Library & Information Science Research最新文献

Long distance hikers' information practices are considered via an ‘in-field’ methodology that generated rich experiential data. Participants documented and reflected on their experiences and use of mobile digital technology while undertaking a two-week coast-to-coast walk across the Scottish Highlands. Empirical evidence on the adoption and use of mobile digital technology by backpackers, and the implications this has for their practices and interactions is scarce. “Research in the Wild” (RITW) mixed methods facilitated exploration of how and why mobile digital technology is employed via analysis of in-field video-logs, interviews with eight participants, and a survey. Analysis of the research interview data provides insights into fieldwork participants' reactions to, and experiences with, the methods employed. The affordances and issues of the approach are discussed, highlighting the benefits and challenges of mixed methods for Human Computer Interaction and Information Behavior research in the arena of outdoor recreation.

Prior research has suggested the value of and the need to provide consistent research data management (RDM) instruction specifically for graduate students. However, there is a lack of RDM instruction that is tailored for the social science disciplines. The effect of a four-hour, online RDM instruction intervention, designed based on the research data life cycle, on the RDM knowledge of graduate students in social science disciplines was investigated. A total of 84 students completed both pre/post knowledge assessments with 40 students randomly assigned into the intervention group receiving online instruction and 44 in the control group. A one-way ANCOVA was used for the data analysis. Results indicated that social science graduate students who received online RDM instruction had a significantly higher score in RDM knowledge than students in the control group. Moreover, the effect of the instruction on participants' RDM skills varied by their disciplines.

There is a dearth of information behavior research employing a community-engaged approach. This research takes the concept of community engagement as its central focus, reviewing its proximal use in information behavior research and arguing its potential as an integrative process that can restore and reposition the community-researcher relationship in the information behavior field. The “why – what – how” of undertaking community-engaged information behavior (CEIB) research were elaborated and a methodological framework was developed based on these discussions. The CEIB methodology introduced advances a new approach to study human-information interactions, consisting of principles and core components and characteristics of CEIB research that moves beyond the one-sided, researcher-led information behavior study.

Human behaviour is complex and demographics are insufficient to understand information behaviour. More nuanced analyses are required to understand the factors that drive action. Focusing on digital archiving and online protection strategies as manifestations of information behaviour, factors that influence perceptions of online risk were investigated. The relationship between perception and behaviour was analyzed by focusing on people’s risk responses and their archival habits. Using Bates’ theory of Information Behaviour, information behaviour paradoxes, what people do versus what they say they would do in online situations, were analyzed. By applying a mixed-method approach to 101 semi-structured interviews, individuals’ self-perceived internet skills and having a third-party negative experience are two key factors that influence perceptions of risk online. A three-part typology of internet users (cautiously optimistic offliners, confident onliners, and utopic onliners) is introduced. Perceptions of online risk have consequences for information behaviour and informs a theoretical modification.

Research on information behavior, practice, and experience focuses on complex topics embedded in multiple circles of context. LIS researchers in these areas often adopt interpretive, participatory, or critical methods. Yet, they just as often are ambivalent to measurements of rigor, or they unintentionally use positivist criteria to measure quality. Each of these decisions is indicative of a deep-seated assumption about the nature of objectivity and subjectivity. Bricolage offers researchers a way to think about research outside of this assumption: to understand the object of inquiry as it really is, not as the researcher frames it. Thinking like a bricoleur, researchers circumvent exact research protocols and cultivate difference by combining methods, methodologies, theories, and philosophical positions in creative ways. Bricolage already has a toehold in LIS research, but the diverse topics and methods that researchers bring to studies of information behavior, practice, and experience call for greater engagement with it.

Research diaries as a qualitative method are found practical in information science. In information behavior literature, they are effective for capturing human experience and thought in situ in emic view. Although previous scholars undertook research diaries to explore information needs, seeking, use, and more, what is left relatively unknown is how this method may garner diverse forms of data beyond text when studying inherently dynamic information creation. To address this gap, this study applied research diaries inspired by cultural probes and maker documentation to investigate the making process of 25 arts and crafts hobbyists. Findings present a wide variety of entries generated from participants, illuminating the benefits of using research diaries to facilitate making and encourage reflection. Design implications are shared to unlock the potential of research diaries for examining information behavior, demonstrating their value in gathering rich empirical data and bringing participants engaging research experiences.

Public library systems' websites were often the sole means for older patrons to access library services and programming during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study integrated Pauwels' (2012) framework to analyze 25 Ontario public library systems' websites for evidence of their available programming for older adults during the early months of COVID-19. The 640 identified programs for older adults revealed a number of patterns, including issues regarding visibility and representation of older patrons on library websites as well as assumptions surrounding older adults' access to technologies. Discussions consider three implications for public libraries as they reopen and create new virtual spaces “postpandemic”: questioning (re)distributions of resources that support both virtual and in-person services, questioning implicit assumptions that digital connection will foster social connection, and questioning the effects of the library as a virtual space on feelings of social connectedness.

Information creation taking place in the use of an organizational design card game, Topaasia® is discussed. Using 18 video-recorded play sessions, the researchers analyzed the ways in which players make propositions based on cards and raise points or further development in the organization, as well as discuss contextual factors. The sessions were analyzed on topical turn-taking and by using the Systems Intelligence Inventory. Through these processes, the study shows the importance of breaking organizational communication genre conventions for the goal of revealing tacit information and for the creation of new information. The research thereby contributes to studies of organizational information creation and sensemaking.

Information creation can be a varied and changing process. In information science, an increasing amount of research is conducted to explore the maker product as information creation. However, what is left relatively unknown is how space may associate with information creation in a private everyday space. Therefore, this qualitative research applied diary studies and semi-structured individual interviews with 25 arts and crafts hobbyists to investigate the potential relationship between space and information creation in the context of making at home. The findings reveal that making can occur across the house and be facilitated and hampered by space. Also, this research shows that space is malleable in an information-creating episode where people can display cunning to reconfigure the environment. This study demonstrates a novel perspective to analyzing information creation, highlighting that information creation is a complex landscape shaped by the spatial property, bodily experience, and often the presence of others.

Information studies characterize the beginning of information as creation, a point of origin. Adapting a continuum approach, this study focuses on the create dimension of the Information and Records Continuum models developed by Frank Upward and his colleagues (Upward, 2000). The context of this study is humanitarian aid and how the interactions of actors within the not-for-profit sector create information used to develop campaigns, design strategies for fundraising, and support beneficiaries, the recipients of aid. Semi-structured interviews and participatory observation were conducted in an international non-governmental organization working with vulnerable communities in Bangladesh. Applying the two continuum models provides insights into the development of aid workers' complex information ecosystem. Using the continuum models in analyzing the data for information and records creation suggest the potential use for these models to provide a theoretical framework in further information behavior studies.