Faculty

Diane Rasmussen
Assistant Professor

North Campus Building Room 258
Phone: 519-661-2111 x81034

University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5B7
Fax: 519-661-3506
Email: dneal2@uwo.ca

Teaching
My past teaching experience encompasses two main subfields within library and information science: information organization and technology. Information organization courses have included indexing and abstracting as well as metadata. I have taught technical courses in systems analysis and design, database design, information storage and retrieval, Web development, library automation systems, and information systems in organizational contexts. Also, I have served as an advisor for student computer programming projects with library-related implications and classification projects. As a former systems librarian, I strive to balance theory and hands-on practice in my courses. My FIMS courses include research methods and statistics, Web usability, information organization, database design, social media, and non-text indexing and retrieval.

Service

I am the vice-president (and president-elect) of the Canadian Association for Information Science/L'Association canadienne des sciences de l'information.

The American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) is my primary professional organization, and is where the majority of my service takes place.

Currently, I am a Director-at-Large (2012-2014) on the ASIS&T Board of Directors, the most meaningful honour of my career to date.

I serve as the Chapter Assembly Advisor for several chapters in my geographic region, and sit on the Advisory Board for ASIS&T's Bulletin. Additionally, I am chairing a President-appointed task force on online education. Because I believe that mentoring is essential to ASIS&T's future, I am the faculty advisor for the UWO ASIS&T student chapter, and I serve as a New Leaders Mentor.

I have been the co-chair of the Education Committee, chair of the Classification Research Special Interest Group, and chair of the Visualization, Images, and Sound Special Interest Group. I was the chair of the Knowledge Organization Track for the 2011 Annual Meeting.

Research

For my dissertation, I investigated the online photograph representation, search and retrieval needs of photojournalism professionals, and associated implications for system design. Related to this work, I am currently undertaking research on tagging of non-text documents such as photographs and music, especially emotion-based tags. How can affect or emotion-based facets of documents be used to connect people with documents in new and interesting ways?

Developing engaging, effective online mental health information resources for emerging adults comprises my other main line of research. We are currently running different projects that inform this work: search habits, the semantic gap in lay and clinical vocabulary, social networking for peer support, self-stigma, and the role of video games in improving mental health.

I am a member of the Prometheus Research Team, based at the University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia, the Director of Prometheus - Information Science, an Emerging Investigator of the PreVAiL Research Network, and an Associate Scientist with the Lawson Health Research Institute.

I also just finished editing a book titled Social Media for Academics: A Practical Guide for Chandos Publishing. It was published in August 2012.

I have just finished editing a book called Indexing and Retrieval of Non-text Information, to be published in October 2012. It will be part of De Gruyter Saur's Knowledge and Information Series, which is edited by Wolfgang G. Stock.

With Jacob A. Ratliff, Archivist/Taxonomy Librarian at the National Fire Protection Association, I am the co-moderator of tl;dr, a blog "where games and information collide." Jacob and I are also co-authoring a book titled Integrating Gaming Research and Practice in Library and Information Science, which will be published by IGI Global in fall 2013.

Forthcoming and recent papers include:

Given, L., Neal, D.R., Radford, M., & Budd, J. (moderator). (accepted). The quality behind qualitative research. Invited workshop to be presented at the ALISE 2013 Annual Conference, Seattle, WA, USA.

Neal, D.R., Smith, L.C., Ratliff, J.A., & Khanova, J. (accepted). ASIS&T online education initiatives: Driving the future. Panel to be presented at the ASIS&T 2012 Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD, USA.

Neal, D.R., Aytac, S., Kipp, M.E.I., Williams, L.Y., & Johnson, C. (accepted). Web-based education throughout the library and information science curriculum: Challenges, opportunities, and perspectives. Panel to be presented at the ASIS&T 2012 Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD, USA.

Desrochers, N., Neal, D.R., & Whippey, C. (accepted). "why am I crying?!:')<3": Issues of text and subtext when analyzing user-generated data. Lightning talk to be presented at the SIG USE Symposium of the ASIS&T 2012 Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD, USA.

Neal, D.R., Desrochers, N., & Whippey, C. (accepted). Meshing traditions to analyze responses toward social media content. Poster to be presented at #influence12 - 2012 Symposium & Workshop on Measuring Influence on Social Media, Dalhousie, NS.

Park, S., & Neal, D.R. (2012). A new wave of government information management: The implementation of a function-based classification structure in a Canadian government organization. Journal of Library Metadata, 12(1), 23-38.

Desrochers, N., Neal, D.R., Lenton, E., & Saliba, P. (2012). Using affect-based labels in whole collection retrieval. Poster presented at the 2012 ALISE Annual Conference, Dallas, TX, USA.

Heck, T., Gwizdka, J., Kipp, M.E.I., Lu, K., Peters, I., Neal, D., & Spiteri, L. (2011). Social tagging and folksonomies: Indexing, retrieving... and beyond? Panel convened at the 2011 ASIS&T Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, USA.

Aytac, S., Kipp, M., Neal, D., Rubin, V., Patuelli, C., & Hsieh-Yee, I. (2011). Emerging trends in knowledge organization and information organization course curriculum. Panel convened at the 2011 ASIS&T Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, USA.

Zhang, Y., Zumer, M., Salaba, A., Mercun, T., Bowen, J., Kilzer, R., & Neal, D. (moderator). (2011). Developing FRBR-based library catalogs for users. Panel convened at the 2011 ASIS&T Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, USA.

Neal, D., & Xiao, L. (2011). The use of weblogs in LIS online courses: A case study. Paper presented at ISSOME2011, Turku, Finland.

McTavish, J., Neal, D.R., & Wathen, C.N. (2011). Is what you see what you get? Medical subject headings and their organizing work in the violence against women research literature. Knowledge Organization, 38(5), 381-397.

Davis, C. H., Myburgh, S., Hjørland, B., & Neal, D. (2011). Representation of information. In Introduction to Information Science and Technology (pp. 43-62). Medford, NJ: Information Today, Inc. for the American Society for Information Science and Technology.

Hjørland, B., Neal, D., Šauperl, A., & Bawden, D. (2011). Organization of information. In Introduction to Information Science and Technology (pp. 63-78). Medford, NJ: Information Today, Inc. For the American Society for Information Science and Technology.

Neal, D. (2011). Social media in libraries: Plans, policies, and practicalities. Invited paper presented for the UWO ASIS&T Student Chapter.

Williams, L., & Neal, D. (2011). The ethical concerns of data mining: The aggregated self. Invited paper presented at the Lawson Mental Health Annual Research Day Retreat, London, ON.

Neal, D.R., & Hoffman, C. (2011). Online mental health information behaviours of emerging adults: A web usability and user experience study. Paper presented at the 39th Annual CAIS/ACSI Conference, Fredericton, NB.

Neal, D. (2011). What makes you happy? Investigations into emotion-based image and music tags. Guest lecture for the School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, April 27, 2011.

Neal, D.R. (2011). Book review of Atlas of science: Visualizing what we know. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 62(6), 1212-1214.

Neal, D.M., & McKenzie, P.J. (2011). Putting the pieces together: Endometriosis blogs, cognitive authority, and collaborative information behavior. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 99(2), 127-134.

Knautz, K., Neal, D.R., Schmidt, S., Siebenlist, T., & Stock, W.G. (2011). Finding emotional-laden resources on the World Wide Web. Information, 2(1), 217-246.

Neal, D.R., Hoffman, C., & Liu, Y. (2011). Online mental health information behaviours of emerging adults: A web usability and user experience study. Poster presented at Research Day 2011.

Neal, D., Campbell, A., Williams, L., Liu, Y., & Nussbaumer, D. (2011). "I did not realize so many options are available": Cognitive authority, emerging adults, and e-mental health. Library & Information Science Research, 33(1), 25-33.

Neal, D. (2010). Canadian and Australian youth-informed online mental health information access techniques and preferences. Poster presented at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Genetics (IG) and Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction (INMHA) Ninth Annual New Principal Investigators' Meeting, November 19-21, 2010, Jackson's Point, ON.

Lee, H-J, & Neal, D. (2010). A new model for semantic photograph description combining basic levels and user-assigned descriptors. Journal of Information Science, 36(5), 547-565.

Neal, D. (2010). Emotion-based tags in photographic documents: The interplay of text, image, and social influence. Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science, 34(3), 329-353.

Goodrum, A., Hastings, S., Jorgensen, C., Landbeck, C. (organizer), Matusiak, K., Menard, E., Neal, D., O'Connor, B., Rorissa, A., & Snyder, J. (2010). Current research and thinking in image analysis, descriptions, and systems. Workshop presented at the ASIS&T 2010 Annual Meeting.

Blachly, A., Campbell, G., Neal, D. (organizer), Tennis, J., Morgan, A., Ella, M., & Winget, M. (organizer). (2010). Defining the limits of classification research & practice: The annual workshop of the Classification Research Special Interest Group (SIG/CR). Workshop presented at the ASIS&T 2010 Annual Meeting.

Hillmann, D., Neal, D. (moderator), Nicolai, C., Subirats, E., Zumer, M., & Zhang, Y. (2010). FRBR implementation and user research. Panel presented at the ASIS&T 2010 Annual Meeting.

Williams, L., & Neal, D. (2010). The ethical concerns of data mining. Paper presented at the International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences 2010, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

Neal, D., & McKenzie, P. (2010). Putting the pieces together: Endometriosis blogs, cognitive authority, and collaborative information behaviour. Paper presented at the 38th Annual CAIS/ACSI Conference, Concordia University, Montréal, Quebec, Canada.

Neal, D. (2010). Breaking in and out of the silos: What makes for a happy photograph cluster? Paper presented at the 2010 Document Academy Conference (DOCAM '10), University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, USA.

Neal, D. (2010). The conundrum of providing authoritative online consumer health information: Current research and implications for information professionals. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 36(4), 34-37.

Rorissa, A., Neal, D., Chaucer, A., & Muckell, J. (2010). An analysis of tags assigned to still and moving images on Flickr. Poster presented at the 2010 ALISE Annual Conference, Boston, MA, USA.

Neal, D., & Campbell, A. (2009). Youth mental health information retrieval: A multi-national project. Paper presented at the What really works: Strategies to improve teaching and learning conference, Oshawa, ON.

Jorgensen, C., Beaudoin, J., Ménard, E., Neal, D., & Stvilia, B. (2009). Image indexing and retrieval: Current projects and a comprehensive research agenda for the future. Panel convened at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Vancouver, BC.

Neal, J., & Neal, D. (2009). Answering the unanswered question? Contextualizing a holistic theoretical framework for cross-genre music information retrieval. Poster presented at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Vancouver, BC.

Lee, H-J., & Neal, D. (2009). User-assigned preferred entry point levels for Web image searching compared with the Pyramid model. Poster presented at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Vancouver, BC.

Neal, D., & Williams, L.Y. (2009). Disaggregated informational ownership: Recommendations from the literature. Paper presented at Education and cyberspace law: An interdisciplinary perspective, St. Anne's College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.

Neal, D. (Ed.) (2009, June/July). Special Section, "Visual representation, search and retrieval: Ways of seeing," Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 35(5). Winner of the 2009 ASIS&T Special Interest Group Publication of the Year Award.

Neal, D., Campbell, A., Neal, J., Little, C., Stroud-Mathews, A., Hill, S., & Bouknight-Lyons, C. (2009). Musical facets, tags, and emotion: Can we agree? Proceedings of the 2009 iConference, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.

Neal, D. (2009). The library school's role in preparing new librarians for working with technology. In S. M. Thompson (Ed.), Core technology competencies for librarians and library staff: A LITA guide (pp. 41-70). New York: Neal-Schuman.

Recent grants include:

Using affect-based labels in whole collection retrieval. SSHRC Insight Development Grants Program. Principal Investigator. In collaboration with Nadine Desrochers. $58,312.

Canadian emerging adult-informed online mental health information access techniques and preferences. UWO Academic Development Fund - Major Grants Program. Sole investigator. Amount: $46,852.

Plain language visual thesaurus. Ontario Trillium Foundation, Province-Wide Program. In collaboration with Family Service Thames Valley and Dr. Jacquelyn Burkell. Amount: $184,500.

Online youth mental health information retrieval. UWO International Research Award. Sole Investigator. Amount: $6,813.

Understanding Canadian health and medical journalists' information workflows: Implications for library science and journalism education. INSPiRE Seed Grant. Principal Investigator. In collaboration with Paul Benedetti, Victoria Rubin, Meredith Levine, Pamela J. McKenzie, and Romayne Smith Fullerton. Amount: $1,500.

Funding for attendance at the International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences 2010, Cambridge, UK. SSHRC Internal Conference Travel Competition. Amount: $2,687.

Canadian health and medical journalists' information practices. FIMS Internal Research Grant, Spring 2010 competition. Principal Investigator. In collaboration with Paul Benedetti, Victoria Rubin, Meredith Levine, and Romayne Smith Fullerton. Amount: $1,600.

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