Research-related Use of Internet-enabled Information Resources

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Research-related Use of Internet-enabled
Information Resources

• ASIST DASER II
• College Park, Maryland
• December 3, 2005
• Peiling Wang
• Associate Professor

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Purpose/goal of the Study

• Identify interdisciplinary differences in the use
  of the Internet-enabled information resources for
  research
• Identify factors affecting use and nonuse of
  these resources
• Guide future design and development of
  Internet-based information resources

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Research Questions

• Which Internet information technologies (IIT) are
  used in research?
• How are the IIT used by researchers in
  information seeking?
• How important is each of the IIT in supporting
  research?
• Why do researchers use or not use certain IIT for
  research?
• What are the interdisciplinary differences?

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Research Design

• In-depth face-to-face interviews
• Semi-structured questions
• Part I use and nonuse of IIT types for research
• Part II length and frequency of IIT use
• Part III importance ranking
• Part IV How does each IIT type support specific
  IS activities -- monitoring of research areas,
  searching, disseminating, organizing )

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Participants

• Productive and active researchers (faculty and
  doctoral students) from disciplines in the
  spectrum between computer-oriented to
  people-oriented
• Computer Science
• Engineering
• Information Science
• Journalism
• Humanities/Social sciences

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Data Collection in Progress

• Academic researchers
• Doctoral students, Assistant Professors
• Associate Professors, Professors
• 42 UTK (more will be interviewed)
• CS, Engineering, IS, Journalism
• 46 TSU (completed thesis research)
• Humanities/Social Sciences

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Preliminary Results -- I

• In average, 5-7 types of Internet technologies
  are used in research
• The top-5 by disciplines

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Preliminary Results -- II
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Preliminary Results -- III

• Two high/low cases (excluded in the dashed line)
• A CS assistant professor comments that his
  information needs are satisfied 100 by
  electronic resources
• A Journalism professor claims that his
  information needs are satisfied 98 by print
  resources

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Preliminary Results -- IV

• Factors affecting use
• Nature and type of research
• Availability of the digital archives
• Accessibility of the resources
• Awareness of the resources
• Usability of the Internet technology
• Perception of source quality and reliability
• Individual preferences constraints

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Preliminary Results -- V

• Digital information is wonderful
• The challenge is to find effective method to
  effectively organize digital resources and to
  provide efficient access at personal level,
  community level, and global level

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Preliminary Results -- VI

• Strategies
• do not save (search Google to find it again)
• do not delete (periodically discard all)
• create folders and subfolders
• save multiple copies on multiple machines
• keep a print copy of the digital documents
• work group maintained collection

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Some Implications

• Information seeking in the digital age is easier
  for some researchers but harder for others
  (digital divide?)
• User tools to search, manage, use digital objects
  for diverse users (functionality usability!)
• Revamp the metaphor of folders as an organization
  and access tool of digital objects
• Provide easy access to digital objects at an
  atomic level (disaggregation)

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Extension of the Study

• Intercultural differences
• China (a later start in making the Internet
  available fast growing)
• Finland (an earlier start in building Internet
  infrastructure a leading nation in digital
  library initiatives