Human information behaviour: electronic resources, digital library use and evaluation

1
Human information behaviour electronic
resources, digital library use and evaluation

• Jela Steinerová, Jaroslav uol
• Department of Library and Information Science,
  Faculty of Arts, Comenius University Bratislava,
  Slovakia,
• steinerova_at_fphil.uniba.sk,
• susol_at_fphil.uniba.sk

2
Agenda

• Research project VEGA interaction of man and
  information environment
• User surveys in Slovakia
• A model of an average user
• Differences in user groups
• Use of electronic resources
• Conclusions proposals for digital libraries

3
Research project VEGA 1/9236/02 Contexts of
research project

• New challenges changes in information provision
  in libraries
• digital libraries
• integration of sources, user communities
• accessibility of electronic communication
• open information structures in digital environment

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Contexts of research project

• Information behaviour of users in information
  seeking conceptual model
• Stable preferences (motivation, sources, access)
• Patterns (orientation, cooperation, information
  processing)
• Evaluation (relevance, strategy, success)

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Several user studies

• 1. academic and research libraries in Slovakia
• (students, educators, research workers)
• 2. electronic resources, internet
• 3. special community (visually impaired users)
• 4. scientific and research workers (Slovak
  Academy of Sciences)
• 5. elderly users of public libraries

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Assumptions and goals of user studies

• strategic aspects of information seeking
• role of collaboration in information seeking
• expectations (change of knowledge states)
• first access points (catalogue, internet)
• motivation for information seeking
• professional journals
• role of simple and easy access

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Research questions of user studies

• How do users make use of electronic resources?
• Are they willing to publish in the electronic
  environment?

• What are the users perceptions of information
  seeking process based on constant preferences of
  information use?
• What are the perceptions of users during the
  information seeking process?
• What are the perceptions of users after the
  completion of information seeking?

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User survey academic and research libraries

• 793 subjects
• 16 selected academic and research libraries
• June - July 2002
• questionnaire, methodological guidelines
• data gathering, coding, analyses
• Final Report (2004)

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A model of an average user

• 57 men, 55 students, 52 age to 25
• Good accessibility, well-arranged form
• Authorities (sources, authors)
• Immediate use (pragmatic aspect stragegic user
  group)

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A model of an average user

• Broader categories (access)
• Little planning of information seeking
• Little willingness to invest time, money (free
  access)
• Often changes of systems, sources, services
  (problem re-definition) need for help
• Relevance judgements keywords
• Preferences of simple language

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Differences between user groups

• Males
• Preferences of individual work
• Confirmation of prior knowledge
• Preferences of internet
• Optimism, satisfaction

• Females
• More often use of catalogues, bibliographies
• Collaboration, help of librarians
• Relief, careful approach

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Differences between user groups males, females
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Difference between user groups

• Managers (experts)
• Timeliness
• Individual work
• More frequent use of catalogues, reference

• Students (novices)
• First source internet
• Collaboration
• Help of librarians

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Differences between user groups managers,
students
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Differences between user groups technical
sciences, social sciences

• Social sciences
• Individual work
• More help in problem formulation
• Use of less libraries
• First access points easy access

• Technical sciences
• Help of librarians
• Better organization of work
• Timely information
• Better problem formulation

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Differences between user groups by subjects
(technical, social sciences)
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User preferences in electronic resources

• user preferences in electronic communication
• attitude of users towards electronic resources in
  saturation of their scientific (academic)
  information needs
• attitude of authors towards electronic resources
  in publishing the results of scientific research.
• perception of trustworthiness and reliability of
  electronic resources

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User preferences in electronic resources

• user preferences along the axis of reliability/
  seriousness of the resource availability/ speed
  of access
• usage of electronic resources
• types of electronic resources
• characteristics of electronic resources
  (comparison with traditional documents)
• usage of paid resources - what financial means
• percentage of users who prefer electronic
  resources.

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Actual usage of electronic resources
1
6
Graph 1.
25
yes, frequently
Usage of
seldom
electronic
resources
no, not using
no answer
68

• highest level of usage up to 18 years (91,7),
  3140-years old (75,3).
• lower level of frequent usage 1825-years, also
  highest level of rare usage (27,6).
• the lowest rate of frequent usage / highest rate
  of rare usage / of non-usage - social sciences
  and arts

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Actual usage of electronic resources
13
51
Graph 2.
Usage
of paid
no, only freely available
el. resources
yes, paid by an
institution / library
36
yes, access paid
individually

• individual payment - decreasing with the age of
  respondents, from 15,1 (1825-years) to 6,7 (51
  and older).
• resources paid by a library - increasing rate of
  cases with increasing age
• Men - more concentrated on free resources more
  willing to pay individually?
• Women - more aware of institutional/library
  arrangements - goal-centred attitude towards
  information searching?

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Types of electronic resources used
individual web pages
1
2
electronic journals
4
Graph 3.
web pages of prof.
25
7
organisations
Types of
el. resources
web pages of
used
conferences, congresses
e-mail lists
35
newsgroups
26
other resources on
internet

• Top 3 ranking valid across all age groups
• age groups 4150-old - electronic journals
  first position.
• user groups - researchers and scientists

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Preferring electronic resources
11
Graph 4.
Preferring
42
el. resources
yes
no
no answer
47

• decreasing tendency with an increasing age
• disciplines - weak rate of usage in social
  sciences and arts rate of preferences higher by
  approx. 1/2 in sciences and technical disciplines
• gender - rate of acceptance is a little lower in
  women than in men
• user groups - researchers and managers - positive
  attitude higher than negative teachers rate of
  refusal is 1/3 higher than their acceptance

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Characteristics of el. resources
quick accessibility
1
5
up-to-datedness
2
Graph 5.
no charge
Characteristics
13
31
of el. resources
searching of the text
9
linking to other
resources
ecological aspect
14
multimediality
25
other

• First three characteristics - technological and
  socio-economic properties of the electronic
  publishing systems
• Creation of hypertext links - a property of
  electronic sources per se.
• Access free of charge ?

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Characteristics of traditional resources
2
27
22
Graph 6.
seriousness
Characteristics
publishers renome
of traditional
reliability
resources
stability
16
simple usage
33
other

• Reliability, seriousness - features of formal
  communication channels
• users categories - more important for teachers
  (63), researchers (65,9) and managers (75),
  than for the students (55)

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Conclusions proposals for digital libraries

• Intellectual stage
• support of intellectual information processing,
  selection, analysis, interpretation, synthesis
• Reorganization, restructuring
• creative use of information in digital
  environment
• Collaboration in digital environment

• Orientation stage of information seeking
• links of information seeking with problem
  solution (education)
• changes of problem understanding in the course of
  seeking
• support initial stages of seeking, organization
  of work, understanding concepts, overview of
  sources, confirmation of understanding, relevance
  judgement

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Conclusions library services, library and
information education

• Digital libraries support of the intellectual
  stage of information seeking
• Strategic and analytic user groups (relations to
  information use)
• Combination trustworthy traditions new
  electronic communication patterns
• Information literacy support

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Conclusion

• Shift of scholarly communication into electronic
  environment (users, authors)
• Special user groups (visually impaired)- special
  needs (technologyhuman facilitation)

• design of digital reference services and systems
• collaborative systems of information use
• new methods of knowledge organization
• sensitivity to contexts of user information
  styles
• new contexts of knowledge integration

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Conclusions

• Integration of patterns of user behaviour into
  systems, services, products
• Steps LONG-TERM process
• first level - technological infrastructure,
  information sources
• second level content services styles values,
  practices
• third level people training, information
  literacy
• fourth level management, philosophy
• n-th level integration digital libraries,
  media, learning

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Conclusions

• Challenge of information science co-existence
  models of complex systems digital libraries
  technologyculture
  globallocal
  theorypractice pastfuture
  individualsocial
  neutralemotional

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CONCLUSIONS information behaviour-driven
information society

• humans different roles (citizen, learner,
  worker, family member, community member)
• humans physical, intellectual development
• humans consumption, creativity, production
• information behaviour orientation (space, time),
  intellectual activity (knowledge)
• cooperation private, public sectors