Sharpening the Search Saw: Lessons from Expert Searchers

Many students consider themselves to be proficient searchers and yet are disappointed or frustrated when faced with the task of locating relevant scholarly articles for a literature review. This bleak experience is common among higher education students, even for those in library and information science programs who have heightened appreciation for information resources and yet may settle for “good enough Googling” (Plosker, 2004, p. 34). This is in large part due to reliance on web search engines that have evolved relevance ranking into a vastly intelligent business, one in which we are both its customers and product (Vaidhyanathan, 2011). Google’s Hummingbird nest of search algorithms (Sullivan, 2013) provides quick and targeted hits, yet it can trigger blinders-on trust in first-page results. Concern for student search practices ranges from this permissive trust all the way to lost ability to recall facts and formulate questions (Abilock, 2015), lack of confidence in one’s own knowledge (Carr, 2010), and increased dependence on single search boxes that encourage stream-of-consciousness user input (Tucker, 2013); indeed, students may be high in tech savvy but lacking the critical thinking skills needed for information research tasks (Katz, 2007). Students have come to rely on web search engine intelligence—and it is inarguably colossal—to such an extent that they may fail to formulate a question before charging forward to search for its answer. “Google is known as a search engine, yet there is barely any searching involved anymore. The gap between a question crystallizing in your mind and an answer appearing at the top of your screen is shrinking all the time. As a consequence, our ability to ask questions is atrophying” (Leslie, 2015, para. 4). Highly accomplished students often lament their lack of skills for higher-level searching that calls for formulating pointed questions when struggling to develop a solid literature review. In addition, many are unaware that search results are filtered based on previous searches, location, and other factors extracted from personal search patterns by the search engine. Two students working side by side and entering the same search terms may receive quite different results on Google, yet the extent to which this ‘filter bubble’ (Pariser, 2011) is personalizing their search results is difficult to assess and to overcome. Just as important, it can be impossible to know what a search might be missing: how to know what’s not there? This portrayal of the information landscape may appear gloomy but, in fact, it could not be a more inspiring environment in which to do research, to find connections in ideas, and to benefit from and generate new ideas. A few lessons from expert searchers, focused on critical concepts and search practices, can sharpen a student’s search saw and move the proficient student-researcher, desiring more relevant and comprehensive search results, into a trajectory toward search expertise. For the lessons involved in this journey, the focus is on two areas: first, the critical concepts— called threshold concepts (Meyer & Land, 2003)— found to be necessary for developing search expertise (Tucker et al., 2014); and, second, four strategic areas within search that can have significant and immediate impact on improving search results for research literature. The latter are grounded in the threshold concepts and positioned for application to literature reviews for graduate student studies

Do nondomain experts enlist the strategies of domain experts?

User studies demonstrate that nondomain experts do not use the same information-seeking strategies as domain experts. Because of the transformation of integrated library systems into Information Gateways in the late 1990s, both nondomain experts and domain experts have had available to them the wide range of information-seeking strategies in a single system. This article describes the results of a study to answer three research questions: (1) do nondomain experts enlist the strategies of domain experts? (2) if they do, how did they learn about these strategies? and (3) are they successful using them? Interviews, audio recordings, screen captures, and observations were used to gather data from 14 undergraduate students who searched an academic library's Information Gateway. The few times that the undergraduates in this study enlisted search strategies that were characteristic of domain experts, it usually took perseverance, trial-and-error, serendipity, or a combination of all three for them to find useful information. Although this study's results provide no compelling reasons for systems to support features that make domain-expert strategies possible, there is need for system features that scaffold nondomain experts from their usual strategies to the strategies characteristic of domain experts.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/35291/1/10281_ftp.pd

Data-Seeking Behaviour in the Social Sciences

Purpose: Publishing research data for reuse has become good practice in recent years. However, not much is known on how researchers actually find said data. In this exploratory study, we observe the information-seeking behaviour of social scientists searching for research data to reveal impediments and identify opportunities for data search infrastructure. Methods: We asked 12 participants to search for research data and observed them in their natural environment. The sessions were recorded. Afterwards, we conducted semi-structured interviews to get a thorough understanding of their way of searching. From the recordings, we extracted the interaction behaviour of the participants and analysed the spoken words both during the search task and the interview by creating affinity diagrams. Results: We found that literature search is more closely intertwined with dataset search than previous literature suggests. Both the search itself and the relevance assessment are very complex, and many different strategies are employed, including the creatively "misuse" of existing tools, since no appropriate tools exist or are unknown to the participants. Conclusion: Many of the issues we found relate directly or indirectly to the application of the FAIR principles, but some, like a greater need for dataset search literacy, go beyond that. Both infrastructure and tools offered for dataset search could be tailored more tightly to the observed work processes, particularly by offering more interconnectivity between datasets, literature, and other relevant materials

The Information-seeking Strategies of Humanities Scholars Using Resources in Languages Other Than English

ABSTRACT THE INFORMATION-SEEKING STRATEGIES OF HUMANITIES SCHOLARS USING RESOURCES IN LANGUAGES OTHER THAN ENGLISH by Carol Sabbar The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2016 Under the Supervision of Dr. Iris Xie This dissertation explores the information-seeking strategies used by scholars in the humanities who rely on resources in languages other than English. It investigates not only the strategies they choose but also the shifts that they make among strategies and the role that language, culture, and geography play in the information-seeking context. The study used purposive sampling to engage 40 human subjects, all of whom are post-doctoral humanities scholars based in the United States who conduct research in a variety of languages. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and research diaries in order to answer three research questions: What information-seeking strategies are used by scholars conducting research in languages other than English? What shifts do scholars make among strategies in routine, disruptive, and/or problematic situations? And In what ways do language, culture, and geography play a role in the information-seeking context, especially in the problematic situations? The data were then analyzed using grounded theory and the constant comparative method. A new conceptual model – the information triangle – was used and is presented in this dissertation to categorize and visually map the strategies and shifts. Based on data collected, thirty distinct strategies were identified and divided into four categories: formal system, informal resource, interactive human, and hybrid strategies. Three types of shifts were considered: planned, opportunistic, and alternative. Finally, factors related to language, culture, and geography were identified and analyzed according to their roles in the information-seeking context. This study is the first of its kind to combine the study of information-seeking behaviors with the factors of language, culture, and geography, and as such, it presents numerous methodological and practical implications along with many opportunities for future research

Perceived Usability of Online Library Resources Among First-Year Students

This paper describes a mixed methods usability study of the UNC Libraries website in the context of first-year writing courses, which are required for undergraduate students at UNC-Chapel Hill. The study used a survey and contextual interviews to investigate the perceived usability and user experience of the UNC Libraries website for first-year writing students. First-year students who were taking the first-year writing courses ENGL 105 or 105i were surveyed about their use of and perceptions of the UNC Libraries website as they encountered it in their first-year writing course. Contextual interview participants were recruited from the pool of survey respondents. In the contextual interview sessions, participants were asked to complete several tasks designed to be similar to those associated with completing coursework. Survey and contextual interview data indicate that users are able to complete course-related tasks using the current UNC library website; however, their perceived usability and experience was not great.Master of Science in Information Scienc

พฤติกรรมการแสวงหาสารสนเทศเพื่อการทำวิจัยของบุคลากรมหาวิทยาลัยมหาสารคาม

บทคัดย่อ การวิจัยนี้มีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่อศึกษาพฤติกรรมการแสวงหาสารสนเทศ ปัญหาและความต้องการสารสนเทศและการบริการสารสนเทศเพื่อการวิจัยของบุคลากรมหาวิทยาลัยมหาสารคาม รวมทั้งพัฒนาแนวทางการพัฒนาทรัพยากรสารสนเทศและและการบริการสารสนเทศเพื่อการวิจัยของสำนักวิทยบริการ มหาวิทยาลัยมหาสารคาม กลุ่มตัวอย่างที่ใช้ในการวิจัย คือ บุคลากรของมหาวิทยาลัยมหาสารคาม จำนวน 149 คน ซึ่งคัดเลือกแบบเจาะจง เครื่องมือที่ใช้ในการวิจัย คือ แบบสอบถาม สถิติที่ใช้ในการวิเคราะห์ข้อมูล คือ ค่าร้อยละ ค่าเฉลี่ย และส่วนเบี่ยงเบนมาตรฐาน ผลการวิจัยพบว่า  บุคลากรมหาวิทยาลัยมหาสารคามส่วนใหญ่มีพฤติกรรมแสวงหาสารสนเทศจากแหล่งที่ใกล้และสะดวกในการเข้าใช้ ได้แก่ อินเทอร์เน็ต/ฐานข้อมูลออนไลน์ เครื่องมือที่ใช้ในการแสวงหาสารสนเทศมากที่สุด คือ คอมพิวเตอร์ส่วนบุคคล แหล่งสารสนเทศที่ใช้มากที่สุด คือ เอกสารอ้างอิงและบรรณานุกรมท้ายเล่มหนังสือและบทความวารสาร เกณฑ์การประเมินสารสนเทศที่ใช้มากที่สุด คือ ความน่าเชื่อถือ นอกจากนี้บุคลากรส่วนใหญ่เคยเข้าใช้บริการในห้องสมุดและมีความถี่ในการเข้าใช้ 1-5 ครั้ง/สัปดาห์ ความต้องการและการใช้บริการของห้องสมุดเพื่อการวิจัย พบว่า โดยรวม บุคลากรใช้บริการของห้องสมุดอยู่ในระดับน้อย มีการใช้วัสดุตีพิมพ์อยู่ในระดับปานกลาง ส่วนโสตทัศนวัสดุมีการใช้ในระดับน้อยมาก มีการใช้บริการสารสนเทศเพื่อการวิจัยโดยรวมอยู่ในระดับปานกลาง โดยใช้บริการสอนการสืบค้นสารสนเทศเพื่อการวิจัยอยู่ในระดับมาก บุคลากรส่วนใหญ่ไม่ประสบปัญหาในการแสวงหาสารสนเทศเพื่อการวิจัย สำหรับผู้ที่ประสบปัญหาและอุปสรรค พบว่า บุคลากรไม่ทราบแหล่งสารสนเทศเพื่อการวิจัย ปัญหาสารสนเทศเก่าล้าสมัย และไม่มีสารสนเทศที่ต้องการในห้องสมุด ส่วนแหล่งสารสนเทศอินเทอร์เน็ตและเครือข่ายสังคมออนไลน์ มีปัญหาเรื่องความล่าช้าของสัญญาณอินเทอร์เน็ต บุคลากรมีความต้องการให้สำนักวิทยบริการสนับสนุนการดำเนินการวิจัย โดยต้องการสิ่งพิมพ์อิเล็กทรอนิกส์ในระดับมาก ต้องการใช้บริการสารสนเทศเพื่อการวิจัย ได้แก่ บริการสอนการสืบค้นสารสนเทศเพื่อการวิจัยอยู่ในระดับมาก แนวทางในการพัฒนาทรัพยากรสารสนเทศและบริการสารสนเทศ ได้แก่ การจัดหาทรัพยากรสารสนเทศให้ครอบคลุมทุกสาขาวิชาตามความต้องการของนักวิจัยให้มากขึ้น ทรัพยากรสารสนเทศควรมีรูปแบบอิเล็กทรอนิกส์มากขึ้น และการบริการสารสนเทศเพื่อการวิจัยของบุคลากรควรจัดให้มีบริการสอนการสืบค้นสารสนเทศและบริการเพื่อการวิจัยให้มากขึ้น     ABSTRACT This research aims to study the information seeking behavior of Mahasarakham University staffs, in the aspect of the problems and needs of information and information services for research, and to find the guideline for developing information resources and information services of the Academic Resource Center, Mahasarakham University. The samples of this study were 149 university staffs, selected by purposive sampling. The questionnaire was used to collect data and the statistical used to analyze the data were percentage, means and standard deviation. The research findings revealed that: The majority of staffs of Mahasarakham University seek information from internet/ online databases/search engine which is easy to access. They mostly used personal computers (PC) to search for information. Almost of the searching started from reference or a bibliography that appeared at the end of the book / journal and most of information is evaluated by the reliability (author, publisher). Most of staffs used to walk in and access to library services and frequency of access was 1-5 times/week. The level of using information services was found in low level as a whole. Therefore, the information seeking for printed material was in the moderate level, the research report was in high level. But the information seeking for non-printed material was in low level in all types. Most of the staffs used library services in the moderate level and the information retrieval service was at a high level. Most of staffs do not face the problem of seeking information for research. For those who encounter problems and obstacles was found that they do not know where the research are, moreover the problem of information which were old and not up to date, and there was no information needed in the library. In term of Internet resources and networking, there was a problem with the delay of the Internet signal. The majority of staffs wanted the university library support in information resources at the moderate level as a whole. They also needed electronics material, needed to use information services, and needed to use the research information retrieval service for research at a high level as well. The guideline for the development of information resources and library services such as to provide information resources cover all disciplines, based on the needs of the researchers; to acquire the electronic information resources should be electronic in higher ratio than printed and non-printed formats; and to service information for researchers in teaching information retrieval and more.   คำสำคัญ: พฤติกรรมการแสวงหาสารสนเทศ ความต้องการสารสนเทศ  นักวิจัย มหาวิทยาลัยมหาสารคาม Keywords: Information seeking behavior, Information need, Researcher, Mahasarakham Universit