Showing papers in "The Library Quarterly in 2007"
TL;DR: Information behavior and information practice, two major concepts denoting the general ways in which people deal with information, are analyzed in this article, and a comparative study of the above concepts and discourses serves the needs to generate a self-reflective attitude to familiar discursive formations, in particular among researchers of information seeking.
Abstract: Information behavior and information practice, two major concepts denoting the general ways in which people deal with information, are analyzed. Because of their general nature, they may be conceived of as umbrella concepts drawing on “umbrella discourses” with similar names. Information behavior is currently the dominating umbrella concept, while information practice stands as a critical alternative. The discourses above appear to be quite fragmentary, and researchers on information seeking rarely reflect on the discursive nature of the umbrella concepts. The discourse on information behavior primarily draws on the cognitive viewpoint, while information practice is mainly inspired by the ideas of social constructionism. The comparative study of the above concepts and discourses serves the needs to generate a self‐reflective attitude to familiar discursive formations, in particular among researchers of information seeking.
385 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a three-year qualitative study of firefighters in regional New South Wales, Australia, is described, and the findings of the study support a new definition of information literacy that recognizes information literacy as a way of knowing, that is, as more than just the acquisition of skills and attributes.
Abstract: From recent doctoral research into information literacy and workplace learning, an understanding of information literacy as a complex constellation of experiences and relationships with a range of information modalities is emerging. It is constituted through the connections among people, artifacts, texts, and bodily experiences that draw a person into context and enable him or her to know the landscape. A three‐year qualitative study of firefighters in regional New South Wales, Australia, is described. It was framed by constructionist thinking about the nature and role of information literacy in learning about practice and profession and about the relationship between power and knowledge. The findings of the study support a new definition of information literacy that recognizes information literacy as a way of knowing, that is, as more than just the acquisition of skills and attributes. Becoming information literate in the workplace requires experience with social and physical modalities as well as with t...
133 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a qualitative case study was conducted to examine the workplace information practices of a blue-collar worker, a vault inspector at a hydroelectric utility company, who argued that vault inspection is a practice involving situated judgment, embodiment, educated perception, finding and navigating, and classification.
Abstract: To date, LIS studies of workplace information practices have primarily focused on occupations that require a university education, and, consequently, little is known about the information practices of blue‐collar workers. This study uses a qualitative case study approach to examine the workplace information practices of a blue‐collar worker—a vault inspector at a hydroelectric utility company. Using social practice theory as a framework, this article argues that vault inspection is a practice involving situated judgment, embodiment, educated perception, finding and navigating, and classification. This article also asserts that the practice of vault inspection produces documents that act as “boundary objects” that dynamically connect disparate parts of the organization and meet a range of organizational information requirements. This suggests that vault inspection is an information practice.
104 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a study of nurses and the nursing profession in Sweden is used as an empirical example of such a context, which is in the article understood as a community of justification.
Abstract: This article contributes to discourse-oriented, information-seeking research by showing how discourses, from a neopragmatist perspective, can be explored as tools that people employ when they actively engage in information practices in varied social contexts. A study of nurses and the nursing profession in Sweden is used as an empirical example of such a context, which is in the article understood as a community of justification. The nurses' accounts of information practices are further analyzed as expressions of their use of discourses as tools in the promotion of specific interests as to what the nursing profession should be. The analysis shows how the science-oriented medical discourse and the holistically oriented nursing discourse are two tools employed in the nurses' accounts of their information practices. In these discourses, which operate at both a workplace and an occupational level, a key component is what nurses consider to be relevant information.
70 citations
TL;DR: This article examined the communication of text-based synchronous online discussion (chat) participants during the process of information sharing, and analyzed the mechanisms participants employed to overcome these constraints, and described the characteristics of information seeking in chat interaction.
Abstract: This article examines the communication of text‐based synchronous online discussion (chat) participants during the process of information sharing. It addresses the communicational constraints imposed by the computer‐mediated communication (CMC) channel on participants’ expression of interpersonal and affective stances, analyzes the mechanisms participants employed to overcome these constraints, and describes the characteristics of information seeking in chat interaction. Data for this study are derived from a math help chat group for K–12 students, facilitated by the Virtual Math Teams at Drexel University. Participants employed a variety of creative linguistic and paralinguistic devices to express interpersonal and affective stances, such as contractions of linguistic forms, prosodic features, and typographical conventions such as capital letters and emoticons to simulate gesture and facial expressions. The analysis of data suggests that effective interpersonal and emotional communication is a critical f...
62 citations
50 citations
TL;DR: The authors reviewed the English translation of the Classic French Text by Suzanne Briet Translated and edited by Ronald E. Day and Laurent Martinet with Hermina G. B. Anghelescu.
Abstract: BOOK REVIEW of the English Translation of the Classic French Text by Suzanne Briet Translated and edited by Ronald E. Day and Laurent Martinet with Hermina G. B. Anghelescu. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006. Pp. xi+72. $25.00 (paper). ISBN 0-8188-5101-1.
44 citations
TL;DR: This article analyzed data from two such programs to identify and analyze the work carried out by program leaders, their adult and child participants, and other social actors in other settings (e.g., library CEOs) in order to enable the program to happen.
Abstract: Storytime programs for young children are ritual events in the everyday life of the public library. This article analyzes data from two such programs to identify and analyze the work carried out by program leaders, their adult and child participants, and other social actors in other settings (e.g., library CEOs) in order to enable the program to happen. The study builds on research on the public library as a physical space and on the library in the life of the user by describing the often invisible literacy, information, and caring work that goes into accomplishing social settings within the physical space of the library. We contend that the work carried out to produce storytime is both discursively bound and value laden and that storytime participants constitute an emerging discourse community whose work coordinates and is simultaneously coordinated by the ongoing creation and maintenance of its discursive boundaries.
40 citations
TL;DR: The boundary objects with agency framework is applied to digital libraries as a possible way to address the need for comparative empirical research about what values are embedded in digital libraries, how these values areembedded indigital libraries, and the implications of these embedded values.
Abstract: In the digital age, libraries are increasingly being augmented or even replaced by information technology (IT), which is often accompanied by implicit assumptions of objectivity and neutrality, yet the field of science and technology studies (STS) has a long history of studying what values are embedded in IT and how they are embedded. This article seeks to unite the strengths of STS and LIS. First, the relevant literature on the values embedded in technologies, IT, physical libraries, and digital libraries is reviewed. Next, empirical and theoretical approaches for studying the values embedded in digital libraries are proposed. Finally, the boundary objects with agency framework is applied to digital libraries as a possible way to address the need for comparative empirical research about what values are embedded in digital libraries, how these values are embedded in digital libraries, and the implications of these embedded values.
40 citations
TL;DR: The authors compared student experiences in two online LIS programs, one with and one without a residency requirement, and found that students in the program with a residency had less sense of community, found group work less successful, and built fewer friendships among their student colleagues; they built professional and support networks among local professional colleagues.
Abstract: As more librarians earn master’s degrees online, it is important to understand how their educational experiences affect their professional practice. A crucial aspect of online learning is the residency: the time distance learners spend on campus, bonding together and with their educational institutions. Residencies are not practical or preferable for everyone. Some library practitioners would find it difficult to serve their constituents consistently if they left their posts for even brief residencies. Comparing student experiences in two online LIS programs, one with and one without a residency requirement, provides insights into the differences between them. Students in the program without a residency had less sense of community, found group work less successful, and built fewer friendships among their student colleagues; they built professional and support networks among local professional colleagues. Programs without a residency offer benefits for students and communities, for example, by providing th...
31 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a review of Foucauldian ideas within library and information science literature from a core group of authors is undertaken, focusing on Foucault's ideas within LIS.
Abstract: Michel Foucault (1926–84) is a primary thinker informing the construction of a critical theory of library and information science (LIS), or librarianship. He is widely cited and is adapted in various ways that focus on LIS forms of power, discourse, and so on. Others have addressed Foucault’s topics, but he remains central. Librarianship has taken up a prior challenge to more fully explore his work, and it is now time to carefully review the implications of Foucault’s thinking as a foundation for a critical‐theoretical LIS. Foucault has undergone extensive analysis and critique, and this article is a similar step within LIS. While not comprehensive, a review of Foucauldian ideas within LIS literature from a core group of authors is undertaken. Critiques and problems in Foucault’s thinking are reviewed since, by relying on Foucault’s insights for a line of analysis and research, this LIS theoretical work will reflect some of those same problems.
TL;DR: This article conducted qualitative interviews with fifteen information behavior researchers from eight universities in five countries in Europe and North America to examine the social/discursive construction of an author (Brenda Dervin) by an international community of researchers.
Abstract: This article reports the findings of a study examining the social/discursive construction of an author (Brenda Dervin) by an international community of researchers (information behavior researchers). A crucial conceptual starting point for the study was Michel Foucault’s work on the discursive construction of power/knowledge. The study represents one attempt to develop a discourse analytic approach to the study of information behavior. The researcher carried out semistructured qualitative interviews, based in part on Dervin’s “Life‐Line” and “Time‐Line” techniques, with fifteen information behavior researchers from eight universities in five countries in Europe and North America. The study’s findings provide a case study in how discourse operates at the microsociological level. It provides examples of how community members engage with, accept, and contest both new and established “truth statements” and discursive practices. They demonstrate that both participants’ formal and informal information behaviors...
TL;DR: This paper used data from the U.S. Current Population Survey to compare library use rates of Native American households to rates of Anglo households and found that Native Americans still lag behind Anglos in public library use rate.
Abstract: Library services to Native Americans have expanded greatly in the past several decades, but more work still needs to be done to provide for the information needs of Native Americans. Data from the U.S. Current Population Survey were used to compare library use rates of Native American households to rates of Anglo households. Results show that Native Americans still lag behind Anglos in public library use rates. Of households that report library use, Native Americans are more likely to engage in certain types of library use than are Anglos. Socioeconomic and geographic variables are indicated as factors in the lower library use rates of Native American households. Study results could be useful for groups working to improve Native American library and information services.
TL;DR: The public library is a product of modernity that follows in the wake of industrialization, urbanization, and popular movements, while at the same time the public library itself supports the building up and development of the modern as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The public library is a product of modernity that follows in the wake of industrialization, urbanization, and popular movements, while at the same time the public library itself supports the building up and development of the modern. This article will examine the arrival of modernity and the prerequisites for the rise of public libraries, as well as some crucial aspects of the relationship between the public library and modernity. Furthermore, by means of contributions from recent significant sociologists, such as Anthony Giddens, Jean‐Francois Lyotard, and Scott Lash, we shall discuss the implications of the development of late modern or postmodern society for the present public library.
TL;DR: The authors traces historical uses of the phrase "why girls go wrong" to provide a context for analysis of Progressive Era reading guidance for girls and then turns to actual girls' responses to reading.
Abstract: This article traces historical uses of the phrase “why girls go wrong” to provide a context for analysis of Progressive Era reading guidance for girls and then turns to actual girls’ responses to reading. The historic context depicts the milieu in which young women and the advisors who sought to guide them lived and read as a time of intense concern with adolescent female sexual activity. Further, the era also witnessed suspicion about the way that public spaces were used, particularly by women and girls. Librarians constructed, through arguments that selected titles that represented persuasively pure and feminine ideals, a female sphere in the public library. Images of the early twentieth‐century library as a wholesome, protective space for young women acknowledged contemporary social issues and responded to ensure that the bookish domains would be seen as appropriate venues for adolescent girls.
TL;DR: In this paper, the results of a study of leadership diversity in large, urban public libraries were presented, which indicated that diversity-related activities and programs have been implemented in a high percentage of the libraries.
Abstract: Diversity has been identified as a priority in library and information services for some time. The limited published research on diversity programs in libraries, though, has focused on academic libraries. This article represents the results of a study of leadership diversity in large, urban public libraries. In the study of members of the Urban Libraries Council, data were gathered with regard to programs related to diversity awareness, staffing, collections, and information services. The research results indicate that diversity‐related activities and programs have been implemented in a high percentage of the libraries. However, the level of focus on areas such as retention has not been as consistent, as is the case with the provision of library services and collection development, for example. The research results also indicate the relationship between organizational leadership and administrative structure and activities related to operationalizing diversity in public libraries.
TL;DR: The E-Measures Project as discussed by the authors, which included fifteen UK higher education libraries, sought to establish a reliable set of electronic resource measures for inclusion in the Society of College, National, and University Libraries (SCONUL) Annual Statistics alongside traditional library usage measures.
Abstract: As an applied research center in the United Kingdom, Evidence Base’s interest in usage statistics for electronic resources (e-resources) began with the E-Measures Project in 2003 [1]. With funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), the E-Measures Project, which included fifteen UK higher education libraries, sought to establish a reliable set of electronic resource measures for inclusion in the Society of College, National, and University Libraries (SCONUL) Annual Statistics [2] alongside traditional library usage measures. SCONUL collects and publishes statistics from UK university libraries on an annual basis and has accumulated an important set of data that charts library developments over a number of years. It was clear that the shift to e-resources needed to be documented in some way if national library statistics were to continue to present a picture of the actual way in which libraries were operating in a digital age. There was also an interest in understanding how libraries themselves were collecting and reporting on their own use of e-resources.
TL;DR: This article used concepts from library and information science and strategy to build a theoretical model describing the relationships between the selection activities of corporate libraries and the competencies of their parent firms, finding that the breadth and depth of the parent corporations' intellectual strengths are supported by corporate library selection activity that is intense, moderately centralized, formalized, moderately specific, relatively open to user input, and highly automated.
Abstract: Many scholars and professionals have noted in recent years that the United States is experiencing a transformation to an economy based upon knowledge. However, researchers have only begun to explore how the essence of such an economy, the creation of wealth by organizations through their use of information, works empirically. This study provides such exploratory empirical research. It uses concepts from library and information science and strategy to build a theoretical model describing the relationships between the selection activities of corporate libraries and the competencies of their parent firms. The research results are testable statements of a theoretical model. These reveal that the breadth and depth of the parent corporations’ intellectual strengths are supported by corporate library selection activity that is intense, moderately centralized, formalized, moderately specific, relatively open to user input, and highly automated.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the skill and knowledge preferences of board members at three exemplary public libraries and the effect of contentious censorship controversies on these preferences, revealing a dramatic increase in the numbers highly valued by the board members during controversies and statistically significant changes in their collective value.
Abstract: Although single‐purpose boards and commissions have been used to provide public goods and services since the colonial era, little scholarly attention has been given to the leadership characteristics and behaviors required of their members. As a result, appointing officials and those considering appointment have had little systematic guidance concerning the skills associated with successful service. This study addresses this problem by exploring the skill and knowledge preferences of board members at three exemplary public libraries and the effect of contentious censorship controversies on these preferences. Analysis of the board members' assessments of twenty‐three commonly recognized leadership characteristics and behaviors reveals a dramatic increase in the numbers highly valued by the board members during controversies and statistically significant changes in their collective value. These findings suggest that assumptions concerning the experience and training that lead to effective public library boar...
TL;DR: The Committee on Conservation of Cultural Resources (CCR) as mentioned in this paper was established by the U.S. National Resources Planning Board to plan for the protection of federal cultural institutions during national emergencies.
Abstract: In March 1940 the U.S. National Resources Planning Board established the Committee on Conservation of Cultural Resources to plan for the protection of federal cultural institutions during national emergencies. The committee provided a mechanism to bring officials together to consider protective measures for and evacuation of valuable books, paintings, and artifacts well before the United States entered World War II. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the committee executed its plan to recommend protective action to cultural institutions nationwide. As a forerunner of interdepartmental cooperation, national emergency and preservation planning, and federal cultural leadership, the committee’s experience provides an early example of the challenges of disaster planning.