Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Call for Chapters: Text and Data Mining Literacy for Librarians (ACRL Publication)

Call for Chapters: Text and Data Mining Literacy for Librarians

Editors: Whitney Kramer, Evan Muzzall, and Iliana Burgos


We are excited to invite chapter proposals for Text and Data Mining Literacy for Librarians, an edited volume to be published by ACRL. Click this text to fill out the Google Form and start your submission. Please email Whitney Kramer at wbk39@cornell.edu with any questions. 


About the book:

Text and Data Mining Literacy for Librarians will provide librarians with a broad overview of the TDM-specific data literacy skills needed to support researchers. It will include case studies of library-supported TDM projects in a variety of disciplines, from the digital humanities to the social sciences and beyond. This volume will help librarians of all experience levels learn to support researchers utilizing TDM across disciplines and even conduct TDM research of their own. We will prioritize open scholarship principles and data-centric approaches to TDM when applicable and encourage librarians to think critically about the applications of TDM — especially with regards to social impacts, intellectual property rights, and power structures in facilitating TDM. Ultimately, this volume is intended to empower librarians, inform decision makers, and support our research communities as working with textual data becomes further embedded into the research landscape. 


Call for chapters:

We invite chapter proposals for the following sections. If you have experience supporting text and data mining research in any form, please consider submitting a proposal. Do not feel limited by the following suggested topics! We encourage proposals from first-time authors and authors based in any type of college or university setting. 


Section 1 - Essentials of Text Data Literacy

This section will provide a basic understanding of contemporary research topics and skills necessary for librarians to adequately support faculty and students who are conducting TDM research. Sample topics could include:

  • How to engage in a TDM “reference interview”

  • Data ethics in text data mining research contexts

  • Embedding critical theory into text data education

  • The role of library administration and management in supporting TDM


Section 2 - Education, Training, and Logistics 

This section will cover the many core mechanics of TDM, including data sources, licensing and legal aspects, collections management, vendor products, and administrative perspectives. Sample topics could include:


  • Text data sources and collections management

  • Library applications of text data mining: easy examples in context

  • Problems of text data mining in libraries: licensing and legal aspects of TDM 

  • Labor in supporting TDM education

  • Evaluating proprietary and black box TDM products


Section 3 - Practical Applications and Case Studies

This section will provide case studies of library-supported TDM projects in a variety of disciplines in order to help readers understand practical applications for TDM skills in the library. Sample topics could include:

  • Electronic health records

  • Engaging with ChatGPT and tools powered by artificial “intelligence”

  • Large language models

  • Law and technology

  • Literary text data

  • Social media data

  • Speech and /audio data

  • Text data in the digital humanities

  • Text data in the social sciences

  • Using TDM for library assessment

  • Working with multilingual corpora


Proposal Instructions:

Please submit your proposals using this Google form. The text of the proposals should not exceed 500 words. Be sure to include a working title, 3-5 keywords describing your proposed topic, and one or two learning objectives. (Note: These are not included in the word limit.) 


Submissions are due by July 15, 2023. We expect to notify authors of acceptance by August 15, 2023. See below for the proposed project timeline. Please email Whitney Kramer at wbk39@cornell.edu with any questions. 


Project Timeline:

  • CFP closes July 15, 2023 

  • Authors notified of acceptance by August 15, 2023 

  • Chapter outlines sent to editors by October 2, 2023 

  • First drafts due January 15, 2024 

  • Draft reviews completed and feedback provided to authors around April 15, 2024 

  • Second drafts due May 15, 2024 

  • Editor reviews completed around July 1, 2024 

  • Final draft submitted to ACRL by August 31, 2024