Producing Productive Public Library Programming for Older Adults: A Participatory Design Approach

As the Baby Boomer generation, a user group that is widely diverse in terms of culture, interests, and occupations, continues to age, it follows that there is a corresponding need for more public library programs and services to accommodate them. Unfortunately, unlike with children’s and young adult services that enjoy a long history of specialized research and education, there is little empirical research or education specific to older populations. (Further evidence of this can be seen in the ALISE research taxonomy which includes children’s and young adult services but makes no mention of older adults.) This means that practicing librarians may not be sufficiently equipped to determine what programming and services would best meet their older patrons’ needs. To deepen understanding as to how to best develop meaningful, targeted programming for older adults, this three-year qualitative study, funded by the Institute of Museum & Library Services, investigates the use of Participatory Design (PD) methods, specifically, those of Bonded Design (BD). BD is a PD methodology specifically developed to bring two disparate groups together in the shared experience of the design team to foster meaningful communication and interaction with the goal of designing more user-friendly products or services. In design teams consisting of librarians and older adults, facilitated by PD techniques such as brainstorming, prototyping, and consensus-building, both groups will engage in mutual learning by sharing expertise, in a collaborative process that encourages synergy through diversity. The poster will outline the start of the research process, including such concepts as ethics preparation and review and librarians-as-researchers

Using Universal Instructional Design to Teach the Fundamentals of LIS

As Library and Information Science (LIS) educational programs attract a large diversity of students in terms of demographics and disciplines, the Universal Instructional Design (UID) framework, with its emphasis on developing inclusive instructional methods to accommodate a multiplicity of learning styles, is advocated as a framework for teaching key LIS concepts, especially to new students

Web Portal Design Guidelines as Identified by Children through the Processes of Design and Evaluation

The Web is an important source of information for school projects, but young users do not always find it easy to locate relevant material. A critical factor in success is the portal through which they search or browse web content. Traditionally web portals have been designed by adults with young users in mind, but there is very little evidence that the latter make use of them. In this paper design guidelines are elaborated for such portals that are based upon focus group and operational evaluations by elementary school students of two prototype web portals designed by two intergenerational teams, each comprising elementary school students and adult designers. The evaluations offer strong support for involving children throughout the design process for portals that both in presentation and functionality reflect the cognitive and affective needs of young users rather than adults

Rethinking participatory design research in virtual environments: A case study

After the COVID-19-related closure of most institutions, including public libraries, in March 2020, there arose a need for significant modifications to research methods for an ongoing three-year IMLS-sponsored project investigating the use of participatory design techniques, specifically, Bonded Design (BD), to enable meaningful collaboration between public librarians and older adults in development of targeted programming and services. The foremost modification involves converting face-to-face design sessions to virtual, to allow older adults to participate from their homes. Shifting to a completely virtual environment actually benefits the participatory goals of this research; for example, by going virtual it is surmised that the possibilities for greater solicitation of non-library users for participation will broaden the perspectives and expertise of the design team and allow for the inclusion of the older adult participants in all aspects of the research design. However, this new reliance on technology to host low-tech activities within the shared space of the design team, and inherent in BD, has also introduced new complexities for planning: 1) the focus of investigation must remain on the efficacy of the BD methodology and not the hosting technologies; 2) as BD emphasizes equity among its members in recognition of the unique expertise each team member brings, librarian-researchers must devise ways of avoiding teacher-student hierarchies when helping those older adult participants who may experience difficulties using the technology; and 3) methods will need to be developed to support any participants not comfortable engaging in virtual environments due to issues such as privacy concerns. The proposed poster will highlight the above challenges and potential solutions, and in doing so, directly relates to the “resilience” and “inspiration” themes of the conference

Web Portal Design Guidelines as Identified by Children through the Processes of Design and Evaluation

The Web is an important source of information for school projects, but young users do not always find it easy to locate relevant material. A critical factor in success is the portal through which they search or browse web content. Traditionally web portals have been designed by adults with young users in mind, but there is very little evidence that the latter make use of them. In this paper design guidelines are elaborated for such portals that are based upon focus group and operational evaluations by elementary school students of two prototype web portals designed by two intergenerational teams, each comprising elementary school students and adult designers. The evaluations offer strong support for involving children throughout the design process for portals that both in presentation and functionality reflect the cognitive and affective needs of young users rather than adults

An exploratory review of research on cancer pain and informationrelated needs : what (little) we know

INTRODUCTION : Although much has been reported on cancer information needs, the literature is scant on cancer pain information-related needs. This might be prohibiting understanding of complex experiences of pain and fulfilment of information needs. An exploratory review of research on cancer pain and information-related needs is used to make suggestions for future research. The review reports on research themes, research designs and research gaps. METHOD : Key Library and Information Science, Healthcare and inter-disciplinary databases were searched for articles reporting on cancer pain and information-related needs. It is an exploratory review. ANALYSIS : Thematic analysis identified the following themes: people affected/studied, and the type, stage and care/treatment of cancer as well as care location. It also addressed the research designs including research approaches, research methods, means of data collection and sample sizes. RESULTS : Research on cancer pain and information-related needs are limited, scattered in terms of cancer type, stage, care/treatment and care location, and the research designs are often too compartmentalised and simplistic to fully appreciate the complexities of cancer pain and the difficulties in contextualising, recognising, expressing, acting-on / fulfilling, and re-assessing pain information-related needs. CONCLUSION : Suggestions are offered for further research embracing the commitment for palliative care of cancer pain and ensuring quality of life, enhanced research designs, the need to address the issue of differing terminologies on a broader extent between disciplines and in a narrower context, between patients and healthcare practitioners, and to explore means to address the complexity of cancer pain and cancer pain information-related needs.http://www.informationr.net/ir/22-1/isic/isic1621.htmlam2018Information Scienc

Bonded design in the university: Faculty and information technology professionals bonding through participatory design

The participatory design approach, Bonded Design (BD), originally developed for use with intergenerational teams provides the framework for the Faculty IT Liaison Program, a project initiated in a large research university to encourage meaningful interaction between faculty and IT professional staff. BD was chosen for its adaptable methodology and its purpose in bringing together two disparate groups in the shared experience of a design team. Study findings indicate that the Bonded Design approach promotes deeper understandings and the generation of design ideas and innovations that might not be considered in a homogeneous peer environment

The information-seeking behaviour of grade-three elementary school students in the context of a class project /

This qualitative phenomenological study is one of few that investigate the information-seeking behaviour of younger elementary school children. Recent cognitive research has established that there are considerable and rapid intellectual changes throughout childhood, meaning that studies and/or models outlining the information-seeking experiences of older students and adults might not identify, explain or address the unique information needs of younger elementary school students. The study, conducted over 14 weeks in Winter 2006 with 12 volunteer students from two grade-three classes within a Montreal elementary school sought to answer three research questions: 1) How do grade-three students seek information in support of a class project? 2) What are the barriers faced by grade-three students in seeking and using information? 3) Do any models of information-seeking behaviour in whole or in part inform a model specific to grade-three students? Six different types of data collection techniques were employed: participant observation, interviews with the students, class teacher and parents, questionnaires, self-evaluations, journals, and final projects. The study revealed that students in the earlier grades of elementary school are seeking and using information in both print and digital formats and experiencing difficulties in both media. In print, selection of materials was not straightforward nor was the location of information within them. Difficulties were encountered with the selection criteria and the use of metadata lists. In the digital domain, lack of strategic planning before starting a search, problems in generating search queries, spelling, keyboarding, and extracting information were observed. In addition to these problems, several barriers outside of the students' control were identified that impact on their information seeking on the Web (e.g. search engine design, lack of appropriate sites for young students, inefficient filtering systems) and in print (e.g. out-of- date and/or lack of print reference resources, classification and/or indexing schemes). Information culled from the Internet was rarely read in any depth on-screen; instead, the students printed the material in order to peruse it at a later time, much as they would with a book. The study provides insight into the barriers faced by children when seeking information, how they use information in an educational context, and how they can be helped to better exploit the information resources available to them, as well as a model of information-seeking behaviour specific to grade-three students

Information Literacy

Book description from publisher: Has the information behavior of children and youth changed significantly over the last two decades? The Information Behavior of a New Generation: Children and Teens in the 21st Century attempts to answer this question from a variety of viewpoints. Thirteen researchers from educational psychology, computer science, education, and information studies have contributed to eleven chapters on models of information behavior, the cognitive development of youth, information literacy, everyday information behavior, cyber-bullying, gaming in virtual environments, learning labs, social networks, intellectual disabilities, and current and future systems. Whether they are referred to as digital natives, the Google-generation, or generation M, today’s youth are active consumers and avid producers of digital information. Smart phones are the new generation’s communication tools, social networks are their interaction venues, and virtual environments are their new playgrounds. This new digital communication era has prompted researchers from a variety of disciplines to contribute to this book on the information behavior of children and teens. One of the many conclusions that may be drawn from the chapters in the book is that information behavior is a multifaceted phenomenon, evolving alongside the rapid developments in information and communication technologies. The new generation tends to multitask, managing many activities simultaneously, such as scanning for and skimming information, texting brief messages, and posting audio and visual information on social media. While children and teens are tech savvy, they lack certain information and media literacy skills essential in today’s digital environment. For researchers, the authors pose questions for further investigation in the hope that innovative services will be offered and novel systems will be developed to help the new generation. For teachers and information professionals, the authors provide a broad background to assist them with a more in-depth and thorough understanding and appreciation of children’s and teens’ information behavior. Table of Contents: Introduction Andrew Large and Jamshid Beheshti Chapter 1: Concepts, Propositions, Models and Theories in Information Behavior Research Charles Cole Chapter 2: Cognitive Development and Information Behavior James P. Byrnes & Matthew L. Bernacki Chapter 3: Information Literacy Leanne Bowler & Valerie Nesset Chapter 4: Everyday Life Information Behavior of Young People June Abbas & Denise E. Agosto Chapter 5: Digital Age Libraries and Youth: Learning Labs, Literacy Leaders, Radical Resources Eliza T. Dresang Chapter 6: Youth and Online Social Networking: What Do We Know So Far? Denise E. agosto& June Abbas Chapter 7: Gaming and Virtual Environments Giovanni Vincenti Chapter 8: Everyday Life Information in Support of Enhanced Quality of Life for Young Adults with Intellectual Disabilities Dana Hanson-Baldauf Chapter 9: Defining the Line on Cyber-bullying:How youth encounter and distribute demeaning information Shaheen Shariff Chapter 10: Systems Jamshid Beheshti & Andrew Large Chapter 11: The Future Jamshid Beheshti & Andrew Larg