Information-seeking Strategies Research Articles

Peran pustakawan dalam menyiapkan generasi emas: implementasi literasi informasi di SD Muhammadiyah Sapen Yogyakarta

Introduction. The golden generation is a generation that is able to compete globally with comprehensive intelligence, including productive, innovative, peaceful in social interactions, healthy and healthy in natural interactions, and superior civilization.Data Collection Method. This type of research is qualitative. Data were collected by in-depth interviews and direct observation. The validity of the data was tested through data triangulation.Analysis Data. The data is discussed with the big6 model of information literacy theory. Data analysis using library research method or literature study.Results and Discussion. Information literacy is the ability to recognize information needs and when information is needed, identify and locate information, evaluate information critically. Information literacy is one way to form a golden generation in the school environment. The big6 literacy model has 6 effective steps that can be used to solve problems, namely; task definition; information seeking strategies; location and access; use the information; synthesis; and evaluation.Conclusions. Implementation of this model requires planning methods and instructor competence. Implementation of information literacy at SD Muhammadiyah Sapen Yogyakarta in the form of library research that produces student work in the form of mini books

Seeking Employment in a Non-Native Language

In 2015, over a million refugees arrived in Germany. After settling into their new environments, these refugees needed to find employment. The search for work, and the orientation to the German job market, increasingly takes place on the Internet requiring language skills and digital competence. The purpose of this study is to examine the online information seeking strategies of refugees in Germany and barriers that affect a successful search. The study builds on data collected from an online study with seven refugees solving different tasks. Search queries for each participant were recorded and analyzed using an approach of both the mixed and grounded theory method. Participants did not follow any observable systematic strategy but relied on supporting tools such as the search engine for providing suggestions or corrections and translation websites. Participants mainly used three formulation tactics: copying, suggestions, and autonomous formulating. The formulation of the query seemed to be the most challenging to the participants.

Applying Internalised Source-culture Knowledge to Solve Cultural Translation Problems. A Quasi-experimental Study on the Translator's Acquisition of Cultural Competence

Abstract In this article, the ability to efficiently apply internalised source-culture knowledge when solving cultural translation problems is analysed at different stages of acquisition of the translator's cultural competence by means of a cross-sectional, quasi-experimental study. Thirty-eight BA students from the first through fourth year studying Translation and Interpreting at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, as well as ten professional translators participated in this investigation. The subjects’ knowledge of German culture and their knowledge of a selection of cultural translation problems in a text were measured prior to its translation. The translation strategies employed by the subjects to solve these problems were recorded and classified using PACTE's (2017b) sequences of actions. The quality of the subjects' solutions to the cultural translation problems of the text was assessed with PACTE's (2017a) acceptability index. These data were combined to compute the source-culture knowledge application index. Results show that the students in all cohorts preferred to utilise information-seeking strategies even when they possessed cultural knowledge about a specific cultural translation problem, while the professional translators in this study were able to apply their internalised source-culture knowledge. The solutions proposed by both the translation students and the professional translators were of a higher quality when internalised source-culture knowledge was applied.

Social media affordances in entry‐level employees’ socialization: employee agency in the management of their professional impressions and vulnerability during early stages of socialization

This study examined how entry‐level employees interacted with social media during three stages of organizational socialization. They navigated between four different media affordances (persistence, editability, visibility, and association) while experiencing them as both enabling and constraining in different socialization stages. Qualitative interview data analysis revealed during anticipatory socialization, job applicants realized visibility and persistence in relation to institutional and individualized socialization. During encounter, new employees managed personal and professional life boundaries carefully against the association and visibility affordances. Although some participants used both public and enterprise social media for obtaining job‐related information and understanding coworkers and company culture, during metamorphosis, most interviewees adopted passive information seeking strategies and experienced a paradoxical tension between the enabling and constraining affordances of social media. Findings are discussed with regards to employees’ exertion of agency in managing their professional impressions and coping with high levels of uncertainty and vulnerability during early stages of socialization.

"Deep reinforcement learning for search, recommendation, and online advertising: a survey" by Xiangyu Zhao, Long Xia, Jiliang Tang, and Dawei Yin with Martin Vesely as coordinator

Search, recommendation, and online advertising are the three most important information-providing mechanisms on the web. These information seeking techniques, satisfying users' information needs by suggesting users personalized objects (information or services) at the appropriate time and place, play a crucial role in mitigating the information overload problem. With recent great advances in deep reinforcement learning (DRL), there have been increasing interests in developing DRL based information seeking techniques. These DRL based techniques have two key advantages - (1) they are able to continuously update information seeking strategies according to users' real-time feedback, and (2) they can maximize the expected cumulative long-term reward from users where reward has different definitions according to information seeking applications such as click-through rate, revenue, user satisfaction and engagement. In this paper, we give an overview of deep reinforcement learning for search, recommendation, and online advertising from methodologies to applications, review representative algorithms, and discuss some appealing research directions.

The Educational Resource Preferences and Information-Seeking Behaviors of Veterinary Medical Students and Practitioners.

The overall purpose of this study was to assess the information-seeking strategies of individuals representing different stages of veterinary training. More specifically, we conducted a survey to evaluate textbook ownership, to determine the preferred types of educational resources and why these preferences exist, and to determine if changes arise as training progresses. We asked students in the veterinary curriculum, interns, residents, and recent graduates from the University of Georgia (UGA) College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) to participate in a confidential online survey. A total of 184 individuals participated. Respondents were grouped into one of six categories: recent graduates (n = 6), interns/residents (n = 11), fourth-year students (n = 21), third-year students (n = 46), second-year students (n = 73), and first-year students (n = 27). The results showed that veterinary students used class notes and non-veterinary search engines initially, whereas interns and residents consulted textbooks and the primary literature as their first sources to answer a veterinary question. Veterinary students had accrued textbooks over sequential years in the curriculum, but many interns and residents had almost twice as many textbooks as those who had not pursued additional training after graduation. An ANOVA showed that first-year students reported a preference for printed textbooks significantly more frequently than the third-year and fourth-year students (F(5,163) = 3.265, p = .006, and p = .012, respectively). Decreased cost was most frequently cited as the factor that would increase textbook purchases.

Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight: Humpback whale biosonar reigns supreme

Stroboscopic echo imaging of the sort used by most bats and dolphins is well suited for the task of rapidly gulping prey. As an information seeking strategy, however, strobing is about as sophisticated as duct-taping a flashlight onto a helmet. Humpback whale biosonar signals, in contrast, create a temporally-extended echoic soundscape the likes of which no strober could ever conceive. By spectrally interleaving quasi-CF units with packets of shorter-duration FM units, humpback whales can likely detect multiple targets simultaneously from multiple bearings, including targets more than 5 km away, while at the same time tracking movements of individual targets. By maintaining relatively stationary positions and depths while signaling, humpback whales can potentially use not only direct echoes from targets, but also modulations in familiar acoustic scenes (“acoustic glints”) to interpret the movements of distant targets. By modulating temporal substructure within fixed-rate streams of signals, humpback whales may be able to extract self-generated echoes from a sea of potential maskers. The scope of vocal control, auditory processing, perceptual flexibility, and echoic memory required for a whale to construct and interpret such rich percepts far exceeds the kinds of delay-tuned, chirplet detection that bats and dolphins rely on to bump into food.

Using electronic information resources to solve cultural translation problems

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of electronic information resources to solve cultural translation problems at different stages of acquisition of the translator’s cultural competence.Design/methodology/approachA process and product-oriented, cross-sectional, quasi-experimental study was conducted with 38 students with German as a second foreign language from the four years of the Bachelor’s degree in Translation and Interpreting at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and ten professional translators.FindingsTranslation students use a wider variety of resources, perform more queries and spend more time on queries than translators when solving cultural translation problems. The students’ information-seeking process is generally less efficient than that of the translators. Training has little impact on the students’ use of electronic information resources for this specific purpose, since all students use them similarly regardless of the year they are in.Research limitations/implicationsThe study has been conducted with a small sample and only one language pair from a single pedagogical context. The tendencies observed cannot be generalised to the whole population of translation students.Practical implicationsThis paper has implications for translator training, as it encourages the development of efficient information-seeking processes for the resolution of cultural translation problems.Originality/valueUnlike other studies, this paper focusses on a specific translation problem type. It provides information related to the students’ information-seeking strategies for the resolution of cultural translation problems, which can be useful for translation training.

Information-seeking behaviour and academic success in higher education: Which search strategies matter for grade differences among university students and how does this relevance differ by field of study?

Today, most college students use the Internet when preparing for exams or homework. Yet, research has shown that undergraduates’ information literacy skills are often insufficient. In this paper, we empirically test the relation between information-seeking strategies and grades in university. We synthesise arguments from the literature on information-seeking behaviour and approaches to learning in tertiary education. Building on the distinction between deep- and surface-level learning, we develop a classification of online search strategies and contrast it with traditional information behaviour. Multivariate analyses using a two-wave online survey among undergraduate students at a German university indicate that using advanced online information-seeking strategies is a significant and robust predictor of better grades. However, there are notable differences between subject groups: Traditional information behaviour is still crucial in the humanities. Advanced search strategies are beneficial in all settings, but only one in four students uses these early on, while this share increases to around 50% over the course of studies.

Serving a Fragmented Field: Information Seeking in Higher Education

This study examines the information seeking habits and needs of scholars of higher education. Because higher education is a field which draws on many disciplinary traditions rather than a pure discipline in itself, the information needs of these scholars require diverse information seeking strategies. Phenomenological interviews with productive scholars of higher education were conducted and analyzed for this study. Ellis' (1989) common information seeking behaviors of social scientists are used as a framework to examine the behaviors of these applied social scientists in the modern information seeking environment.

Information Seeking Behaviors, Attitudes, and Choices of Academic Chemists

ABSTRACTChemists in academic institutions utilize a variety of resources and strategies to remain current and to track scholarly information, patents, and news. To explore how chemists in academic institutions remain current, librarians at four Canadian university institutions surveyed 231 and interviewed 14 chemistry faculty, staff, and graduate students on their information seeking behaviors and attitudes. According to survey results, a minority of chemists (13.9 percent) acknowledged that they were successfully keeping up to date, while 50.6 percent indicated that they were somewhat successful. However, a significant number of chemists (35.5 percent) indicated that they were unsuccessful and could do better in remaining current with information. Investigators analyzing focus group data identified three emergent themes related to remaining current: (1) there is “too much information – and not enough time.” No single information seeking strategy works; (2) “patents are important – but messy.” Chemists find themselves largely suspicious about the value and credibility of patents; and (3) chemists “could do better” in keeping up to date with new and emerging technologies. Chemists continue to be open to new tools and resources yet readily acknowledge that they are too often not sure which information seeking behaviors, resources, or strategies work best. This study helps to shed light on opportunities to identify and meet chemists’ evolving information needs.

Patterns of Internet-based health information seeking in adult survivors of childhood cancer.

To assess where, when, and why survivors of childhood cancer seek health information. Data from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS) cohort (n=1386) and Health Information National Trends Survey (n=2385) were analyzed to determine the health information seeking strategies of childhood cancer survivors. Descriptive frequencies, χ2 analyses, t-tests, and multivariable logistic regression models were used. To seek health-related information for themselves, 54% (n=742) of the childhood survivors reported using the Internet in the past 12 months, compared to 45% of the general population (adjusted OR: 2.76; 95% CI: 2.40-3.19). Childhood cancer survivors who used the Internet for health information were more likely to be female, between the ages of 18-34, have received some college education or be a college graduate, and report being in poor health. Although survivors were less likely than the general population to trust health information from the Internet (P<0.01), they indicated that they would like a secure website that uses information from their medical records to provide individualized health-related information. The use of the Internet to access health information among the childhood cancer survivors was over 50%. Information on late effects was a high priority for most survivors, as was their interest in websites related to late effects and a website on patient information tailored to personal situations. Identification of factors associated with searching the Internet for cancer information may provide direction for development of effective cancer communication interventions for this at-risk population.

Influence of Knowledge Distribution on Children’s Information Seeking Strategies

Early in development, children rely on others to obtain information about unfamiliar situations or objects. They can exploit sources of information, by asking a familiar informant, or explore new sources by asking an unfamiliar informant. Children’s choices are guided by their previous experience with each informant. Children as young as 4-years-old have been shown to track informant accuracy and direct future questions to the more accurate informant (Fitneva &amp; Dunfield, 2010; Koenig &amp; Harris, 2005). Moreover, the distribution of knowledge may also have an impact on children’s information seeking strategies. In the current study, children were presented with an informant who correctly answered some questions. For the final question of a category, they were asked to make a choice between the familiar and unfamiliar informant. The key manipulation of this study was the knowledge distribution, as children were explicitly told either one informant or all the informants know the names of the objects in question. We expect that, in the narrowly- distributed knowledge condition, children will be more likely to exploit. On the contrary, we expect that they will be more likely to explore in the broadly-distributed knowledge condition.

Does Your Facebook Profile Help You or Harm You? Examining the Effect of Information Seeking Strategies on Relational Outcomes in Social Networking Sites

Does Your Facebook Profile Help You or Harm You? Examining the Effect of Information Seeking Strategies on Relational Outcomes in Social Networking Sites

Information Resource Processing using Knowledge Organization Tools in Academic Libraries: A Case Study of Ahmadu Bello University Library Complex

The paper focuses on using Knowledge Organisation Tools (KOT) for information resources processing in academic libraries, a study of Ahmadu Bello University Library Complex, Zaria. The paper sees KOT as anything use as a device, means, or instrument for processing the understanding, experience, and wisdom of individual(s) to enhance easy access and create value to the knowledge. The study was conducted using descriptive content analysis. It was revealed that professionals and para professionals in academic libraries are involved in using Knowledge Organisation Tools for managing information resources. The paper concludes that, from time to time it may be required to audit and update the Knowledge Management Tools (KMT), information resources and human information seeking strategies in academic libraries to enhance knowledge and meet up with 21st century challenges.

Information Seeking When Problem Solving: Perspectives of Public Health Professionals.

Given the many different types of professionals working in public health and their diverse roles, it is likely that their information needs, information-seeking behaviors, and problem-solving abilities differ. Although public health professionals often work in interdisciplinary teams, few studies have explored their information needs and behaviors within the context of teamwork. This study explored the relationship between Canadian public health professionals' perceptions of their problem-solving abilities and their information-seeking behaviors with a specific focus on the use of evidence in practice settings. It also explored their perceptions of collaborative information seeking and the work contexts in which they sought information. Key Canadian contacts at public health organizations helped recruit study participants through their list-servs. An electronic survey was used to gather data about (a) individual information-seeking behaviors, (b) collaborative information-seeking behaviors, (c) use of evidence in practice environments, (d) perceived problem-solving abilities, and (e) demographic characteristics. Fifty-eight public health professionals were recruited, with different roles and representing most Canadian provinces and one territory. A significant relationship was found between perceived problem-solving abilities and collaborative information-seeking behavior (r = -.44, p < .00, N = 58), but not individual information seeking. The results suggested that when public health professionals take a shared, active approach to problem solving, maintain personal control, and have confidence, they are more likely collaborate with others in seeking information to complete a work task. Administrators of public health organizations should promote collaboration by implementing effective communication and information-seeking strategies, and by providing information resources and retrieval tools. Public health professionals' perceived problem-solving abilities can influence how they collaborate in seeking information. Educators in public health organizations should tailor training in information searching to promote collaboration through collaborative technology systems.

Information seeking and searching strategies as plans and patterns of action

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to elaborate the picture of strategies for information searching and seeking by reviewing the conceptualizations on this topic in the field of library and information science (LIS).Design/methodology/approachThe study draws on Henry Mintzberg’s idea of strategy as plan and strategy as pattern in a stream of actions. Conceptual analysis of 57 LIS investigations was conducted to find out how researchers have approached the above aspects in the characterizations of information search and seeking strategies.FindingsIn the conceptualizations of information search and information seeking strategies, the aspect of strategy as plan is explicated most clearly in text-book approaches describing the steps of rational web searching. Most conceptualizations focus on the aspect of strategy as pattern in a stream of actions. This approach places the main emphasis on realized strategies, either deliberate or emergent. Deliberate strategies indicate how information search or information seeking processes were oriented by intentions that existed previously. Emergent strategies indicate how patterns in information seeking and seeking developed in the absence of intentions, or despite them.Research limitations/implicationsThe conceptualizations of the shifts in information seeking and searching strategies were excluded from the study. Similarly, conceptualizations of information search or information retrieval tactics were not examined.Originality/valueThe study pioneers by providing an in-depth analysis of the ways in which the key aspects of strategy are conceptualized in the classifications and typologies of information seeking and searching strategies. The findings contribute to the elaboration of the conceptual space of information behaviour research.

INFORMATION NEEDS AND SEEKING BEHAVIOUR OF ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN, THEIR CAREGIVERS, AND SERVICE PROVIDERS IN RURAL REGIONS IN NAMIBIA

A big problem in Namibia is the issue of destitute orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), many of whose parents have died from HIV/AIDS related illnesses. This study sought to examine the information needs of OVC and their caregivers and their information seeking strategies in managing the OVC situation in Namibia. Both qualitative and quantitative survey research methods were employed. Questionnaires were posted to various service providers, while interviews were conducted with OVC and their caregivers. Focus group discussions were also used for caregivers and informants in order to collect data on the respondents’ general attitudes, feelings, beliefs, experiences and reactions. The study took place in the rural Ohangwena region in January 2009 and urban Khomas region in April 2009. The preliminary findings indicated that there was a higher school dropout rate among rural OVC. Both rural and urban OVC expressed the need for financial assistance or grants, child care support, feeding schemes and health services as their top priorities. The rural OVC said they required information about school development fund exemptions, financial assistance or grants, health services, childcare support, and training opportunities. The urban OVC expressed the same priorities except for counselling, which was added to their list instead of training opportunities. Both the rural and urban OVC stated that they consulted relatives, teachers and friends for advice or information, thus indicating that interpersonal sources of information were the most important source of information. The study provided useful information for interventions and further research.

Low-Effort Information Searching: The Heuristic Information-Seeking Toolkit

ABSTRACTHow do academic library users search for scholarly information? While there are many possible ways, research from several scholarly fields offers a useful perspective; studies from social psychology, economics, and library and information science suggest that users will often favor “low-effort” information-seeking approaches. Though many academic librarians undoubtedly advocate efficient information-seeking strategies, we argue that development of a more systematic and coordinated low-effort approach would be beneficial. Accordingly, this article offers an organized “toolkit” of low-effort information-seeking strategies suitable for self-use by library patrons or inclusion in library instruction programs.

The Effect of Limited Health Literacy on How Internet Users Learn About Diabetes

The Internet continues to be an important supplemental health information resource for an increasing number of U.S. adults, especially for those with a new or existing chronic condition. Here we examine how people use the Internet to learn about Type 2 diabetes and how health literacy (HL) influences this information-seeking behavior. We analyzed the searches of approximately 2 million people who queried for diabetes-related information on Microsoft’s Bing search engine. The HL of searchers was imputed through a community-based HL score. Topics searched were categorized and subsequent websites were assessed for readability. Overall, diabetes information–seeking strategies via the Internet are similar among adults with limited and adequate HL skills. However, people with limited HL take a longer time to read pages that are quickly read by people with adequate HL and vice versa. Information seeking among the former is terminated prematurely, as is evident from a Hidden Markov Model of the search process. Our findings indicate that the reading level required to understand the majority of diabetes-related information is high. Especially on government websites, more than 80% of information requires a reading level corresponding to 7th grade or higher. Our results indicate that individuals with lower HL may disproportionately struggle with Internet searches and fail to get an equivalent benefit from this information resource compared to users with greater HL. Future interventions should target the quality and ease of navigation of health care websites and find ways to leverage other relevant professionals to encourage and promote successful information access on the Web.