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.