Rubin

1. Rubin talks about Information Science as "a library without walls; its collection is the entire world of information". Based on your readings thus far, how do you see the relationship between information science and libraries?

2. Citing Bates, Rubin talked about three "Big questions" addressed by Information Science. Why would these questions be important to a practitioner?

3. How does Rubin distinguish between an information want and an information need? What implication does this distinction have for the reference interview?

4. Rubin notes that people prefer personal rather than institutional sources of information, yet see the library rather than the librarian as a source of information. Rubin suggests that emphasizing the librarian rather than the library might increase individual use of the library. How would you suggest doing this?

Dervin

1. In the late 1980s and early 1990s a number of scholarly works changed the way we look at information-seeking behavior. Dervin's articles continue to be cited, some over twenty years later. Having now read one of Dervin's articles from that period, why do you think her work is still considered important? What insights did you get from her article that will help you in providing information for your future patrons?

2. In Dervin's article, she finds that information use studies pretty much confirm that people do not fully utilize information available to them. What reasons for this situation does she infer?

3. What is the issue described by the bricks and buckets metaphor? Why is such a metaphor problematic?

4. Dervin notes that neither personality nor demographic variables entirely explain information rejection, so she opts for what kind of approach?