The Australian Library Journal

Charles Sturt University's Matching users with information Community of Scholars

Ross Harvey

Introduction

The articles by members of CSU staff which follow reflect a selection of the research being conducted by members of the Library and Information Management (LIM) group in the School of Information Studies at Charles Sturt University. The LIM group has always been active in research, but until recently individuals have undertaken their research independently. In 2003 we took time to identify more precisely what this research was. The outcome of this audit of activities and strengths was a successful application for funding for the Matching users with information 'Community of Scholars' (CSU's term for an emerging research group in fields other than its traditional research strengths). The name - Matching users with information - describes where our research is situated and encompasses what we will do in the future.

As the Community's research leader, my interests are in the preservation of information resources and in improving user access to information. Other members of the School's staff bring to the Community research interests that are closely related. Several of the School's twenty-five doctoral students are engaged in research in related topics, such as ageing and successful information-seeking, national networking policy in Australia, knowledge transfer in a learning community, the impact of baby boomers on public libraries, the preservation of business and research information, and information acquisition by parents of children with disabilities. A recently graduated research student has also participated in the group. The funding secured allowed the Community to employ a research assistant and it was fortunate to secure the services of Rachel Salmond: her assistance is gratefully acknowledged.

The research area reflects one of the central preoccupations of the LIM group since the 1990s. Libraries and other information agencies (such as archives) have highly developed systems, skills, and techniques for information management, but may not be fully informed about how their users behave - for example, what information they seek, when they seek it (that is, at what point in their information need they look for it), the places (physical and electronic) they go to seek it, the people they consult, how they make sense of and use information. To ensure greater success in matching users with the information they seek, further research is required. The Community is concerned with four of these research areas: identifying information needs, improving information delivery systems and ensuring the availability of information, and information ethics.

1 Identifying information needs

We would like to know more about how users behave when they require information, addressing questions such as: Where do they seek information? Whom do they ask? What are the cultural variables in information-seeking behaviour? How are social networks incorporated in information seeking? How does the nature of the information environment influence information-seeking behaviour? How do different cohorts become information literate?

2 Improving information delivery systems

Systems need to be continually evaluated in order to increase knowledge of how they are used. What is the likely future role of libraries of various kinds in information delivery, and in print and electronic publishing? How can our understanding of user behaviour assist system development? Are system designers finding a match between users' mental models of systems and the conceptual model behind the systems? Can existing methodologies for the evaluation of information systems be adapted to the evaluation of web-based information delivery systems? Can quantitative research methodologies be combined with user studies to measure the performance of information delivery systems? How do information users interact with systems, and how does their information-seeking behaviour change as a result? How can information retrieval (IR) systems offer more flexibility? How can IR systems assist users to conceptualise their information needs?

3 Ensuring the availability of information

Knowing how to better meet users' information needs, and providing better systems to do this are ultimately useless if the information being sought is not available. This is especially the case in an environment where information is increasingly produced only in digital form. Moreover, digital information is very susceptible to deterioration or loss. Questions which arise include: How do we determine the significance of information? What information of sometime significance is no longer available? How might we minimise the loss of significant information? What new problems are raised by an increasing reliance on information in digital form, both 'born digital' and digitised from other formats? What strategies and techniques could assist us to ensure the availability of digital information? How do the paradigms of preservation thinking need to change to accommodate digital information? Can thinking and practice in the archives profession inform and lead to improved preservation practices in libraries?

4 Information ethics

Professional practice is developed and applied within an ethical framework, articulated or inferred. The ethical implications of the provision of information services in today's society must be reviewed and documented if information professionals are to match information with users in a way that is consistent with contemporary societal and moral expectations. What is the ethical context in which information professionals operate? What conflicts might arise in their workplaces? How might we best codify guiding principles for professional practice? How might we raise these effectively with information professionals?

The significance of our research lies precisely in its potential for improving practice in libraries and information centres. Ensuring the availability of information and better matching of users with the information they seek, at the place and time when they need it, lies at the core of maintaining and strengthening the relevance of libraries to the societies they serve. Early in its existence the Community decided that it would showcase its activities by writing up some of them for publication in The Australian Library Journal. The articles you see here are the result.

Research in Identifying information needs is represented by Anne Lloyd's paper 'No man (or woman) is an island: information literacy, affordances and communities of practice' which reports on research conducted for her recently completed doctorate. She addresses the nature of information literacy in workplaces, and how it manifests in groups in workplaces. The second theme, Improving information delivery systems, is represented here by three papers: John Kennedy continues his long-standing interest in collection development in 'A collection development policy for digital information resources?' Stuart Ferguson, Tricia Kelly and Philip Hider combine their interests in evaluating the effectiveness of information systems in 'Information systems evaluation and the search for success: lessons for LIS research'. Philip Hider's doctoral research addresses the interaction between systems and users. In 'Coding online information seeking' he reports on investigations of new methods of capturing and coding just what it is that people do when they search for information online.

Research into aspects of preservation is reported under the theme Ensuring the availability of information. Doctoral student Wendy Smith illustrates some of her research in 'Still lost in cyberspace? Preservation challenges of Australian Internet resources'. Annemaree Lloyd, Ross Harvey and Damian Lodge, who are participants in the Australian Memory of the World program, part of the UNESCO Memory of the World initiative, describe some of their recent activities in 'Lost and missing Australian documentary heritage: is there any?'. One aspect of information ethics is addressed by Stuart Ferguson; the group's research assistant Rachel Salmond, and three members of the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (an ARC Commonwealth Special Research Centre in which Charles Sturt University is a partner: see http://www.cappe.edu.au/), in 'Case studies and codes of ethics: the relevance of the ACS experience to ALIA'.

For further information about the research interests of Charles Sturt University's Matching users with information Community of Scholars, please contact Professor Ross Harvey (rossharvey@csu.edu.au).

Contributions from Charles Sturt University's Matching users with information Community of Scholars

Theme 1: Identifying information needs

Anne Lloyd 'No man (or woman) is an island: information literacy, affordances and communities of practice.'

Theme 2: Improving information delivery systems

John Kennedy 'A collection development policy for digital information resources?'

Stuart Ferguson, Tricia Kelly and Philip Hider 'Information systems evaluation and the search for success: lessons for LIS research.'

Philip Hider 'Coding online information seeking.'

Theme 3: Ensuring the availability of information

Wendy Smith 'Still lost in cyberspace? Preservation challenges of Australian internet resources.'

Anne Lloyd, Ross Harvey and Damian Lodge 'Lost and missing Australian documentary heritage: is there any?'

Theme 4: Information ethics

Stuart Ferguson, Rachel Salmond, Yeslam Al-Saggaf, Mike Bowern and John Weckert 'Case studies and codes of ethics: the relevance of the ACS experience to ALIA.'