Visitors and residents: What motivates engagement with the digital information environment?

Abstract

This 3-year project is funded by JISC, OCLC, Oxford University, and the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. It does not aim to answer ‗What works?' but ‗Why does it work?'. If we gain a better understanding of student and scholar motivations for engaging in the information environment, we have a greater chance of meeting expectations and creating services which are used and ultimately good value for money. We cannot continue to provide an educational version of every available platform in an attempt to mirror the web within institutions. We must make informed decisions on how to move forward to ensure that we will not be at the mercy of every ‗new' technology that becomes available nor will we be expending funds on services, systems, and facilities that are not used.The project is an attempt to fill the gap in user behaviour studies identified in the JISC Digital Information Seeker Report (2010). Connaway and Dickey (2010) call for a longitudinal study -to identify how individuals engage in both the virtual and physical worlds to get information for different situations could be conducted‖ (p. 56). They believe that -Such an investigation would contribute to a better understanding of how individuals navigate in multiple information environments and could influence the design and integration of systems and services for devices and applications, as well as cloud computing‖ (Connaway and Dickey (2010, p. 56). It utilises the visitors and residents principle described in the TALL blog (White 2008), which hypothesizes that neither age nor gender determines whether one is a visitor (one who logs on to the virtual environment, performs a specific task or acquires specific information, and then logs off) or a resident (one who has an ongoing, developing presence online).

Is Information-Seeking Behavior of Doctoral Students Changing?: A Review of the Literature (2010–2015)

“…More articles tend to be read in sciences, particularly in medical or life sciences (Fry et al 2009;Tenopir et al 2015a). In the digital information environment, convenience is found to be a major determinant in students' information-seeking behaviours, which explains the popularity of Google and Wikipedia as information sources, particularly when students were unfamiliar with the topic researched (Connaway et al 2013). Google and Wikipedia are seen as a good starting point in that respect, and it is not unusual for students (although not specifically PhD students) to stop their search after the first few sites listed on Google (Connaway et al 2013) or no further than the first page of hit list.…”

“…In the digital information environment, convenience is found to be a major determinant in students' information-seeking behaviours, which explains the popularity of Google and Wikipedia as information sources, particularly when students were unfamiliar with the topic researched (Connaway et al 2013). Google and Wikipedia are seen as a good starting point in that respect, and it is not unusual for students (although not specifically PhD students) to stop their search after the first few sites listed on Google (Connaway et al 2013) or no further than the first page of hit list. Books, on the other hand, figure highly in the research process of researchers in arts and humanities, with 75% of researchers in those disciplines finding them 'very useful' while the percentage are smaller for social sciences (55%), physical sciences (47%), life sciences (34%) (RIN 2007).…”

Embracing an Ethnographic Agenda: Context, Collaboration, and Complexity

“…Research indicates that it is not librarians, or library websites (Connaway, White and Lanclos, 2011;Schoenfeld, 2014). Library resources and the people who work within the library are made visible when attention is paid to the ways that people already search, the cues that they are looking for, and the conventions of the open web.…”

“…I have, in the course of several research projects (e.g. Visitors and Residents, see Connaway, White and Lanclos, 2011; interviewed more than one undergraduate who called Google a 'best friend'. Libraries don't run Google (more's the pity, fi nancially).…”

Evaluation of a Resource Discovery Service: FindIt@Bham

“…Early findings from a current JISC funded study looking at the motivation behind why individuals engage with the digital information environment has found that "The importance of convenience and how the Web often will be chosen as an information source by students even when they know higher quality sources are available elsewhere". (Connaway, White, Lanclos, and Le Cornu 2013).…”