Article #1
Todd, R.J. (1999) Utilization of heroin information by adolescent girls in Australia: a cognitive analysis. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 50(1) 10-23.
Summary: Todd's article discusses a study undertaken to understand how exposure to information effects existing knowledge structures. The study, examining how a group of teenage girls processed information about heroin, found five different types of effects.
Analysis:
I personally found the results of the study to be very interesting, far more than the rest of the article. In the examples, Todd shows the girls' prior knowledge, the new knowledge they gained, and how it altered their overall knowledge structure. He defined three cognitive techniques the girls used when altering their knowledge: appending, inserting, or deleting. The girls either added the new knowledge, used new knowledge to create relationships between prior knowledge pieces, or replaced old knowledge with new knowledge. These terms and techniques are reminiscent of data editing on a computer. This is fascinating because this is how our own minds operate, and to see it worked into a diagram is compelling.
The girls also spoke of their knowledge structures in terms of "pictures." Todd cites Dervin's work at this point, explaining that the "picture" is an organizing construct. He notes that the girls perceived the effects of knowledge gained as altering their "picture" of heroin, and that it was a dynamic and ongoing movement. This movement started with new information giving them a "complete" picture and moving to give them a "position" within their picture.
Discussion Question(s): We use the "picture" metaphor in everyday life to explain our knowledge structure regarding a piece of information. How can the librarian involve themselves in helping to change the user's mental picture of information?
Implications: Todd's work shows that new knowledge can alter the user's existing knowledge structure. Understanding what the user's knowledge structure is comprised of and how it's structured can help the librarian/information professional search for useful information to build on to that structure.
Article #2
Pettigrew, K.E. (1999) Waiting for chiropody: contextual results from an ethnographic study of the information behaviour among attendees at community clinics. Information Processing and Management, 35, 801-817.
Summary: In this article, Pettigrew investigates the role of community health nurses in providing information to the elderly. The importance of context within the flow of human services information (HSI) between the nurse and client is examined, as is the influence of context in creating an information ground.
Analysis:
Pettigrew ties together several interesting concepts in her study of the spread of HSI, such as social theory. The idea that she specifically utilizes is the "strength of weak ties theory" (the name of which had me initially confused). According to this theory, an individual's social network is composed of "strong" (family and close friends) and "weak" (acquaintances and distant friends) ties. However, the "weak" ties are more valuable regarding the flow of new information, since they interact with a variety of different individuals and thus will have access to new and different information. Pettigrew applies this to her HSI study, showing how the clinic patients gained a variety of different HSI through their contact with the clinic's health professionals and volunteers. Because of the variety of individuals and their own variety of information, the patients were able to access different information than they would acquire from the individuals they tended to interact with.
The information behavior of both groups, Pettigrew states, is also affected by different contextual factors. The physical environment, the clinic activity, and the situations of both the nurse and patient all influence the information shared. These contextual factors combine to transform the clinic into an information ground. The social atmosphere prompts conversation, which can be used as a vehicle to discover or share information. These contextual factors could also be applied to other situations to create information grounds (hair salons, grocery store, etc, etc.)
Discussion Question(s): Just as context is important to the nurses giving information, it is also important to the librarian giving information to a patron. How do we librarians establish context in these situations?
Implications: This study can also be applied to a library setting; while a library is not technically an information ground by definition, it can become one. (For example, parents bring their children to storytime and socialize in the meanwhile, exchanging information) This gives the librarians the opportunity to disseminate information, like the nurses in Pettigrew's study. This can allow us to serve our patrons in different but equally useful ways.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Article #1
Kuhlthau, C.C. (1991) Inside the search process: Information seeking from the user's perspective. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 42, 361-371.
Summary: Kuhlthau discusses the results of a series of studies focusing on the mental and emotion perspective of information-seeking users. She identifies the various stages of the information search process, and how the user's mental state affects it.
Analysis:
A lot of familiar names are mentioned here: Belkin, Taylor, etc. Kuhlthau discusses their research on the cognitive viewpoint of information seeking behavior. While these prior theories help to form the basis for her research, Kuhlthau fits her model of information seeking into Dervin's sense-making model, using it as a context. Once you keep the sense-making model in mind while reading this, it is a little easier to understand Kuhlthau's work.
I was most intrigued by Kuhlthau's discussion of emotions, and how they play a role in the information search process. In retrospect, it seems quite obvious: frustration can impair logical thinking and problem solving skills, etc. But Kuhlthau claims that anxiety, frustration, and so forth are a natural and integral part of information seeking. I also found her correlation between increase in user confidence and search results to be very interesting. From personal searching experience, I know that when I feel confident in my ability to obtain information, I am able to think more clearly and logically. Although I do wonder that she didn't address user overconfidence; being smugly pleased or cocky in one's abilities can cause you to reject or blind you to options ("I'm doing great with this, I can find anything I want, so why try this method?")
Discussion Questions:
Kuhlthau states that she did not use the data from "low achieving" students in her fourth study because it was incomplete, and focused on middle to high achieving students instead. I find it hard to believe that she would simply throw the data out without seeking to re-obtain new data, especially considering that there may possibly be an appreciable difference between the results of high and low achievers. It seems mildly irresponsible to not even try to find new participants for that area of the study. The research seems half-done as a consequence.
I wonder about Kuhlthau's claim that uncertainty is a "natural and necessary" part of the early stages of the information seeking process. What if you already know where to look and what to do? What if you are looking for information for fun and with no real goal or consequences in mind? I can hardly imagine anxiety and frustration taking place.
Implications: It's important to take the user's emotional state into account when aiding with the search process; frustration and anxiety may impair the user's judgment or problem-solving skills. Reassurement is just as important as showing them how to search effectively.
Article #2:
Talja, S. (1997). Constituting "information" and "user" as research objects: a theory of knowledge formations as an alternative to the information man-theory. In P. Vakkari, R. Savolainen, and B. Dervin (eds.), Information Seeking in Context (pp. 67-80). London: Taylor-Graham.
Summary: Pointing out several weaknesses in the cognitive viewpoint (here also called the "information man-theory"), Talja offers an alternative called the "theory of knowledge formations."
Analysis:
Talja critiques the cognitive viewpoint for failing to include or address the socio-cultural context of users and/or information systems. She states, "It is widely recognized that both individual information needs and institutional information access are socially conditioned." However, the cognitive viewpoint only studies how individuals process information, not how their environment influences them. Talja points out that language and culture combine to create different knowledge formations in individuals. This causes a myriad of viewpoints that may not all translate well together.
I found Talja's argument (while very difficult to read through) to be very unique and interesting. In my readings for this class, I've gone from systems-oriented research to user-oriented research, with the argument "user-focused, cognitive studies are better" emphasized repeatedly. So, to encounter a criticism of the viewpoint is interesting. But Talja's point is extemely valid. Our environment (culture, society, etc.) does influence the way we think and view the world around us. Because of this, different individuals view the world differently, and think of information in different terms. Not all users will think of information the same way, or have the same ideas about how to obtain information. We all build our own bases of knowledge differently, so as she notes, it's hard to create systems that have multiple viewpoints incorporated in it.
Discussion Question: Talja claims that since librarians and users "...share language and culture with others, and since they have made us what we are, we have common ground on which to act and communicate." How does this common ground account for differences in culture and language, which are often viewed as barriers?
Implications:
Talja points out that information needs "arise more from selected interests and cultural expertise than from lack of knowledge." It seems that so much of our work as librarians is built around the assumption that people are trying to find information to solve problems. However, a lot of information searching is also done for just interest. Sometimes, it's important to keep that dichotomy in mind, because it influences how we approach these situations.
Kuhlthau, C.C. (1991) Inside the search process: Information seeking from the user's perspective. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 42, 361-371.
Summary: Kuhlthau discusses the results of a series of studies focusing on the mental and emotion perspective of information-seeking users. She identifies the various stages of the information search process, and how the user's mental state affects it.
Analysis:
A lot of familiar names are mentioned here: Belkin, Taylor, etc. Kuhlthau discusses their research on the cognitive viewpoint of information seeking behavior. While these prior theories help to form the basis for her research, Kuhlthau fits her model of information seeking into Dervin's sense-making model, using it as a context. Once you keep the sense-making model in mind while reading this, it is a little easier to understand Kuhlthau's work.
I was most intrigued by Kuhlthau's discussion of emotions, and how they play a role in the information search process. In retrospect, it seems quite obvious: frustration can impair logical thinking and problem solving skills, etc. But Kuhlthau claims that anxiety, frustration, and so forth are a natural and integral part of information seeking. I also found her correlation between increase in user confidence and search results to be very interesting. From personal searching experience, I know that when I feel confident in my ability to obtain information, I am able to think more clearly and logically. Although I do wonder that she didn't address user overconfidence; being smugly pleased or cocky in one's abilities can cause you to reject or blind you to options ("I'm doing great with this, I can find anything I want, so why try this method?")
Discussion Questions:
Kuhlthau states that she did not use the data from "low achieving" students in her fourth study because it was incomplete, and focused on middle to high achieving students instead. I find it hard to believe that she would simply throw the data out without seeking to re-obtain new data, especially considering that there may possibly be an appreciable difference between the results of high and low achievers. It seems mildly irresponsible to not even try to find new participants for that area of the study. The research seems half-done as a consequence.
I wonder about Kuhlthau's claim that uncertainty is a "natural and necessary" part of the early stages of the information seeking process. What if you already know where to look and what to do? What if you are looking for information for fun and with no real goal or consequences in mind? I can hardly imagine anxiety and frustration taking place.
Implications: It's important to take the user's emotional state into account when aiding with the search process; frustration and anxiety may impair the user's judgment or problem-solving skills. Reassurement is just as important as showing them how to search effectively.
Article #2:
Talja, S. (1997). Constituting "information" and "user" as research objects: a theory of knowledge formations as an alternative to the information man-theory. In P. Vakkari, R. Savolainen, and B. Dervin (eds.), Information Seeking in Context (pp. 67-80). London: Taylor-Graham.
Summary: Pointing out several weaknesses in the cognitive viewpoint (here also called the "information man-theory"), Talja offers an alternative called the "theory of knowledge formations."
Analysis:
Talja critiques the cognitive viewpoint for failing to include or address the socio-cultural context of users and/or information systems. She states, "It is widely recognized that both individual information needs and institutional information access are socially conditioned." However, the cognitive viewpoint only studies how individuals process information, not how their environment influences them. Talja points out that language and culture combine to create different knowledge formations in individuals. This causes a myriad of viewpoints that may not all translate well together.
I found Talja's argument (while very difficult to read through) to be very unique and interesting. In my readings for this class, I've gone from systems-oriented research to user-oriented research, with the argument "user-focused, cognitive studies are better" emphasized repeatedly. So, to encounter a criticism of the viewpoint is interesting. But Talja's point is extemely valid. Our environment (culture, society, etc.) does influence the way we think and view the world around us. Because of this, different individuals view the world differently, and think of information in different terms. Not all users will think of information the same way, or have the same ideas about how to obtain information. We all build our own bases of knowledge differently, so as she notes, it's hard to create systems that have multiple viewpoints incorporated in it.
Discussion Question: Talja claims that since librarians and users "...share language and culture with others, and since they have made us what we are, we have common ground on which to act and communicate." How does this common ground account for differences in culture and language, which are often viewed as barriers?
Implications:
Talja points out that information needs "arise more from selected interests and cultural expertise than from lack of knowledge." It seems that so much of our work as librarians is built around the assumption that people are trying to find information to solve problems. However, a lot of information searching is also done for just interest. Sometimes, it's important to keep that dichotomy in mind, because it influences how we approach these situations.
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