1. The Information School of the University of Washington Interviews: Analyzing interviews/practicing interviewing

2. The Information School of the University of Washington Open-ended Questions— The In-Person Interview Provides face-to-face social interaction between the interviewer and the respondent. Helps us see things from the respondent's point of view The best way to find out the respondent’s perceptions Examples of interviews in which you took part?

3. The Information School of the University of Washington Types of Interviews Informal conversation: Spontaneous generation of questions General interview guide: The interview is guided by a checklist of issues to be addressed Standardized open-ended interview: The interview follows a list of questions, all are worded the same way for all participants (Interview Schedule) Each team decides which type to employ

4. The Information School of the University of Washington Advantages of the Interview— Class Workout Think about your team project and find one good reason for conducting an in-person interview Write down this reason in one phrase (2 min.) Turn to your neighbor and find out if she or he agrees with you ( 3 min.) Present your reason to class

5. The Information School of the University of Washington Pitfalls in Conducting an Interview Questions are not truly open-ended: Let respondents talk in their language as much as possible No dichotomous questions: No questions that require “yes” or “no” Singular questions: One question = one idea

6. The Information School of the University of Washington Pitfalls in Conducting an Interview Clear questions: Making sure the respondent understands the questions right away Neutral questions: The interviewer is completely neutral, no matter what the respondent says Rapport: Ability to convey empathy and understanding without judgment

7. The Information School of the University of Washington Interview Pitfalls—Class Workout Identify at least one problem with each of the eight questions on the list In your deliberations, think about difficulties respondents might have in: answering a question answering it truthfully Time: 5 minutes

8. The Information School of the University of Washington Conducting an Interview the Right Way— A Class Workout Now that you know the problems with each question, fix each one of them to overcome the problems we have identified Team size: Work together with your neighbor Time: 10 minutes

9. The Information School of the University of Washington Conducting an Interview the Right Way— an Individual Workout Review the questions you wrote for the questionnaire and the interview Identify the problems they have Fix the problem and write them the right way Time: 5 minutes

10. The Information School of the University of Washington Stages in the Interview Process Introduction Questions: Warm-up and general question Questions: Critical event Question: General patterns Wrap-up

11. The Information School of the University of Washington Introduction Introduce yourself and explain: –The purpose of your project –The purpose of the interview –How long the interview will take –What type of questions you will ask –Who will see the data you collect –How will the data be presented Ask if the person has any questions

12. The Information School of the University of Washington Warm-up questions Questions that are easy to answer and that don’t require much reflection Are usually general, factual and background questions Examples: –How long have you been interested in … ? –How often do you do something about … ? –Did you get any training is using …? –With whom do you …?

13. The Information School of the University of Washington Critical Event Ask the participant to describe a recent event when they were involved in the information behavior in which you are interested Make sure that they tell you the whole story (remember Assignment #1). For example: –When they initiated –What were they doing at that time –Why they did it at that time –What was their goal –What they did, step by step –Why they stopped –Did they achieve their goal

14. The Information School of the University of Washington General Patterns Based on the critical event, you ask the participant questions to find out how “typical” the event was. Examples of questions: –How often do you have such situations? –What do you do in other situations? –What is your favorite way to go about solving such a situation? –Do you normally solve the problem this way?

15. The Information School of the University of Washington Wrap-up Give the participant another opportunity to express thoughts and ideas: “Is there anything more you’d like to add?” Thank the participant Explain that you know how busy the person is and that you appreciate the time she or he took to talk to you.

16. The Information School of the University of Washington Analyzing Interviews Steps in analyzing interviews: 1.Tape the interviews 2.Transcribe them 3.Read the transcript and find statements that indicate a certain information behavior 4.Create a general description of the information behavior of the interviewed participant

17. The Information School of the University of Washington Taping the Interview Practical tips: Use a relatively small tape recorder Make sure the tape recorder is not the center of attention Use a tape recorder of good quality Use tapes of 90 minutes Use a microphone Practice using the tape recorder so you have no surprises during the interview

18. The Information School of the University of Washington Transcribing the Interviews Practical tips: Transcribe word for word, no summaries or shortcuts You may eliminate expressions that have no particular meaning. For example: you saying “OK” after every sentence Add in parentheses comments that might be important. For example: (pointing to the wall) Leave wide margins to write comments

19. The Information School of the University of Washington Reading the Transcript Read each sentence and note on the margins what information behavior it indicates If a paragraph, or another part of the text, indicates a special attribute, write it down as well Write down your reflections and thoughts about the information behavior of the participant

20. The Information School of the University of Washington Reading the Transcript— Class Workout Read the text of the hypothetical transcript and analyze it Time: 5 minutes

21. The Information School of the University of Washington The Transcript—I My sister wants to buy a Camellia tree and she asked me to find some information about it. And frankly speaking, I don’t know much about plants, apart from the sources in general. I think the only sources I know about gardening and plants, is the Sunset book, which is sort of the Bible of the gardeners, especially on the West Coast. And I don’t know much about the information that’s available on the Web. I will just go and do a search in one of the search engines, on camellia, and see what I can find from there.

22. The Information School of the University of Washington The Transcript—II Since I know, I usually like Alta Vista, I will go straight there. I put + [“plus”] camellia because that guarantees that a term is included in the document in Alta Vista. And I will add botany and horticulture and gardening and see what will come out. Okay we’ve got here some lists [looking at the results], 4-H, horticulture, contest, camellia. 4-H, I would imagine this refers to the youth clubs, probably something to do with a horticulture contest for youth clubs, with camellias. A standard periodical directory, just browsing now to see... [scanning results] what do we have here. And looking at the descriptions…

23. The Information School of the University of Washington The Transcript—III Actually, I usually like to browse before opening one of the links. I prefer to do that, rather, so I will check one or two pages (of results), and then decide what I want to do next. [scanning results] So I’m looking again at the titles, and [scanning results] I’m looking at the content descriptions that are available. And I will go on to the next page to see the next ten references from Alta Vista. [scanning results] I think I will... well, there’s a good one. Camellias. I’ll have a quick look at that one, even though I can share the thought with you that just before spotting this particular one I was going to reformulate the search. But since I spotted this one, I’m going to have a quick look at that, since it’s about camellias only. And see what it says.

24. The Information School of the University of Washington The Transcript—IV [Reading text] This gives an explanation about camellias in Virginia... describes... here’s some information about the types of camellias that will grow. Again concentrated only on camellias in the climate zones where Virginia is. So since we are not in the same climate zone, I go back, and reformulate the search.

25. The Information School of the University of Washington General Description of HIB How would you describe the HIB of the person who was looking for Camellias?