Volume 32, Issue 1

Background. Ground experiences of the researchers indicate substantial concern about the side-effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine in some individuals who lined up to get vaccinated. The Philippine Department of Health, Food and Drug Administration temporarily suspended the administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine to persons below 60 years old on April 8, 2021, due to reports of “rare cases of blood clots with low platelets detected in some individuals inoculated with the vaccine.” The authors hypothesize that such encountered information affected the behavior of the vaccine-eligible population, leading to further information gathering, sense-making, and possibly, vaccine hesitancy.
Objectives. The researchers sought to determine: (1) how the respondents in this study obtained information regarding the AstraZeneca vaccine, (2) what specific information gaps the respondents sought to make sense of, and (3) how the encountered information affected their willingness to take the COVID-19 vaccine.
Methods. A qualitative study was conducted with twenty-one respondents using a grounded theory framework, through a survey with open-ended questions, and follow-up interviews.
Results. The study found that “vaccine hesitancy” is not a general phenomenon to be tackled by one approach, but a multifactorial and graded response to encountered information. The strength of response to the encountered information was influenced by its origin, content, and the personal beliefs of the person receiving the information, and vaccine hesitancy may not necessarily translate to vaccine refusal.

Background. This is a study of information access of internally displaced persons (IDPs) resettled by the Philippine government into their new homes in San Jose Del Monte Heights, located in the City of San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan, Central Luzon.
Objectives. The study aimed to identify the barriers to information access of the internally displaced persons during their resettlement, that hindered them from fully integrating into their new community.
Methods. Semi-structured qualitative interviews of 14 respondents, consisting of an information provider, team leaders, and the general populace, were employed. A comparative analysis of their narratives revealed how similar or different their experiences and perceptions in information access were in their community.
Results. It was found that inconsistencies in information provided, lack of reliable accessible information sources, insufficient amount of time for dissemination, and complex community relations were barriers to information access of the IDP community. These information barriers kept them from knowing the things they needed to integrate into their new community.

Background. Recently, universities and broadcasting stations have been constructing large-scale digital archives of prominent events such as the World Wars and natural disasters using advanced technologies, including virtual reality (VR), artificial intelligence (AI), and natural language processing (NLP). However, what has been neglected is a digital archive of community memory related to everyday life in local areas. Public libraries can play a significant role in the preservation of digital community memory, just as conventional archives.
Objective. To prototype a system of sustainable community memory archive for public libraries to adopt—to provide digital oral history to local community members and other interested parties.
Methods. The design principle of the prototype system was derived from the literature review of related studies and representative digital archive initiatives. A prototype system was developed using a 360 degrees camera.
Results. A workflow and prototype system that can capture up to four people discussing their community memories and create VR content where a viewer can have an immersive viewing experience to watch the video as if the viewer is part of the discussion.

Background. Research data management (RDM) has become an important activity in universities, for researchers to fulfil funding agencies’ and journal publication requirements, and to promote open science practices. Academic libraries have been identified as the locations to base RDM services. However, to develop effective RDM services, an understanding of RDM from the researchers’ perspectives is needed, including how researchers manage their research data. Objectives. This study aims to discover researchers’ behaviours and practices in RDM, and propose how the library can incorporate RDM into the research services offered.
Methods. This case study, carried out at a research university in Malaysia, involved both quantitative and qualitative data gathering, focusing on three aspects of RDM: data creation, data storage and preservation, and data sharing. Quantitative data were collected via a survey of 113 researchers, and qualitative data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 12 researchers.
Results. It was found that the researchers had been generating research data irrespective of format and types. Most of the researchers managed their research data based on their own perspectives and practices, without following proper guidelines and standards. The researchers used personal solutions for research data storage and preservation, and utilized less than 10 gigabytes of storage for the short term. The researchers also did not share their research data due to privacy and confidentiality issues.

Background. To support the development of interdisciplinary research effectively, it is essential to provide research funding that takes into account the interdisciplinary characteristics of the field.
Objectives. We investigated the progress of interdisciplinarity between 1997 and 2017 for 12 selected target fields, from two points of view, focusing on the diversity of researchers’ specializations: (1) the number of researchers’ fields of specialization, and (2) the dispersion of the number of researchers among the fields of specialization.
Methods. For (1), we investigated different specialization fields, not only the target field as a whole but also for each researcher (author) and each article. For (2), we calculated the Gini coefficient and the coefficient of variation.
Results. Different characteristics were observed depending on the viewpoint and the index. The increase rate of (1) was especially high in Materials Science, Biomaterials. The rate of decline of (2) was particularly significant in Information Science & Library Science, Environmental Sciences and Anthropology. It was found that the interdisciplinarity of a field cannot be judged simply as high or low. Interdisciplinarity has gradually grown: not always increasing but also sometimes decreasing or stagnating at times.