Information Behavior

“We Just Get Frustrated”: Exploring Factors that Shape Information Provision in Disability Services

This study investigates how disability providers engage in information provision within a fragmented disability service system. Through interviews with 61 providers from state, local, and nonprofit agencies from the state of Virginia, we identify two descriptive patterns of organizational information practices and five multi-level shaping factors: system disintegration, bureaucratic complexity, provider expertise, user technological readiness, and community trust.

Exploring Librarians' Experiences and Perceptions of Public Library Data Work

This study investigates the experiences and concerns of public librarians responsible for statistical data management and explores strategies to address related challenges. In-depth interviews were conducted with ten librarians handling statistical tasks at public libraries in Metropolitan City A and Province B in the Yeongnam region. Findings revealed that librarians had established a systematic workflow involving data collection, internal verification, data entry, and external verification.

2024 Assessment of Virginia’s Information Ecology of the Disability Services System

Access to disability services information depends on many factors, from an individual’s digital literacy, social connections and physical mobility to the interface design of websites. However, it is also true that the availability of disability services information (e.g., how to apply for a Medicaid Waiver) and how such information is managed and provided to end users in Virginia are also critical factors that shape people’s information access. This assessment focuses on understanding the latter, namely, the “information ecology” of disability services in Virginia.

Aggregate-Level Analysis of Information Behavior: A Study of Public Library Book Circulation

Information behavior research to date has mainly focused specific cases or representative surveys at the individual level, because each individual has unique contexts that shape their behavior. However, they have not fully benefited from aggregate-level analyses due to mainstream theories’ focus on a contextualized understanding of information. To address this gap, we adopt the theory of local information landscapes, that focuses on the material aspects of community dynamics, and analyze national-level aggregate data on book circulations in public libraries across South Korea.

Evaluating Visitor Engagement Through Instagram: A Case Study of the One with Eternity: Yayoi Kusama in the Hirshhorn Collection

Museums invite visitors to actively engage in exhibitions. However, it is not easy to understand how visitors experience exhibitions, because people’s motivations and goals to visit museums vary significantly and, therefore, there are no standards to understand their experiences. This research proposes that social media postings can provide implications for visitor engagement. Images posted on Instagram at an exhibition, One with Eternity: Yayoi Kusama in the Hirshhorn, are examined as a case study to explore the use of social media for visitor engagement.

The Effects of Socioeconomic Deprivation on Public Library Book Circulation: A Community-level Study

This study analyzes the effects of community-level socioeconomic deprivations (SED) on public libraries’ book circulation in the Seoul metropolitan area. The study design draws upon the theory of local information landscapes, which explains the relationship between community characteristics and information behavior. Using four-year (2015-2018) open government and public library circulation data, we constructed a socioeconomic deprivation index by adjusting a multi-dimensional deprivation index and generated other variables.

A Theoretical Analysis of Independent Business Owners’ Preferences for Informal Information Sources

Independent business owners often prefer informal information sources to formal ones such as library collections. Part of these preferences is rational because contextual and application-oriented information is usually available from informal sources, which are theoretically the best matches for this kind of information. This suggests that, in addition to outreach strategies, efforts to integrate informal sources of business-relevant information can improve public libraries' ability to support independent business owners' information needs.

KNEXT: Data Analytics to Support Innovation Communities

KNEXT is a three-year collaborative project between Kent State University (KSU-SLIS) and the University of Maryland (UMD-CIS), which partners with local public libraries, small business development centers, economic development organizations, and community advocacy groups to bring advanced data analytics and business intelligence (DA&BI) services to public libraries in order to support small businesses, entrepreneurs, and community advocates within two recovering communities in Ohio and Maryland.

How are Information Deserts Created? A Theory of Local Information Landscapes

To understand issues about information accessibility within communities, research studies have examined human, social, and technical factors and contexts by taking a socio-technical view. While this view provides a profound understanding of how people seek, use, and access information, this approach tends to overlook the impact of the larger structures of information landscapes that shape people’s access to information.

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