A phenomenological study of new adult readers' participation in a community reading program

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on June 2, 2009).Vita.Thesis (Ph. D.) University of Missouri-Columbia 2008.This research presents a phenomenological study of readers who participated in a community reading program. It examines participatory education in the context of a community reading project hosted by a public library. Narrative interviews, observation, and document analysis were used to find the meaning of participation and reading for the literacy students and other program participants and instrumentalists. The study is theoretically informed by critical studies in education and society. Interviews indicated that the students in this study have had past negative experiences with education. They said that the literacy classroom was a positive step in ameliorating those past experiences. During this project, the students engaged in group reading and the discussion of literary fiction. Public library systems across the nation have followed Seattle's celebrated "Seattle Reads" project by inviting the city to read and discuss a book. One purpose of these programs is to strengthen community ties and to create a sense of universal understanding through the discussion of literary fiction. The literacy students in this study participated in such a program. This study utilized phenomenological methods in order to find the meaning of participation in a community reading project for two major groups: program instrumentalists, and new and experienced readers.Includes bibliographical reference

Connecting the Dots: Pedagogy and Student Belief about Reference Sources

Conference poster presented at the Association of Library & Information Science Education Conference, San Diego, CA.Conference poster on pedagogy and student beliefs about reference sources

Reference Librarians and LIS Students : Contrasting Views of Reference Source Training and Experience

An examination of students' and practitioners' attitudes towards, and uses of, various reference sources. Students found print sources to be educational, but use of print is waning. Many practitioners said learning specific sources was best done on the job, and felt new hires were better prepared to use online sources.Presentatio

Fiction access points across computer-mediated book information sources: A comparison of online bookstores, reader advisory databases, and public library catalogs.

One of a librarian's more difficult jobs may be helping patrons in an elusive search for a "good book." A variety of online sources are now available to help readers and librarians in their search, but the descriptive capabilities of the resources vary widely. Library and information science (LIS) literature has suggested many schemes and access points for fiction classification. This study compared the records for identical books in a variety of computer-mediated book information sources (CMBIS) in order to find out which resources utilized the access points identified in LIS literature. Results from this study suggest that online bookstores may be effective tools for librarians helping patrons find "good" books, due to their increased use of access points. However, reader advisory databases, which contain reviews and subject headings, are occasionally more effective than online bookstores for identifying books published prior to the 1990s.Post-printIncludes bibliographical references

Looking for a Good Book : Searching for Fiction using Computer-Mediated Retrieval Mechanisms

Poster presented at the conference of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, Austin, TX.Poster presented at the conference of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, Austin, TX

Envisioning the future of reference instruction : LIS students' and practitioners' opinions on print and online sources.

Though we discuss the phenomenon of ‘information overload’ due to the Internet, the shift to the Internet for fact-finding and research is really another variation on a continued theme in reference service: too many sources. The bloated reference collection of the past resulted in a “needle in the haystack” phenomenon. Librarians couldn’t know the entire collection,2 and users couldn’t find what they wanted because of an overwhelming abundance of choices. Today’s spare print reference collection is a response to an abundance of online resources and a shift in where our users are: less inside our walls, more outside. More and more, libraries are depending on online sources (databases and the free Web) to fill out their reference collection. This variety of online resources is just as confusing to the patron (and the novice librarian) as those larger print collections were earlier.Post-printIncludes bibliographical references

Looking for a Good Book : Searching for Fiction using Computer-Mediated Retrieval Mechanisms Handout

Handout distributed during poster presentation at the conference of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, Austin, TX.Handout distributed during a poster session at the conference of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, Austin, TX

Communication overload: a phenomenological inquiry into academic reference librarianship

Postprint of an article published in Journal of Documentation. Published article may be found at doi:10.1108/00220411211255996Purpose: This study provides insight on the meaning of communication overload as experienced by modern academic librarians. Communication is the essence of reference librarianship, and a practically endless array of synchronous and asynchronous communication tools (ICTs) are available to facilitate communication. Design/methodology/approach: This study relied on a phenomenological methodology, which included nine in-depth interviews with academic librarians. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using RQDA, a qualitative analysis software package that facilitates coding, category building, and project management. Findings: Seven themes about librarianship emerged from this research: Attending to Communication Abundance, Librarians of Two Types, Instruction Not Reference, Twenty-first Century Librarianship, User Needs, Trusted Methods: Filter Not Retrieve, and Self-Impact. The shared meaning of communication overload, among these librarians, is that it is a problem when it detracts from or hinders their ability to assist their users. Practical implications: Further research should contribute to an understanding of communication as a problem when it interferes with serving the librarians' users, or to an understanding of interpersonal communication within the librarians' organizational structures and in their broader professional networks. Social implications: Research in popular psychology has focused on the negative impacts on productivity and concentration of living in an always-plugged-in environment. This research confirms that librarians should have time to work away from digital distractions to maintain job satisfaction. Originality/value: Important work by Radford and Dervin has focused on communication with users. This study focuses on the impact of ICTs on librarians' work and personal lives

Storing and sharing wisdom and traditional knowledge in the library

Traditional library practice focuses on print collections and developing collections of materials that have been published, which means the documents have gone through some kind of review or vetting process. This practice leaves a wide swath of potential knowledge out of the collection. For example, indigenous knowledge, beliefs, and experience are different, in that they do not undergo the same review or vetting process; we might refer to these types of content as wisdom. Non-print collections, such as collections of recorded oral histories, represent less traditional forms of knowledge. Human libraries push the boundaries further in the quest to integrate wisdom and lived experience into library collections. This paper delineates the relationship between wisdom and knowledge that arose during a phenomenological study of the everyday information practices of Kenyan university women. The women were asked to photograph everyday events from their life and describe what they saw. One finding was a divergent presentation of wisdom and knowledge. Because the women were describing this in relation to their education, we assert that this demonstrates a need to reconsider positivist assumptions in library science, bringing what the women called wisdom into the stacks. How, though, can wisdom be stored and shared?Includes bibliographical references

Discovery systems as convergence : a systematic review of the research literature on an emerging library technology

Discovery systems were developed in 2009 and bring together the results from disparate databases such as the library catalog, electronic article databases, and ebook packages (Open Discovery Initiative Working Group, 2014). ... Significance: Given the focus on academic settings, not all library types or users are represented in the literature, which points to a need for further research. This study demonstrates that the scholarly communications surrounding discovery systems are evolving, moving from technologists to a merging or converging of general responsibilities and concerns