So in my seemingly never-ending literature review for my usability study I have come across an author who likes to discuss epistemological beliefs of information seekers. As I have come to understand this topic (which I'm not sure if I do) it is the perception that researchers have regarding the search process. This author, who shall remain nameless, compares her finding from two groups:
Group 1: 20 Yale fourth year students who were in the process of writing a paper
Group 2: 15 University of Wisconsin-Madison Freshman
Additionally, this researcher tries to take findings from the following study (described below) and compares it to the two above. Please let me know if you see ANY problems here.
2002 Study: involved 15 faculty and doctoral students. The findings of this study were compared to the studies above.....There is no way in holy hell that 15 faculty and doc students have the same research behavior as undergrads. EVEN IF the findings were the same there is NO FREAKING WAY that there reasons were.
Now, call me crazy, but I don't think there is any way that anyone could compare these two studies (especially the third). Even if the beliefs of these two groups were identical (thus giving an across the board continuity) I don't think that as a researcher you could say these are similar.
Am I splitting hairs here?
Just a disclaimer: I have attempted to boil down a lot of information here and if you want the full citations just email me and I will be happy to provide them.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
So it's 11:20p.m. on the second day of classes.....
I'm here at the information desk trying desperately to stay awake. Unfortunately that 8p.m. cup of coffee wore off about 30 minutes ago. So, to keep myself awake I continued my research into the world of information science.
I just started reading Everything is Miscellaneous (2007) by David Weinberger. The introduction has a wonderful example about the organization of a Staples store, stating that your typical neighborhood staples has 7,185 different items in it. Weinberger goes on to state that when you come to Staples with a list of 15 things you have 7,170 items that are essentially hiding your 15 items, i.e. making it difficult for you to complete a relatively simple task.
So what about libraries? Weinberger goes on to make the point that the digital world makes problems of physics less relevant, but when it comes to finding academic information I don't think anyone would argue that it is easy. Here at Iowa we have roughly 4 million books. If you account for our journal subscriptions (both print and online) we have untold millions of articles. So consider the plight of the undergraduate, "Um, yeah. Dude I need an article about the foreign policy of the United States. . . where do I go." What can we do?! We need to do something. I have long been an advocate for large scale federated searching, but after working with several systems I don't think that is possible. Better information literacy? Better interfaces? Wine bar in the library?
I just started reading Everything is Miscellaneous (2007) by David Weinberger. The introduction has a wonderful example about the organization of a Staples store, stating that your typical neighborhood staples has 7,185 different items in it. Weinberger goes on to state that when you come to Staples with a list of 15 things you have 7,170 items that are essentially hiding your 15 items, i.e. making it difficult for you to complete a relatively simple task.
So what about libraries? Weinberger goes on to make the point that the digital world makes problems of physics less relevant, but when it comes to finding academic information I don't think anyone would argue that it is easy. Here at Iowa we have roughly 4 million books. If you account for our journal subscriptions (both print and online) we have untold millions of articles. So consider the plight of the undergraduate, "Um, yeah. Dude I need an article about the foreign policy of the United States. . . where do I go." What can we do?! We need to do something. I have long been an advocate for large scale federated searching, but after working with several systems I don't think that is possible. Better information literacy? Better interfaces? Wine bar in the library?
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
The Library at 11p.m. on the first day of classes
There is no point in me being here. I am normally a pretty strong advocate for keeping the reference desk open whenever the library is open but this is just ridiculous. My stance on this has nothing, whatsoever, to do with the extremely smelly patron that I just helped.
so I just read an article "Marketing library Services to the Net generation" Library Management vol. 27 (2006). This article makes some damn good points about the changing nature of libraries and what the new generation of user is looking for. Not too surprisingly they want information and they want it now. The article does a great job at pointing out that this generation's want for quick information is no different than a study done in 1968 that showed (shocker) students wanted information quickly and were willing to sacrifice quality to get it. So to all those grouchy-pants cardigan wearing librarians who think "this generation is just different" I say, "screw you."
so I just read an article "Marketing library Services to the Net generation" Library Management vol. 27 (2006). This article makes some damn good points about the changing nature of libraries and what the new generation of user is looking for. Not too surprisingly they want information and they want it now. The article does a great job at pointing out that this generation's want for quick information is no different than a study done in 1968 that showed (shocker) students wanted information quickly and were willing to sacrifice quality to get it. So to all those grouchy-pants cardigan wearing librarians who think "this generation is just different" I say, "screw you."
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Perceptions of librarians
During my shift on the reference desk today I was approached by an undergraduate student that I often see toiling about in the library. She is a very knowledgeable student (tri-lingual) and doesn't quite know what to do after she graduates. Naturally, I suggested that a bright young hipster like herself go to library school. Her response? "I don't know that much about Dewey."
Inside I died. Please keep in mind that I did not look down on her for this answer, but realized that the outside perception of what librarians do is so very very confusing to non-librarians. I also know that anyone in a library program reads about a dozen (of the thousand plus) articles about "public perceptions" of librarians. I just needed to vent about my experience.
Also, I'm curious what my fellow students would have said in response? I was speechless in that I didn't know where to start.
Inside I died. Please keep in mind that I did not look down on her for this answer, but realized that the outside perception of what librarians do is so very very confusing to non-librarians. I also know that anyone in a library program reads about a dozen (of the thousand plus) articles about "public perceptions" of librarians. I just needed to vent about my experience.
Also, I'm curious what my fellow students would have said in response? I was speechless in that I didn't know where to start.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Welcome to the Information Ninja Blog
I am a graduate student in library and INFORMATION science. No, the capitalization of "information" was no mistake. It's not that I dislike "library" but I just feel that it has received too much attention. I'm not in library school because "I love books." In fact I don't think anyone who lists that as a reason should be in library school. I think they should join a book club and let that be it.
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