Andrew K. Shenton

Bio: Andrew K. Shenton is an academic researcher from Northumbria University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Information needs & Information seeking. The author has an hindex of 19, co-authored 70 publications receiving 9067 citations.

Strategies for ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative research projects

Abstract: Although many critics are reluctant to accept the trustworthiness of qualitative research, frameworks for ensuring rigour in this form of work have been in existence for many years. Guba’s constructs, in particular, have won considerable favour and form the focus of this paper. Here researchers seek to satisfy four criteria. In addressing credibility, investigators attempt to demonstrate that a true picture of the phenomenon under scrutiny is being presented. To allow transferability, they provide sufficient detail of the context of the fieldwork for a reader to be able to decide whether the prevailing environment is similar to another situation with which he or she is familiar and whether the findings can justifiably be applied to the other setting. The meeting of the dependability criterion is difficult in qualitative work, although researchers should at least strive to enable a future investigator to repeat the study. Finally, to achieve confirmability, researchers must take steps to demonstrate that findings emerge from the data and not their own predispositions. The paper concludes by suggesting that it is the responsibility of research methods teachers to ensure that this or a comparable model for ensuring trustworthiness is followed by students undertaking a qualitative inquiry.

Youngsters’ Use of Other People as an Information-Seeking Method

Abstract: Use of other people has often been found to be the most frequently employed and most successful method by which youngsters obtain information Nevertheless, significant questions remain largely unanswered, especially with regard to the types of information need that are met via this action, the sorts of people typically approached in order to satisfy needs of particular types, the actions taken by adults in response to youngsters’ approaches to them and the problems that youngsters face when using other people In an attempt to shed more light on these outstanding issues, this paper draws on the findings of an essentially qualitative project devoted more generally to the information needs and information-seeking action of young people The article closes by offering recommendations, based on the project’s results, for future practice in the teaching of Information Skills

Models of young people’s information seeking

Abstract: Although models form a typical outcome of modern research in library and information science, few have been constructed to represent the information behaviour of young people. This article reviews those models that have been developed and outlines several that have emerged from a recent research project undertaken in north-east England with four-to eighteen-year-olds. The first of the new models is devoted to general patterns in the informants’ information seeking, regardless of the type of source exploited. It begins with the development of an information need and concludes with the making of decisions with regard to the completion of a search. The remaining four models are smaller scale in nature, with each covering the use of one of the following - books, CD-ROM software, the Internet or other people. The article concludes by considering the value of the models that have been created to populations beyond the sampled youngsters.

A comparison of youngsters' use of CD-ROM and the Internet as information resources

Abstract: Little research has compared youngsters' use of CD-ROM and the Internet for information-seeking purposes. Nevertheless, the area has recently been addressed within a largely qualitative project more generally devoted to young people's information universes. Home access to the Internet was seen to be more limited than that to CD-ROM, although the former was consulted to tackle needs of a greater number of types. The strategies employed to exploit each form of information resource were essentially similar. No attempts were reported to check the credibility of any information retrieved from electronic sources. The Internet was, however, used more frequently beyond the informants' own homes than was CD-ROM. There was also greater employment of the Internet by adults acting on the youngsters' behalf. As Internet use for school purposes rose in accordance with age, that of CD-ROM declined. When youngsters themselves compared the two resources as information-seeking tools, CD-ROM software was criticized for its lack of detailed material and the Internet for the problems in locating what was desired. Project findings have implications in a range of areas, including the marketing of CD-ROM packages, research and development and practices within schools.

Doing qualitative research: a practical handbook

Abstract: Doing qualitative research: a practical handbook, by David Silverman, Los Angeles, Sage, 2010, 456 pp., AU$65.00, ISBN 978-1-84860-033-1, ISBN 978-1-94960-034-8. Available in Australia and New Zeal...

The wisdom hierarchy: representations of the DIKW hierarchy

Abstract: This paper revisits the data-information-knowledge-wisdom (DIKW) hierarchy by examining the articulation of the hierarchy in a number of widely read textbooks, and analysing their statements about the nature of data, information, knowledge, and wisdom. The hierarchy referred to variously as the 'Knowledge Hierarchy', the 'Information Hierarchy' and the 'Knowledge Pyramid' is one of the fundamental, widely recognized and 'taken-for-granted' models in the information and knowledge literatures. It is often quoted, or used implicitly, in definitions of data, information and knowledge in the information management, information systems and knowledge management literatures, but there has been limited direct discussion of the hierarchy. After revisiting Ackoff's original articulation of the hierarchy, definitions of data, information, knowledge and wisdom as articulated in recent textbooks in information systems and knowledge management are reviewed and assessed, in pursuit of a consensus on definitions and transformation processes. This process brings to the surface the extent of agreement and dissent in relation to these definitions, and provides a basis for a discussion as to whether these articulations present an adequate distinction between data, information, and knowledge. Typically information is defined in terms of data, knowledge in terms of information, and wisdom in terms of knowledge, but there is less consensus in the description of the processes that transform elements lower in the hierarchy into those above them, leading to a lack of definitional clarity. In addition, there is limited reference to wisdom in these texts.

Management innovation

Abstract: This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.