1. An Introduction to Using Neatline for Digital Mapping Projects (56:50)

Date:
2014-03-12
Main contributors:
Marshall, Brianna
Summary:
Neatline, a tool for the open-source Omeka framework that allows users to create digital exhibits with maps and timelines, was created to fit the needs of scholars, librarians, historians, and digital humanists. In this talk, the speaker will share an introduction to Neatline, her experiences using the tool for a mapping project with IU's Digital Collections Services, and suggestions for libraries interested in exploring Neatline themselves.

2. Archiving a social-ecological database: challenges, solutions and lessons learned (52:59)

Date:
2014-02-12
Main contributors:
Plale, Beth, Kouper, Inna
Summary:
Social-ecological research studies complex human-natural environments and the uses and sharing of ecological resources. Elinor Ostrom, a Nobel prize laureate from IU, pioneered the idea that social-ecological data can be collected and stored in a centralized database, which will capture complex relationships between various components of data and facilitate their collective collaborative use. While useful in its active stage, databases present a challenge for archival and preservation, especially if they are stored in a proprietary format and where changes are often applied retrospectively to both new and existing data. In this talk we will present an approach to archiving a social-ecological research database, the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) database, and discuss challenges that we encountered as well as lessons learned. The talk aims at stimulating a discussion about preservation of complex data objects and possible solutions that can be generalized beyond one case.

3. Better Doctors, Better Patients, Better Decisions (1:35:21)

Date:
2014-03-25
Main contributors:
Gerd Gigerenzer
Summary:
In modern high-tech health care, patients appear to be the stumbling block: an uninformed, anxious, noncompliant folk with unhealthy lifestyles who demand treatments advertised by celebrities, insist on unnecessary but expensive imaging, and may eventually turn into plaintiffs. Patients’ lack of health literacy has received much attention. But what about their physicians? I show that the majority of doctors are innumerate, that is, they do not understand basic health statistics. An estimated 70%–80% of them do not understand what the results of screening tests mean. This engenders superfluous treatment, anxiety, and healthcare costs. As a consequence, the ideals of informed consent and shared decision-making remain a pipedream; both doctors and patients are habitually misled by biased information in health brochures and advertisements. I argue that the problem is not simply in the minds of doctors, but in the way health statistics are framed in journals and brochures. A quick and efficient cure is to teach efficient risk communication that fosters transparency as opposed to confusion. I report studies with doctors, medical students, and patients that show how transparent framing helps them understand health statistics in an hour or two. Raising taxes or rationing care is often seen as the only viable alternative to exploding health care costs. Yet there is a third option: by promoting health literacy, better care is possible for less money.

5. Consciousness as a Problem in Philosophy and Neurobiology (1:20:19)

Date:
2014-09-09
Main contributors:
John Searle
Summary:
A main intellectual scandal today is that we do not have, in philosophy or neurobiology, a generally accepted account of consciousness. In this lecture, John Searle will offer the philosophical core of such an account, and explain the difficulties in getting a neurobiological account. Along the way, he will expose half a dozen really outrageous mistakes about consciousness.

7. Creating an Archival Online Film Exhibit with Omeka: "WWII Propaganda Films and IU" (57:48)

Date:
2014-11-05
Main contributors:
Stoeltje, Rachael, Uhrich, Andy, Harman, Asia, Mitter, Seth
Summary:
This brown bag session will present the Libraries' most recent online Omeka exhibition of World War II propaganda films which went live on June 6th, the 70th anniversary of D-Day. The IULMIA (Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive) staff will present the conceptual idea behind the exhibit, the steps taken to select and digitize the content, working with the Library Technology staff and the process of building the online exhibit.

9. Globalization of the US: From Digital Research Project to Digital Library Services (49:09)

Date:
2014-12-10
Main contributors:
Dalmau, Michelle, Dowell, Erika
Summary:
As part of an exhibition at the Lilly Library entitled The Globalization of the United States, 1789-1861 scheduled to open September 15, historian Konstantin Dierks and librarians Erika Dowell and Michelle Dalmau have partnered to create a digital counterpart to the physical exhibit that includes an interactive, map-based visualization. The visualization tracks several data points or ‰ÛÏfacets‰Û about U.S. interventions in the rest of the globe, from diplomatic missions to stationed military squadrons. As Dierks describes, it provides a tool for scholars and students to investigate how ‰ÛÏthe United States, no longer swaddled within the British empire, sought to recalibrate its interaction with the wider world as an independent nation.‰Û This presentation will focus primarily on one component of the digital exhibit, the map-based visualizations, and how we in the libraries have been able to use this project as a use case for generalizing research-oriented treatment of geospatial and temporal data. By abstracting the data gathering and mapping processes and building workflows to support these activities, we have the beginnings of a services-oriented approach to map-based discovery and inquiry that could be leveraged by other digital research projects at Indiana University. As part of this presentation we will: a) evaluate the various map-based tools with which we experimented including SIMILE Exhibit, Google Fusion, Neatline, and Leaflet, b) review the metadata challenges particular to this project and how they can be abstracted for future projects, and c) relay lessons learned when working with historical maps. We will conclude by proposing a model established by Professor Dierk's project team, using a combination of tools and techniques referenced above, as a way forward in supporting map-based digital research projects more generally.