Reports on an investigation to compare the various forms ofcatalogue available in Liverpool City Libraries and LiverpoolJohn Moores University Library. The information wasgathered…
Abstract
Reports on an investigation to compare the various forms of catalogue available in Liverpool City Libraries and Liverpool John Moores University Library. The information was gathered through interviews with 52 lecturers and students at Liverpoo John Moores University. The interview questions were concerned with the use of the library catalogues which were available; the effects of the online public aceess catalogue (OPAC) on searches; the effects of previous experience of an OPAC: and catalogue preference. Reveals that nearly all the library users interviewed had used the OPAC; that many of them had changed the way in which they searched for references; and that the majority preferred the OPAC and did not continue to use the microfichc catalogue.
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Considers the establishment of an interactive multimedia facility at the Writing Liaison Office, Liverpool, UK. Investigates the potential for interactive multimedia, as well as…
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Considers the establishment of an interactive multimedia facility at the Writing Liaison Office, Liverpool, UK. Investigates the potential for interactive multimedia, as well as local developments. Information was gathered through interviews with local organizations, a literature search and a user survey in the form of a questionnaire. Concludes that interactive multimedia will greatly affect the provision of information, and that establishing a facility at the Writing Liaison Office will allow Merseyside to continue to be a leading figure in the field of multimedia. Recommends that an interactive multimedia facility be established at the Writing Liaison Office, with adequate equipment and technical support.
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Studies on the socio-technical relations between bodies and self-tracking apps have become more relevant as the number of digital solutions for monitoring our bodies are…
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Studies on the socio-technical relations between bodies and self-tracking apps have become more relevant as the number of digital solutions for monitoring our bodies are increasing and becoming even more embedded in our everyday lives. While a strong body of literature within the fields of self-tracking and the quantified self has evolved during the recent years, the author suggests it is time we (once again) start paying attention to the specific bodies in question when we look into the quantification of bodies, particularly about the question as to whose bodies are we talking about when we say, ‘quantified bodies’. The author also proposes that, when discussing the quantification of bodies, we take interest in the bodies designing, producing, and guiding the logic behind the algorithms embedded in the technological solutions in question. By suggesting this focus on bodies as knowledge producing, the author draws from a feminist perspective of situated knowledges (Haraway 1988; Harding, 1986, 2004) with a particular interest in knowledge production and the understanding of bodies as active, epistemological objects. Feminist theory of science replaces, so to speak, the idea of a universal human identity with a knowing subject who can occupy many different positions – in co-creative and transforming constellations. Following this line of thought, all kinds of knowledge production must be bodily anchored and situated. However, knowledge production always takes place in relation to or with something/someone else/other. As explained by philosopher Rosi Braidotti ‘[t]he post-human knowing subject has to be understood as a relational embodied and embedded, affective and accountable entity and not only as a transcendental consciousness’ (Braidotti, 2018, p. 1). Thus, the bodies in this chapter are the bodies who menstruate. The author wishes to discuss a particular socio-technical relation between smartphone applications (apps) to track and monitor the female cycle; period-apps, and the menstruating bodies engaging with these apps. Building on early feminist thoughts from the science and technology studies (STS), the author seeks to move beyond the algorithmic quantification of bodies to study the network of knowledge production formed by bodies, materialities, technology and history with all its reminiscence of stigma and taboo surrounding these leaking bodies (Shildrich, 1999). These inquiries are not only theoretical accounts but are also rooted in empirical soil. Based on a feminist ethnography of Danish women’s everyday engagement with period-apps, the female developers from the Femtech-industry and the women-only groups within the quantified self-movement, the author aims to provide a broad perspective on what the author defines as the gendered data body. The author argues for a feminist approach to better understand the socio-technical relations and the socio-cultural discourses the menstruating body is situated in, as well as to better understand the unique relation between knowledge production and technology as being constitutional for the gendered data body.