New models of information use in the academic information environment Jela Steinerová Comenius University Bratislava

Outline  Traditional and new models of education and research  Information behavior of academic communities –Information behavior studies in the electronic environment –Use of electronic resources  New models of academic environment –Relevance assessment – own research: concepts maps –Information ecology (model)

Academic information environment  Information resources, information services and systems, academic community, information behavior, social and organizational contexts, communication and information processes and activities  Transition to the electronic environment: –Digital libraries –Added value

Traditional models  European models –„classroom“, directed –One-way communication, detailed strategy  U.S. models –Self-directed learning  Asian models –Holistic approach, perseverance

New models  Commercial –Information brokering  Institutional –Institutional repositories (MIT, Harvard, Stanford)  Community –Academic community, information behavior

Information behavior  Information studies – information behavior:  Integrated human information activity resulting from adapting to information environment  including: cognitive, affective, social, sensorimotoric, neurophysiologival components  Information behavior of academic community:  Cognitive factors  Affective factors  Situational factors

Information behavior studies  ACADEMIC COMMUNITY  Information sharing  Collaboration  KNOWLEDGE TECHNOLOGIES  Complex social information systems  Institutional repositories  Cyberinfrastructure  collaboratories

New models  Learning organization  Sense-making  Knowledge creation  Decision-making  Information behavior components  Cognitive  Affective  Situational  User  Information need  Information seeking  Information use  (Choo, 2007)

New models

New models (examples)  e-Horizons Project, University of Oxford  Oxford e-Research Centre   Digital libraries – academic information environments: –NSDL, JISC –DRIVER: Digital Repository Infrastructure Vision for European Research 

Examples

Examples

Examples

Information behavior in web environment  Longitudinal studies: –OCLC, Pew Internet and American Life Project, CIBER (University College of London)  Latest patterns:  Horizontal information seeking  Digital skills / information literacy  Visual searching  Social networks, social media (MySpace, FaceBook)

Information use in the academic environment  Information integrated into education, research –Digital libraries: digital objects, learning objects –„learning commons“ : participatory networked places  Open Access movement (ArXiv, Eprints, DSpace) –Creative Commons, Science Commons ( –The Washington DC Principles for Free Access to Science, SPARC ( –Adavanced technologies, project ORE – object Re-Use and Exchange (

New partnerships  Social sciences and humanities and computer sciences  Academic and private sector  Information system designers and library and information professionals  Patterns of: human information behavior, collaborative seeking and use, information places and spaces (e-research, e-science)

Added value of information professionals  Organization of knowledge in digital libraries  Visualization  Concepts and contexts for perception  Functions: –Filter, navigate, understand, use information  Visual representations  Cognitive (mental) maps, domain maps, concept maps, topic maps (ISO standard)s

Concept maps  Basic elements –Nodes –Links –Patterns (structure)  Functions: –Means of learning –Means of evaluation –Means of curricula development –Means of cooperative learning

Concept maps: Mindmanager:

Examples:

Examples: c-maps

Our research project  Information use by information behavior (VEGA 1/2481/05)  Relevance assessment – PhD students  New models of relevance:  Decision making  Verification  Interaction and re-use

Project results – concept maps

Project results : concept map

New model: information ecology

Conclusion: new models of information use  Social and open networked libraries –Collaboration, creativity, community building  New tools of knowledge organization (concept maps, digital libraries)  Ecology: finding harmony  Satisficing, optimizing, information sharing  Individual and group information behavior  Information literacy  Ubiquitous, unobtrusive technological mediation  Ethics, legal, security precautions

Conclusion: a new project  Information Ecology –Human information behavior –Organization of electronic information in the academic environment  Sense making and contexts, relevance  Using technologies with heart –Cleaning mechanisms (information overload, risks of information use)

Conclusion: information ecology  Methodology and methods –HIB surveys (academic environment) –Interviews (academic managers) –Discourse analyses, experiments (repositories, concept maps)  Interdisciplinary collaboration  Computer sciences, cognitive sciences, information science  International collaborations  Comparative studies  Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia, etc.