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Naked Memory: the Spencer Tunick Experience in The Faculty of Information Quarterly Vol 2, No 1 (Nov/Dec 2009) as a researcher for Hackers Language “Smelly Institute in Seoul, South Korea, and as a communications coordinator for Knowledge”: An Access Copyright. She currently serves as a member of the Community Information Audit Engagement Committee at the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives of the Sunnydale (CLGA). Rebecka's research focuses on how archivists who administer High Library in queer archives balance access to information and privacy. Buffy the Jenny: “Books don’t smell, Rupert.” Giles: “I Know! Smell is the most powerful Vampire Slayer trigger to the memory there is. A certain flower or a whiff of smoke can bring up experiences…long forgotten. Books smell. Musty and and and rich. The knowledge gained from a computer, is, uh, it…it has no, no texture, no, no Rebecka Sheffield context. It’s… it’s there and then it’s gone. If it’s to last, then, then the Rebecka Sheffield is a doctoral getting of knowledge should be, uh, tangible, it should be, um…smelly.” student at the Faculty of Information (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “I, Robot… You, Jane”) at the University of Toronto. She completed her MISt. in Archives and Introduction Records Management from the The information audit is a well- University of Toronto and holds an established technique in contemporary undergraduate degree in Women’s management practices. According to Hannerí and Gender Studies from the University Botha and J.A. Boon (2003), the main purpose of an information audit is “the identification of of Saskatchewan. She has also users’ information needs as well as how these completed a post-graduate needs are met by the information services certificate in Book and Magazine department” (p. 23). Information managers, Publishing from the Centennial knowledge managers and records managers College Centre for Creative draw on the information audit as an analytical Communication. Rebecka has worked tool when reviewing the efficacy of current Page 1 of 13 Faculty of Information Quarterly Vol 2, No 1 (Nov/Dec 2009) management practices and developing new community of Sunnydale, a typical Southern programs to improve the efficiency of California city; however, Sunnydale is located on information and knowledge sharing. top of a “Hellmouth”, a “center of mystical The purpose of this project is to apply convergence” and portal between this universe the information audit to the televisual universe and an infinite number of demon worlds (BtVS, of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS) and undertake “The Harvest”). As a result, monsters, vampires, an investigation of the types of information werewolves, and many other breeds of demon sought, used and disseminated within the series’ creatures haunt the streets of Sunnydale and (fictional) Sunnydale High library. Although this regularly threaten to harm or kill its citizens. library is not a formal information services Fortunately, Sunnydale is also home to Buffy department, it satisfies many of the same Summers, a sixteen-year-old girl endowed with functions, as it is the central information and super-human strength and agility who has been knowledge-sharing space for BtVS characters. called to a secret order of Vampire Slayers. As Specifically, the Sunnydale High library is home Lorna Jowett (2005) has noted, Buffy is “the to a primary repository of textual resources, and Chosen One, the latest in a line of female serves as a meeting place for information Slayers fated to fight vampires and demons” (p. exchange. 19). This article consists of a brief In the first episode of the series, the introduction to BtVS and a synthesis of audience is introduced to Buffy as she is available literature on the role of information beginning her first day of school at Sunnydale and knowledge in the television series. This will High. Buffy quickly makes friends with two be followed by a review of current information classmates: Xander Harris, a clumsy, wise- management theory, specifically as it relates to cracking young man who immediately becomes the concept of the information audit. Buffy’s most trusted and reliable companion, Methodology for the study will then be and Willow Rosenberg, an awkward genius who discussed. Finally, the findings of the study will uses her knowledge of technology to help Buffy be presented and evaluated. find information she needs to perform her role Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Slayer. In addition, Buffy comes to know In every generation there is a Chosen One. She Cordelia, Xander’s beautiful but shallow alone will stand against the vampires, the nemesis, and Angel, a mysterious brooding demons and the forces of darkness. She is the stranger who is later discovered to be a 243- Slayer. (BtVS, “The Witch”) year-old vampire fighting against his own kind. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS) is a Ms. Jenny Calendar, a computer science teacher, serialized television show that originally aired in is also part of the show’s main cast of seven seasons from March 10, 1997 to May 20, characters. 2003. The show takes place in the fictional Page 2 of 13 Faculty of Information Quarterly Vol 2, No 1 (Nov/Dec 2009) Notably, Sunnydale is home to Rupert the show. In one episode, an exasperated Giles (usually called by his surname), a British Willow tells Giles, “You always know what’s expatriate and the new high school librarian. going on. I never know what’s going on.” Giles Giles the librarian, however, is merely a cover replies, “Well, you weren’t here from midnight for his true career as a “Watcher”, an ancient to six researching it” (BtVS, “Angel”). With profession responsible for mentoring and Giles as the purveyor of information, Buffy and training Slayers. Buffy first meets Giles at the her friends, often referred to as the “Scooby Sunnydale High library in the first episode of Gang”, spend countless hours in the library the series, “Welcome to the Hellmouth”, and he poring over books or exploring the Internet for presents her with a leather-bound volume vital information necessary to help Buffy protect entitled VAMPYR. Buffy initially refuses to the community of Sunnydale. Giles is always accept the offer of the book, a symbolic available to provide knowledge or guide the rejection of her destiny, but soon returns to the group to an information resource that may hold library to seek help from Giles when a fellow the clues they need to continue their “slayage”. student is found dead in the school locker room. The importance of research in BtVS Defying horror movie cliché, Giles does not has been explored by Michael Betancourt (1998) take the charge to defend his students, but and Adriana Estill (2007), as has the special instead turns to his collection of books for position of the Sunnydale High library. Notably, information on how to deal with this threat. Estill has claimed that the series, at least in its According to GraceAnne A. DeCandido (1999), first three seasons, “[Giles’s] collections-development policy must …consistently addressed how the high school library’s status as place be an extraordinary document, [he] has access in influenced its multiple uses and the stacks to a vast number of volumes on meanings. The series offers a portrait of how the place of the library is lived and vampire and demon lore, the occult, witchcraft, socially produced by the characters who spellcasting, and other rarities not usually found make use of it while in turn acting constitutively to influence their among the copies of Huckleberry Finn or Weetzie practices. In other words, the library Bat” (p. 44). DeCandido goes on to explain that does not act as a simple depository or retrieval space for information. Rather, Giles “is our hero librarian: a pop culture idol the library’s place enables negotiations whose love of books and devotion to research around the acquisition of knowledge, the relationship between research and hold the key to saving the universe…” (p. 44). power, the drive to create community, Despite the fantastical themes of and the desire for sanctuary (p. 236). BtVS—magic, monsters, and mystical portals The Sunnydale High library is thus a safe into alternate dimensions—the series never haven for the show’s frequently beleaguered under-represents the laborious, grueling reality characters, a forum for information exchange of methodical research. To the contrary, and a place for knowledge negotiation and research is central to the narrative structure of meaning-making. It also serves as a rich, albeit Page 3 of 13 Faculty of Information Quarterly Vol 2, No 1 (Nov/Dec 2009) fictional site in which to perform an mapping of information flows within an information audit. organization and between an organization and The Information Audit its external environment” (p. 216). In addition, the process helps to recognize and prioritize Giles: “Willow, we have work to do.” information needs, identify key resources, and Willow: “Once again I’m banished to the Demon section of the card catalogue.” discover inefficiencies or over-provisions of (BtVS, “Puppet Show”) information. Furthermore, information Knowledge workers recognize that resources are counted and examined while the information is the most important strategic asset activities associated with these resources are in business. Nevertheless, its acquisition, observed and evaluated (Henczel, 2000). A control, and dissemination are becoming successful audit not only provides a snapshot of increasingly difficult to manage, as digital the current state of information management technology has improved the proliferation of within an organization, but also provides insight data to a previously unimagined scope and pace. into how this management can be improved. For example, it is common for organizations to The information audit is a critical step in the suffer from debilitating information overload, development of a successful knowledge and/or making it next-to-impossible to differentiate information management program.
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