Involving Users in the Co-Construction of Digital Knowledge

Library Trends plans for a special issue titled "Involving Users in the Co-Construction of Digital Knowledge in Libraries, Archives, and Museums". In their call for paper they mentioned that: “many libraries, archives, and museums provide their users with social computing environments that include the ability to tag collections, annotate objects, and otherwise contribute their thoughts to the knowledge base of the institution. Information professionals and users have responded to the transition to a web 2.0 world of user-created content by developing open source tools to coordinate these activities and researching the best ways to involve users in the co-creation of digital knowledge ... we seek authors who can step back and think broadly about those issues that are raised when we bring users into the mix in various ways and at various points in the data/information/knowledge life-cycle ... sample questions include, but are certainly not limited to:

* How are libraries, archives, and museums implementing user- contributed data / descriptions of objects, or collections on their websites? What are the long-term implications of involving users in the co-description, co-cataloguing of digital knowledge?

* How are libraries, archives, and museums encouraging users to create online collections of personal favorites or similar items on their websites? What are the long-term implications of involving users in the co-creation, co-curation of digital knowledge?

* How are libraries, archives, and museums encouraging users to create / structure their own online environments, designing personalized websites or portals specifically suited to individual needs? What are the implications of involving users in the design and structuring of online interfaces for the development and presentation of digital knowledge?

* How is the education of library, archives, and museum practitioners (and in particular the increase in online and hybrid learning technologies) influencing the ways practitioners subsequently incorporate technology into their user service environments in libraries, archives, and museums?

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