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Course Information
Course Information
SPRING 2023
Instructor: Dr. Kelvin L. White
Course Format: Online
Course Description: Information use by people in various roles, situations, and contexts, individually and in groups. Information behavior and the influence of learning and cognitive processes; value systems; and situational, psychological, sociological, and political perspectives. Application of study of user information behavior to textual, graphical, and visual representation of knowledge. Includes both theoretical models and practical methodologies for study of uses and for user-centered design of information and knowledge systems and services.
Course Prerequisites: LIS 5033
Course Goals and Learning Objectives for Students: As a result of instruction in this course, students will be able to:
Explain major theoretical concepts and models of information behavior.
Define the role of learning and cognitive processes in the design, selection, and use of information systems.
Analyze the impact of diverse information needs, learning preferences and styles, and cultural influences on the design, selection, use, and evaluation of information systems.
Describe information seeking behaviors and uses within various communities, groups, and environments.
Apply methodologies and strategies for identifying information behavior and information needs in various contexts.
Determine factors to be considered in design of an information service or product.
Evaluate and select appropriate textual, graphical, and visual formats for effective design of information products for use by individuals with diverse information behaviors and styles.
Reflection & Analysis
Before this class, I had never thought much about my information seeking behaviors - other than the Wikipedia spirals I have found myself in. Because of this class, I now think about it every time I hop on the internet to find something out.
This course started with the question of "what is information?", something that can have a number of responses. It's extremely broad and almost something that cannot be truly defined; but we do know that information is something to be gained, and there are a number of ways that people gain that information. It can be brought to you (such as when I walk past a newspaper stand and scan the headlines) or it can be sought and this course focused on how information is typically sought.
We studied different information professionals and their theories on information seeking. Marcia Bates and her theory of "berry picking" stood out to me the most, this idea that as people search for a particular piece of information, they pick up other pieces along the way, sometimes changing the way we search and eventually retrieve information in the process. It's something that I do (during the aforementioned Wikipedia spirals) and it was fascinating to hear that named.
What studying information behavior does is allow librarians and other information professional to tailor their services to these behaviors as much as they can to make the materials accessible. If a librarian knows that a population generally uses certain sites or looks for particular materials on specific topics, then they know how to market, how to support the search, and how to label materials and services to make that search easier for information seekers.
My final project for this course was studying the information behavior of middle school students - how do they find information? When I was a teacher, I taught English to middle school students (8th grade mostly) and, at the time, I didn't pay as much attention as I wish I had to how they sought information. So it was great to go back into schools and back into middle school classrooms and really see what they do when they need to or want to know something. I was able to observe and then survey a couple of classes to learn more and then compare that to some of the literature I had read. It was an overall engaging project that made me feel a bit more confidence as a bourgeoning information professional.
Learning Objective(s) Met:
4.3: To create strategies to maintain engagement with community members to stay abreast of their ever-shifting information needs.
This course met this object as it gave me real-time practice in engaging with community members to understand their information needs. My library workplace is directly across the street from a middle school and they often come to our library to use our services. Getting to sit in a classroom and talk with students about this in a more controlled setting provided a basis for doing something like this in the future; I now know how to engage with them. Additionally, I'm sure it's something that can be transferred or even adjusted for other demographics.
Librarianship in Practice: World in a Box Day
Librarianship in Practice: World in a Box Day
World in a Box Day is a program put on at Central Library and the Tulsa Global Alliance that features activities and information from countries around the world for children to explore and learn about.
These artifacts are from the AARC's collection and they are from Kenya. I was able to share some of the history of these artifacts and use it as a learning activity.
This photo is from August 2023, although the AARC participates every year.
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