Shelagh K. Genuis

Constructing “sense” from evolving health information: A qualitative investigation of information seeking and sense making across sources

Focusing on information behavior in a context where medical evidence is explicitly evolving (management of the menopause transition), this investigation explored how women interact with and make sense of uncertain health information mediated by formal and informal sources. Based on interviews with 28 information seekers and 12 health professionals (HPs), findings demonstrate that participants accessed and valued a wide range of information sources, moved fluidly between formal and informal sources, and trust was strengthened through interaction and referral between sources. Participants were motivated to seek information to prepare for formal encounters with HPs, evaluate and/or supplement information already gathered, establish that they were “normal,” understand and address the physical embodiment of their experiences, and prepare for future information needs. Findings revealed four strategies used to construct sense from health information mediated by the many information sources encountered and accessed on an everyday basis: women assumed analytic and experiential “postures”; they valued social contexts for learning and knowledge construction; information consistency was used as a heuristic representing accuracy and credibility; and an important feature of sense making was source complementarity. Implications for health information literacy and patient education are discussed.

Emotional labour in librarians' instructional work

Purpose – Library staff are experiencing increased work role complexity as they move from being service providers towards greater instructional roles, providing bibliographic instruction, user education, and information literacy instruction. The purpose of this paper is to explore how library staff relate to their instructional roles and the implications of those self‐understandings for instructional outcomes.Design/methodology/approach – Data collected from qualitative interviews with library staff in Canadian academic and public libraries and diary entries written over a three‐month period were analyzed using NVivo software and an open‐coding, grounded‐theory approach. The study took a phenomenological perspective and was influenced by constructivist sociological role theory.Findings – Data analysis revealed the central place of affect in the experiences of librarians engaged in instructional work, and brought focus to the relational aspects of this work and the affective impact of visibility/invisibili...

Implications of cyberspace communication: a role for physicians.

Through the presentation of three clinical case reports and subsequent discussion, it is demonstrated that physicians must begin to familiarize themselves with the health-related implications of online communication, and must proactively address Internet use as it relates to health and well-being. Included case presentations highlight the following: the established association between those seeking sexual partners through the Internet and an increased risk for sexually transmitted disease; the implications of cyber-communication for young people and concerns related to unsafe online behaviors including sharing identifying information with strangers; the potential use of strategically constructed virtual identities to facilitate sexual exploitation; the impact of accelerated intimacy and disinhibition evident in online communication; and the invasive nature of Internet sexual harassment or bullying. Although it is recognized that most online activities do not negatively affect health, doctors must be prepared to ask patients about Internet use and become involved in educating children, teenagers, and parents about safe online relationships to promote optimal physical, mental, and social health.

Orgasm Without Organisms Science or Propaganda

The worldwide epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) presents a major public health challenge to medical practitioners and educators as they seek to implement preventive educational strategies in the adolescent population. The serious consequences of many STDs and the insufficient impact of condom promotion in this high-risk group have led to increasing recognition that sexual intercourse is medically unwise for young adolescents. As a result of this recognition, some educators have proposed that adolescent sexuality education focus on the explicit teaching of noncoital sexual activities, sometimes called outercourse. This paper explores the emergence of this educational strategy, the assertion that noncoital sexual activities will positively impact the rising incidence of STDs and unplanned pregnancy in teenagers, and the hypothetical benefits of adolescent noncoital sex.

Navigating uncertain health information: implications for decision making

This qualitative study explores the experiences of women as they respond to, make sense of, and use uncertain health information mediated by informal and formal sources encountered with the context of everyday life. A medical case in which health information is explicitly evolving provides context for the investigation. Using a social constructionist approach and social positioning theory, and based on semi-structured interviews with both information seekers and health professionals, this study demonstrates that women participate in complex information worlds and that, in the face of uncertainty, are critically informed by a wide range of sources. Findings suggest that social positioning plays an important role in information behavior and in decision making, and that it is a dynamic construct which is influenced by personal context, the quality of relationships, and the experience of physical symptoms.

Human Excretion of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ether Flame Retardants: Blood, Urine, and Sweat Study

Commonly used as flame retardants, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are routinely detected in the environment, animals, and humans. Although these persistent organic pollutants are increasingly recognized as having serious health implications, particularly for children, this is the first study, to our knowledge, to investigate an intervention for human elimination of bioaccumulated PBDEs. Objectives. To determine the efficacy of blood, urine, and perspiration as PBDE biomonitoring mediums; assess excretion of five common PBDE congeners (28, 47, 99, 100, and 153) in urine and perspiration; and explore the potential of induced sweating for decreasing bioaccumulated PBDEs. Results. PBDE congeners were not found in urine samples; findings focus on blood and perspiration. 80% of participants tested positive in one or more body fluids for PBDE 28, 100% for PBDE 47, 95% for PBDE 99, and 90% for PBDE 100 and PBDE 153. Induced perspiration facilitated excretion of the five congeners, with different rates of excretion for different congeners. Conclusion. Blood testing provides only a partial understanding of human PBDE bioaccumulation; testing of both blood and perspiration provides a better understanding. This study provides important baseline evidence for regular induced perspiration as a potential means for therapeutic PBDE elimination. Fetotoxic and reproductive effects of PBDE exposure highlight the importance of further detoxification research.

Looking for normal: Sense making in the context of health disruption

This investigation examines perceptions of normality emerging from two distinct studies of information behavior associated with life disrupting health symptoms and theorizes the search for normality in the context of sense making theory. Study I explored the experiences of women striving to make sense of symptoms associated with menopause; Study II examined posts from two online discussion groups for people with symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder. Joint data analysis demonstrates that normality was initially perceived as the absence of illness. A breakdown in perceived normality because of disruptive symptoms created gaps and discontinuities in understanding. As participants interacted with information about the experiences of health‐challenged peers, socially constructed notions of normality emerged. This was internalized as a “new normal.” Findings demonstrate normality as an element of sense making that changes and develops over time, and experiential information and social contexts as central to health‐related sense making. Re‐establishing perceptions of normality, as experienced by health‐challenged peers, was an important element of sense making. This investigation provides nuanced insight into notions of normality, extends understanding of social processes involved in sense making, and represents the first theorizing of and model development for normality within the information science and sense making literature.

Partnering with Indigenous student co-researchers: improving research processes and outcomes

Objective To examine the contribution of student co-researchers to a community-based participatory Photovoice investigation of Indigenous childrens food-related lived experience. We examine co-researchers’ contributions to the research process, their role in knowledge co-generation and dissemination, and factors that fostered research partnership with the teenage co-researchers. Methods High school students attending a First Nation community school in Canada were trained as research partners. They contributed to aspects of research design, conducted interviews with grades 3 and 4 Photovoice participants, and participated in data analysis and the development of a culturally relevant photobook. The study was initiated by the communitys research committee. It is informed by critical consciousness theory and the positive youth development framework. Results Student co-researchers incorporated culturally appropriate strategies as they interviewed participants. Co-researchers adopted conversational approaches, built rapport by articulating personal and cultural connections, and engaged in mentoring and health promotion as they interviewed participants. They made critical contributions to dissemination by developing photobook content that promoted the importance of traditional foods and the vital role of family and community in healthy eating practices. Relationships and “dialogic” space were important to building partnership with and promoting capacity development among youth co-researchers. Conclusions Partnership between university researchers and Indigenous student co-researchers holds great promise for health promotion in communities. Co-researchers developed research and leadership skills, gained understanding of health challenges facing their community, and initiated health and cultural promotion through the projects Photobook. This investigation supports the powerful potential of student co-researchers to meaningfully contribute to research processes and to build knowledge that is relevant and credible both within and outside of their communities. Findings have implications for youth, communities and researchers.

Kuhlthau’s Classic Research on the Information Search Process (ISP) Provides Evidence for Information Seeking as a Constructivist Process

A review of: Kuhlthau, Carol C. “Inside the Search Process: Information Seeking from the Users Perspective.” Journal of the American Society for Information Science 42.5 (1991): 361-71. Objective – To extend understanding of purposeful information seeking and to present a model of the information search process (ISP) from the perspective of the user. Design – Review of theoretical foundation, summing up of qualitative and quantitative data from a series of five foundational studies, and presentation of ISP model. Setting – Summarised research was conducted primarily in high school and college environments where subjects were investigating an assigned topic. A small proportion of public libraries were used in the fifth study within the reviewed series. Subjects – The ISP model as presented in this ‘classic’ article is based on studies involving a total of 558 participants. The first study involved 26 academically advanced high school seniors, and the 2 subsequent studies involved respectively 20 and 4 of the original participants following their completion of 4 years of college. The final 2 studies involved respectively 147 high, middle and low achieving high school seniors, and 385 academic, public and school library users. Methods – This paper presents the foundation for the ISP model by reviewing the relationship between Kelly’s personal construct theory, Belkin, Brooks, and Oddy’s investigation of cognitive aspects of the constructive information seeking process, and Taylor’s work on levels of information need (“Question-negotiation”) and value-added information (“Value-added”). This is followed by a review of Kuhlthau’s five foundational studies, which investigated the common information seeking experiences of users who were seeking to expand knowledge related to a particular topic or problem. The first of these studies was a small-scale exploration in which participants were given two assignments. Questionnaires, journaling, search logs, and reflective writing were used to collect data throughout the process of assignment completion. Data collection was augmented by case studies involving in-depth interviews and construction of timelines and flowcharts with six study participants. The six-stage ISP model was developed from qualitative content analysis of participants’ perceptions and experiences (Kuhlthau, “Library Research Process”). In the second study, the same questionnaire was used to determine how students’ perceptions of the ISP had changed over time. Post-college responses were compared to responses given in high school and statistical significance was determined through t Tests (Kuhlthau, Perceptions). Four of the original 6 case study participants were interviewed in the third study, in which interview data and search process timelines were compared with high school case studies (Kuhlthau, Longitudinal). In the fourth and fifth studies, large-scale field studies were conducted to verify the ISP model. Process surveys elicited participants’ thoughts and feelings at initiation, midpoint, and closure of a search task. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics including measures of significance and analysis of variance (Kuhlthau, Information Search; Kuhlthau et al.). Following a summation of these 5 research studies, this article details and discusses the ISP model. Main results – Based on the data from the five studies, the ISP presents a constructivist approach to information seeking and incorporates affective, cognitive, and physical dimensions at each of six information searching stages: initiation, topic selection, pre-focus exploration, focus formulation, information collection, and presentation. Individuals become aware of an information need at initiation. Feelings of uncertainty and apprehension are common as wide-ranging task exploration begins. At topic selection a general topic is selected and users frequently experience initial optimism, which is commonly followed by confusion and doubt as pre-focus exploration commences and users struggle to extend personal knowledge through initial investigation of the general topic. A turning point occurs during focus formulation as constructs become clearer and uncertainty decreases. During information collection the user is able to articulate focused need and is able to interact effectively with intermediaries and systems. Relief is commonly experienced at presentation stage when findings are presented or used. Although stages are laid out sequentially, Kuhlthau notes that the ISP is an iterative process in which stages merge and overlap. Central to this model is the premise that uncertainty is not due merely to a lack of familiarity with sources and technologies, but is an integral and critical part of a process of learning that culminates in finding meaning through personal synthesis of topic or problem. Conclusion – Kuhlthau provides evidence for a view of information seeking as an evolving, iterative process and presents a model for purposeful information searching which, if understood by users, intermediaries and information system designers, provides a basis for productive interaction. While users will benefit from understanding the evolving nature of focus formulation and the affective dimensions of information seeking, intermediaries and systems are challenged to improve information provision in the early formative stages of a search. Although Kuhlthau identifies this research on the ISP as exploratory in nature, this article affords methodological insight into the use of mixed methods for exploring complex user-oriented issues, presents a model that effectively communicates an approximation of the common information-seeking process of users, and provides ongoing impetus for exploring the user’s perspective on information seeking.

Exploring information 'context' in the published literature of menopausal hormone therapy

Using content analysis, this study explores information context as expressed in medical and consumer articles, and the role of the literature in influencing the innovation-decision process. Changing practices related to hormone therapy for menopausal and postmenopausal women, and the expression of biomedical and normal life transition models within published literature provided context for the study; ‘diffusion of innovations’ theory provided the theoretical framework that informed the investigation. Findings suggest that both medical and consumer health literature is dominated by the biomedical model; that context may influence the presentation of information, thus impacting innovation decision-making; and that published literature not only provides information and reinforces knowledge, but, through information context, it also produces and shapes meaning, and creates belief. Librarians and information professionals are encouraged to recognize the influence of context within published literature; to facilitate access by both professionals and consumers to the diversity of information that informs human knowledge; and to enhance appreciation for the contribution of diverse theoretical perspectives and research methods.