Peiling Wang

1
Use of Digital Information Resources Internet
Tools by Academic Researchers in the U.S., Greece
China
Libraries in the Digital Age (LIDA) 2007May 28-
June 2, Dubrovnik Mljet, Croatia

• Peiling Wang

Dimitris A. Dervos
2
Why this study?

• Scholarly communication and information seeking
  have always been topics of interest in the field
• Information environment has changed rapidly as a
  result of the Internet
• Researchers information seeking (IS) behaviors

3
Two-dimensional Framework Guiding Research Design

• Dimension A IS activities
• A.1. General, pertaining to long-term research
  needs
• A.2. Task-based, corresponding to project
  lifecycle
• Dimension B Internet Information Communication
  Technology/Resources (IICT)
• B.1. Internet communication tools
• B.2. Internet-enabled information resources

4
IS activities

• A.1. General IS Behaviors Pertaining to Long-term
  Research Needs
• Monitoring
• Browsing
• Managing
• Archiving

• A.2. Task-based IS Behaviors Corresponding to
  Project Lifecycle
• Starting
• Searching
• Accessing
• Chaining
• Ending

5
Internet Information Communication Tools

• B.1. Internet Communication Tools
• Email
• Web
• FTP
• Listserv
• Blog
• Wiki
• Instant messaging

• B.2. Internet-enabled Information Resources
• Database
• Digital library
• E-Journal
• Online library catalog

6
Relating Research Questions to Framework
7
Research Design

• Semi-structured interviews
• Part I checklist of 9 IICTs
• Part II paired questions (length frequency)
• Part III sorting from most to least important
• Part IV How do researchers engage in IS
  activities? Which IICTs do they use to support
  specific IS activities?

8
Disciplines Considered

• Productive and active researchers (faculty and
  doctoral students) from following fields
• Computer Science
• Engineering
• Information Science
• Journalism
• Humanities

9
Data Collection in Progress

• Summer 2005 Started in the US at a research
  intensive state university
• December 2005 Extended to China in three
  national universities
• September 2006 Extended to Greece in three
  higher level institutions

10
Participants in CS and Engineering as Reported in
This Paper

• RD Expenditure ( GDP) in 2004
• US is 4.6 times of Greece
• US is 1.9 times of China
• Researchers (per million people) 2004
• US is 3.4 times of Greece
• US is 6.8 times of China
• Internet users (per thousand people)
• US is 3.6 times of Greece in 2004
• US is 2.3 times of Greece in 2006
• US is 8.6 times of China in 2004
• US is 5.3 times of China in 2006

? 82
11
IICT Usage Communication Tools

• email, Web, FTP, and Listserv are the four IICTs
  used by more than 50 participants in at least
  one country (Listserv is used only by 14
  participants in China)
• Blogs, Wiki, Instant messaging not in our
  original lists, mentioned by some participants.
  Most CS and Eng researchers do not use

12
IICT Usage Information Resources

• All participants in the US and Greece use at
  least one of the four resources
• The most used is digital library and the least
  used is e-journal
• terminological confusion about e-journal
• overlapping in access to different resources
• converging and integrating resource access

13
Perceived IICT Importance
14
Information Needs Satisfied by Digital Resources

• 85 in Greece
• 81 in the US
• 74 in China
• Note
• Participants from CS and Engineering

15
Reasons for Not Using IICTs

• My opinion from the blogs I've seen so far,
  they're a lot of discussion, a lot of
  information, and you need a lot of time to
  process this discussion, and I don't have this
  time. ...
• In my project, I used a lot of drawings and blue
  prints that will never be in electronic format. .
• Even though we say "that's referred"e-journals
  ... I think it takes time for those old people to
  recognize the value of them
• ... large files like several gigabytes data that
  ftp couldn't support

16
IS Behavior

• Conferences continue to be an important informal
  channel of communication and information exchange
• In CS and Eng some conferences are rated higher
  than journals in determining the value and impact
  of a research publication

17
Challenges to libraries and librarians

• ... thanks to the Internet, I don't have to rely
  on the library
• Basically, the only reason I would go to the
  library is to get coffee.
• I think that the role of the library will have
  to change.

18
General IS Activities

• monitoring is much easier today with the Web and
  various alerts via email online availability of
  conference programs/proceedings is also a boon
• managing information is a big challenge
• archiving with institutional repositories or
  disciplinary repositories is reported only by
  three Greek researchers
• China has a university-based registry system to
  keep track of research output

19
Managing Digital Information

• A wide range of methods are adopted
• print out (do not save e-files)
• piles, binders, file cabinet
• keep e-files for only a period (6 months to 2
  years)
• personal bibliographic software
• multiple copies to folders and subfolders
• multiple copies in multiple computers
• group server
• rely on the Internet (good stuff will be there.)

20
Task-based IS Activities

• starting is not a critical stage for senior
  researchers most use the Web as the first source
• searching is often extended by visiting experts
  homepages for publications
• accessing appears to be done in the following
  order digital library, inter-library loan,
  authors homepage, email to the author
• chaining is made easier now with resources
  providing both forward and backward links
  (CiteSeer is the most mentioned)
• ending

21
Implications

• Active researchers should maintain an up-to-date
  research homepage
• Librarians and libraries must find new roles
• the physical library as we know it is being
  challenged to transform to something new
• institutional repository
• a shift from service and user instruction to user
  studies and design redesign of information
  resources

22
Implications (contd)

• New digital tools and resources mustmeet
  needs and incorporate new behaviors
• incorporate what users know and how they use
  information
• embed learning in use to facilitate correct
  conceptual understanding
• revamp current personal bibliographic database
  tools with new models that incorporate
  information needs and seeking behaviors