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1 – 10 of 70Nicholas Urquhart, Juliann Sergi McBrayer, Cordelia Zinskie and Richard Cleveland
This research examine participation in a dual enrollment program and a student's race and socioeconomic status. In addition to examining the college retention and graduation rates…
Abstract
Purpose
This research examine participation in a dual enrollment program and a student's race and socioeconomic status. In addition to examining the college retention and graduation rates (student success) of dual and non-dual enrolled students, this study looked at potential race and socioeconomic disparities.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative ex post facto research design using logistic regression was used to analyze data from the University System of Georgia (N = 28,664) to determine the relationships between participation in a dual enrollment program, students' race and socioeconomic status and their retention and graduation.
Findings
Findings from this quantitative study indicated that the predictor variables dual enrollment participation, race and socioeconomic status were significant in predicting retention and graduation outcomes.
Originality/value
This study adds to existing research indicating that students from different races and socioeconomic statuses, who participated in a high school dual enrollment program, are being retained beyond the first year in college and graduating at higher rates than non-dual enrolled students.
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– The purpose of this paper was to investigate how PhD students discover, choose and use information and literature for their research.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper was to investigate how PhD students discover, choose and use information and literature for their research.
Design/methodology/approach
Eight PhD students at the Norwegian Business School (BI) were interviewed. The interviews were based on a phenomenological approach.
Findings
The use of both library databases and Google Scholar is frequent and contextual. The informants ranked the library databases as more useful than Google Scholar. Methods for keeping up to date varied and were contextual. Although formal information seeking in library databases was seen as more academic than the tracking of references, this latter method was more widespread. Students felt they mastered the tools associated with formal information seeking, which constituted a continuous activity in their research practices. Wilson’s (1983) theory on cognitive authority may give a better understanding of the findings.
Practical implications
Acquiring knowledge about the information practices of PhD students in a specific discipline will help libraries to improve their services and acquire relevant resources for their users.
Originality/value
This paper examines PhD students’ ranking of information resources, identifies preferred methods for keeping up to date and reveals in which contexts the informants use either formal or social information-seeking practices.
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David Nicholas, Paul Huntington, Hamid R. Jamali, Ian Rowlands and Maggie Fieldhouse
This study provides evidence on the actual information‐seeking behaviour of students in a digital scholarly environment, not what they thought they did. It also compares student…
Abstract
Purpose
This study provides evidence on the actual information‐seeking behaviour of students in a digital scholarly environment, not what they thought they did. It also compares student information‐seeking behaviour with that of other academic communities, and, in some cases, for practitioners.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were gathered as part of CIBER's ongoing Virtual Scholar programme. In particular log data from two digital journals libraries, Blackwell Synergy and OhioLINK, and one e‐book collection (Oxford Scholarship Online) are utilized.
Findings
The study showed a distinctive form of information‐seeking behaviour associated with students and differences between them and other members of the academic community. For example, students constituted the biggest users in terms of sessions and pages viewed, and they were more likely to undertake longer online sessions. Undergraduates and postgraduates were the most likely users of library links to access scholarly databases, suggesting an important “hot link” role for libraries.
Originality/value
Few studies have focused on the actual (rather than perceived) information‐seeking behaviour of students. The study fills that gap.
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Christine Urquhart and Alison Yeoman
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether there is a need to consider gender or sex differences as variables in information behaviour research and, if so, how?
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether there is a need to consider gender or sex differences as variables in information behaviour research and, if so, how?
Design/methodology/approach
A metasynthesis approach is used. A preliminary framework to categorise information behaviour research on women is developed by integrating main themes from feminist research and information behaviour research. Within each category, studies are compared and contrasted, to identify similar and divergent themes. Themes are then compared across categories, to synthesise the main concepts.
Findings
The categorisation works for most studies, apart from a group of studies on health information use, communicating risk and decision making. The meta‐synthesis indicates the importance of concepts such as situation (as mesh), intermediaries (as node with connections), and connecting behaviour. Gender‐related or, rather gender‐ascribed, constructs, such as concern for others, not gender alone are likely to be important variables in information behaviour.
Research limitations/implications
The meta‐synthesis is a top‐level synthesis, as the number of studies prohibited a more detailed approach. Further meta‐synthesis of a few high quality research studies would help to confirm the findings.
Practical implications
The synthesis illuminates a different perspective on information behaviour: the network of information users rather than the individual information seeker.
Originality/value
The synthesis integrates some feminist research themes with information behaviour research, and the findings have implications for general information behaviour research.
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Nujoud Al‐Muomen, Anne Morris and Sally Maynard
This paper seeks to report the results of research conducted to model the information‐seeking behaviour of graduate students at Kuwait University and the factors influencing that…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to report the results of research conducted to model the information‐seeking behaviour of graduate students at Kuwait University and the factors influencing that behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach
The research employed a number of different approaches: a questionnaire survey to 800 graduate students studying at Kuwait University; a questionnaire survey to 180 academics at the university; semi‐structured interviews with eight academics; face‐to‐face and online interviews with 11 university library staff, four focus groups with 24 students and three focus groups with ten faculty staff.
Findings
Significant factors influencing students' information‐seeking behaviour were found to be related to library awareness, information literacy, organisational and environmental issues, source characteristics, and demographics (specifically gender and nationality).
Research limitations/implications
The research focused on graduate students at a Kuwait University which is affiliated to the government sector, however, the information seeking model is more widely applicable, particularly to other developing countries.
Originality/value
Proposed is an information‐seeking model that extended two other relevant and influential models of information‐seeking behaviour. The extended model shows promise for its intended utility in identifying factors that influence the information behaviour of graduate students.
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Jamshid Beheshti, Mohammed J. AlGhamdi, Charles Cole, Dhary Abuhimed and Isabelle Lamoureux
The chapter describes a four-year research project, the objective of which was to design and develop an intervention tool to assist middle school students in their information…
Abstract
Purpose
The chapter describes a four-year research project, the objective of which was to design and develop an intervention tool to assist middle school students in their information seeking when engaged in an inquiry-based learning project.
Methodology/approach
Bonded design method was used to design a proof-of-concept (POC) low-tech Guide, and focus group and Informant Design methods were utilized to develop a Web Guide.
Findings
In creating an intervention tool, whether low-tech paper-based or high-tech websites, different methodologies that relied heavily on the participation of students in the design process were successfully utilized.
Practical implications
The research shows that participation of children and adolescents in designing the content of technology for educational use is imperative.
Originality/value
This is a long-term research project, which is unparalleled and unique in its scope, duration, breadth, and depth. Having access to the grade eight classes in a single school over a four-year period has proven to be a remarkable research opportunity, seldom reported in the literature.
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UP AT BOSTON SPA they've decided to try to change the colloquial abbreviation used for ‘The British Library, Lending Division’ from the current ‘BLL’—which Donald Urquhart…
Abstract
UP AT BOSTON SPA they've decided to try to change the colloquial abbreviation used for ‘The British Library, Lending Division’ from the current ‘BLL’—which Donald Urquhart promoted because it tied up with the former NLL—since they find that ‘outsiders, and even on occasion insiders’, writes Press Officer Denys Parsons, think it means ‘British Lending Library’.
The purpose of this contribution is to set the scenario for pursuing options to find a balance between information communication technology (ICT), information retrieval systems…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this contribution is to set the scenario for pursuing options to find a balance between information communication technology (ICT), information retrieval systems (IRS) such as databases, library catalogues, repositories, Google Scholar, digital libraries, portals, search engines and the users of these systems. Whose needs are served: the real users' with contemporary needs or the perceived users and their research tasks whom we intensely studied in the early years of databases and computerised information services?
Design/methodology/approach
The contribution is written against the background of research from information retrieval and information behaviour.
Findings
Although developments in ICT open a wealth of opportunities to study and serve the needs of a wide spectrum of information users, IRS are often on the surface level still very traditional in the needs they service: analytical information seeking according to planned search strategies, browsing, monitoring trends and changes through alerting services and RSS, and encouragement and support for authors to publish. Some are offering a bit more, but little aimed at the under-graduate soon to enter professional workplace.
Originality/value
Although there are many publications on databases and other IRS and their users, and numerous ones on information behaviour I am not aware of other reports on the latest services aimed at specific user groups, and which focus on the need to consider the totality of their work and everyday life worlds.
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