User Training vs. System Training

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User Training vs. System Training

• Dr. Mark Hepworth
• Department of Information Science

2
People

• Zipf s law people will choose the path of least
  resistance or "effort" seeking behaviour stops
  as soon as minimally acceptable results are found
  (found at http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_o
  f_least_effort Accessed 15.10.08)
• But how does acceptable get defined?

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Young learners

• Are no different! And perform to expectation!
• Schooling has encouraged pragmatic, passive,
  surface learning fit for assessment
• Schooling provides little opportunity to develop
  independent, self directed, learning skills and
  appropriate attitudes
• Educators do not seem to be aware of the
  complexity of information seeking, management and
  use processes
• Employers
• Search engines have fostered
• a shallow attitude to information retrieval
• a naïve belief in the power of the machine
• an uncritical approach to information retrieval.

4
Learners (beginning semester 1)

• 'I don't really understand what 'database' means.
  Is there any difference between the information
  that we search by using the normal search engine
  and the databases that we found via 'Metalib'?

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Learners (mid semester 1)

• the information retrieved from Google was not as
  specific as a database compared to Emerald
• the Boolean AND function allowed me to select a
  subject information science AND (in the title)
  security system to narrow my search I used
  Computer Information systems database
• the information returned was reliable
• I used ABI you could be more restrictive
  there are a lot of variables you can adjust this
  makes it easier to locate material that you are
  looking for
• Emerald has many features that allow the search
  to be refined the search results can be
  broadened or limited through using Boolean
  searching phrase combining terms made the
  information more specific

6
The penny drops!

• I used the Web of Science advanced search
  facility to research childrens information
  seeking behaviour in libraries.Data has to be
  entered in the search box in a precise way using
  commands to search for words in topics, titles
  etc. You can also search for authors, year
  published etc in the initial search. You can use
  the Boolean operators AND, NOT, OR and SAME.I
  searched for information seeking which brought
  up 7344 articles on many different subjects and
  user groups in medicine as well as in libraries
  and other organisations . I then searched for
  articles containing the words children and
  library in the initial search and this brought
  up 919 document types. There was the facility
  on the database to combine these two searches
  which brought up 27 records. This was an easier
  number to deal with and there were several
  document types which looked at childrens use of
  libraries and developing library services for
  younger users.In order to refine the search
  more I could have selected publication years,
  document types, subject areas, e.g. information
  science and library science, authors and many
  more. In each case the number of documents
  relating to that area was stated.I found using
  this database easy once you know how to use the
  commands. It is also extremely powerful and user
  friendly and actually very satisfying as you can
  often find whole documents. I found some quite
  interesting ones I might use in my assignment. A
  disadvantage of using this database, however, was
  its American bias. Out of the 27 document types I
  found there were 19 American ones and only one
  from the UK.

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Experience the benefits see the value

• Students are NOT opposed to effort when it pays
  off (look at the range of variables embraced in
  game playing)
• Students CAN use and DO see the VALUE of more
  complex IR systems
• BUT they need to be taught in problem based,
  contextually relevant, interesting way.

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There are common problems associated with the
search process
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Common user experiences

• Too much
• Too little
• Irrelevant
• Caused by
• Not knowing where to go
• Not knowing how the systems work
• Wrong terms unfamiliar with the domain

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20 years for the penny to drop!

• Search engines seemed to ignore the online and
  CDROM experience
• Naïve belief in their algorithms (eventually had
  help systems and an advanced search!)
• BUT have changed
• Podcast of a marketing manager of an IR firm who
  knew of Marcia Bates had read information
  behaviour research!

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Better times

• Federated systems (less need to know where to go)
• Faceted classification (different views, enables
  narrowing down, prompts the user)
• Tag clouds (helps with limited domain knowledge,
  prompts search terms, help to narrow and broaden
  the search)

Possibly less IR training, quicker converts
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Room for improvement

• Its not just about the retrieval process
• It doesnt have to be all done in the background
  give people control
• However, within the IR remit need to allow
• better exploration of the subject domain
• selection of multiple terms
• more control narrowing and broadening
• More prompted - narrowing and broadening
• Dependent on the richness of the record i.e.
  the metadata (the richer the descriptions of the
  information objects the more that can be
  extracted)

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Connecting with information in more depth
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Still a need for training

• To effectively use the full range of information
  resources higher level skills are required
• To be an effective, empowered, learner
• Need to understand the information landscape
• Need to understand the information and knowledge
  creation and storage process
• Need to understand the value of information
• Need to understand that IR is part of learning
  and its messy
• For some tasks precision and power is required
• and so on use, communication information
  literacy

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Joining forces it is happening!
Information Computer Scientists - peoples
information behaviour, information literacy and
information retrieval
MORE HOLISTIC Systems that support the wider
information literacy experience
Information professionals (librarians,
information specialists) the environment, the
needs, information literacy
Information retrieval electronic publishing
industry professionals the products, the needs,
the technology
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User training or system training?

• Questions
• Comments
• Observations