Papers by Ludovica Price
Humanities
This interdisciplinary paper presents an autoethnography of an author who self-publishes her own ... more This interdisciplinary paper presents an autoethnography of an author who self-publishes her own fanfiction via print-on-demand (POD) services. It reflects upon the subject of fan writer as self-publisher, touching upon shifting notions of authorship, the format of the book, and literary practice, with implications for both fan studies and Library and Information Science (LIS). While its findings cannot be generalised to the wider fan community, the paper posits five reasons for this practice: (1) the desire to publish a work that is technically, if not necessarily creatively, unpublishable (due to copyright laws); (2) the physical presence of the book bestows ‘thingness’, physical legitimacy, and the power of traditional notions of authorship to one’s work; (3) the materiality of the book and the pleasure afforded by its physical, tactile, and haptic qualities; (4) books can be collectible (fan) items; (5) self-published books can act as signifiers both of the self-as-author and on...
Transformative Works and Cultures, 2022
Researchers, universities, and academic libraries develop a range of tools and platforms to make ... more Researchers, universities, and academic libraries develop a range of tools and platforms to make scholarship more accessible. What could these scholarly communications and open access projects learn from examples set by fandom and fan activists, for example, the fan works platform Archive of Our Own (AO3)? This conceptual paper, the result of a brainstorming session by scholars and librarians, proposes that a Fantasy Research Archive of Our Own should excel at making scholarly knowledge production into a visibly, enthusiastically collective endeavor that recognizes many kinds of contributions beyond the publication of traditional research papers.
Journal of Documentation, Jan 1, 2021
Purpose: This article describes the third part of a three-stage study investigating the informati... more Purpose: This article describes the third part of a three-stage study investigating the information behaviour of fans and fan communities, the first stage of which is described in the study by Price and Robinson (2017).
Design/methodology/approach: Using tag analysis as a method, a comparative case study was undertaken to explore three aspects of fan information behaviour: information gatekeeping; classifying and tagging and entrepreneurship and economic activity. The case studies took place on three sites used by fans–Tumblr, Archive of Our Own (AO3) and Etsy. Supplementary semi-structured interviews with site users were used to augment the findings with qualitative data.
Findings: These showed that fans used tags in a variety of ways quite apart from classification purposes. These included tags being used on Tumblr as meta-commentary and a means of dialogue between users, as well as expressors of emotion and affect towards posts. On AO3 in particular, fans had developed a practice called “tag wrangling” to mitigate the inherent “messiness” of tagging. Evidence was also found of a “hybrid market economy” on Etsy fan stores. From the study findings, a taxonomy of fan-related tags was developed.
Research limitations/implications: Findings are limited to the tagging practices on only three sites used by fans during Spring 2016, and further research on other similar sites are recommended. Longitudinal studies of these sites would be beneficial in understanding how or whether tagging practices change over time. Testing of the fan-tag taxonomy developed in this paper is also recommended.
Originality/value: This research develops a method for using tag analysis to describe information behaviour. It also develops a fan-tag taxonomy, which may be used in future research on the tagging practices of fans, which heretofore have been a little-studied section of serious leisure information users.
Transformative Works and Cultures, Jun 15, 2020
In light of the Fan Studies Network's statement regarding fan studies being overrun with whitenes... more In light of the Fan Studies Network's statement regarding fan studies being overrun with whiteness, we are in a unique position to engage in scholarship that challenges the overwhelmingly white and Global North-centric structures that define how we study fan cultures. Multidisciplinarity, which may be understood as disciplines laid side by side, should be contrasted with interdisciplinarity, which requires true dialogue. Despite recent field-shifting work by fan studies scholars such as Bertha Chin, Lori Morimoto, Rukmini Pande, and Rebecca Wanzo, more work needs to be done to both acknowledge and build on current research in transcultural fandom. In a dialogue that reflects the progress of our own striving toward interdisciplinary and transcultural work in fan studies, we seek to demonstrate a possible way forward for the field of fan studies to become more truly interdisciplinary and transcultural in its focus.
Transformative Works and Cultures, Sep 15, 2017
Although several notable collections of fan fiction exist in libraries, such as the Sandy Hereld ... more Although several notable collections of fan fiction exist in libraries, such as the Sandy Hereld Fanzine Collection at Texas A&M University (http://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/149935) and the digital fanzine archives at the University of Iowa (http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/sc/resources/fandomresources/), not much attention is given to the systematic selection, acquisition, indexing, preservation, and sharing of fan works in the UK, considering the popularity of fandom, the volume of creative work that exists, and the rate at which new texts are produced. Here we present the results of an investigation into the extent to which UK libraries collect and manage fan fiction, and our attempts to ascertain the reasons underlying collection policy in local, public, special, academic, and national institutions. Our report is based on a review of recent literature, an analysis of the collection policies of a selection of UK libraries, and a brief survey of the views of Library & Information Science students. The empirical work was carried out in spring 2016. Results show that there is a little-known and less-understood dark side to fan fiction, in regard to how it is understood and valued in the library sector, which feeds a widening gap in our cultural heritage.
Journal of Information Science, 2017
This article describes the first two parts of a three-stage study investigating the information b... more This article describes the first two parts of a three-stage study investigating the information behaviour of fans and fan communities, focusing on fans of cult media. A literature analysis shows that information practices are an inherent and major part of fan activities, and that fans are practitioners of new forms of information consumption and production, showing sophisticated activities of information organisation and dissemination. A subsequent Delphi study, taking the novel form of a 'serious leisure' Delphi, in which the participants are not experts in the usual sense, identifies three aspects of fan information behaviour of particular interest beyond the fan context: information gatekeeping; classifying and tagging; and entrepreneurship and economic activity.
LIBER QUARTERLY, 2016
Librarians play a crucial role in cultivating world-class research and in most disciplinary areas... more Librarians play a crucial role in cultivating world-class research and in most disciplinary areas today world-class research relies on the use of software. This paper describes Library Carpentry, an introductory software skills training programme with a focus on the needs and requirements of library and information professionals. Using Library Carpentry as a case study of the development and delivery of software skills focused professional development, this paper describes the institutional and intellectual contexts in which Library Carpentry was conceived, the syllabus used for the initial exploratory programme, the administrative apparatus through which the programme was delivered, and the analysis of data collection exercises conducted during the programme. As many university librarians already have substantial expertise working with data, it argues that adding software skills (that is, coding and data manipulation that goes beyond the use of familiar office suites) to their armoury is an effective and important use of professional development resource.
Information Research: an international electronic journal, Dec 2014
Introduction: Using Stebbins's concept of 'serious leisure' and Savolainen's concept of 'everyday... more Introduction: Using Stebbins's concept of 'serious leisure' and Savolainen's concept of 'everyday life information practices', this study explores the information behaviour of music record collectors.
Method: An ethnographic approach was used for the study; the main data collection instrument was in-depth, semi-structured interviews with eight record collectors based in and around London, carried out in participants' homes, combined with photographs of their collections and observation of their use of preferred Websites.
Analysis: Qualitative analysis was carried out on the survey, with triangulation through conversations with other record collectors, visits to record shops, and examination of some Websites named by participants.
Results: The results reveal distinctive information behaviour for record collectors, with specialist knowledge, and a variety of information sources. The Internet has had, and continues to have, a profound effect on both information gathering and acquisition.
Conclusions: The study shows that record collectors are exemplars of serious leisure practitioners, with distinct information behaviour. The results add to the knowledge of serious leisure as a topic for study within information science.
Intensities: The Journal of Cult Media, Aug 29, 2014
In February 2000, games company EA/Maxis released one of the most successful games of the new mil... more In February 2000, games company EA/Maxis released one of the most successful games of the new millennium, a sandbox game called The Sims, that allowed players to create and populate their own simulated world. This paper reviews the current state of the participatory fan cultures that still exist around the game, and discusses the produsage activities the players engage in, from reappropriating primary sources from cult media, to building archives and databases of gaming mods and materials.
Book chapters by Ludovica Price
Narrative expansions: interpreting decolonisation in academic libraries, Dec 9, 2021
Theses/Dissertations by Ludovica Price
This research investigates the information behaviour of cult media fan communities on the interne... more This research investigates the information behaviour of cult media fan communities on the internet, using three novel methods which have not previously been applied to this domain. Firstly, a review, analysis and synthesis of the literature related to fan information behaviour, both within the disciplines of LIS and fan studies, revealed unique aspects of fan information behaviour, particularly in regards to produsage, copyright, and creativity. The findings from this literature analysis were subsequently investigated further using the Delphi method and tag analysis. A new Delphi variant – the Serious Leisure Delphi – was developed through this research. The Delphi study found that participants expressed the greatest levels of consensus on statements on fan behaviour that were related to information behaviour and information-related issues. Tag analysis was used in a novel way, as a tool to examine information behaviour. This found that fans have developed a highly granular classification system for fanworks, and that on one particular repository a ‘curated folksonomy’ was being used with great success. Fans also use tags for a variety of reasons, including communicating with one another, and writing meta-commentary on their posts. The research found that fans have unique information behaviours related to classification, copyright, entrepreneurship, produsage, mentorship and publishing. In the words of Delphi participants – “being in fandom means being in a knowledge space,” and “fandom is a huge information hub just by existing”. From these findings a model of fan information behaviour has been developed, which could be further tested in future research.
This study looks into the life of a virtual gaming community, CTO Sims – a small slice of a wider... more This study looks into the life of a virtual gaming community, CTO Sims – a small slice of a wider community that engages in what Bruns (2006) has termed produsage, remediating videogame assets and content from a PC game, The Sims (2000) into custom or user-generated content – a practice also called ‘modding’. Through a virtual ethnographic methodology, this study explores the digital library at the heart of CTO Sims, and the participatory culture (Jenkins, 1992; 2006) which has grown up around it. This paper presents a narrative of an online videogaming produsage community, and through a process of immersion uncovers and probes into the everyday practices of commodification and produsage as they take place in the virtual field. The study begins to develop a theory of information culture by observing and exploring the CTO Sims community, its members, and their roles in knowledge and information economies.
It is concluded that digital information cultures within online gaming communities form around the collaborative creation and exchange of digital cultural artefacts, in heterarchical networks that develop their own unique organisational and classification conventions. Moreover, these communities form support networks for members, acting as repositories for shared knowledge, skills and experiences. Freedom of communication acts as a tool for the generation of social and knowledge capital, and enables the growth of strong ties of affiliation between members. Further research is encouraged in private, offline produsage spaces, and into the individual motivations that drive regular users to become produsers.
Conference Presentations & Papers by Ludovica Price
Transformative Works and Cultures
This editorial gives background and context on FanLIS, a symposium series and research project ru... more This editorial gives background and context on FanLIS, a symposium series and research project run by CityLIS, Department of Library and Information Science at City, University of London, which seeks to explore the liminal spaces between fandom, fan studies, and Library and Information Science (LIS). It also introduces papers from the inaugural FanLIS symposium, which took place online on May 20, 2021.
The Human Position in an Artificial World: Creativity, Ethics and AI in Knowledge Organization, 2019
Over recent years Web 2.0 has brought information into the hands of the public, and we are increa... more Over recent years Web 2.0 has brought information into the hands of the public, and we are increasingly seeing non-professionals doing sophisticated information tasks not merely for work, research or personal interest, but also for leisure – and even pleasure. This paper looks at an online fanfiction repository, Archive of Our Own (AO3), and investigates the ways that media fans have co-opted new technologies to build a ‘curated folksonomy’ (Bullard 2014), in order to organise the fanworks (fan-created creative works) uploaded by fans to the website. Run by volunteers, the site is a fascinating example of how passion, and even obsession, can bring amateur knowledge workers together collaboratively with users to build an intricate ‘democratic indexing’ system (Hidderley and Rafferty 1997; Rafferty and Hidderley 2007). Through methods of tag analysis and interviews, the paper explores how Archive of Our Own’s curated folksonomy allows fans to make full and creative use of their own original, freeform tags, while also building a highly granular and sophisticated taxonomy which, though highly labour-intensive to maintain, serves the community by maintaining a high degree of accuracy while also preserving the folksonomic properties of freeform tagging. As well as building a functioning taxonomy, through standardising its nomenclature, and facilitating the discoverability of AO3’s collections to its users, these amateur knowledge workers see their domain expertise and knowledge organisation labour as a type of fanwork that ‘gives back to the community’, in lieu of other creative works such as fanfiction and fanart.
ASIS&T 81st Annual Meeting Proceedings: Building an Ethical and Sustainable Information Future with Emerging Technologies, 2018
As Library and Information Science research has evolved, new domains of interest have shaped the ... more As Library and Information Science research has evolved, new domains of interest have shaped the field, and with them comes a need to question the appropriateness of applying traditional methodologies to these new domains. This panel focuses on the methodological realities of studying fun life-contexts and will address how researching a new domain comes with challenges and opportunities. The group of scholars on this panel all share an appreciation for identifying and exploring the unique information experiences within fun life-contexts, and engage with a variety of subfields, including information behavior, information organization, embodied information , and fan communities. This interactive panel will consist of five short presentations from each of the panelists and a moderated Q&A led by moderator, Jenna Hartel. The panelists each share some examples of their recent work studying fun life-contexts, reflect on their experience researching in a new domain, and develop themes and questions that should be addressed in future work.
Although several notable collections of fanfiction exist in libraries such as the Sandy Hereld Fa... more Although several notable collections of fanfiction exist in libraries such as the Sandy Hereld Fanzine Collection at Texas A&M University, and the digital fanzine archives at the University of Iowa, the attention given to the systematic selection, acquisition, indexing, preservation and sharing of fanworks is not as notable in the UK as it might be, given the popularity of fandom, the volume of creative works that exists, and the rate at which new texts are produced. This paper presents the results of an investigation into the extent to which fanfiction is collected and managed by UK libraries, and attempts to ascertain the reasons underlying collection policy in local, public, special, academic and national institutions.
The work is based on a review of recent literature, an analysis of the collection policies of a selection of UK libraries, and a brief survey of the views of Library & Information Science students in 2016. Results show that there is indeed, a little known and lesser understood ‘dark side’ to fanfiction, in regard to how it is understood and valued, which feeds an invisible, black hole in our cultural heritage.
This paper highlights the important role of cult media fans as gatekeepers of knowledge within fa... more This paper highlights the important role of cult media fans as gatekeepers of knowledge within fan communities. Based on a literature analysis and Delphi study, this work shows how the traditional role of the gatekeeper – a term historically associated with academic subject areas – has been assumed by fans, who display an exceptional degree of information and digital literacy in their acquisition, organisation, storage, promotion and sharing of fanworks. This is manifested in unique practices such as fan-tagging, “tag wrangling”, beta-reading, rec-list writing, wiki-contributing, and so on. This key role underpins the ‘serious leisure’ discipline of fandom, as fanworks generally fall outside of the mainstream collections of libraries and archives. It also echoes a general trend in the digital world, where the crowdsourcing of dedicated enthusiasts and amateurs is powering an information explosion on sites such as Galaxy Zoo – except that fanworks are the cultural artefacts created and consumed by fans themselves.
The role of the fan-gatekeeper is therefore essential for the preservation of what is undeniably part of our cultural heritage, one that has been largely ignored by the mainstream. This work informs the library and information professions of the existence of fan expertise on which it could draw to improve understanding of and access to an enormous body of non-mainstream creative works. It also has potential implications for education (in harnessing the passion of fans to help pass on valuable, transferable skills) and publishing (in the movement from established to DIY forms of publication).
Essays by Ludovica Price
Assignment for the Information Management & Policy (IMP) module for the Library Science Masters a... more Assignment for the Information Management & Policy (IMP) module for the Library Science Masters at City, University of London. This essay answers the question "is information a resource that can be managed in the same way as gas or water?" by looking at the issues surrounding the archiving of the internet, with particular reference to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.
This essay aims to make a thorough analysis and evaluation of the research paper, 'Selecting ... more This essay aims to make a thorough analysis and evaluation of the research paper, 'Selecting fiction as a part of everyday life information seeking' (Ooi and Liew, 2011). In doing so, it broadly uses the 'three-pass' approach proposed by Keshav (2007), in order to better appraise the material, its proposals, research methods, findings and conclusions. As part of the evaluation three other recent papers on a related subject will be referred to, by Begum (2011), Howard (2011), and Elsweiler, Wilson and Kirkegaard Lunn (2011). The aim of this is to draw a comparison to other recent findings in the field, and thus to assess the validity of Ooi and Liew's findings. A full evaluation will be made of the study's findings, its research methods, citations, appropriateness, and clarity. Its recommendations and usefulness to the field will also be discussed, as well as any bias and/or ethical issues. This will be done using Keshav's paper and recommendations as a gu...
China is one of the few countries worldwide to have had a relatively sophisticated, unbroken trad... more China is one of the few countries worldwide to have had a relatively sophisticated, unbroken tradition of library classification for nearly two thousand years (Zhang, 2003). This may be considered a crowning achievement in the history of library and information services; yet paradoxically, China’s adherence to its literary traditions led to stagnation and a lack of progress that, by the end of the nineteenth century, had left them far behind the West.
The twentieth century was characterised by great upheaval in China, and this is reflected in the changes its library and information services underwent during this time. Zhang, Liu and Wang (1996) cite no fewer than 8 library classification systems which were developed between 1953 and 1978 alone. Through the tumult, the Chinese Library Classification (hereafter referred to as CLC) has emerged as China’s national classification system. This paper discusses the history of the CLC, describes its current form and present usage, and evaluates its strengths and weaknesses.
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Papers by Ludovica Price
Design/methodology/approach: Using tag analysis as a method, a comparative case study was undertaken to explore three aspects of fan information behaviour: information gatekeeping; classifying and tagging and entrepreneurship and economic activity. The case studies took place on three sites used by fans–Tumblr, Archive of Our Own (AO3) and Etsy. Supplementary semi-structured interviews with site users were used to augment the findings with qualitative data.
Findings: These showed that fans used tags in a variety of ways quite apart from classification purposes. These included tags being used on Tumblr as meta-commentary and a means of dialogue between users, as well as expressors of emotion and affect towards posts. On AO3 in particular, fans had developed a practice called “tag wrangling” to mitigate the inherent “messiness” of tagging. Evidence was also found of a “hybrid market economy” on Etsy fan stores. From the study findings, a taxonomy of fan-related tags was developed.
Research limitations/implications: Findings are limited to the tagging practices on only three sites used by fans during Spring 2016, and further research on other similar sites are recommended. Longitudinal studies of these sites would be beneficial in understanding how or whether tagging practices change over time. Testing of the fan-tag taxonomy developed in this paper is also recommended.
Originality/value: This research develops a method for using tag analysis to describe information behaviour. It also develops a fan-tag taxonomy, which may be used in future research on the tagging practices of fans, which heretofore have been a little-studied section of serious leisure information users.
Method: An ethnographic approach was used for the study; the main data collection instrument was in-depth, semi-structured interviews with eight record collectors based in and around London, carried out in participants' homes, combined with photographs of their collections and observation of their use of preferred Websites.
Analysis: Qualitative analysis was carried out on the survey, with triangulation through conversations with other record collectors, visits to record shops, and examination of some Websites named by participants.
Results: The results reveal distinctive information behaviour for record collectors, with specialist knowledge, and a variety of information sources. The Internet has had, and continues to have, a profound effect on both information gathering and acquisition.
Conclusions: The study shows that record collectors are exemplars of serious leisure practitioners, with distinct information behaviour. The results add to the knowledge of serious leisure as a topic for study within information science.
Book chapters by Ludovica Price
Theses/Dissertations by Ludovica Price
It is concluded that digital information cultures within online gaming communities form around the collaborative creation and exchange of digital cultural artefacts, in heterarchical networks that develop their own unique organisational and classification conventions. Moreover, these communities form support networks for members, acting as repositories for shared knowledge, skills and experiences. Freedom of communication acts as a tool for the generation of social and knowledge capital, and enables the growth of strong ties of affiliation between members. Further research is encouraged in private, offline produsage spaces, and into the individual motivations that drive regular users to become produsers.
Conference Presentations & Papers by Ludovica Price
The work is based on a review of recent literature, an analysis of the collection policies of a selection of UK libraries, and a brief survey of the views of Library & Information Science students in 2016. Results show that there is indeed, a little known and lesser understood ‘dark side’ to fanfiction, in regard to how it is understood and valued, which feeds an invisible, black hole in our cultural heritage.
The role of the fan-gatekeeper is therefore essential for the preservation of what is undeniably part of our cultural heritage, one that has been largely ignored by the mainstream. This work informs the library and information professions of the existence of fan expertise on which it could draw to improve understanding of and access to an enormous body of non-mainstream creative works. It also has potential implications for education (in harnessing the passion of fans to help pass on valuable, transferable skills) and publishing (in the movement from established to DIY forms of publication).
Essays by Ludovica Price
The twentieth century was characterised by great upheaval in China, and this is reflected in the changes its library and information services underwent during this time. Zhang, Liu and Wang (1996) cite no fewer than 8 library classification systems which were developed between 1953 and 1978 alone. Through the tumult, the Chinese Library Classification (hereafter referred to as CLC) has emerged as China’s national classification system. This paper discusses the history of the CLC, describes its current form and present usage, and evaluates its strengths and weaknesses.