Programmatic Extraction of ‘Documents’ from Web Archives: Identifying Document Characteristics from Content Selector Interviews (open access)

Programmatic Extraction of ‘Documents’ from Web Archives: Identifying Document Characteristics from Content Selector Interviews

White paper documenting the results of interviews with professionals who manage collections of state or federal documents, and institutional repositories. These interviews gathered information about collection policies and characteristics of born-digital publications that are incorporated into these bodies of materials, to inform future machine learning algorithms.
Date: 2020
Creator: Fox, Nathaniel T.; Phillips, Mark Edward & Tarver, Hannah
Object Type: Paper
System: The UNT Digital Library
Document and Information Experience in Virtual Zenanas: An Exploration of a Diaspora Small World (open access)

Document and Information Experience in Virtual Zenanas: An Exploration of a Diaspora Small World

The word diaspora is currently understood as the large scale voluntary movement of people, along with capital and goods due to the mechanisms of globalization. Adopting a diaspora, gender and leisure perspective, this dissertation looked at the information and document experiences of a particular fan community of women belonging to the Indian diaspora and the online spaces created and occupied by them (fan fiction blogs which can be viewed as book clubs). The study also looked at memory making and documenting of the same as a part of document experience, resulting in what can be termed as "serendipitous memory archives." The blogs hosting fan fiction and the mediated practices they support were viewed as documents for the study. The online spaces were conceptualized as small worlds and the theoretical framework used for the study consisted of a preliminary model of a small world (based on literature review and my understanding of the world under study), information experience as a concept as well as document experience models. The results show that social ties play a big role in the information and document experience, while memory making and documenting of the same are also seen to happen as part of the document …
Date: December 2020
Creator: Kizhakkethil, Priya
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Exploring the Use of Metadata Record Graphs for Metadata Assessment (open access)

Exploring the Use of Metadata Record Graphs for Metadata Assessment

Cultural heritage institutions, including galleries, libraries, museums, and archives are increasingly digitizing physical items and collecting born-digital items and making these resources available on the Web. Metadata plays a vital role in the discovery and management of these collections. Existing frameworks to identify and address deficiencies in metadata rely heavily on count and data-value based metrics that are calculated over aggregations of descriptive metadata. There has been little research into the use of traditional network analysis to investigate the connections between metadata records based on shared data values in metadata fields such as subject or creator. This study introduces metadata record graphs as a mechanism to generate network-based statistics to support analysis of metadata. These graphs are constructed with the metadata records as the nodes and shared metadata field values as the edges in the network. By analyzing metadata record graphs with algorithms and tools common to the field of network analysis, metadata managers can develop a new understanding of their metadata that is often impossible to generate from count and data-value based statistics alone. This study tested application of metadata record graphs to analysis of metadata collections of increasing size, complexity, and interconnectedness in a series of three related …
Date: August 2020
Creator: Phillips, Mark Edward
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Borrowing Culture: British Music Circulating Libraries and Domestic Musical Practice, 1853-1910 (open access)

Borrowing Culture: British Music Circulating Libraries and Domestic Musical Practice, 1853-1910

In Victorian Britain, music circulating libraries libraries operated by music publishers Novello & Co. and Augener & Co. supported upper- and upper-middle-class patrons in their pursuit of cultural capital that would help them perform their socioeconomic status. Studying these libraries in the context of domestic music-making reveals the economic and social impact of these libraries in the lives of amateur musicians and in the music publishing industry. An analysis of the account books in the Novello Business Archives demonstrates that the direct income that Novello & Co., Ltd.'s Universal Circulating Musical Library generated was negligible at best. Yet the fact that the library continued to be part of the business for over forty years indicates that Novello & Co., Ltd. found it to be profitable in some way. In this case, the library could have helped the publisher to attract customers through branding and advertising, in addition to informing publishing decisions by tracking demand. Catalogs for music circulating libraries, as well as for the publishers who owned them, contain lists of library and publisher inventory and pricing. Studying changes in these catalogs reveals how patrons' tastes changed over time. A case study of violin-piano duets in multiple catalogs confirms a …
Date: August 2020
Creator: Cooper, Amy Nicole
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Australian Mateship and Imperialistic Encounters with the United States in the Vietnam War (open access)

Australian Mateship and Imperialistic Encounters with the United States in the Vietnam War

This thesis attempts to prove the significance of the relationship between the United States and Australia, and how their similar cultures and experiences assisted creating that shared bond throughout the twentieth century. Chapter 2 examines the effects of the Cold War on both the United States and Australia, as well as their growing relationship during that period. There is some backtracking chronologically in order to make connections to important historical legacies such as the ANZAC Legend and settlement on the periphery of their respective societies. Then the first half of chapter 3 delves into the Vietnam War by examining the interactions of the American support unit, the 11th Combat Aviation Battalion, a helicopter unit that includes transports and gunships. Afterwards, the latter half of chapter 3 examines the Australians' after-action reports to better understand their tactical and operational methods. Finally, chapter 4 provides an overview of Australian and American interactions between the advisers and the Vietnamese, as well as their attitudes towards the end of the war and the withdrawal from Vietnam. The conclusion summarizes the significance of the thesis by reemphasizing the significance of US-Australian interactions in the twentieth century and the importance of continued studies on this topic …
Date: May 2020
Creator: Wos, Nathaniel
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

An Historical Biography of Virginia Axline

Virginia Axline developed a new field of child psychotherapy by applying a nondirective approach to the burgeoning experimentation of utilizing play in therapeutic work with children. While much biographical information is available regarding other leaders in the fields of counseling and psychology, historical research into Axline and her development of child-centered play therapy represent a gap in the literature. The purpose of the current study was to: 1) examine the professional contributions of Virginia Axline; 2) gather personal information regarding Axline that contributes to deeper understanding of her theory; and 3) identify life circumstances or events that influenced Axline's professional contributions. Historical methodology was utilized to locate and examine artifacts and materials necessary to create an interpretive biography of Axline's life and work, with a focus on her professional influences, experiences, and contributions. Historical methods utilized include historiography, oral history, and interpretive biography, with an emphasis on established and accepted source criticism and data synthesis processes. The research yielded a number of historically significant and previously unknown documents valuable to the field of CCPT including personal correspondence, academic writings, and interviews, as well as academic and government records. The research also established new information about and understandings of several of …
Date: May 2020
Creator: Turley Stich, Erin
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Transitioning to the Next Generation of Metadata (open access)

Transitioning to the Next Generation of Metadata

This report synthesizes six years (2015-2020) of OCLC Research Library Partners Metadata Managers Focus Group discussions to trace how metadata services are transitioning into the “next generation of metadata” and the impact on future metadata services and staffing requirements.
Date: September 2020
Creator: Smith-Yoshimura, Karen
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Dynamic Classification in Web Archiving Collections (open access)

Dynamic Classification in Web Archiving Collections

Article explores dynamic fusion models to find, on the fly, the model or combination of models that performs best on a variety of document types. The experimental results show that the approach that fuses different models outperforms individual models and other ensemble methods on three datasets.
Date: May 2020
Creator: Phillips, Mark Edward; Patel, Krutarth & Caragea, Cornelia
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
In the Tall Grass West of Town: Racial Violence in Denton County during the Rise of the Second Ku Klux Klan (open access)

In the Tall Grass West of Town: Racial Violence in Denton County during the Rise of the Second Ku Klux Klan

The aim of this thesis is to narrate and analyze lynching and atypical violence in Denton County, Texas, between 1920 and 1926. Through this intensive study of a rural county in north Texas, the role of law enforcement in typical and systemic violence is observed and the relationship between Denton County Officials and the Ku Klux Klan is analyzed. Chapter 1 discusses the root of the word lynching and submits a call for academic attention to violence that is unable to be categorized as lynching due to its restrictive definition. Chapter 2 chronicles known instances of lynching in Denton County from its founding through the 1920s including two lynchings perpetrated by Klavern 136, the Denton County Klan. Chapter 3 examines the relationship between Denton County Law Enforcement and the Klan. In Chapter 4, seasons of violence are identified and applied to available historical records. Chapter 5 concludes that non-lynching violence, termed "disappearances," occurred and argues on behalf of its inclusion within the historiography of Jim Crow Era criminal actions against Black Americans. In the Prologue and Epilogue, the development and dissolution of the St. John's Community in Pilot Point, Texas, is narrated.
Date: May 2020
Creator: Crittenden, Micah Carlson
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Passing as Gray: Texas Confederate Soldiers' Body Servants and the Exploitation of Civil War Memory

This dissertation is an examination of the interactions of enslaved body servants with their Texas Confederate masters from the American Civil War through the early twentieth century. The seven chapters of this study follows the story of these individuals from the fires of the Civil War, through the turbulence of Reconstruction in Texas, the codification of "Lost Cause" memory in the American South, and the exploitation of that memory by both former body servants and their ex-Confederate counterparts. This study demonstrates that the primary experience of blacks in the Confederate service was not as soldiers, but as enslaved laborers and body servants. Body servants, or camp slaves, were physically and in some cases emotionally close to their enslavers in this war-time environment and played an important part in Confederate logistics and camp life. As freed peoples after the war, former body servants found ways to use the bonds forged during the war and the flawed ideas of Lost Cause memory as a means to navigate the brutal realities of life in post-Civil War Texas. By manipulating white conceptions of former body servants as "black Confederates," some African Americans effectively "passed as gray," an act that earned money, social recognition, and …
Date: May 2020
Creator: Elliott, Brian Alexander
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Fire Eater in the Borderlands: The Political Life of Guy Morrison Bryan, 1847-1891

From 1847 to 1891, Guy Morrison Bryan was a prominent Texas politician who influenced many of the policies and events that shaped the state. Raised in his Uncle Stephen F. Austin's shadow, he was a Texas nationalist who felt responsible for promoting the interests of his state, its earliest settlers, and his family. During his nineteen years in the Texas Legislature and two years in the United States House of Representatives, he safeguarded land grants, supported internal improvements and education, and challenged northern hostility towards slavery. Convinced that abolitionists would stop at nothing to destroy the institution and Texas, he led his state's walkout of the National Democratic Convention in 1860 and became a leading proponet of secession. During the Civil War, he served as a staff officer, and his ability to mediate conflicts between local and national leaders propped up the isolated Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department. Finally as Speaker of the House, he helped oust Governor Edmund J. Davis in 1874 and "redeem" the state from Republican rule before convincing President Rutherford B. Hayes to adopt a conciliatory policy towards Texas and the South. Despite the tremendous influence Bryan wielded, scholars have largely ignored his contributions. This dissertation establishes his …
Date: August 2020
Creator: Kelley, Ariel Leticia
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Assessment of Feigned Neurocognitive Impairment in Retired Athletes in a Monetarily Incentivized Forensic Setting

Compromised validity of test data due to exaggeration or fabrication of cognitive deficits inhibits the capacity to establish appropriate conclusions and recommendations in neuropsychological examinations. Detection of feigned neurocognitive impairment presents a formidable challenge, particularly for evaluations involving possibilities of significant secondary gain. Among specific populations examined in this domain, litigating mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) samples are among the most researched. One subpopulation with potential to contribute significantly to this body of literature is that of retired athletes undergoing fixed-battery neuropsychological evaluations within an assessment program. Given the considerable prevalence of concussions sustained by athletes in this sport and the substantial monetary incentives within this program, a unique opportunity exists to establish rates of feigning within this population to be compared to similar forensic mTBI samples. Further, a fixed battery with multiple validity tests (VT) offers a chance to evaluate the classification accuracy of an aggregated VT failure paradigm, as uncertainty abounds regarding the optimal approach to the recommended use of multiple VTs for effort assessment. The current study seeks to examine rates of feigned neurocognitive impairment in this population, demonstrate prediction accuracy equivalence between models based on aggregated VT failures and logistic regression, and compare classification performance of …
Date: August 2020
Creator: Smotherman, Jesse M.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

The Dallas Story: The North American Aviation Plant during World War II

During the Second World War the United States mobilized its industrial capacity to become the great "Arsenal of Democracy," as vehicles, ships, and small arms flowed out of American factories. Perhaps the most impressive accomplishment was the mobilization of the aviation industry, which grew rapidly after the war began in Europe. In 1940 the United States produced 24,600,000 pounds of airframe. By 1943 this figure had grown exponentially, with 760,926,600 airframe pounds produced. This was achieved through the cooperation of the United States government and the aviation industry. It required creative techniques in funding and manufacturing, and the construction of expansion facilities throughout the country, including Dallas, Texas. The city was selected as the site of a factory operated by North American Aviation. This plant produced some 18,784 aircraft in all, making it one of the most prolific in the country. This dissertation is a study of the North American factory in Dallas. It begins with decisions leading to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's call for 50,000 aircraft in May of 1940. From there the focus moves to the selection of Dallas as a location, the construction and opening of the factory, its operation, its relations with the local community, and …
Date: August 2020
Creator: Furgerson, Terrance, 1960-
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Perception of Falls and Confidence in Self-Management of Falls among Older Adults

Mobility safety, especially fall prevention, plays a significant role in successful aging for older adults. Fall preventive programs aim to reduce risks for mortality from fall-related injuries among older adults. However, the covariation between personal perceptions of falls and factors and confidence of self-management in falls (CSMoF) is still under-studied despite its importance to fall prevention. Using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) model, this dissertation aimed to investigate the relative contribution of CSMoF in relation to fall risk self-perceptions while controlling for demographics and self-reported health and functioning. Participants were 691 older adults recruited from Area Agency on Aging at Arlington, Texas. They completed measures of physical functioning, CSMoF, fall risk perceptions and fear of falls. Regression analyses indicated that fear of falls was the most predictive factor of CSMoF among older persons. Physical function measures of age, chronic illnesses of metabolism, sensory impairment, and health status were also significant predictors of the CSMoF. The interaction of perception of falls and fall experience attenuated CSMoF, with physical functioning limitations. Fear of falls served as a mediator through which demographic predictors influence CSMoF. The joint effects of perception of falls and fear of falls likely explain CSMoF …
Date: May 2020
Creator: Li, Qiwei
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Democracy of Death: US Army Graves Registration and Its Burial of the World War I Dead (open access)

Democracy of Death: US Army Graves Registration and Its Burial of the World War I Dead

The United States entered World War I without a policy governing the burial of its overseas dead. Armed only with institutional knowledge from the Spanish-American War twenty years prior, the Army struggled to create a policy amidst social turmoil in the United States and political tension between France and the United States.
Date: August 2020
Creator: Hatzinger, Kyle
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Framing a Sacred Fight: Framing Analysis and Collective Identity of the #noDAPL Movement (open access)

Framing a Sacred Fight: Framing Analysis and Collective Identity of the #noDAPL Movement

The #noDAPL movement was an Indigenous-led environmental social movement occurring between 2015 and 2017, in which the Standing Rock Sioux and other American Indian tribes comprising the Oceti Sakowin garnered support to oppose the 1,172-mile Dakota Access Pipeline. Pipeline opponents agreed that the pipeline's construction posed a threat to the health and safety of tribal members and other residents of the area and that the pipeline's path crossed previously-designated tribal treaty boundaries, compromising tribal sovereignty. In this body of work, I utilize Facebook data from the Sacred Stone Camp Facebook page to locate and identify collective action frames and core framing tasks, adhering to social movement framing theory. Further, I provide insight into the movement's most used collective action frames and how their use enabled to movement to maintain occupation at protest camps along the Missouri River, garner resources from participants and gain international social support. I also draw on concepts of pan-Indianism and supratribalism to discuss indigenous collective identity, as well as concepts like relational values and Indigenous traditional knowledge to better assess the nuances of Indigenous environmental activism and how this movement evoked discussions of modern day settler colonialism.
Date: May 2020
Creator: Gaston, Emilia
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Survey of Benchmarks in Metadata Quality: Initial Findings (open access)

Survey of Benchmarks in Metadata Quality: Initial Findings

White paper providing general analysis and documentation of results collected by a Qualtrics survey to gather information about metadata assessment practices among digital libraries. It includes an overview of the responses and brief analysis, with some interpretation of trends.
Date: May 2020
Creator: Gentry, Steven; Hale, Meredith L.; Payant, Andrea; Tarver, Hannah; White, Rachel & Wittmann, Rachel
Object Type: Paper
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Lynching of Women in Texas, 1885-1926 (open access)

The Lynching of Women in Texas, 1885-1926

This work examines the lynching of twelve female victims in Texas from 1885 to 1926.
Date: December 2020
Creator: Brown, Haley
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

The Administration of Unemployment Relief by the State of Texas during the Great Depression, 1929-1941

During the Great Depression, for the first time in its history, the federal government provided relief to the unemployed and destitute through myriad New Deal agencies. This dissertation examines how "general relief" (direct or "make-work") from federal programs—primarily the Emergency Relief and Construction Act (ERCA) and Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)—was acquired and administered by the government of Texas through state administrative agencies. These agencies included the Chambers of Commerce (1932-1933), Unofficial Texas Relief Commission (1933), Texas Rehabilitation and Relief Commission (1933), Official Texas Relief Commission (1933-1934), Texas Relief Commission Division of the State Board of Control (1934), and the Department of Public Welfare (1939). Overall, the effective administration of general relief in the Lone Star State was undermined by a political ideology that persisted from, and was embodied by, the "Redeemer" Constitution of 1876.
Date: May 2020
Creator: Park, David B.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Improving Subjects in the Digital Collections with Data Survey (open access)

Improving Subjects in the Digital Collections with Data Survey

Full-text of a Qualtrics survey preserving the original text and most of the formatting, including background and consent. The questions included free-text, ranking, single-choice, and multiple choice questions related to user preferences to find digital photographic images.
Date: 2020
Creator: Tarver, Hannah; Miles, Chassidy & Zipperer, Rachael
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Impact of Increased High School Mathematics Requirements on College Entrance Exam-Taking and Scores (open access)

Impact of Increased High School Mathematics Requirements on College Entrance Exam-Taking and Scores

Research shows that students who take advanced mathematics courses perform better on measures of college readiness than students who take less rigorous courses. However, no clear effect has been shown on requiring all students to take more advanced courses. This study examined whether increases in the number and level of mathematics courses required for high school graduation have resulted in increased levels of college aspirations and preparedness. Specifically, twenty years of data from a rural school district in Texas were analyzed to determine whether the impact on college entrance exam-taking and performance differed by the mathematics requirements in effect for each class. Logistic and linear regression modeling revealed no statistically significant effect of higher requirements. And while overall results by gender and race mirrored previous research, with males tending to have higher scores than females and White students tending to score higher than African-American and Latinx students, the increased requirements were not associated with any mitigation in these inequities.
Date: May 2020
Creator: Richardson, Connie J.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Panorama, Volume 29, Number 1, Fall 2020 (open access)

Panorama, Volume 29, Number 1, Fall 2020

Magazine of the International Association of Panoramic Photographers containing photographs taken by members as well as articles about related topics, personal ads and organizational updates, and advertising.
Date: Autumn 2020
Creator: International Association of Panoramic Photographers
Object Type: Journal/Magazine/Newsletter
System: The UNT Digital Library

Open Access Increases Educators Ability to Plan Equitable Curriculum: Global Context

This presentation gives an overview of Open Access including its definition, basic assumptions, open access registries, technology and trends, technological structure, policy frameworks, challenges and opportunities. It then applies this to the need for developing countries' contributions to global knowledge production and creating institutional initiatives.
Date: 2020-10-14/2020-10-16
Creator: Alemneh, Daniel Gelaw & Ford, Angela
Object Type: Presentation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Advances in academic video game collections (open access)

Advances in academic video game collections

This article discusses how the UNT Media Library developed a video game collection to support student retention, student recreation, and classroom instruction. The article also will explain how the Library successfully met challenges involved in collection development, related technology, space needs, and the challenges it sees ahead.
Date: August 29, 2020
Creator: Robson, Diane; Sassen, Catherine & Rodriguez, Allyson
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library