This past week I sat in on INFO 200, Foundations of Informatics - a broad survey course that is taken by about 75 undergraduate students each quarter who are interested in potentially majoring in our program. The students in the class represent a wide variety of interests and perspectives from across the campus.
Mike Eisenberg was teaching and the topic of the day was "Information Seeking Behavior". The students were assigned a variety of Information Behavior related readings and Mike talked about the work of folks like Brenda Dervin and Karen Fisher (who is on our faculty) with her Information Grounds concept.
The students in class were discussing a variety of scenarios, such as how they sought health information, how they sought information necessary to complete a class research paper, how they sought information on what product to purchase and so on.
During the discussion Mike asked the students about their own information seeking behavior for these scenarios. When asked if they sought information primarily by talking to friends just a few hands went up. When asked if they sought information primarily from family or others they had high trust in such as teachers or doctors just a couple hands went up. When asked if they primarily sought information through libraries or librarians almost no hands went up. When asked if they sought information primarily through Google, almost all hands went up.
I think even we were surprised at how few students said they talked to other people as their primary way of seeking information and how dominant Google was - even for information that you'd think you'd want to rely on a trusted source for such as medical information.
Based on that small and non-scientific sample, at least for a large number of our undergraduate students, libraries appear to be close to the bottom of the "information-seeking food chain". Even for a scenario such as seeking information for a class research paper, libraries come up short by a mile for the vast majority of students compared to Google.
Probably not a big surprise, but something to ponder!
Scott Barker
Information School
University of Washington
From: Open Lib/Info Sci Education Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Laval Hunsucker
Sent: Saturday, April 24, 2010 2:17 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Where do libraries fit in the "information-seeking food chain"?
Bernie Sloan wrote :
> Just a thought.
But a very good thought.
Yet isn't the problem (?) that it would, if honestly done, most likely pull the rug out from under the whole superstructure of professional identity, the whole self-image and pretension, that LIS ( and not least, LIS education ) has constructed for itself over the past fifty years or so ?
Therefore : don't count on it happening, I'd say. ( Let's hope I'm wrong. )
And as far as better positioning is concerned -- isn't it a little late for that kind of undertaking to make much sense ?
- Laval Hunsucker
Breukelen, Nederland
________________________________________
From: B.G. Sloan <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Sat, April 24, 2010 12:24:25 AM
Subject: Where do libraries fit in the "information-seeking food chain"?
I think it would be really instructive if LIS students could take a course that showed where libraries and librarians fit into the overall "information-seeking food chain". Something that would give future librarians a realistic idea of how libraries are used (and not used) by people seeking information that they need. Something where students read research reports about how people really go about looking for the info they need, and then discuss how libraries might better position themselves in the "big picture".
It might help future librarians design better library systems if they could view the problem through a non-library-centric lens, and see the role of libraries within a broader context.
I'm thinking there are probably courses like this out there. If you teach a course like this I'd be interested in taking a look at your syllabus.
Thanks!
Bernie Sloan
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