Designing Information Services for Small Businesses in Public Libraries: The Need for an Interdiscip

1
Designing Information Services for Small
Businesses in Public Libraries The Need for an
Interdisciplinary Approach

• France Bouthillier, Ph.D.
• GSLIS
• McGill University
• ALISE 2005

2
Interdisciplinary Approach

• Collaboration with other researchers from various
  disciplines
• Application of various concepts and theories from
  a number of disciplines for framing questions,
  methodologies and analysis

3

• Interdisciplinary research is
• trendy and essential
• but
• how does it look
• from a conceptual perspective?

4
Context

• Business information services in public libraries
  are controversial in spite of their long history
• They are almost non-existent in the province of
  Quebec
• There is a need to investigate SB managers needs
  for information and library managers/staff
  perceptions to design appropriate service models

5
Research Questions

• How public libraries can contribute to the
  economic development of their communities?
• What would make SB managers interested to use
  business information services in public libraries
  in the age of Internet?
• What factors are perceived as critical by library
  managers/staff?

6
Methodology

• Inventory of business information services in 5
  countries
• Survey among Quebec public libraries
• Two case studies in Montreal involving
  semi-structured interviews with SB managers(22)
  and library managers and staff (6)
• Three economic sectors were selected IT,
  aerospace, pharmaceutical

7
Conceptual Framework

• Information Science Value-addedness
• Information Behaviour Recorded patterns in the
  fields of management and info science
• Sociology Cultural capital and structuration
  theory
• Management Marketing of services

8
Rationale

• Small business managers are social actors
• Public libraries are social institutions
• The use of services is determined by perceptions
  of their value and quality
• The use of information services is related to the
  use of information

9
Value-addedness

• Taylor argued that users of information services
  are looking for value-added services
• Ease of use Adaptability
• Noise reduction Time savings
• Quality Cost savings

10
Information behaviour patterns

• Research on managers information seeking
  behaviour, for 20 years, reveals that they prefer
  informal sources and face-to-face communication.
  However, public libraries are perceived as useful
  sources and perceived environmental uncertainty
  influences use of information

11
Cultural capital

• Bourdieu argued that
• social agents have different cultural capitals
• they exchange resources to maintain and/or
  increase that capital, position of power, and to
  delineate their differences
• the concept of habitus is useful for explaining
  cultural differences

12
Cultural capital

• Habitus are durable dispositions that are
  internalized and incline individuals to do
  certain things cultural practices
• Managers educational and professional background
  can reveal cultural practices towards information
  consumption

13
Structuration Theory

• Giddens argued that social structure is the
  result of the use by social agents of rules and
  resources (authoritative and allocative)
• Concepts of knowledgeability and routinization
  are useful to understand library staff behaviour
  and perceptions

14
Marketing of services

• Zeithalm et al. identified service quality
  dimensions
• Tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, courtesy,
  empathy, competence, security, access,
  communication, customer understanding

15
Conclusions

• Small business managers are not an homogeneous
  group of users several patterns of info
  consumption
• Many factors may influence their use of public
  libraries habitus, knowledgeability,
  value-added and quality dimensions
• Personnel competencies and quick turnaround are
  key

16
Conclusions

• Library managers and staff are mostly concerned
  with print collections
• They are not aware of industrial differences
• SB managers are perceived as very rational with
  little information resources

17
The value of an interdisciplinary framework

• Prepares the researcher for unexpected results
• Helps to address complex and complicated problems
• Supports a range of research strategies and
  provides a range of explanations

18

• Thank you!