Library Science Statement of Competency

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The Master of Library and Information Science program competency is to be able to describe the fundamental concepts of information-seeking behaviors. Information-seeking behaviors can differ among library users according to demographics and the type of energy that the user is willing to put into the search (Wicks, 2004). As Schwieder (2016) notes, there are low-effort information-seeking strategies and high-effort information-seeking strategies.

The fundamental concepts of information-seeking behaviors stem from the work initiated by Bates (1989), Ellis (1989), Kuhlthau (1991) and Dervin (1992). Kuhlthau (1991) defines information-seeking behavior as a personal search for meaning or sense: a process by which an individual develops “a personal point of view” (p. 361). The way this information-seeking behavior works, no matter the demographic of the individual, is that the user searches for meaning/information which meshes with what the person already knows about the subject. This meaning or slice of information will differ from user to user depending on the person’s background, own history with the subject, interests and so on. Thus, the information-seeking behavior will vary from individual to individual, which is what accounts for Kuhlthau’s (1991) concept of “sense-making within a personal frame of reference” (p. 361). Kuhlthau’s concept is very much in line with Bates’ (1989) concept of information-seeking behavior, which Bates (1989) describes as “berrypicking”—a process by which individual users pick out nuggets of information like one picking berries from a bush: that which looks good and appealing is what gets selected by the user for processing (p. 2). Dervin (1992) also elaborates on the sense-making process by identifying four parts of the process: 1) situation, 2) gap, 3) outcome, and 4) bridge.

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Identifying and defining the gap and bridging or closing it throughout the sense-making information-seeking process is what the search is ultimately all about in Dervin’s (1992) model, which is essentially supported by Bates (1989) and Kuhlthau (1991).

Ellis (1989) provides a different model of how information-seeking behavior generally transpires: it is a six-stage process that is entirely cognitive and consists of the following steps: 1) starting—in which sources are identified, 2) chaining—the process by which references or citations are used to build on information obtained during the original sources found in the starting phase, 3) browsing—in which information is grouped and sorted, 4) differentiating—in which sources are vetted and distinguished based on quality, characteristics, etc., 5) monitoring—in which an active eye is given to updates on the field or subject, and 6) extracting—in which the relevant information is finally selected.

Knowing about information-seeking behaviors is important to library science….....

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