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The increasing ubiquity of algorithmically mediated digital texts continues to generate debate about the instability and indeterminacy of texts. The American composer John Cage is well known for disrupting traditional Western aesthetics by incorporating chance operations, algorithms, and indeterminacy into his musical compositions and literary texts. This article analyzes materials found in the pre-print archive of Cage's printed book, M (published in 1973 by Wesleyan University Press), in order to understand how Cage brought his aesthetic of indeterminacy into print. Through analysis of archival materials, it is argued that Cage exercised control over the performance and reading of his texts, even as he ceded authorial control to the aleatory processes of the I Ching -- the ancient Chinese book of divination -- and to the arbitrary choices of the typesetter/printer. This article offers new understanding about algorithms and indeterminacy in the performance of bibliographic codes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual reality (VR) is a rich visualization and analytic platform that furthers the library's mission of providing access to all forms of information and supporting pedagogy and scholarship across disciplines. Academic libraries are increasingly adopting VR technology for a variety of research and teaching purposes, which include providing enhanced access to digital collections, offering new research tools, and constructing new immersive learning environments for students. This trend suggests that positive technological innovation is flourishing in libraries, but there remains a lack of clear guidance in the library community on how to introduce these technologies in effective ways and make them sustainable within different types of institutions. In June 2018, the University of Oklahoma hosted the second of three forums on the use of 3D and VR for visualization and analysis in academic libraries, as part of the project Developing Library Strategy for 3D and Virtual Reality Collection Development and Reuse (LIB3DVR), funded by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. This qualitative study invited experts from a range of disciplines and sectors to identify common challenges in the visualization and analysis of 3D data, and the management of VR programs, for the purpose of developing a national library strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand the emergence of digital reformatting as a technique for preserving information within the cultural heritage preservation community by reviewing historical trends in modern preservation research. Design/methodology/approach: This paper analyzes secondary sources, reviews and historical texts to identify trends in the intellectual and technological histories of preservation research, beginning with the first applications of the scientific method to combating book decay in the early nineteenth to the emergence of digitization techniques in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Findings: This paper identifies five major historical periods in the development of preservation knowledge: the early experimental era; era of microfilm experimentation; era of professionalization; era of digital library research; and the era of digital reformatting and mass digitization; and identifies three major trends in its development: empirical inquiry, standardization and centralization. Research limitations/implications: Findings reflect broad trends in the field of preservation, primarily in a United States context and are limited to the modern era of preservation research. Practical implications: This paper's broad historical overview provides a reference for preservation professionals and students in library science or archives programs. Identifying historical trends enables practitioners to critically examine their own preservation techniques and make better decisions when adopting and using new preservation technologies. Originality/value: This paper provides a unique perspective on the history of preservation knowledge that synthesizes existing historical research in order to identify periods and trends that enable a clearer understanding of digital reformatting in its historical emergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the Virtual Ganjali Khan Project, an ongoing research initiative that is using 3D scanning and immersive virtual reality (VR) technologies to document a large historical landmark in the desert city of Kerman, Iran, the Ganjali Khan Complex. It describes the intellectual merits of these emerging technologies for preserving and providing new forms of access to cultural heritage sites, outlines the procedures of data collection and 3D processing, and describes the current work and next steps of the project. This paper will be of interest to scholars and institutions considering using 3D and VR technologies for supporting cultural heritage preservation, digital humanities projects, or other types of interdisciplinary research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today's virtual reality (VR) technologies enable students to traverse immersive learning environments populated with highly engaging course content that closely resembles real-world artifacts and sites, scientific specimens, and otherwise inaccessible training scenarios. The relative affordability of the latest generation of VR hardware has further increased the uptake of VR across academic, but careful consideration must be given to how the technology is deployed for classroom use. This paper draws on a range published research literature, and the authors' experiences implementing VR in an academic library, to present guidelines and case studies that can be used by library practitioners to craft effective VR course assignments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technical labor is still typically made invisible in the functioning of academic libraries and other information institutions even as they begin to disseminate technical and craft knowledge through makerspaces and other sites of library innovation. This paper seeks to recover one type of technical labor, digitization, as information work that embodies mental and manual activities and is both materially and intellectually productive. This paper draws on findings from an empirical study conducted by the author from 2015–2017 that used qualitative-interpretive methods to study the discursive and material practices of professional media preservationists as they worked to digitize analog video recordings in small-scale, high-quality ("artisanal") digitization projects. One key finding of this research is that in order to produce "legitimate" digital copies within their institutional contexts, media preservationists must coordinate their physical and mental activities to develop understanding of the invisible electrical signals that carry the encoded video information, blending objective and subjective modalities of knowledge. These findings have implications for understanding how the invisible labor of digitization has significant mental as well as manual dimensions, contributing to ongoing debates in information studies and the digital humanities on the relationship between "doing" and "signifying" in terms of knowledge work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual information dominates our modern information landscape and plays a critical role in the production of knowledge. However, research in information studies has not fully considered how people engage with visual information, in the form of images, visualization software and instruments, as well as audiovisual media, at the level of visual information in practice. This gap is addressed by first outlining the methodological challenges visual information practices pose to research, then reviewing recent information practices research projects that consider visual information, and concluding by offering a methodological framework drawn from the author's dissertation research for studying visual information practices, with suggestions provided for researchers who are interested in conducting research in this area. • Research in information studies has not fully considered how people engage with visual information in practice. • Fully understanding visual information practices requires new methodological frameworks. • Adopting a multifaceted theoretical framework and generating multiple types of data enables multiple levels of analysis. • Phenomenology, discourse analysis, practice theory, and cultural structuralism can be synthesized to understand practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study identifies challenges and directions for 3D/VR repository standards and practices. As 3D technologies become more affordable and accessible, academic libraries need to implement workflows, standards, and practices that support the full lifecycle of 3D data. This study invited experts across several disciplines to analyze current national repository and preservation efforts. Outlined models provide frameworks to identify features, examine workflows, and determine implications of 3D data on current preservation models. Participants identified challenges for supporting 3D data, including intellectual property and fair use; providing repository system management beyond academic libraries; seeking guidance outside of academia for workflows to model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]