs and communal gather- ing in a specific space. In this study an in-depth look was taken at four public library systems in North Carolina to understand the physicality of their programs, how they relate to marketing and participation not just by youth but by the community at large and how COVID-19 greatly disrupted them. These topics will be highlighted and supported through statistical data from summer reading programs pre and post COVID-19 along with testimoni- als from the librarian in charge of the programs at their respected libraries. Emilie C. Menzel. The Information-Seeking Behavior and Visual Studies Engagement of Creative Writers: Exploratory Interviews. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. July, 2022. 116 pages. Advisor: Brian Sturm This study aims to identify and describe creative writer information-seeking behavior and creative writer informa- tion-seeking behavior for visual studies materials, using methodology adapted from visual artist information-seek- ing research. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of six creative writers: three poets and three fiction writers. Conversations were coded for information motivations, sources, formats, access concerns, and applications; search behaviors; and forms of visual studies engagement. This study contributes to our understanding of the information- seeking behavior of creative writers from an information science perspective, a topic that as of 2022 continues to be underexplored within information science. Additionally, this research supports examination of visual studies' material audiences, access, discoverability, and organization; opportunities for and approaches to art library outreach; and interdisciplinary subject collabora- tions in the library. Anne S. Nachman. Investigating Awareness of Sexual Violence Resources Among Students at UNC-Chapel Hill. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. July, 2022. 72 pages. Advisor: Anita Crescenzi Resources and supportive services are available at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) for those who have experienced sexual assault or sexual vio- lence. However, students need to know about the available resources before they can benefit from them. This study investigates the extent to which students are aware of and familiar with the resources currently available. This was achieved through an online survey of the general student body including both undergraduate and graduate/profes- sional students. More specifically, students were asked about their awareness of and knowledge about 13 resources in the Chapel Hill community. Students are most familiar with Campus Health, UNC Police, and Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) but there is a wide disparity in the level of familiarity with other resources. The findings of this research illustrate current student awareness of resources which the university can use to inform future community education strategies regarding sexual violence resources to fill gaps in community knowl- edge. Ketan Pendaya. User Preferences for Email Tasks on Different Platforms. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. July 2022. 53 pages. Advisor: Robert Capra The purpose of this study was to examine what tasks users prefer to perform using web-based desktop email versus mobile app email and understand those preferences. Through in-depth questionnaires, a mixed-methods explor- atory study asked users about their experiences using web and mobile app email and under what circumstances they might choose to use one over another. User perceptions of task difficulty on different devices were collected using scale questions with these perceptions informed by open-ended free response questions that asked users what device they preferred and why. The findings indicated that users still prefer computers in almost every instance when given a choice, and the responses were used to generate insight into why this is the case. Amelia J. Verkerk. Collecting and Preserving Abortion Related Materials: Why and How in Archives and Spe- cial Collections Libraries. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. August, 2022. 45 pages. Advisor: Helen Tibbo This study describes the collection and preservation efforts of six different individuals associated with academic archives and special collections libraries across the United States regarding abortion related materials. Interviews were conducted with professionals who have worked closely with abortion related materials at the following institutions: Harvard University, Duke University, Rutgers University, 26 Nor th Carolina Libraries Volume 81 2023/24 D R A FT Georgia State University, the University of Iowa, and Tu- lane University. The interviews provide answers left by the gap in scholarship about collecting abortion related materi- als as well as give insight into why and how these materials are collected and preserved. Thomas M. Williams. An Investigation on User Per- ceived Credibility of United States Government Climate Change Websites. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. July, 2022. 43 pages. Advisor: Fei Yu This study investigates how users perceive United States government climate change websites (i.e., Environmental Protection Agency and National Aeronautics and Space Administration). Twelve subjects participated in a usability evaluation remotely. Results inform specific opportunities to improve per- ceived credibility and usability of United States govern- ment websites designed for combating climate change. Websites that are more transparent with their budget and projects are perceived to be more credible. The existence of a relationship between perceived usability and credibility was also further substantiated by the results. Gwendolyn Yale. Analyzing Diversity in Picture Books About Technology. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. July 2022. 29 pages. Advisor: Casey Rawson In this content analysis of picture books from the A. B. Combs Magnet Elementary School library about technolo- gy, I analyzed and coded 20 books. The goal was to analyze the amount of authentic diverse characters in these picture books that would influence students positively in their use of technology for fun or learning. Results showed a gap in publishing “Mirrors,” as Rudine Sims Bishop defined them, in picture books about technology for students of color. Fall 2022 Ali R Alrabeah. Remixed and Remastered: A Redesign and Implementation of the Playlist Logging System at WXYC – 89.3FM. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. November 2022. 31 pages. Advisor: Ryan Shaw This paper explores the development of an open-source web application called the WXYC DJ Hub, intended to succeed the current playlist logging system at WXYC – 89.3FM, using all open-source technologies. The software is meant to be community supported by WXYC members and serve as an educational experience for students within WXYC who wish to work on real web applications. The software repository is being hosted on GitHub under an MIT license. This paper describes the user needs and devel- opment process of the hub, from considerations in choos- ing software packages to walkthroughs of the frontend and backend of the hub. Emily L Arnsberg. The Power of Reading and Writ- ing during the Northern Ireland Troubles: A Women’s Perspective. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. December, 2022. 45 pages. Advisor: Brian W. Sturm From the late 1960s to the 1990s, Northern Ireland experienced turbulence and violence, as Unionist Protes- tants and Nationalist Catholics disagreed regarding the destiny of Northern Ireland and its ties to the United Kingdom. During this 30-year period, known as the “troubles,” Northern Ireland and its people found refuge in the written word, expressing their emotions and thoughts in diaries, and communicating with each other to build communities. This paper examines the role of reading and writing during this conflict, specifically from the women’s perspective. Diaries, personal narratives, memoirs, and fictionalized novels were analyzed, as well as information from two semi- structured interviews. These documents and interviews were used to determine the value of reading and writing for women during this time frame, who were trying to go about their daily lives in Northern Ireland. The documentary analysis revealed four themes for why women chose to read and write during this 30-year period: one, breaking the silence; two, as therapeutic and/or coping strategies; three, creating normalcy or control of the situ- ation; and four, as a descriptive method to help compare their situation or emotions they were feeling, or “filling the void.” Chris Eastin. The Effect of Icon Complexity on Visual Search Speed. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. de- gree. November, 2022. 22 pages. Advisor: Robert Capra Over the last decade mobile interfaces have gone from being a new space to a mature technology, and this has seen a number of changes in the way that interfaces designed. One example of this is a shift in icon design from highly representative detailed icons to simplified and symbolic icons. My study looks at what effect this design shift towards less complex iconography has had on the ability of users to find them in a 2D visual layout. The findings Volume 81 2023/24 27 Nor th Carolina Libraries D R A FT of this study reinforce the current trend of simplified icon designs and provides potential avenues for more in-depth studies to look for ways to improve the functionality of modern icon design. Corinne S. Foster. A Historical Gazetteer of American Summer Camps. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. de- gree. December, 2022. 65 pages. Advisor: Ryan Shaw Gazetteers (dictionaries of place names, their classifi- cations, and locations) are fundamental to GIS systems. Historical gazetteers especially are an important resource for aggregating knowledge about places across time, and allow for types of data analysis possible only at scale. With the re- newed interest in gazetteers as tools for the digital humani- ties, there has been a rise in domain-specific gazetteers. One sphere that has yet to develop a historical gazetteer is the organized camping industry. Organized camping, termed thus to distinguish it from the less structured and formal- ized forms of family camping or backpacking, originated in the late 19th century in the United States and has since spread across the globe. The available primary source mate- rial (annual directories and guidebooks dating back to the 1920s) particularly lends itself to the creation of a gazetteer of summer camps in the US. To make the creation of such a gazetteer possible, this project developed a text mining pro- gram to turn early editions of the Porter Sargent Handbook of Summer Camps (the most comprehensive camp direc- tories) into the foundations of a gazetteer. Once expanded and enriched, this geodatabase will serve as a resource for the American Camp Association (ACA), the industry’s primary professional organization. Yidan Gao. A Usability Study and Prototype Design of the Study Room Reservation System of UNC Library Website. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. November, 2022. 66 pages. Advisor: Fei Yu As a core library service, study room reservation (SRR) promotes a collaborative learning environment. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, user demand and needs for SRRs have unprecedentedly been soaring due to social distanc- ing and health protection. However, the usability and user experience of an SRR system has rarely been investigated. This study aims to fill in this gap by taking a mixed-method approach to assess the usability of an SRR system at the li- brary website of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, prototype a new design based on user feedback, and conduct an A/B testing to compare user experiences. Findings will help the academic library system improve the SRR service, better meet users’ needs during and after the COVID-19 pandemic and provide empirical evidence to the design and development of SRR systems. Kayla A Glynn. Archiving Psychiatric Records: Explor- ing the Ethics, Privacy, and Access issues of Archiving Mental Health Records. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. November, 2022. 47 pages. Advisor: Dr. Casey Rawson The purpose of this study was to understand how archi- vists perceive the value and ethics of acquiring and preserv- ing psychiatric records despite cases where providing access to records is impossible due to privacy reasons. A study similar to this has not been located in the existing literature and therefore this study would have informed the archives field to how psychiatric hospital records are viewed. Mem- ber archivists and librarians of the Society of American Archivists would have been surveyed and four would have been interviewed as well to gain both breadth and depth on the research question. IRB approval was not received and therefore the study was not conducted. Lyric Grimes. Black Books Matter: A Content Analysis of the Black Experience in Picture Books. A Master’s paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. December, 2022. 42 pages. Advisor: Brian Sturm This study is a content analysis of children’s picture books. Fifteen books were evaluated to determine how the Black experience is presented in children’s picture books. The books were selected from The Brown Bookshelf. This site was chosen due to its mission. The Brown Bookshelf was designed to push awareness of the myriad of Black voices writing for young readers. The books were selected from the curated 2020 and 2021 lists. The results of the content analysis revealed that the overall depiction of the Black experience from both the 2020 and 2021 lists was accurate, uplifting, and non-stereotypical. The illustrations allowed for the full beauty of Black features, skin tones, and hair to shine through, while storylines and character- izations were nuanced and holistic. There were no differ- ences in language between non-Black and Black characters. Results found that although these books and stories were not universal, they accurately portrayed the Black experi- ence and could be used as a “window.” The books were “culturally conscious” and an accurate depiction of the Black experience. 28 Nor th Carolina Libraries Volume 81 2023/24 D R A FT Erik A. Koenig. Are Graduating University Students En- tering the Information Workforce Familiar with Digital Accessibility? A Study on Digital Accessibility Aware- ness. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. No- vember 2022. 53 pages. Advisor: Ronald E. Bergquist. This study investigates the digital accessibility aware- ness of graduate and undergraduate students from a major public research university who are preparing to graduate from information workforce generating degree programs. Students from four major degree programs (information science, computer science, communications, and media and journalism) completed in-depth semi-structured in- terview sessions to discuss the concept and answer detailed questions about digital accessibility fundamentals and applications within the student’s respective field of work or study. The vast majority of students interviewed were very familiar with digital accessibility and showed that they were prepared to implement its fundamental principles in their future professional roles in the workforce after graduation. Kimberly M. Kresica. Signs of the Time: Collective Identity Framing the 2017 Women’s March at Home and Abroad A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. November 2022. 59 pages. Advisor: Francesca Tripodi To begin to address an international gap in scholarship around the sister marches of the 2017 Women’s March, this master’s paper performed content analysis on a corpus of protest posters from three countries: the United States, England and Poland. Concerns, characters, symbols and text from each march were compared to one other and to previous Women’s March research. This study revealed that all three sister marches framed at least half of their posters toward an American context but also negotiated their content with a local identity. Warning: This paper contains uncensored language and images of protest. Ariel B. Matthews. A Library in Transition: Document- ing Given Memorial Library’s Transition from Private to Municipal. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. December, 2022. 34 pages. Advisor: Ronald Bergquist This project tracked the transition of a small com- munity library from being privately directed to becoming municipally managed in the aim to provide a transferable process for future establishments that hope to attempt the same transition. The details of this phenomenon are documented through community survey analysis, a content analysis of the acquisitions contract, and a review of the gray literature with context provided by first-hand observa- tion. This project also documented the Village of Pinehu- rst’s (VOP) acquisition of Given Memorial Library & Tufts Archives (GMLTA) for Pinehurst’s historical records. Madeline C. Miller. The Traveling Libraries of North Carolina. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. December, 2022. 24 pages. Advisor: Ronald Bergquist This paper presents a qualitative, historical study of the characterization and doctrinal basis of the activities of the North Carolina Library Commission and its Travel- ing Libraries. It examines service to rural libraries and the delineation and contest between state responsibility and municipal or county responsibility for instituting public libraries. Nathanael D Nihart. Digital Humanities Techniques for Asylum Studies in the Archive. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. December 2022. 25 pages. Advisor: Ryan Shaw This project explores the utilization of digital humani- ties techniques and tools for the purposes of transcription, data analysis, visualization and presentation of archival data pertaining to asylums in the 19th and 20th centuries. Since 2017, the Community Histories Workshop’s Asylum in the Archive initiative has been digitizing and transcribing records relating to the admission and the as- sessment of people in the Dorothea Dix asylum from 1856 through 1922. My project builds off this work by devel- oping machine learning models to increase transcription efficiency for future records as they become available, and working with the dataset to analyze, visualize and present the data to tell the history of the asylum and psychiatry. The result demonstrates the value of the work already done, leaves examples and models for future scholarship utilizing this dataset and contributes to broader understanding of the emergence of psychiatry and the asylum in the South. Jonathon E. Page. A ‘Spine-View’ Catalog for UNC’s Library Service Center. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. November, 2022, 37 pages. Advisor: Rob Capra. Academic libraries are evolving to house their physical collections in storage centers that do not facilitate tradi- tional ‘stack’ browsing. This project attempts to recover browsing the physical library stacks by implementing a Volume 81 2023/24 29 Nor th Carolina Libraries D R A FT ‘spine-view’ online library catalog. Data for the items repre- sented were taken from UNC Library items housed in the Library Service Center using the Sierra ILS. Item records were processed using Python and the web visualization was attained using JavaScript. A pannable, ‘spine-view’ online catalog was achieved with filtering by ‘Title’, ‘Author’, and ‘Keyword’, as well as a ‘Start At:’ feature in which users can move to a location in the stacks based on a Call Number or an Author’s name. Andrew B Price. Extra-topical Preferences/Constraints During Search. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. November, 2022. 42 pages. Advisor: Jaime Arguello This study is designed to better understand how users interact with search engines to convey, or not convey, pref- erences in information retrieval processes. Instances of information retrieval can have widely varied motivations and I will attempt to target several of them through my questioning and observe how they differ. Extra-topical dimensions, orthogonal to topical dimen- sions, will be used as a measure of how users communicate these preferences. Search tasks were manipulated along three topical dimensions related to the types of informa- tion being sought: (1) biased versus unbiased information, (2) recent versus historical information, (3) specific versus comprehensive information. Jack Sayam. A Bibliometric Analysis of Eye-Tracking Assisted User Experience and User Interface Design. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. November 2022. 37 pages Advisor: Dr. Fei Yu This bibliometric study aims to investigate how eye tracking has been used in User Interface and User Experi- ence design within the biomedical field. Through systematic literature search, over 4000 publications were screened for their relevancy for inclusion. The study results have found an increase in eye-tracking-assisted User Experience and User Interface Design studies within the field. Particularly with insights from academic research institutions concern- ing technology focused on aiding individuals with specific diseases and medical devices within the past 15 years. Wesley R Skidmore. The Serpentine Muse: Duality of Snake Depictions in Myth and Folklore. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. December 2022. 89 pages. Advisor: Brian Sturm Snakes have played a major role in folklore and myth for as long as humans have been telling stories. This study examines depictions of snakes in folktales and myths from three different geographical areas that have been home to numerous cultures and peoples throughout history. This research codifies snake depictions in folk literature from Aboriginal Australian Cultures, Southwest North American Indigenous Cultures, and Northern European Cultures. This research uses qualitative content analysis to code dif- fering depictions of snakes in written myth and folklore. In doing so, this work aims to expand the deficient body of work on the place of snakes in folklore and storytelling. Throughout all three storytelling traditions, readers find duality among snake depictions; snakes are creators, de- stroyers, healers, murderers, male, female, and many things in between. Water and religion wend their way through serpent folklore, showing snakes as both in and out of bal- ance with nature depending on their social status within a storytelling culture. This serpentine study examines a mere ten tales out of the millions that have been told. It is one study of many that can begin to create a language for snake depictions in folklore. As storytellers find the vocabulary to describe the place of snakes in storytelling, they begin to understand the historically fraught relationship between humans and their serpentine muses. Rebecca Wade. Library Patron Diversity in Realistic Adult Fiction. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. de- gree. November, 2022. 56 pages. Advisor: Casey Rawson This study uses a content analysis of adult fiction books from realistic genres set in current times to explore how li- brary patron diversity is portrayed in textual descriptions in order to better understand the messages that patrons from marginalized groups receive from books that feature libraries and library patrons and whether they are finding themselves depicted or excluded. This study analyzes eight books which have been coded for key terms that convey character traits pertaining to diversity, especially visible traits, and ana- lyzed to determine how many books include diverse library patron characters. This study could shed light on what messages libraries, authors, and publishers are unknowingly sending to the patrons about who belongs in the library. Chenchen Yang. Bias in Short-Video Recommender Systems: User-centric Evaluation on TikTok. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. November, 2022. 46 pages. Advisor: Arcot Rajasekar 30 Nor th Carolina Libraries Volume 81 2023/24 D R A FT Recommender systems enable users to navigate in the sea of mass information. TikTok, one of the fastest-growing short-video social platforms, offers countless videos that are curated according to users’ interests by the recommenda- tion engine of a For You page. However, the bias in rec- ommendation brought on by the nature of the algorithm impacts user experience in a number of aspects. In order to identify the mechanism and bias in the TikTok recom- mendation system, this study conducts two user-centric methods of data collection: semi-structured interview and walkthrough evaluation. This study aims to analyze the algorithm and bias of recommendation while exploring the user experience of using TikTok and how different types of bias affect their experience. Upon the analysis of data, the findings indicate that popularity bias and exposure bias ex- ist in the system, and the user experience is influenced due to the bias. Jennifer Ying. Asian Women and Algorithmic Bias. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. December 2022. 60 pages. Advisor: Francesca Tripodi Current research has determined how additional fac- tors like race, class, socioeconomic status, etc., all intersect to determine a woman’s experience in the world but what is lacking is how search engines and social media have perpetuated racist and sexist tropes against Asian women. The purpose of this research was to analyze the biases of platform algorithms in conjunction to keywords associated with Asian stereotypes. Both biased and unbiased searches will be conducted on platforms over a two-week period to explore these social concerns. This paper will analyze the results of the study and discuss the relations among the interdependencies of culture, society, and algorithms. Spring 2023 Shir L. Bach. Finding the Lost Alaskans: Volunteer and Researcher Experiences with the Morningside Hospital History Project. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. April, 2023. 78 pages. Advisor: Elliott Kuecker. From 1904-1960, over 3,500 Alaskans were deemed in- sane by a jury and sent to the privately-owned Morningside Hospital in Portland, Oregon. The Morningside Hospital History Project (MHHP) aims to find these “Lost Alas- kans” by digitizing archival documentation scattered across the country, reconnecting families with information about their lost relatives, and bringing the history of Morningside back into public memory. As a volunteer-run organization with no ties to a larger institution and a unique modus operandi of guerilla virtual reunification, the MHHP is a fascinating case that challenges both halves of the term “community archives.” This study uses semi-structured interviews with MHHP volunteers and Morningside researchers to explore themes of volunteer motivation, competing values of privacy and access, sustainability and independence, and repatriation. Sara R Barclay. Archives and Outreach Methods: How Far Have We Really Come, A Comparative Case Study. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. April 2023. 27 Pages. Advisor: Elliott Kuecker Outreach is one of the main ways archives encourage ac- cess to their communities, for what is the point of keeping that history if no one can use it or benefit from it. Archival outreach deserves more scholarly attention because while many have described its current weaknesses, the field is still seeking solutions. Some institutions try to be innovative in their outreach, going above and beyond to make them- selves available to the public. Unfortunately, these types of institutions seem to be the exception rather than the norm. This begs the question, why is there such disparity between institutions when we know that access and out- reach are core functions of archives? Looking at three US southern universities, this comparative case study attempts to find the differences between these institutions and their methods of outreach. Allison A Beatty. A Room of One’s Own: Occupational Safety and the Role of Platforms in American Sex Work. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. May, 2023. 29 pages Advisor: Francesca Tripodi Occupational safety is a major concern in digital sex work, but workers’ strategies to maintain the right to be safe from physical and psychological harm in the wake of impactful Internet law have yet to be analyzed in peer- reviewed literature. In this study, publications from various digital sex work virtual communities referencing the impact of SESTA-FOSTA will be collected and analyzed through qualitative content analysis to discover how digital sex workers adapt their work safely within legal systems out of their control. Sociologists studying both gender and labor have discussed the emotional labor intrinsic to sex work but occupational safety is equally important to the work. By adding the Information Science perspective on the legal Volume 81 2023/24 31 Nor th Carolina Libraries D R A FT landscape of the Internet, this study will consider a more holistic understanding of the work of digital sex work. Kelly R. Bullard. Veuve, Viuda, Viduam and other Rep- resentations of Women’s Bibliographic Labor Recovered in Wilson Library’s Rare Book Collection: A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. April, 2023. 29 pages Advisor: Dr. Elizabeth Ott The purpose of this study is twofold: to recover and add to existing research concerning books printed, published, and sold by widows performed by former Wilson Library catalogers and to uncover potential reasons why this re- search was eliminated or effaced in the OPAC system. Through enumerative bibliography and comparative analysis this master’s paper seeks to document and dem- onstrate the ways in which prioritization of information effects scholarship related to Print Culture, Labor His- tory, Women’s Studies, and Book History. In addition to advocating for the critical examination of contemporary cataloging practices with regards to women’s labor, this bibliography will seek to make plain the kinship of Library History and Book History. Mary Elizabeth Cash. Exploration of Context in Wide- spread and Subjective Application: A Study with Archi- vists of Rare Repositories in the United States. A Mas- ter’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. April, 2023. 57 pages. Advisor: Helen Tibbo Characterized by their structure, standards, and unique collections of records, archival repositories have maintained their distinct identities in the field of information science as their practices has evolved and adapted over time. The concept of context has distinct roles in repositories, in theory and practice, but it is also flexible in how it may be precisely described and understood. This study exam- ines the inner workings of five rare archival repositories as they consider and understand this concept of context and the impact it has within each organization. All archives hold unique records, but this study addresses those with more highly specialized materials. Comparisons are made amongst the interviewed repositories, as well as with archi- val and information science practices overall. The results display a range of impact in how context influences the archivists and repositories overall, but the rare nature of the records is a driving force in curating and interacting with the repositories’ internal environment and external com- munity. Kevin M Collins. North Carolina Public Libraries: Investigating the Correlation Between Online Readers’ Advisory Services and Other Library Characteristics. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. April, 2023. 40 pages Advisor: Ronald E. Bergquist Readers’ advisory services have long been a foundation- al part of public libraries. This paper seeks to investigate how libraries offer these services online and whether or not their prevalence correlates with various other library char- acteristics. The study employs manifest content analysis and statistics to illuminate the associations between online readers’ advisory services being offered through public library websites and additional library data scraped from national surveys. Because the scope of the study is limited to North Carolina systems, its findings are not exhaustive enough to be applied to public library trends as a whole. However, the data explored holds the significance needed to begin a wider conversation about the evolving relation- ship between public libraries and online readers’ advisory. Zoe Y G Dilles. Data Journals: Where Data Sharing Policy Meets Practice. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. May, 2023. 157 pages. Advisor: Todd Vision Data journals incorporate elements of traditional schol- arly communications practices—reviewing for quality and rigor through editorial and peer-review—and the data shar- ing/open data movement—prioritizing broad dissemination through repositories, sometimes with curation or techni- cal checks. Their goals for dataset review and sharing are recorded in journal-based data policies and operationalized through workflows. In this qualitative, small cohort semi- structured interview study of eight different journals that review and publish research data, we explored (1) journal data policy requirements, (2) data review standards, and (3) implementation of standardized data evaluation workflows. Differences among the journals can be understood by considering editors’ approaches to balancing the interests of varied stakeholders. Assessing data quality for reusability is primarily conditional on fitness for use which points to an important distinction between disciplinary and discipline- agnostic data journals. Arwen R. Downs. A Case Study Examining Institutional Zine Collecting: The Zine Collection at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Sloane Art Library. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. March, 2023. 34 pages. Advisor: Dr. Megan Winget 32 Nor th Carolina Libraries Volume 81 2023/24 D R A FT Institutional collection of zines is a relatively new endeavor, with the ramifications of doing so still being considered. This analysis of the zine collection at the UNC- Chapel Hill Sloane Art Library will look at the composi- tion of the roughly 350-item collection through a number of lenses. First, what are the subjects and themes of zines in the collection, and what are the thematic strengths of the collection? Second, with what frequency are the zines used, and what are the commonalities across those most frequently used? Third, what are the ethical ramifications of institutions collecting zines in terms of whether these col- lections promote or restrict access? Lauren R. Dueñas. Academic Archives: Understand- ing Undergraduate Patronage and Outreach Praxis. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. May, 2023. 57 Pages. Advisor: Elliott Kuecker This paper discusses the function of academic archives and the challenges presented to these spaces as a part of larger institutions. It discusses the opportunities that academic archives are given to reach their patrons, under- graduate students, with the usage of digital collections. Finally, this paper serves to understand how Gen Z univer- sity undergraduates obtain information, and how academic archives can tailor their outreach efforts to ensure that these archival spaces provide a more welcoming environment for students to use and benefit from. Madison M. Evans. Tracking Lineage-Based Language in Presidential Statements. A Master’s Paper for the Master of Science in Library Science degree. April 2023. 44 pages. Advisor: Francesca Tripodi An important distinction of the Black American lineage is that it consists of those descended from people enslaved under US chattel slavery. This lineage is distinct from other African diasporic peoples whose histories do not include enslavement within the United States. Black Americans have a distinct culture, experience and worldview that is unique to them. They experience racism and white su- premacy that is linked to government policies from slavery to modern day. Several presidential administrations have directly addressed the plight of Black Americans through published literature. However, the policies put forth in these documents do not delineate the Black American lineage from other disadvantaged groups, ultimately limit- ing their efficiency of their stated goals to positively impact Black Americans. Zoe A Flores. Investigating Subcommunities in Book- Tok: An Analysis Using Hashtags and Videos. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. April, 2023. 48 pages. Advisor: Yue Wang TikTok is a social media application that is popular around the world. According to TikTok, one of its most popular communities is BookTok, an informal community that celebrates all things reading. BookTok has powerful influences on publishing, libraries, bookstores, and reading habits of young adults and teens. It is therefore essential to understand the underlying information and social phenom- ena behind the hashtag “BookTok.” Existing research and TikTok itself refer to BookTok as a singular community, but with billions of views, is it one unified community or a collection of smaller subcommunities? This investigation used quantitative and qualitative content analysis to take a preliminary look at common hashtags, authors, books, and themes present in videos from potential subcommunities. The analysis found that although there may be subcom- munities such as #yabooktok (Young Adult BookTok) within BookTok, these subcommunities are still part of and identify with the larger BookTok community. Ethan J. Glattfelder. Evaluating Longitudinal Trends in and Correlations Between Opioid Prescribing and Opioid Poisoning Rates in North Carolina, 2013-2021. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. May 2023. 111 pages. Advisor: Anita Crescenzi Opioid addiction represents a serious public health chal- lenge for health systems, as well as an enormous tragedy for communities affected by substance abuse. In recent years, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Ser- vices (NC DHHS) has spearheaded efforts to save lives and improve opioid-related outcomes in the state through new prescribing regulations, attributing the present-day opioid epidemic to decades-long patterns of excessive prescrib- ing. This paper provides a quantitative, regional analysis of opioid prescribing and poisoning rates in North Carolina between 2013-2021, evaluating how these rates fluctuated as synthetic opioids became more common in the state and as NC DHHS – led prescribing initiatives were deployed. In addition to considering longitudinal trends in prescrib- ing and poisoning, we used regional and county-level data to test whether correlations exist (1) between opioid prescribing rates and (2) nonfatal-fatal overdose rates from methadone, heroin, fentanyl, and prescription opioids. Though we found limited evidence for significant associa- Volume 81 2023/24 33 Nor th Carolina Libraries D R A FT tions between opioid prescribing and poisoning using regional data, we determined that opioid prescribing rates and overall fatal/nonfatal poisoning rates were weakly posi- tively correlated based on county-level data. This suggests that counties where more opioids are prescribed see higher rates of fatal and nonfatal poison- ing overall and for certain types of opioids. Such a finding has important implications for assessing North Carolina’s response to the ongoing opioid epidemic as NC DHHS works to drive down excessive opioid prescribing state- wide. Sophia S. Hollis. Getting Sources to Courses: Evaluat- ing the Efficacy of Digital Primary Source Teaching Materials for K-12 Teachers. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. April 2023. 90 pages. Advisor: Sarah Carrier K-12 teachers are facing an extraordinarily challenging time as our schools recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. To lend support to teachers in this difficult professional environment, this study aims to discover how archives and special collections can make online materials maximally accessible and useful for K-12 teachers. Using semi- struc- tured interviews with ten K-12 teachers and website usage data from the On The Books library guide, this study will gather data about how teachers find, interact with, and teach with the online resources for primary source instruc- tion. The findings will be considered to make recommen- dations for some ways that special collections librarians can better serve this group of patrons with online teaching resources. Whitney A. Hughes. Dracula Daily and the Communal Experience of Epistolary Narrative. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. April, 2023. 74 pages. Advisor: Brian Sturm Dracula Daily is a literary newsletter that sends out por- tions of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, scheduled to line up with the chronological events of the novel. Subscribers to the newsletter receive and read the journal entries, letters, news clippings, and work logs of the characters in Dracula ‘in real time.’ This simple con- cept quickly picked up popularity in the spring of 2022. Readers began to connect with each other via social media, resulting in a community thriving off of their communal experiences--including readers who usually didn’t read for pleasure, or hadn’t done so in years. Via content analysis of social media posts, I identified emerging phenomena from this community, and how those could have contributed to Dracula Daily’s appeal. This study also considers what libraries and librarians could garner from these interactions and phenomena, especially as they concern engagement and outreach. Carter Garde Hulinsky. From Overwhelmed to Over- coming: Developing a Pre-Ingest Processing Manual for Born Digital Content. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. May, 2023. 63 pages Advisor: Helen Tibbo This paper discusses the challenges of implementing the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) reference model for born-digital materials in digital preservation. Although the OAIS model has been globally recognized for its universal terminologies and conceptual standards, it offers little guidance in terms of tangible implementa- tion. Consequently, archivists have created various methods and tools for OAIS-compliant digital archival preservation workflows. This paper presents a project at Duke Univer- sity Medical Center Archives, which aims to enhance the repository’s current Electronic Records Processing Guide using the digital materials from two recent accessions. The revised guide will be tested and developed, utilizing open- source digital forensic tools to process electronic records for ingest into the repository’s OAIS-compliant integrated archives management system. The outcomes of this project will provide increased stability and efficiency in processing a larger volume of digital materials. Kelly S. Jones. Green is Good, but Why? A Content Analysis of Climate Change in Children’s Literature. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. April, 2023. 149 pages. Advisor: Dr. Sandra Hughes-Hassell This study is a content analysis of climate change in children’s books. Prior research has found that certain depictions may make the issue feel far away from children’s daily lives. Others have been criticized for assigning the weight of responsibility of the problem to children. This study elaborated by analyzing how climate communica- tion via children’s books compares to scientific knowledge, ecocritical frameworks, and research on effective com- munication with children. Using a rubric based on these standards, 20 children’s books from recommended reading lists were assessed. Overall, common themes showed a lack of comprehensive explanations of the causes, mechanisms, and solutions and underrepresentation for the most im- 34 Nor th Carolina Libraries Volume 81 2023/24 D R A FT pacted groups. Publishers, authors, librarians, and teachers can address these issues through selecting and advocating for high quality books on climate science and by designing programming to fill the gaps until there is more impactful, informative, and inclusive climate literature. DeAnna M. Kalk. The Culture of the Collection: A Case Study of Youth Librarian’s Personal Beliefs and How They Impact Purchasing Choices in Public and School Libraries. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. April, 2023. 59 pages. Advisor: Sandra Hughes-Hassell This case study examines collection development practices for young adult collections in public and school libraries. It examines the following research questions: 1. To what extent do personal beliefs impact the collection development practices for young adult collections in public and school libraries? 2. What are young adult librarians’ perceptions of best practices for inclusive and ethical collec- tion development? This study utilizes a survey from public and school librarians in North Carolina to examine the extent that librarian bias impacts their collection develop- ment curation. Owen C. King. Archival Meta-Metadata: Revision His- tory and Positionality of Finding Aids. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. Degree. April, 2023. 56 pages. Advi- sor Melanie Feinberg This paper starts from two observations about archival description. First, creating finding aids requires significant judgement and interpretation, and is therefore inevita- bly influenced by the positionalities—the perspectives, personal histories, and social identities--of the archivists. Second, finding aids sometimes call for revision, sometimes to fit a new data standard or reflect an evolving collection, but also to correct errors, reduce bias, and remove harm- ful language. In light of these observations and related theoretical work, this paper offers a rationale for recording metadata about finding aids, including revision history and authorship. Then it presents the results of a survey of state archivists in the US, who were asked about their descriptive practices and opinions regarding their author- ship of finding aids. Results reveal diverse practices, as well as hesitation to embrace expressions of positionality in the context of description. Finally, the paper concludes with two general recommendations regarding metadata about finding aids. Kaye M. Lott. Fat Bodies Made Small: A Content Analy- sis of Fat Literature Classed in Medicine. A Master’s Pa- per for the M.S. in L.S. degree. April, 2023. 100 pages. Advisor: Casey Rawson This study is a content analysis of print materials about fatness classed in Medicine according to the Library of Congress Subject Headings and Classification. Research about the marginalizing power of information systems has centered around gender identity, sexuality, race, non- dominant cultures, and disability, while fat bodies have been largely overlooked. Previous literature on information organization principles, critical cataloging, and fat stigma are reviewed. A qualitative content analysis of fatness in print materials across four class numbers shelved in Davis Library at the University of North Carolina follows. Titles, tables of contents, introductory material, and cover im- ages and summaries will be coded for problem and blame frames, attitude, and class. This study brings awareness to the stigmatization of fat bodies by information organiza- tion standards and shows the need for new subject head- ings and class numbers for fat materials. Berta Anne “Annie” Maisel. Do College Students Use the Public Library? A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. April 17, 2023. 56 pages. Advisor: Casey Raw- son. This study assesses university student usage and non- usage of local public libraries. A survey asked University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill undergraduate and graduate students questions about their public library usage and ac- companying demographic data. Despite the broad scope of the question, surprisingly little research has been performed on this subject. Of the 203 responses, most answered that they did have local library cards but had never used many features of their local public library. The largest barrier to usage was finding the time to visit the public library. Thomas A.K. Melton. Organizing Apples: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Pomological Descriptive Metadata. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. May, 2023. 52 pages. Advisor: Dr. Melanie Feinberg The apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) has maintained a position of significant historical and cultural importance across several eras in the United States. Because apples only maintain their genetics through human cultivation, their fruit is generally categorized and organized as cultivars which have differentiated themselves from the rest of the Volume 81 2023/24 35 Nor th Carolina Libraries D R A FT species over generations of selective breeding. Experts and amateurs alike have written and systematized descriptions of apple cultivars for various purposes but attempts to stan- dardize organization of the resulting metadata have been infrequent and lack utility across multiple contexts. This paper will assess the descriptive schemas of six pomological description resources ranging from the late 19th century to the present day through qualitative content analysis and metadata crosswalking. The resulting attri- bute set will then be compared with an existing descriptive schema for plant breeders, the UPOV Convention, with an eye towards exploring the viability of a more universal system for organizing descriptive metadata for physical descriptions of apples. Hagen A. Mendrykowski. Inter-Indexing Cataloger Consistency in the Application of Standards: Investiga- tions Towards Standardized Cataloging Operationaliza- tion in Academic Environments: Systematic Approach- es. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. April 2023. 70 pages. Advisor: Melanie Feinberg The purpose of this study seeks to re-examine and re- surface the inter-indexing consistency concerns which have been mainly cast aside in recent decades—particularly in the context of library cataloging. Some primary research questions for this study include: how do catalogers under- stand and utilize concepts such as subject and aboutness when making cataloging determinations in their profes- sional capacity? Furthermore, what considerations are paid to consistency, system cohesion, or standardization meth- ods among catalogers within the same working environ- ment? This study samples professional catalogers in their primary working environment and observes their practices and behaviors. This observation was conducted through think-alouds and with the researcher’s material interven- tion of catalogable documents given to participants. This approach attempts to conceive a more systematic map- ping of the possible pathways inside the plexus of inter- dependent relationships persistent among indexers and the documents indexed at the point of contact with the information system. In addition, this study seeks dialogue with those who share similar interests in the topology of these relationships. Brianna Monet McGruder. Harmful Representations Through Good Intentions: A Content Analysis of Penn Normal Industrial and Agricultural School Fund-Rais- ing Booklets. A Master’s Paper for the M.S.L.S. degree. April, 2023. 50 pages Advisor: Ronald E. Bergquist Beginning during the dawn of Reconstruction, racially segregated land-grant colleges and normal schools took on an important role in perpetuating racial segregation throughout the United States. This content analysis em- ployed Critical Race Theory (CRT) tenets and primary document research to assess the representations of the Negro problem and the new Negro within Penn Normal Industrial and Agricultural School (PNIAS) fund-raising booklets, part of the Penn School Papers archival collection within Wilson Special Collections Library. The research yielded harmful representations of PNIAS students and larger populations of Gullah and Geechee citizens of St. Helena Island. Emergent themes of white self-interest, paternalist racism, trivialization, and deflection emerged. Alanna K. Natanson. After Desperate Times, Still a Desperate Measure?: Pandemic and Post-Pandemic Engagement with Preprints in the Biology and Health Science Fields. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. April, 2023. 120 pages. Advisor: Dr. Bradley M. Hemminger Although studies documented surging interest in preprints as the novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus spread in 2020, it is unclear how these non-peer-reviewed documents affected scientific communication after peer- reviewed research could address virus- related questions. This study examined how frequently biological and health science researchers contributed to preprint servers in 2021 and 2022, and how scholars and journalists monitored preprints, valued them in social media, and trusted them for formal publications. The study evaluated bibliometric and altmetric indicators for preprints posted during July 2018-December 2019, January 2020-June 2021, and July 2021-December 2022 and for coronavirus-related pre- prints versus non-coronavirus-related preprints. Indicators of participation, attention, and trust dropped significantly between January 2020-June 2021 and July 2021-Decem- ber 2022, with sharper declines for coronavirus-related preprints. However, participation, attention, and journalist trust remained above July 2018-December 2019 rates. Pre- prints can still indicate attitude and behavioral shifts within a knowledge community for librarians supporting scientists and domain analysis researchers. 36 Nor th Carolina Libraries Volume 81 2023/24 D R A FT Natalie M. Perez. Mental Illness(es) in Picture Books: A Content Analysis. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. May, 2023. 115 pages. Advisor: Dr. Sandra Hughes-Hassell This research study investigates 1) how mental illness(es) are represented and depicted within youths’ picture books and 2) the overall implications of said representations and depictions. Which mental illnesses are most/least depicted? Are the depictions accurate? Who is the character with the condition? How is the character represented? Are the men- tal illnesses personified? If yes, how so? Which symptoms are acknowledged? Are treatments acknowledged? How are the characters’ experiences concluded? Using both quanti- tative and qualitative analysis, a sample of 20 picture books were read and coded against criteria involving the research questions. This study provides insight into how, and to what extent, individuals with mental illness(es) are repre- sented within youths’ literature; accurate depictions can spread awareness regarding and further normalize mental illness(es) for youth readers. Aria J. Princehorn. Repatriation of Museum Archival Materials: A Case Study of the Denver Museum of Na- ture and Science. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. April, 2023. 36 pages. Advisor: Megan Winget. Museum archival repatriation is an ethical obligatory process in which museums return cultural materials housed within their collections to the community of origin. This case study will focus on the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and how museums motivations behind engag- ing in repatriation and the impact of repatriations between the museum and community are affected. The experiences and perspectives of Denver Museum staff directly involved with repatriation efforts are analyzed through the content analysis of data collected from semi-structured interviews. The anticipated impact will hopefully lead to further re- search on the effects of repatriation from the community’s perspective and encourage more museums to re-visit their collections and engage in reparative work to benefit them- selves but most importantly cultural communities. Hope K Riffee. Queering In Red: A Content Analysis of Transgender Scientists’ Wikipedia Articles and Revision Histories. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. April, 2023. 44 pages. Advisor: Dr. Francesca Tripodi Previous research has explored how Wikipedia contains instances of gender bias and exclusionary practices in their policies. This content analysis of 39 transgender scientists’ biographies and revision histories extends the notion of gender bias beyond the traditional binary approach to gender. Transgender scientists’ biographies and revision histo- ries often include their deadnames, wrong pronouns, and acts of vandalism. In concurrence with previous research, transgender scientists’ pages are monitored and produced by groups of editing communities experiencing emotional and unseen labor. This research argues that Wikipedia must update their policies on deadnaming transgender scholars despite current notability concerns. Andrew P Robinson. Digital Labor Platforms’ Algo- rithms as Both Hierarchy and Market Management Functions. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. April, 2023. 51 pages. Advisor: Mohammad Jarrahi Digital labor platforms use algorithmic management to simultaneously manage their internal marketplaces and act as the direct supervisors to their workers. This coexistence of market and hierarchy functions begs the question, “How does algorithmic management in the digital labor platform economy inherit hierarchical management and market management structures?” I utilized qualitative methods to analyze data covering both the workers’ and platforms’ per- spectives for 23 separate platforms to establish an expanded framework within the dichotomy of market vs hierarchy management. This expanded framework yielded 14 lower order and 5 higher order themes to better understand specific manifestations of market and hierarchy manage- ment across a range of platforms. In my discussion, I consider how this framework fits into the existing literature for algorithmic management, describe the lack of mutual exclusivity between new themes, and discuss variations in monitoring and control mechanisms depending on the nature of the task. Gabrielle Rodriguez. Exhibiting r/place: Art, the In- ternet, and the Space between the Digital and Physical World. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. April, 2023. 52 pages. Advisor: Ronald E. Bergquist r/place 2022 was a monumental event in Internet his- tory, gathering millions of Reddit users to collaborate and create their own art pixel by pixel. Factions were made, battles were fought, and alliances were formed. It sits between social movement studies, art history, and social media by itself, only joined by its previous incarnation in Volume 81 2023/24 37 Nor th Carolina Libraries D R A FT 2017. Exhibiting the work with its digital history intact is a challenge, one that demands a view into the space between the physical and digital worlds we inhabit each day, as well as a sense of interactivity and visitor participation. Rolando O Rodriguez. Describing Digital Humanities Projects With Linked Data: A Task-based Evaluation of Linked Data Ontologies. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. May 2023. 102 pages. Advisor: Melanie Feinberg This study attempts to shed light on the lack of seman- tic web infrastructure for documenting digital humanities projects by creating a proof-of-concept workflow for man- ual and semi-automatic semantic web data creation. First, utilizing a set of five ontologies, triple data is created for a set of four projects from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The utility of these data is then determined via task-based assessment alongside a set of metrics for the data retrieved for the tasks. Ultimately, this study aims to detail the benefits of improving linked open data support for describing, and ultimately preserving, digital humani- ties projects in hopes of paving a path for the creation of a LOD database for digital humanities projects. Cas M Saroza. Critical Information Literacy Online: A Content Analysis of Digital Library Instruction Materi- als. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. March, 2023. 50 pages. Advisor: Elliott Kuecker This study examined library instructional materials for evidence of critical information literacy in American four-year institutions and two-year junior and community colleges as defined by the Carnegie Classification system. By conducting a content analysis and using simple random sampling of 10 instructional offerings on library websites, I performed counts of mentions of race, class, and gender in information literacy instruction and performed a close reading of samples to code for relevant themes. Results indicate that while there is no core way critical information literacy is implemented into online content, two-year in- stitutions are doing so at levels previously undiscovered in the literature. However, discussion of biased and harmful information, as well as representation, were popular forms of incorporating critical information literacy. This study fills a gap in the literature by exploring critical informa- tion literacy in a digital setting and functions as a basis for future research avenues for critical librarians. Delaney D Sheehan. Accessibility According to Librar- ians: A Case Study of Public and Academic Libraries in the Southeastern United States. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. May, 2023. 39 pages. Advisor: Brian Sturm I focused on determining whether librarians felt they were prepared to meet accessibility needs of their potential user bases. Through my research, I have determined the answer to be a resounding no. By interviewing nine librarians from both public and academic library backgrounds, all with varying levels of positions and accessibility experience, I produced qualita- tive evidence in support of my findings. The evidence is discussed here in my paper and is used as a basis for a call to action within the library and information sciences field. Danielle R. Shirilla. Investigating Co-Design Methodol- ogy Efficacy Through an Examination of the Emotional Experience of African American Genealogists in North Carolina. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. April, 2023. 41 pages. Advisor: Dr. Ronald E. Bergquist. To bridge the gap in the literature regarding the emo- tional experience of African Americans researching their genealogy, the researcher conducted two to three semi- structured interviews utilizing a co-design methodology. After the interviews, the participants analyzed the collected data with the researcher to create a collaborative and more accurate conclusion, empowering the participants to tell their own stories. This study finds that the participants interviewed had negative experiences with formal record- keeping practices regarding enslaved people and felt posi- tive emotions by reclaiming their family tree through their research. In the future, the researcher suggests dedicating more time to each participant to ensure their unique stories are more accurately conveyed, but found immense value in the partnership and trust cultivated through this research process. Bobbie Shreiner. The Nuances of Privacy Policies Within Three Different Types of Archival Institutions. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. April 2023. 36 pages. Advisor: Dr. Emily Roscoe. The ethical and legal issues surrounding privacy, and specifically third-party privacy in an archival setting, is a topic that scholars and archivists have considered for decades. Competing interests are involved: a hope for fully open access archives; for researchers to be able to use a 38 Nor th Carolina Libraries Volume 81 2023/24 D R A FT repository to its fullest extent and for a repository to build a sense of trust within a community. However, maintain- ing the privacy of third parties in a document who did not or could not necessarily consent to their private affairs being donated, maintaining the privacy as requested by a donor or the family of a donor or whomever is associ- ated or has the rights to the donated materials, is crucial to the integrity of a repository. This content analysis aims to explore third party privacy and overall privacy policies at archival institutions in three categories: state archives, private academic archives, and museums, in addition to an open archive. Here, there will be an analysis of how the laws surrounding privacy come into play, the ethical issues surrounding privacy vs open access, and an observation for best recommendations moving forward. Hannah F. Southern. Deep Looking: Critical Cataloging and Labeling Practice in the Art Museum Space. A Mas- ter’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. April 17, 2023. 166 pages. Advisor: J.J. Bauer This exploratory study examines a current “snapshot” of current labeling and cataloging practices within specific North Carolinian art museums to explore the possible incorporation of critical cataloging practices. The study assessed current trends of cataloging practices in use within North Carolina art museums through a content analysis of displayed art museum object labels and a non-generalizable survey of museum professionals. Descriptive statistics and a qualitative analysis found trends in label and catalog attri- bute standards, interpretive curatorial texts, and engaging labeling practices. The study is a starting point for other research regarding critical cataloging in the art museum space, as no published research yet examines applying these frameworks within art museum cataloging and labeling practices. Eve E. Svoboda. Reworking the Reading Room: An Analysis of Pandemic Responses in Special Collections Libraries at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. April, 2023. 26 pages. Advisor: Helen Tibbo. This qualitative study was conducted to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on digital projects led by special collections libraries at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University. Specifi- cally, this research utilized case studies to analyze the shift to digital resources following the closure of universities in the spring of 2020 and compared this data to the current operations of special collections libraries at both a public and private university. María A. Tudela. The Burdens We Bear: An Examina- tion of Inclusive Excellence and Sustainable Practices in R1 Academic Libraries. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. April, 2023. 75 pages. Advisors: Kristan Shawgo and Monica Figueroa This project explores different aspects of inclusive excellence discourse and practices in academic libraries. Designed as a case study and content analysis, this project examines academic libraries at four R1 institutions located in the eastern United States. Three main characteristics are explored: one looks at what these conversations or initia- tives look like and how they manifest in these spaces; the second investigates the sustainability of these practices. The third evaluates how inclusive practices impact job satisfac- tion and staff well- being. Semi-structured interviews were conducted utilizing convenience sampling, along with a content analysis of existing publicly available information. Results gathered from this study corroborate what the lit- erature suggests and demonstrate that extensive work needs to be done to transform librarianship, but existing conver- sations and initiatives happening indicate that progress is being made. The information produced in this case study encourages further exploration of the current work being done to embody a transformed and more inclusive profes- sion. R. Michael Wells Jr. Violations: Practices and Patterns in Dismissed Federal Data Breach Cases and Why the Dismissals Matter. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. April, 2023. 40 pages. Advisor: Dr. Francesca Bolla Tripodi. Privacy matters to hundreds of millions of people in the United States, and it is central to freedom and individual and societal well-being. Because we live in the age of “big data,” data breaches are a constant risk. A data breach is when data is stolen by a hacker from a computer system maintained by an entity such as an online retailer. At some point, virtually everyone will be the victim of a data breach; some may not know it until years later. Consequently, our personal data is at constant risk. Data breaches threaten to expose the intimate details of our sex lives, our medical information, financial information, employment records, Volume 81 2023/24 39 Nor th Carolina Libraries D R A FT online searches, movies we watch, books we check out at the library, and places we shop. When it comes to protect- ing our personal data, American law lags compared to the rest of world, and legal remedies are limited. Federal judges play a large role in perpetuating this lag, which threatens the privacy of all Americans. To maintain a case in federal court in the United States, a plaintiff must have “stand- ing to sue.” In federal court, this means a plaintiff must have suffered harm that is “concrete” and “particularized,” causally linked to the injury complained of, and likely to result in a favorable outcome. This is a high bar for injured plaintiffs. When it comes to data breach lawsuits, they are usually dismissed by federal judges for a lack of standing because the federal courts generally consider financial or physical harm to be the only harms that are considered “concrete” and sufficient injury to maintain a data breach case. Consequently, most federal judges will dismiss cases where the harm asserted consists of stress, anxiety, worry, and time spent remedying the situation. Regardless of how probable future identity theft is, judges rarely consider evidence of future harm. This paper examines federal data breach cases where judges dismissed the cases for a lack of standing and determines whether there are consistent pat- terns in these decisions. Georgie Blaine Wilkins. Libraries and Student Success at UNC-Chapel Hill. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. April, 2023. 42 pages. Advisor: Casey Raw- son The purpose of this master’s paper is to get a clearer picture of student success philosophies and programming at UNC-Chapel Hill and the role of the library in under- graduate student success. This pilot project case study ad- dresses the primary research question “How does a library community and a university community define student success?” Qualitative data was collected through interviews with university employees in various positions relating to student success initiatives on campus and library commu- nity feedback on an anonymous whiteboard at the Under- graduate Library. The data was coded to allow for themes to emerge. This study highlights potential opportunities for library employees to better support the needs of under- graduate students, in relation to the ways in which students report their own needs and the ways that other campus units are addressing student success. Erin M. Winter. Early English Books Online and the Text Creation Partnership: Applications, Innovations, and Alternatives. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. April, 2023. 53 pages. Advisor: Elliott Kuecker Early English Books Online or EEBO is a database of more than 140,000 images of rare and early books used by scholars of history and literature for decades. EEBO is a longstanding microfilm product-turned-image database with established use patterns. EEBO-TCP, a set of 60,000 manually transcribed documents from EEBO, has enabled unprecedented opportunities for large-scale analysis of surviving English print. In this exploratory study, I exam- ine the practices of teaching and research with EEBO and EEBO-TCP in American universities through findings derived from the qualitative coded insights of a focus group of professors and librarians. The focus group discussed teaching methodologies, alternative digital archives, and organizational techniques scholars and librarians have uti- lized in working with a EEBO and EEBO-TCP. This study is intended to provoke further research into the complex technical mediations underpinning digitization of early printed books and identify areas where academic libraries can facilitate the research process. Shannon A.H. Witherow. Disaster Plans of North Carolina Public Libraries. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. April, 2023. 61 pages. Advisor: Casey Rawson This research is a study of disaster plans of public librar- ies in North Carolina and the importance of creating an effective disaster plan. One library plan representing eight libraries was located online. Libraries were contacted to collect information on whether they had a disaster plan in place. Out of the ninety library systems representing one hundred and four out of the four hundred and five public libraries, four systems representing twenty libraries gave responses that a plan existed but was not available to the public. The plan available was analyzed by examining quantitative and qualitative data. Qualitative data included the presence of a table of contents, number of pages, and the creation date and revision date. Qualitative data also in- cluded the presence of the four phases of disaster planning (preliminary planning, preparation/prevention, response, and recovery), type of disasters: man-made and natural, and additional information. 40 Nor th Carolina Libraries Volume 81 2023/24 D R A FT Michelle Moriarity Witt. Breaking a Vicious Cycle: Silence and the Corporate Archive. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. April 2023. 59 pages. Advisor: Rebecca Vargha. The purpose of this study is to explore the concept of ar- chival silence, defined as the intentional and unintentional gaps and biases that challenge the integrity and sustainabil- ity of archival collections, through the prism of corporate archives. Through in-depth, semistructured interviews with corporate archivists, this research involves an exploratory study of the obstacles these archivists face in identifying, preserving, and fostering access to assets of enduring value to their parent organizations. By analyzing their insights on appraisal, accession, custody, and access, this research seeks to shed light on the common ground corporate archives share with other archives, and forge a path toward a new understanding of how corporate archives professionals might break the silence of the archive. Daniel B Woomer. Book Challenges and Missing Poli- cies: A Content Analysis of Reconsideration Policies in North Carolina Public Libraries. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S. degree. May, 2023. 26 pages. Advisor: Francesca Tripodi Policies and processes for library material reconsidera- tion are essential to collection criteria, especially given the current climate in the US around book challenges and bans. Yet few studies to date look at the prevalence of policies and if there are consistencies among existing reconsideration processes or if they are publicly accessible. To fill this gap, this project explores whether library recon- sideration policies are readily accessible in public libraries throughout North Carolina, the consequences of a process absence, and the possibilities of what an updated (and transparent) policy would mean for intellectual freedom. Relying on data collected from a random cluster sample of 20 North Carolina public county libraries, this study ana- lyzes the availability (or absence) of a policy and if similar themes existed among available policies. Ziyu Xia. A Map-based Visual Analytic Platform for Medical Analysis. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S. degree. April, 2023. 30 pages Advisor: David Gotz Maps are a very useful tool in both academic study and daily life. It is especially useful in medical study, since many diseases are related to not only patients themselves, but also the environment in which they live. By plotting the maps about the patients’ information, researchers would be able to explore the spatial patterns about the diseases. However, traditional maps are very convenient for them to use. They need to interact with the map so that they would be able to combine the impact from many aspects. This project built a platform for them to visually analyze the medical data map. Although some functions designed have not been achieved, it can still help a lot. Dissertation Paper Abstracts 2022 Kristen L. Bowen. Sexual Violence, Black Survi- vors, & Moving Beyond Resilience: Developing Mental Health Support Spaces Based on Online Information Behavior. A dissertation for the de- gree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of In- formation and Library Science. 2022. 171 pages. Advisor: Amelia N. Gibson. Mental health services and support can serve as foundational resource for survivors of rape. How- ever, taking advantage of these resources requires knowledge of and access to what is available. The existence of such resources is not enough to ensure access for this population. There is more required to assist Black young adults (18-39) in supporting their mental health concerns in connection to experiences of rape. This dissertation uses focus groups with an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis to investigate where and why Black young adults (18-39), within the United States, with concerns for their mental wellbeing in connection to experiences of rape, con- duct information exchanges. Information exchanges are inclusive of seeking information, sharing infor- mation, and building a space of support. Twenty- four Black young adults completed an online, self- administered, survey that gathered sociodemographic information which assisted the researcher in assign- ing each respondent to a focus group cohort, which lasted for four weeks. Overall, study participants Volume 81 2023/24 41 Nor th Carolina Libraries D R A FT prefer the ease of online spaces or mobile applica- tions over information exchanges in in-person spaces; based on qualities such as access to more therapists or medical professionals when not tied to location, the ability to be anonymous in some spaces, and having the chance to build a community of individuals with this shared experience. The main qualities wanted to build “safe spaces” included people (ensuring that participants within the space belong in the space and that they remain respectful of one another); privacy and choice (be- ing able to choose what is private and public, choose who has access to you); moderation and access to professionals (someone to guide the conversation, prompts, keeping the space positive and supportive); flexibility (a variety of ways to share, such as memes, diary, forums; also ability to participate when they have the time - not scheduled participation). This study provides a look into the information exchange experiences of Black young adults (18-39) who have mental wellbeing concerns in connection to experi- enced rape; where they go to look for information and support and what helps them to feel comfort- able when choosing to disclose in a space. From this study, we have foundational insights into what designers/developers can do to improve and/or create online spaces and mobile applications to serve the needs of this population. Simon M. Hollerbauer. Three Papers on Model- Based Survey Methodology. A dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Information and Library Science. 174 pages. 2022. Advisor: Graeme Robertson. In the first paper, I define the QualMix model, a mixture modeling approach to derive estimates of survey data quality in situations in which two sets of responses exist for all or certain subsets of respon- dents. I apply this model to the context of survey backchecks. Through simulation based on real-world data, I demonstrate that the model successfully identifies incorrect observations and recovers latent enumerator and survey quality. I further demonstrate the model’s utility by applying it to data from a large survey in Malawi, using it to identify significant variation in data quality across observations gener- ated by different enumerators. In the second paper, I investigate how a match in values impacts individual decisions to engage with organizations. I develop a new way to use conjoint survey experiments to study such questions. The proposed model has two parts: a component that helps estimate where organizations and individuals are in the same values space, and an outcome model that uses latent distances from the first part as in- puts. I argue that individuals will be more likely to want to engage with organizations to which they are closer in a latent values space, and that they look at organizational traits for cues about an organization’s values. I find that individuals are more likely to want to engage with organizations that are more descrip- tively representative of them. In addition, I find that congruence more consistently impacts considerations of benefits rather than costs. In the third paper, my co-authors and I discuss the impact that enumerators can have in survey and lab experiments. We conceptualize enumerators as treat- ment versions and clarify the implications of treat- ment versions for inference and for external validity. Researchers need to pay much more attention to the enumerators used in their studies and should assess the impact of enumerators on their results. We pro- pose a hierarchical model that researchers can use to estimate enumerator treatment effects, which also al- lows them to incorporate information on enumerator characteristics. We present several recommendations for researchers doing experimental work with enu- merators and illustrate them on a survey experiment carried out in Uganda. Hyounghun Kim. Multimodal and Embodied Learning with Language as the Anchor. A disserta- tion for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Information and Library Science. 171 pages. 2022. Advisor: Mohit Bansal. Since most worldly phenomena can be expressed via language, language is a crucial medium for trans- ferring information and integrating multiple infor- mation sources. For example, humans can describe what they see, hear and feel, and also explain how they move with words. Conversely, humans can imagine scenes, sounds, and feelings, and move their body from language descriptions. Therefore, language plays an important role in solving machine learning 42 Nor th Carolina Libraries Volume 81 2023/24 D R A FT (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) problems with multimodal input sources. This thesis studies how different modalities can be integrated with language in multimodal learning settings as follows. First, we explore the possibility to integrate exter- nal information from the textual description about an image into a visual question answering system which integrates the key words/phrases in paragraph captions in semi-symbolic form, to make the align- ment between features easier. We expand the direc- tion to a video question answering task. We employ dense captions, which generate object-level descrip- tions of an image, to help localize the key frames in a video clip for answering a question. Next, we build benchmarks to evaluate embodied agents to perform tasks according to natural lan- guage instruction from humans. We introduce a new instruction-following navigation and object assembly system, called ArraMon in which agents follow the natural language instructions to collect an object and put it in a target location, requiring agents to deeply understand referring expressions and the concept of direction from the egocentric perspective. We also suggest a new task setup for the useful Cooperative Vision-and-Dialog Navigation (CVDN) dataset. We analyze scoring behaviors of models and find issues from the existing Navigation from Dialog History (NDH) task and propose a more realistic and chal- lenging task setup, called NDH-Full, which better appreciates the purpose of the CVDN dataset. Finally, we explore AI assistant systems which help humans with different tasks. We introduce a new correctional captioning dataset on human body pose, called FixMyPose, to encourage the ML/AI com- munity to build such guidance systems that require models to learn to distinguish different levels of pose difference to describe desirable pose change. Also, we introduce a new conversational image search and editing assistant system, called CAISE, in which an agent helps a user to search images and edit them by holding a conversation. Yuanye Ma. Relatedness and Compatibility: Se- mantic Dimensions of the Concept of Privacy in Mandarin Chinese and American English Corpo- ra. A dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Phi- losophy in the School of Information and Library Science. 2022. 252 pages. Advisor: Stephanie W. Haas. This dissertation is a study of how privacy as an ethical concept exists in two languages: Mandarin Chinese and American English. The assumption for this dissertation is that different languages will have their own distinctive expressions and understand- ings when it comes to privacy. Specifically, I have proposed a cross-genre and cross-language study to include two genres of language corpora for each of the languages: social media posts and news articles. In addition, the language corpora span from 2010 to 2019, which supported an observation of how priva- cy-related languages may have changed and evolved over the years. I took a mixed-methods approach, by using two computational methods: semantic network analysis (SNA) and structural topic modeling (STM) for processing the natural language corpora. When it comes to labeling and interpreting the results of topic modeling, I relied on external coders for labeling and my own in-depth reading of the topic words as well as original documents to make sense of the mean- ing of these topics. Last but not least, based on the interpretations of topics, I proposed four semantic dimensions and used these four dimensions to come back to code all the topics to have an overall depic- tion of the topics across these two languages and two genres. The four semantic dimensions, though were found present in both languages, have revealed unequal presence in the two languages. Specifically, the institution dimension has much more presence in the English language; and in the Chinese language, it is the individual dimension that is frequently seen across topics in both genres. Apart from topics, this different emphasis on these two semantic dimensions (institution and individual) is also reflected through the semantic network analysis of nodes where the nodes with leading centrality scores over the years in these two languages differ. After considering the limitation of the data in this study, I conclude by ar- guing that overall, it is more cautious and appropri- ate to understand the incompatibilities by saying the two languages differ by their emphasis on different dimensions. This study is one of the first empirically- grounded intercultural explorations of the concept of privacy. It not only provides an examination of the concept as it is understood at the current time Volume 81 2023/24 43 Nor th Carolina Libraries D R A FT of writing but also reveals that natural language is promising to operationalize intercultural privacy research and comparative privacy research. Laura March. Behind the Screens: Social Media Managers at Cultural Institutions. A Disserta- tion for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Information and Library Science. 2022. 264 pages. Advisor: Marijel (Maggie) Melo. Social media managers may not be the first people that come to mind during a pandemic–their work is trivialized, undervalued, and denigrated as tasks any young person could perform. However, they are one of few, if not the only, information professionals at cultural institutions able to nurture scholarship, creativity, and imagination digitally during world- wide shutdowns. While library and museum staff believe social media is important (and will become even more so in the future) many organizations have no strategy for its use nor measure their efforts (Oos- man et al., 2014; Aerni & Schegg, 2017; OCLC, 2018). In response to this absence of guidance, this study takes a practitioner-centered approach to learn how these communicators define, perform, and evaluate their work. This research uses longitudinal interpretative phenomenological analysis (LIPA) and dramaturgical metaphors to uncover and docu- ment social media managers’ lived experiences and the evolution of their role during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results are then used to inform a descriptive framework of social media work at cultural institutions and map participant descriptions of virtual content and programming to a continuum of institutional practices. These applica- tions offer guidance for cultural institutions looking to better support their social media communicators and ultimately foster more meaningful engagement with broader audiences. Alexander B. Rich. Building and Evaluating Detailed Graphical Financial Conflict of Interest Disclosures in Medical Research. A dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Information and Library Science. 2022. 137 pages. Advisor: David Gotz. Bias in medical research poses a serious threat to public health. Conflicts of Interest create the risk of conscious or subconscious bias in research article authors. Financial Conflicts of Interest (FCOI) are widely recognized as relatively objective, quantifiable, and fairly regulated form of COI. Many medical journals have adopted FCOI disclosure as a means of communicating the potential for bias in research to readers. Research on the impact of FCOI disclosure on the attitudes readers develop toward an article has thus far focused on text-based FCOI disclosure with- out details on the nature of dollar value of payments received. In this work, I developed an algorithm to match authors to a federal database of payments they re- ceived from industry during the FCOI disclosure windows for an article. I have four goals: first, I es- tablish that algorithmic matching of authors to feder- al payments profile is feasible. Second, I evaluate the impact of detailed graphical FCOI disclosure on the attitudes that readers develop toward a publication. Third, I evaluate the perspectives and opinions or medical journal article authors when presented with graphical FCOI disclosure of their own payments and those of their author teams. Fourth, I gather the perspectives, possible objections, requirements, and desires of key opinion leaders among academia and medical publishing regarding the potential adop- tion of graphical FCOI disclosures as a standard in academic medical publishing. My findings suggest that the adoption of semi-automated systems for graphical FCOI disclosure may enhance the ability of many stakeholders to detect the potential for bias in medical research without undue harm to authors or corporations. Zhengyang Shen. Accurate, Fast and Controllable Image and Point Cloud Registration. A Disserta- tion for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Information and Library Science. 2022. 200 pages. Advisor: Marc Niethammer. Registration is the process of establishing spatial correspondences between two objects. Many down- stream tasks, e.g., in image analysis, shape animation, can make use of these spatial correspondences. A variety of registration approaches have been devel- oped over the last decades, but only recently registra- tion approaches have been developed that make use of and can easily process the large data samples of 44 Nor th Carolina Libraries Volume 81 2023/24 D R A FT the big data era. On the one hand, traditional opti- mization-based approaches are too slow and cannot take advantage of very large data sets. On the other hand, registration users expect more controllable and accurate solutions since most downstream tasks, e.g., facial animation and 3D reconstruction, increasingly rely on highly precise spatial correspondences. In recent years, deep network registration approaches have become popular as learning-based approaches are fast and can benefit from large-scale data during network training. However, how to make such deep- learning-based approached accurate and controllable is still a challenging problem that is far from being completely solved. This thesis explores fast, accurate and controllable solutions for image and point cloud registration. Specifically, for image registration, we first improve the accuracy of deep-learning-based approaches by introducing a general framework that consists of affine and non-parametric registration for both global and local deformation. We then design a more controllable image registration approach that image regions could be regularized differently according to their local attributes. For point cloud registration, existing works either are limited to small-scale prob- lems, hardly handle complicated transformations or are slow to solve. We thus develop fast, accurate and controllable solutions for large-scale real-world reg- istration problems via integrating optimal transport with deep geometric learning. Mengquian Wang. A Pathology Report Summa- rization System to Improve the Information Pro- cessing Efficiency of Breast Cancer Oncologists. A Dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Phi- losophy in the School of Information and Library Science. 2022. 104 pages. Advisor: Javed Mostafa. The exponential growth of textual information in biomedical and healthcare causes information overload. Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are an important part of biomedical texts. However, in recent years, it has been impossible for a clinician or a physician to read hundreds of clinical notes dur- ing a regular medical visit without any technological assistance, which is usually the case for patients with the chronological disease. The cognitive burden of healthcare practitioners has increased significantly. This study aims to build a summarization system that can decrease the mental burden of breast cancer oncologists. Due to the complexity of pathology reports and the lack of data, studies on pathology reports have been limited. This work serves as a starting point and a baseline for pathology report summarization. It proposes and evaluates a hybrid system that combines machine learning and a rule-based system using a small amount of data. This study addressed the problem of data defi- ciency. High-quality pathology reports in a textual format with annotations have been hard to find because of privacy concerns. The main investigator of this study recruited and trained a group of research- ers to collect, clean, and annotate a public dataset of breast cancer pathology reports. According to the primary findings based on ROUGE, BLEU, and readability score testing, this study presents a breast cancer pathology report sum- marization system that is able to generate succinct and informative summaries, which is potentially beneficial in reducing oncologists’ cognitive burden. Some promising future directions are discussed. 2023 Thui-May Lewis. From Policy to Practice: How Journal-based Data Policies Encourage Scientists’ Adoption of Reproducible Research Practices. A Dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philoso- phy in the School of Information and Library Sci- ence. 2023. 107 pages. Advisor: Helen Tibbo According to several studies, researchers are not sharing the data underpinning their published scien- tific results, despite their general consensus that shar- ing data is critical to the research enterprise. Among other benefits, data sharing allows for verification of claims, which is essential to scientific integrity. Research funders, journal editors, and professional associations have insisted on the importance of data sharing by issuing policies and codes of ethics that mandate the practice. However, these mandates have not always been proven to compel researchers to share their data as evidenced by failed attempts to locate data underlying published results or sharing data that do not meet quality standards to allow for Volume 81 2023/24 45 Nor th Carolina Libraries D R A FT verification or reuse. This dissertation seeks to under- stand the incongruity between researchers’ belief that data sharing is essential to science and their failure to produce and share data underlying their reported findings—even when policy requires them to do so. To address this phenomenon, the dissertation in- vestigates the implementation and outcomes of the rigorous American Journal of Political Science (AJPS) verification policy that makes publication in the journal contingent on submission of data, code, and supporting documentation (i.e., the research com- pendium). Prior to publication, research compendia undergo a third-party verification process to confirm the computational reproducibility of findings pre- sented in the manuscript. In most cases, authors fail initially to produce a compendium that meets policy requirements for completeness, understandability, and computational reproducibility. Using the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a framework, the study investigates the specific behavioral factors that affect authors’ success or failure in producing reproducible research compendia. Employing a mixed-methods/ grounded theory approach, the study analyzes re- cords of verification results and interviews with AJPS authors who were subject to the verification policy to learn about their specific reproducible research practices (or lack thereof ) and their outcomes. Based on the results of the study, I identify the most com- mon and impactful issues that appear in submitted research compendia that render them non-reproduc- ible, and suggest reasons that authors encounter these issues. Finally, I propose an extension of TPB that suggests how the policy compels and supports behav- iors that promote research reproducibility. Simon James Varey. Corpus Analysis in Philo- sophical Semantics. A Dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Informa- tion and Library Science. 2023. 206 pages. Advi- sor: Ram Neta. The topic of this dissertation is corpus analy- sis: the use of computational techniques to search through large collections of real-world texts (called corpora) to discover facts about language use which hold throughout the collection. I examine how cor- pus analysis can be used as an empirical methodology within philosophy of language to confirm semantic analyses of philosophically important expressions. I begin by discussing the philosophical importance of analyzing the ordinary meaning of people’s language use, as through that we can come to understand how they categorize the world around them. Specifically, I am concerned with philosophical semantics: the study of the meaning of expressions for which dif- ferent theories of their meaning will have different philosophical upshots. After discussing the kind of meaning relevant to this subject area (namely opera- tive concepts: the concepts that actually determine how we apply expressions to cases), I rationally reconstruct and analyze existing methods of confir- mation in philosophical semantics, including intui- tive methods and questionnaire methods from ex- perimental philosophy. I then critique these methods in terms of the strength of evidence they can offer. Next, I introduce corpus analysis, and explain how it can be used as a method of confirmation in philo- sophical semantics. I pay special attention to the question of how corpus analysis can be used to dis- cover the ‘deep’, semantic, representational features of text relevant for confirming semantic analyses, and offer several techniques to perform this task. I argue that corpus analysis has many benefits over existing methods of confirmation in philosophical semantics, given that it studies (i) actual, rather than imagined, instances of language use, and (ii) the language use of the actual communities whose meanings we are in- terested in, rather than just that of philosophers. The dissertation concludes with a case study of the use of corpus analysis to confirm a theory of the reference conditions of definite descriptions over a rival theory with different philosophical upshots. This is the first corpus study in philosophical semantics to make use of an annotated corpus, which is a technique with lot of promise within this field. Austin R. Ward. Immersive Search: Compar- ing Conventional and Spatially Arranged Search Engine Result Pages in Immersive Virtual Envi- ronments. A Dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Information and Library Science. 2023. 161 pages. Advisor: Robert Capra. Advances in immersive technologies (e.g., virtual reality head-mounted displays) have brought a new 46 Nor th Carolina Libraries Volume 81 2023/24 D R A FT dimension into user interfaces to increasingly more people in the recent years. However, little prior work has explored how people could use the extra dimen- sion afforded by VR HMDs to aid in the infor- mation retrieval process. My dissertation research investigated how different task types and layouts of search engine result pages (displays) in immersive vir- tual environments impact the information retrieval process. In this dissertation, I present results from a within-subjects user study to investigate users’ search behaviors, system interactions, perceptions, and eye- tracking behaviors for four different spatial arrange- ments of search results (“list” - a 2D list; “curve3” - a 3x3 grid; “curve4” - a 4x4 grid; and “sphere” - a 4x4 sphere) in a VR HMD across two different task types (Find All relevant, Pick 3 best). Thirty-two (32) par- ticipants completed 5 search trials in 8 experimental conditions (4 displays x 2 task types). Results show that: (1) participants were accepting of and per- formed well in the spatial displays (curve3, curve4, and sphere); (2) participants had a positional bias for the top or top left of SERPs; (3) the angle of search results and layouts influenced the navigation patterns used; (4) participants had a preference for physical navigation (e.g., head movement) over virtual naviga- tion (e.g., scrolling) to view and compare search re- sults, and (5) participants were less likely to perceive a rank order in the spatial displays where a clear scan path was not obvious to them. 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