Article Note: On Humanities Grad Students and their Information Seeking Behavior

Citation for the article:

Barrett, Andy. "The Information-Seeking Habits of Graduate Student Researchers in the Humanities." The Journal of Academic Librarianship 31.4 (July 2005): 324-331.

I read this article via Omnifile.

This article seemed a good complement to the article on information literacy for humanities researchers I read some weeks ago. In his introduction, Barrett points out that most of the literature on the topic at hand has focused on humanities undergraduate students or humanities faculty. According to Barrett, "humanities graduate students, however, have received little attention from library researchers, and as a consequence their information-seeking habits are often assumed to resemble those of either faculty or undergraduates" (324). We don't have graduate programs in Humanities at my university; however, since Arts and Humanities is my area of specialization, I was interested in the article. The fact that I was a graduate student in a Humanities field also added to my interest.

The study is an exploration of information-seeking behaviors of graduate students. It uses models from undergraduate and faculty behaviors as reference. Barrett says that "the guiding research question was, 'do the information seeking habits of humanities graduate students distinguish them from faculty and undergraduate models? If so, how?'" (325). The study's data comes from interviews with a small sample (10) of graduate students in humanities including MA and PhD participants. As I read the article, I found myself recalling my experiences as a graduate student in English. This was because a lot of the behaviors described in the article were behaviors I had or could relate to.

The interview questions asked about the following topics: uses of electronic information sources, interpersonal contacts, range of sources consulted, information retrieval strategies, and how research projects are initiated. The article presents the results and provides a discussion. Barrett discovers that some aspects of information-seeking behavior are specific to the graduate students. He writes that "although there are substantial areas that overlap, the model of graduate information-seeking behavior that emerges from this study is not a clear reflection of either faculty or undergraduate models" (329). Some of the examples of this that Barrett gives include:

• Like faculty, graduate students "are interested in primary materials and will travel to remote locations to obtain access to them" (329).
• Like undergraduates, graduate students "regularly use electronic information technology and often utilize generic Internet search engines to find general information on a topic" (330).
  
• Unlike undergraduates and faculty, graduate students "deal with time pressures unique to the progression of their programs, including comprehensive examination schedules, prospective deadlines, and expectations of timely project progression and completion" (330).
  

Barrett concludes by stating the significance of these findings for librarians. He suggests that librarians should approach their service to these graduate students in terms of "zones of intervention." This is based on the idea that a graduate student will make a certain progress from his MA to the PhD in established stages. According to Barrett, "by recognizing patterns in humanities graduate student research behavior at particular program stages, librarians can better provide key services to targeted groups" (330).

On Bridges, 2.0 and Other Thoughts About Being Caught in the Middle

A few days ago, I read Rachel Singer Gordon's column from Library Journal "The 'Bridge' Generation". I found it from reading Meredith Farkas's blog under the cool things she found this week. Meredith also wrote about the Web 2.0 backlash. Initially when I read about the 2.0 backlash I was tempted to stay away from the whole thing. I tend to stay away from things I know the experts will pick up, but given the back and forth between the 2.0 gurus and those who have not quite caught up, let's go with the 1.0 label for now, I finally caved in because I need to work some of this out for myself. So here goes.

I don't think the whole issue is so much that the Web 2.0 advocates don't defend the concept. I think they actually defend it very well. In fact, they do so a bit too well. That may be part of the problem. At times, the advocates seem to say you are with us or against us. They say you should be doing X or Y and wonder why the rest of us don't see it as self-evident. The ones who think it is hype only seem to get their suspicions that it is all hype confirmed. The nature of the conversation has been confrontational from the start. I am sure the 2.0 advocates did not intend it that way, but by taking an attitude of "this is best, here is why, and you will fall behind if you don't adopt (or adapt)," it just makes others question and say "oh, really?"

I have mixed feelings about the whole Library 2.0 thing. Like Meredith, I have read the many wonderful reports about technology folks and libraries. What concerns me is when the attitude of join us or be square seems to seep into some of the conversations. Technology is a wonderful thing, but it is a tool, and it has to work. I think what happens very often is someone reports something great, a whole lot of other people pick up on it, and they all proclaim that we should all be doing this. As I sit here typing, I realize we never hear of the ones who tried X or Y and fell flat when it did not work for them. I am sure they are out there. Again, I don't think the confrontational tone is intentional, but it can often come across that way. In part it is because many of these authors may not recognize that not all libraries have great funding or techno-adventurous staff. Now, I will grant that a lot of the tools mentioned around Library 2.0 are Web-based and free, so the cost in that sense is not an issue; possible costs in terms of staff time is a separate deal. Michael Stephens, of Tame the Web, recently made 5 Suggestions for Upgrading to Library 2.0. My initial reaction was "that seems nice, but it leaves things out." For instance, his suggestion of sending folks to places like the Gaming Symposium, while idealistic, may not be very practical in terms of funding. My case is a perfect example. If I told my library director that I wanted to form a "think tank" for technology issues and send three other people and me to a few symposia and conferences like Michael suggests, my director would probably flash me a very nice smile and diplomatically tell me that there's no money for that. Pure and simple. That's just one example.

Then there is the element of buy-in, which I think is where much of the issue comes in. The advocates in their rush to have the latest don't convince or educate others very well. The HigherEd BlogCon that Meredith highlights will likely address some of this, though I wonder how much of it will be preaching to the choir. What I would really be interested in is what the participants will bring back to their institutions. How exactly will they move to educate others to show that, in spite of the hype, there are some very useful things libraries should at least consider? This is a question I learned to ask as a teacher consultant for the National Writing Project. In that program, a large part of the thrust was on what would we take back to our schools or institutions and how we would implement what we learned. As for the question, notice I used the word "consider." While I am all for collaborative spaces, better service and access, and more openness, I don't assume (or try not to assume) every library has to have every new 2.0 toy or gadget. What may work for you may not work for me. That's all I would ask, that those in the vanguard don't disregard those still in 1.0 or below.

And this takes me back to Rachel's article, for you see, I am Generation X. When I was an udergraduate, my library had a card catalog I learned to use. They were gradually phasing it out. I am caught in the middle and because of that, I feel for those in Library 1.0 because they helped to shape a part of how I am today. I also feel for the 2.0 crowd because I love new challenges and ideas; I do like trying out new toys, but I am by no means an early adopted. I will get there when I get there, thank you very much. In the end, we all share one thing in common: our desire to serve others to the best of our ability. That should be the principle that guides us. Rachel notess that the boomers need to share their knowledge with the rest of us. I will go on to say that the 2.0 folks need to do the same as well, in a wise way. It has to be a true conversation. As long as the tone, or undertone, remains confrontational, you can't have dialogue. It's time both sides reached across the aisle and across other zones. Stephen Cohen studying the wisdom of crowds and going outside the comfort zones. While he is arguing from a 2.0 point of view, advocating that we should be present at the places other professionals and experts outside of LIS are, he asked this question: "We are talking to each other and not anyone else beyond our "comfort" zone. Why aren't we bringing our ideas and tools to non-librarians?" I think some are talking to each other, and a few are just either listening, or trying to make sense of the talk. Reaching out will involve getting out of the comfort zone.

Maybe for me anyways, writing about this is my small way to try to open a bridge. Being in the middle as an educator is not a bad place to be if I can learn from both ends as well as teach what little I may know. If I can truly accomplish this, I may be getting somewhere.

As I was about to wrap up, it seems the whole 2.0 thing exploded over the weekend if my Bloglines feeds were any indication. I found at least three different posts on the topic here, here, and here. It may get interesting yet.

Update note (at 11:54a): I came across this post on Updating your buzzwords from Creating Passionate Users. The humor is good, but I think it catches some of what I was thinking about. At any rate, worth reading. I found it through the ACRLog. I went ahead and subscribed to Passionate, at least to try it out.

Article Note: On Blogging as Tool, but Really About Using RSS

Citation for article:

Bhatt, Jay. "Blogging as a Tool: Innovative Approaches to Information Access." Library HiTech News 22.9 (2005): 28-32.

I read this article via Emerald.

When I picked up this short piece, I thought from the title that it was yet another article on blogs and how good they are. In other words, I thought it was another gospel article. However, as I began to read through it, it turns out that the article is actually a look at rss applications for engineering students and faculty. The real focus of the article is how to make use of rss to keep up with research in engineering and biomedical sciences. It's focus is on the experience at Drexel University. While the article gives the usual ideas for using blogs and rss in an academic library such as using a blog to announce new books and using rss, the real thrust of the article is the integration with the subject field. For example, the article discusses how to use rss to keep up with the results of search queries from databases. Before, one usually had to set e-mail alerts; now, you can do this with feeds and a Bloglines account. The article also discusses in brief the need to integrate rss with courseware like WebCT. The only drawback of the article is the writing style. I found it to be extremely cluttered, and at times a bit difficult to read because it did not seem well written. However, the information is valuable, especially to librarians in engineering and technology, which is why I will be passing this article along to our Engineering Technology Librarian. It does include a nice list at the end of various feeds in the field of engineering and biomedical engineering that may be of interest to specialists.

On Why I Blog, a Response

Chad, of Library Voice, recently had a graduate student ask him some questions about blogging. He shared the answers to the student's questions in his post. Since he wrote that he was interested in how other bloggers might answer the question, and since I can't resist a writing prompt, here are my responses to the questions that were posted. Some of the readers may have seen my recent post on what I have learned about blogging, a brief piece that may shed a bit more light about why I do this. So, here goes.

• When did you begin to blog, and why?
  
• The Gypsy Librarian began his journey on March 17, 2005 (St. Patrick's Day, but it was just coincidence). His unruly cousin, The Itinerant Librarian, jumped in a month later on April 29, 2005. My first reason to start was because it seemed a cool thing to do. I wanted to have an extension of my personal writing, a workshop space if you will. Now I do it because it is a form of professional development. I can reflect on my craft, keep track of articles and books I read, and wonder about how things work. I can also have a record of how I think and how the thinking has evolved over time. I need to write to make meaning, and this helps me out. Now, why two blogs? Well, my "unruly" blog is basically the "everything else" blog. The Gypsy Librarian is my mostly LIS blog. It's for professional issues and librarian concerns as well as related topics like literacy, instruction, education, and academic areas, particularly within my subject areas. It's the blog I would take to ALA or some librarian gathering. The Itinerant Librarian is the blog I would take to paint the town as they say. That is where I rant now and then, write about other topics of interest not quite academic, have fun and humor, and now and then let loose. It is also the place where I would put posts about topics not discussed in polite company. Both blogs reflect me, just different moments or moods.
• Does your job require a blog, or is it your own personal choice?
  
• No, it is not a job requirement. Heck, I am not even sure how aware my coworkers are that I blog. It's no secret; both blogs have my name, but I don't actively advertise them. I think my boss has read a post here and there since she once sent me an e-mail with a comment. A couple other colleagues have mentioned reading a blog of mine. I know they use Bloglines, so my guess is I am probably on their feed reader. Overall, I do this out of personal choice, and first of all, I do it for my personal growth and learning, plus there is the fun element, especially at The Itinerant Librarian.
  
• Do you write your blogs at work or elsewhere?
  
• A little of both. I do some professional reading at work, so I usually make notes as I read, then write a draft. The draft may get put on the blog right away, or I may save it and do the actual post at home. Or I write something at home, but post from work the next morning. Other things, short and quick, I post as inspiration hits. I feel free to blog at work because the "staying current" and learning elements of my job are very important. The blog is an essential tool in the Instruction Librarian's toolbox. to be honest, if for some reason the bosses told me not to do it, I would be very disappointed (not to mention I might think I need a better workplace). However, other duties do trump blogging.
  
• One thing I don't do, at least not yet, is live blog if I travel to conferences, and I definitely unplug when I am out on personal travel or vacation. I spend more than enough time online at work and a good amount at home (when not spending quality time with the missus and the little one). So, when I travel, I take my journal and pen with me in case I want to make a note of something interesting. For professional travel, I leave the live blogging at conferences and such to the "experts." I prefer to put the computer down and look around. This does not mean I am luddite. On the contrary, if it is a conference with an online component or that requires use of a computer there, sure, I will participate and jump on the computer. Otherwise, I am unplugging for I believe there have to be moments one should be unplugged. Now people who blog conferences do provide a great service, but I usually just take notes, which I then reflect on, then post after making some meaning of the notes and the learning experience. Will this change? Not likely. There are plenty of big bloggers out there who are connected 24-7, so I can afford my moments of peace offline when I travel.
  
• What is the purpose or aim of the blog?
  
• For The Gypsy Librarian, professional development and education, a librarian tool. For The Itinerant Librarian, some education, but mostly a more personal space.
  
• Does your company have any policies or guidelines about blogging?
  
• Not at the moment, and I don't foresee it happening soon (though who knows, with all the litigiousness out there, it may happen sooner than one thinks). Even though our library now has its own library blog, it is still considered to be experimental, so there are no firm rules. When the decision was made to implement it, it was left up to the Web librarian and the Director as the main content writers, and others could jump in if they felt that they wanted to take a chance. I requested access to post on it, but to be honest, have not given it much thought other than for news items, and they mostly do those. Maybe, then again, part of the reason I was a bit shy to post on the library blog is because it is the library's blog, namely an official organ. I can get away with things in my blogs I may not in an official publication. Having said that, my hopes are going up as the Web Librarian suggested the possibility to make a second blog for books and media. It is to be a way to highlight new items, but I suggested we can also add other content, so we'll see. If we can get others to post the occasional note on what they read or look over, we may have something. I know I read a lot, so I can likely put a note now and then in addition to some other ideas. I think I am more ready now to post in there as well. Another idea I was toying with was posts for instruction or reference, more like little things here and there that would be useful for students, like tips on research, a new tool or database, ideas for assignments, etc. This would draw on my experiences with classes I teach as well as from my work at the desk. At the moment, just an idea I am toying with. Not sure if it will take off or not yet. Maybe if I run it by someone? We'll see.
  
• Personally, my policy is not to blog about anything that may reflect poorly, namely the "don't post anything you may not want a future employer to see" rule. It's not out of restraint, but it is more out of the belief that if you don't have anything nice to say, you should not say anything at all. Also, I stand by what I write, which is why I am not anonymous. Like Chad says, it "keeps me honest."
  
• Are your blogs monitored by your organization?
  
• Other than the occasional readers I mentioned above, the answer is no as far as I know. If they started monitoring, it would not bother me since I made it clear my blogs are mine; they represent my personal views. You know, the whole "these blogs represent the views of the author, and in no way represent or pretend to represent the views, policies, and positions of the author's library or university" thing.
  
• What inspires you to blog?
  
• A lot of things inspire me to blog. What I read. Things I may see going on around me. The blogosphere if I see a good idea or prompt. Current events. My students. My occasional road trips, and so on. Now that I have been at it for a while, albeit a short time, many good writers in the biblioblogosphere (the part of the blogosphere the LIS people seem to hang out in) inspire me to continue blogging. And the hope, infinitesimal as it may be, that on some distant planet and some far future, that someone somewhere might read some of my posts and find them interesting.
  
• Do other members of your organization blog?
  
• The Web Librarian and the Director maintain the library's blog. As I noted above, I may start collaborating on that soon. The Director also maintains a Business News blog (you can find it through the link above to the library's blog too), which is designed to feature library related news in accounting, finance, business and related areas for the campus community. In terms of individual blogs, one of my colleagues mentioned she once had a blog, but she is not maintaining it. Thus, as far as I know, no one else here blogs (or they keep it a secret). It could change, but given the hectic schedules and constrained schedules, I don't see a rush of other librarians embracing blogs. While I would like to challenge them or dare them to try it, I know they are busy people. So am I. There is one of my colleagues I think I might be able to work on to get blogging. If any of them read this, I will just let them guess who I am referring to.
  
• Is blogging for you an act of self-empowerment?
  
• Getting a bit philosophical now, aren't we? I suppose it is. Learning and making meaning are very powerful experiences. In my case, there is a bit of subversiveness and risk-taking as well in the acts of blogging. That can be empowering and exciting. I don't have a huge voice or influence, so I am empowered in the sense that blogging works for me and for the readers who find my musings interesting or amusing. Yet it is more than self-empowerment. On a good day, I find wonder, and I experience an epiphany now and then. On a great day, it's fight the power, man.
  
• Do you feel you can write about anything and not be judged? Have you ever "vented" or wrote about about negative feelings about your organization?
  
• Oh yea, I can write about anything because what does not end up online can always end up in my personal journal. As for being judged, I have no control over how others may see my writing. I am sure I get judged, but it honestly does not bother me. After all, people have tons of blogs to choose from. If they dislike mine, or the blogs are just not their thing, there are many blogs for any specific topic under the sun. With me, what you see or read is what you get. As for venting, I do that mostly in my personal journal. My mom used to say one does not air out dirty laundry. I see no sense in doing such in my blogs, tempting as it may be at times. Chad says that some may think this policy is cowardly, not to write about the negatives. I say on the contrary. The way of restraint is the brave way. After all, anyone can get an anonymous blog and vent aggressively, and with good precautions the odds of being found out are slim. But to resist the urge and remain calm and dignified even when those around you don't, now that is brave. It does not mean one does not confront when necessary. It's more like knowing when to be restrained and when to confront. Like Chad, I also prefer to deal with issues at the source. If I have a beef with someone, I tell them; I don't put it on my blog behind their back. Besides, that's what the anonymous blog is for (haha). No, I don't have an anonymous blog at the moment. Like Chad, I think the day I blog a problem, it would have to be huge.
  
• Do you feel like you are writing for yourself, or your audience?
  
• It's mainly for myself. It's my space to work things out, to reflect, and to see what I have learned and discovered. It can also be a place to have fun, to be quirky and playful at times. Blogging can be very liberating. As for audience, at the beginning I did not think about audience. I figured it would be a straggler here and there (you know, did a search on Google for some porn term and for some reason get my blog, haha? Actually, I have heard from people in the biblioblogosphere who have had just such a thing happen). However, I have heard from some nice and smart people in the biblioblogosphere, so I now also write for that audience in the hopes of adding to conversations here and there. But there's also another, more important reason. A librarian inspired me to become a librarian. For some reason she said, "you know? You'd make a good librarian." What do you know? I actually bought it, and I went to library school. My hope is that some day I will be able to inspire someone, and so I will have repaid her faith in me. What started out as a personal quest is now also a way to give something back to the profession and the community.
  

Information for Student Bloggers

I found out about this through the Resource Shelf. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, those great paladins of intellectual freedom in cyberspace, have put together an FAQ Sheet on Student Blogging. While it is focused on students in middle and high school, it also contains some good information for college students. One sample question is "what about blogging about my own private life?" Here is the EFF's answer:

"Keep in mind that whatever you post on a public blog can be seen by your friends, your enemies, your teachers, your parents, your ex, that Great Aunt who likes to pinch your cheeks like you're a baby, the admissions offices of schools and colleges to which you might apply, current and future potential employers, and anyone else with access to the Internet and a search engine. While you can change your blog post at any time, it may be archived by others. "

This is something that a lot of bloggers may not think about. There are options to blog anonymously, and you can visit EFF's site to learn about some of them. However, if you blog under your name and do so publicly, you really need to keep in mind that someone somewhere can and will see it, and this can include people with less than noble motives. This leads me to point out this other item. A lot of college students use the popular social service Facebook. Very often, students who use this service post on it all sorts of personal information, including the photos of the latest drunken party, and they do so thinking that only their friends may see their posts. Well, students and other users of Facebook may want to think again as some college administrators and even police may use the service to crack down on those doing illegal acts. This post talks about using Facebook to spy on college students. Regardless of where someone stands in regards to services like Facebook, users should be aware that any information they make public can be found, and stuff on Facebook, or any other social service like MySpace or MSN Spaces or Yahoo!'s 360 for instance, is no exception. The message here is be aware, be informed, and then act accordingly.

Update note (12/16/05, 3:30p): Coach Brown at A Passion for Teaching has a great post. He is a teacher who as an experiment decided to set up his own MySpace account and see what happens. He reports on the results here. I found the post through the Carnival of Education Week 45.