Rebekah Willson

Parents as coresearchers at home : using an observational method to document young children's use of technology

This paper discusses the use of observational video recordings to document young children’s use of technology in their homes. Although observational research practices have been used for decades, often with video-based techniques, the participant group in this study (i.e., very young children) and the setting (i.e., private homes), provide a rich space for exploring the benefits and limitations of qualitative observation. The data gathered in this study point to a number of key decisions and issues that researchers must face in designing observational research, particularly where non-researchers (in this case, parents) act as surrogates for the researcher at the data collection stage. The involvement of parents and children as research videographers in the home resulted in very rich and detailed data about children’s use of technology in their daily lives. However, limitations noted in the dataset (e.g., image quality) provide important guidance for researchers developing projects using similar methods in future. The paper provides recommendations for future observational designs in similar settings and/or with similar participant groups.This article discusses the use of observational video recordings to document young children’s use of technology in their homes. Although observational research practices have been used for decades, often with video-based techniques, the participant group in this study (i.e., very young children) and the setting (i.e., private homes) provide a rich space for exploring the benefits and limitations of qualitative observation. The data gathered in this study point to a number of key decisions and issues that researchers must face in designing observational research, particularly where nonresearchers (in this case, parents) act as surrogates for the researcher at the data collection stage. The involvement of parents and children as research videographers in the home resulted in very rich and detailed data about children’s use of technology in their daily lives. However, limitations noted in the data set (e.g., image quality) provide important guidance for researchers developing projects using similar methods in future. The article provides recommendations for future observational designs in similar settings and/or with similar participant groups.

The effect of spelling and retrieval system familiarity on search behavior in online public access catalogs: A mixed methods study

A huge number of informal messages are posted every day in social network sites, blogs, and discussion forums. Emotions seem to be frequently important in these texts for expressing friendship, showing social support or as part of online arguments. Algorithms to identify sentiment and sentiment strength are needed to help understand the role of emotion in this informal communication and also to identify inappropriate or anomalous affective utterances, potentially associated with threatening behavior to the self or others. Nevertheless, existing sentiment detection algorithms tend to be commercially oriented, designed to identify opinions about products rather than user behaviors. This article partly fills this gap with a new algorithm, SentiStrength, to extract sentiment strength from informal English text, using new methods to exploit the de facto grammars and spelling styles of cyberspace. Applied to MySpace comments and with a lookup table of term sentiment strengths optimized by machine learning, SentiStrength is able to predict positive emotion with 60.6p accuracy and negative emotion with 72.8p accuracy, both based upon strength scales of 1–5. The former, but not the latter, is better than baseline and a wide range of general machine learning approaches.

Collaboration, Information Seeking, and Technology Use: A Critical Examination of Humanities Scholars’ Research Practices

Despite a rise in collaborative research, resulting in complex collaborative information seeking (CIS), few studies have explored the CIS experiences of academics in the humanities. This research explores the CIS activities of digital humanities scholars within the broader context of their collaborative research practices. Data from qualitative semi-structured interviews and guided interactions with digital tools are analysed using the conceptual lens of “parallel work” to best understand scholars’ engagement with CIS. The results demonstrate the complexities of research contexts and how CIS is shaped by individuals’ research needs, technology use and general information behaviours. The findings demonstrate how digital tools enable and constrain collaborative information work, and show how availability, ease of use, and other peoples’ activities often determine which tools and seeking practices are used in collaboration. Additionally, while scholars in the digital humanities work collaboratively, they continue to work as solo scholars, at times working quite independently within a collaborative project. Of particular note are results that show a lack of group-based information seeking practices within collaborative research practices. The model of Parallel Research Practice is proposed as a way to understand how digital humanities scholars engage in collaborative information activities.

Preparing Tomorrow's Decision Makers: Learning Environments and Outcomes of Information Literacy Instruction in Business Schools

This study examined information literacy instruction in Canadian business schools, conducted to identify successful outcomes, as well as opportunities to increase the scope and magnitude of instructional outcomes. Three business schools and their supporting libraries participated in the study, which included analysis of policy documents and interviews with students, librarians, teaching faculty, and administrators. In addition, the SAILS test was administered to business students at all 3 institutions. Critical factors in the learning environments at each school were analyzed, and instructional outcomes were identified. One striking finding was the lack of coherence between the perspectives of students about their information literacy skills and learning, and the perspectives of the librarians and faculty members who teach them.

Independent searching during one-shot information literacy instruction sessions: is it an effective use of time?

Objective – To test the assumption that giving students time to research independently during a one-shot information literacy instruction (ILI) session, combined with scaffolding, is an effective pedagogical practice and a good use of class time. Methods – The study was conducted at a student-focused, four-year undergraduate institution with 8,500 full load equivalent students. Following brief, focused instruction in 10 different ILI sessions, first-, second-, and third-year students in 80-minute one-shot ILI sessions were given time to research independently. The librarian and instructor were present to scaffold the instruction students received. Students were asked to track the research they did during class using a research log and to fill out a short Web survey about their preparedness to do research and the usefulness of the ILI session. Results – Students agreed to have 83 research logs and 73 Web surveys included in the study. Students indicated that they felt more prepared to do research for their assignment after the ILI session and rated individual help from the librarian as the most useful aspect of the instruction session. Students did not rate independent time to do research as valuable as anticipated. Examining the research logs indicated that several things are taking place during the ILI session, including that students are demonstrating what was taught in the session in their searches, that their searches are progressing in complexity, and that students are using feedback from previous searches to inform the formulation of search queries. While students appear to be putting independent search time to good use, many students’ articulation of their thesis statement remains poor and searches continue to be fairly simplistic. Conclusions – This study gives evidence that giving independent research time in ILI sessions, with scaffolding, is an effective use of class time. The study also demonstrates that the majority of students are able to use what is taught during classes and that they are using class time effectively, though searching remains fairly simple. The focus of ILI sessions is on skill development, and future research should be on integrating IL into the curriculum to develop more complex skills and thinking needed in the research process.

Bracing for impact: the role of information science in supporting societal research impact

Academics are increasingly being asked to demonstrate the impact of their research beyond the walls of the academy. Societal impact measures were introduced as part of the Research Excellence Framework exercise in the UK in 2014 with a number of other countries, including Australia, considering similar assessments. As societal impact measures continue to proliferate there will be significant implications for academics, institutions, and academic libraries to document and support these activities. Information science is well‐placed not only to guide practical supports within our institutions, but also to develop metrics and qualitative approaches to assess this type of research impact. This exploratory qualitative study — situated in a constructivist grounded theory methodology — investigated academics’ experiences and perceptions of the concept of societal research impact and the supports needed to facilitate this work. The definition of impact varied greatly among participants, but regardless of the participants conception, interviewees felt that they were not prepared, trained, or had access to the needed supports to adequately document non‐academic types of impact. The data point to a number of emergent themes including a lack of relevant methodologies for tracking societal impact, the shortcomings of metrics approaches to document impact outside of academe, and the need for academic libraries to extend current reference and training supports to provide researchers with the tools and skills needed in this new impact landscape. Implications for research and development in information science related to scholarly communication, researchers’ information behaviors, and impact measures are also explored.

The informing nature of talk & text: Discourse analysis as a research approach in information science

In Information Science (IS), as well as other disciplines, discourse analysis has been used to extend the range of contextual data gathered using other research approaches. This form of textual analysis can enrich our understanding of complex information practices and contexts, particularly in relation to the ways that society and individuals construct understandings of various phenomena. However, not all discourse analysis approaches are the same; linguistic, Foucouldian, and psycho-social discourse analysis practices vary in their intent and their application. This panel will provide an overview of the discourse analysis methodology, including how the approach is conducted in various disciplines. By focusing on three projects by IS scholars that use discourse analysis, the range of data collection and analysis possibilities – including benefits and limitations of the approach – will be explored. The panel will also discuss how discourse analysis can be used in mixed methods studies, or with research participants engaged in other methods, to extend the research knowledge in the discipline.

“Systemic Managerial Constraints”: How universities influence the information behaviour of HSS early career academics

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the information behaviour of early career academics (ECAs) within humanities and social sciences (HSS) disciplines who are starting their first continuing academic position. The proposed grounded theory of Systemic Managerial Constraints (SMC) is introduced as a way to understand the influence of neoliberal universities on the information behaviour of ECAs. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative research used constructivist grounded theory methodology. Participants were 20 Australian and Canadian ECAs from HSS. Their information practices and information behaviour were examined for a period of five to seven months using two interviews and multiple “check-ins”. Data were analysed through two rounds of coding, where codes were iteratively compared and contrasted. Findings SMC emerged from the analysis and is proposed as a grounded theory to help better understand the context of higher education and its influence on ECAs’ information behaviour. SMC presents university managerialism, resulting from neoliberalism, as pervasive and constraining both the work ECAs do and how they perform that work. SMC helps to explain ECAs’ uncertainty and precarity in higher education and changing information needs as a result of altered work role, which, in turn, leads ECAs to seek and share information with their colleagues and use information to wield their personal agency to respond to SMC. Originality/value The findings from this paper provide a lens through which to view universities as information environments and the influence these environments can have on ECAs’ information practices and information behaviour.