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Category: Libraries and Librarians

Search Motivation and the Expert/Novice

Published by Iris on Monday, June 12th, 2006

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and reading, lately, about what makes an expert and what makes a novice, especially when it comes to information seeking. There are all sorts of theories out there, but today I ran across one that really makes sense to me. There’s a discussion happening on the ngc4lib listserv at the moment called “What’s Better? Dumbed Down or Loaded with Functionality” (don’t get me started on the ideology of “either-or” that’s inherent in this question). Anyway, one responder made a comment that completely resonated with me. It’s a teeny little comment of just a couple of lines, but packed with implications. This person mentioned that even when he fails at a Google search, he continues looking and tweaking his search string because he’s “pretty darn sure” the answer’s there somewhere. This motivates him to keep looking.

And there you have it: one more piece in the expert/novice discussion. Novices have less knowledge of what’s out there to begin with, so they have less motivation to keep tweaking search strategies, so they are less likely to find what they’re looking for. This would also hinder their efforts to come up with viable research topics.

I don’t know how many students have come to me frustrated because they’re having trouble finding good stuff on depression in PsychInfo, and yet they’re unable to narrow their searches to a workable sub-topic because they don’t know what they’ll be able to find. To make matters worse, when they have spent 15 or 20 minutes not finding what they want, they ask if maybe they should change their topics, by which they do NOT mean refine… they actually mean CHANGE to a completely different topic. And then the cycle is repeated.

So file this away in the “how can I help with this” section of your brains. I don’t know how I’m going to help develop experts, yet, but I’m going to give it the old college try (just as soon as all the students get back from their summer vacations…[insert some pining for a summer vacation here]).

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Millennials, Librarians, and Conferences

Published by Iris on Sunday, June 4th, 2006

I’ve been to a lot of conferences in the last year. Big ones and teeny ones, local ones and far away ones. And based on all this field research, I’ve just realized that I committed a major faux pas when I gave my talk this week. I never once mentioned Millennials. I wish to apologize for this oversight and plead for forgiveness based on the defense that I didn’t know what I was doing (obviously). Henceforth I promise to either talk about this new breed of human or come up with a very good reason for not talking about them.

Here’s the thing, though. I’m getting a little tired of the hue and cry. These kids are … well … kids. And just like every other generation of kids, they have needs and they have desires. And just like every other generation of librarians, we have to figure out what our users’ needs are and fill those needs, individual by individual and group by group. We also have to figure out what our users’ desires are, and cater to as many as are possible within the realm of reason and as many as are helpful.

Personally, I think saying things like,

“I’ll be doing a few panels of Millennials in the coming months. I always enjoy talking to these people and their insights and thoughtfulness always impresses.” (Stephen’s Lighthouse)

is not helpful. Don’t get me wrong Stephen has a lot of really good stuff to say. I admire the fact that he’s working hard not only to find ways of serving library users as well as possible, but also to push other librarians to do the same. But speaking of kids as if they’re aliens is, I think, counter-productive. In these sentences, “Millennials” becomes a term to describe a group that are completely separate, completely Other.

The two sentences I’ve quoted (found in a post that highlights some very interesting and useful information about his demographic sample) are pretty typical of what I call “Millennial Discomfort.” This disease is taking the library (and IT and education) world by storm. It’s reaching epidemic proportions.

Lets face it: there’s another generation running around, and eventually they will take over the world. In the mean time, we need to do exactly what we’ve done for generations upon generations… figure out what we can do to make sure they survive and flourish.

So instead of learning about and using MySpace, Flickr, del.icio.us, and all the rest because the Millennials are doing it (doesn’t that sound oh so middle-school-ish), let’s start learning and using these services because they’re useful and fun for our users and ourselves. Let’s learn as much as we can from the web services people like or the information seeking habits people have. Let’s remember that there are lots and lots of kids who are NOT tech savvy. And let’s remember that those kids who are tech savvy are not necessarily savvy in deciphering and leveraging the meaning, rhetoric, implications, or sometimes even the basic content of the information they take in. Let’s spend that proportion of conferences devoted to cries of “The Millennials are coming! The Millennials are coming!” and rededicate that time to learning from each other about new processes, best practices, and yes, even some of my beloved theoretical underpinnings. We can do it. I KNOW we can. There’s so much to talk about, think about, and do.

It’s been a weird week… I’ll step off my soap box now.

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Connecticut Librarians vs. Patriot Act

Published by Iris on Wednesday, May 31st, 2006

The “M” Word, Libraryola, and The Librarian in Black have all picked up the story. The New York Times did a piece on it, as did the ACLU Press. Here’s The “M” Word’s version:

In case you didn’t hear, the “Connecticut Four” are finally able to speak out after enduring the months-long gag order they had been restricted by when the FBI demanded records about their library patrons under the Patriot Act. See the articles in the NY Times this morning, Four Librarians Finally Break Silence in Records Case and Librarians Decry Patriot Act Gag Order (free subscriptions required).

According to a statement released by ALA, “The Plaintiffs were finally allowed to speak publicly after lawyers representing the government withdrew an appeal to keep their identities hidden after Federal District Court Judge Janet C. Hall declared the perpetual gag order that accompanies National Security Letters unconstitutional.”

The four librarians were:


The librarians expressed “frustration about the sweeping powers given to law enforcement authorities by the USA Patriot Act.”

”I am incensed that the government uses provisions of the Patriot Act to justify unrestrained and secret access to the records of libraries,” said George Christian of Windsor, Conn., executive director of the Library Connection, Inc., a consortium of libraries in the central part of the state.”

George Christian was the first one to receive the confidential request from the F.B.I. He was quoted as saying:

“I was shocked by the restraints the gag order imposed on me,” said Mr. Christian, who said that after receiving the request he was unsure whether he could consult a lawyer or his board of directors.

“The fact that the government can and is eavesdropping on patrons in libraries has a chilling effect, because they really don’t know if Big Brother is looking over their shoulder,” he added.

Being free to speak now, weeks after the Patriot Act was reauthorized for several more years, was “like being allowed to call the Fire Department after the building has burned down,” he said.

According to ALA’s release, incoming president Leslie Burger hopes that the stand they took will have an effect in creating new laws that “better reflect what this country stands for.”

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What a Day

Published by Iris on Thursday, May 25th, 2006

There’ve been some highs and some lows today, and now I’m completely drained. It all started with a first-thing-in-the-morning dentist appointment (I clench my teeth so hard at night that I chip my teeth). That’s always fun. Then there was work, which was fine, but I was tired because last night (my night shift) a student caught me just as I was leaving at 10:00. I finally actually left at 10:40. Not long before leaving work today my best friend wrote to tell me that her boyfriend is missing (so she’s just a little stressed about that, as you can imagine), and then a co-worker and I got into a big discussion about privacy. (I don’t think she would have liked my recent post, but I’m so glad to work with people who actually discuss this kind of thing.)

So by the time I got home from work, I was pretty fried, and I still had to call my friend (who as of this writing still hasn’t heard anything about her missing boyfriend). So what do I do when I’m fried? I go blog surfing. And I’m always rewarded. Tonight’s prize for most interesting post goes to … (drum role please) … The Ubiquitous Librarian for his post about free document delivery. I absolutely think this is important for libraries to think about and implement if time and staffing allow. And if time and staffing don’t allow, we should be thinking about why that is and trying to remedy it. (I think there’s still a place for LC in libraries, but he wasn’t actually arguing for abolishing it, just for interrogating our uses of it.)

At one point he asks, “So the question is — do we want to be Blockbuster or Netflix?” My answer: we want to be both. We want to be Blockbuster to the people who want or need Blockbuster, and Netflix to the people who want or need Netflix.

Well, back to my semi-doldrums. If it weren’t getting so hot here, maybe I’d have more energy and pep. Or maybe I’m just tired and need about a month of sleep.

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