Proximity and Epidata: Attributes and Meaning Modification (Synthesis Lectures on Information Concepts, Retrieval, and Services) - Hardcover

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Laurie Bonnici, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the College of Communication and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama. She holds degrees in Spanish and Linguistics and Library Science and earned her Ph.D. in theory of attribution in information science at Florida State University. Her research interests include information seeking in second-hand knowledge contexts for people in crisis conditions. She has also written on information retrieval in the context of rewilded information that examines information exchange in everyday human interactions.

Brian C. O’Connor, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Information Science at the University of North Texas where he founded the Visual Thinking Laboratory in The College of Information.  He holds degrees in Greek and Latin Literature, Film Production (Fine Art), and earned his Ph.D. in theory of organization of information at the University of California, Berkeley. He has produced documentaries and art films, written on photography, and chaired several doctoral dissertations on various aspects of information science. He has also written on the philosophy of information retrieval, the nature of questions, and idiosyncratic searching. 

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This book provides a new model to explore discoverability and enhance the meaning of information. The authors have coined the term epidata, which includes items and circumstances that impact the expression of the data in a document, but are not part of the ordinary process of retrieval systems.  Epidata affords pathways and points to details that cast light on proximities that might otherwise go unknown.  In addition, it offers clues to mis-and dis-information discernment.  There are many ways to find needed information; however, finding the most useable information is not an easy task.  The authors explore the uses of proximity and the necessity for knowing the approaches that make finding and understanding information possible.  The authors sketch a constellation of proximities, present examples of attempts to accomplish proximity, and provoke a discussion of the role of proximity in the field. In addition, the authors suggest that proximity is a thread between retrieval constructs based on known topics, predictable relations, and types of information seeking that lie outside constructs such as browsing, stumbling, encountering, detective work, art making, and translation.