Reading: Kuhlthau, Tuominen & Savolainen, Talja

Summary:
Kuhlthau: The User's Perspective

• Emphasizes importance of viewing information retrieval as a process ending in the "transformation of information into meaning" for the user, rather than ending in the output of words matching those that the searcher entered.
  


• Uses holistic perspective to evaluate user's information use
  


• "Since people have a limited capacity for assimilating new information, they purposefully construct meaning by selectively attending to that which connects with what they already know" -- Much like Ross's Girls and Drugs.
  


• The search process creates physical, emotional, and intellectual reactions which should all be taken into account when attempting to assist the user.
  


• Six stages of ISP: (1) Initiation, (2) Selection, (3) Exploration, (4) Formulation, (5) Collection, (6) Presentation. All are accompanied by a progression of feelings, thoughts, actions, and appropriate tasks.



• Task Perception:The user's idea of appropriate tasks differed from the original model. Many people start writing or composing without a focused idea of the topic. A difficulty remains enabling/ encouraging people to develop their own argument, rather than leaning heavily on that of the author whom they are researching, which does not seem to me would result in the desirable goal of constructing meaning from the information found.


• Kulthau's conclusions: we need to make systems that can adapt to the different stages of the ISP-- this can include adaptations made by the intermediary.
  

Tuominen and Savolainen: Social Constructionism and Info. Use as Discursive Action

• First, I had to look up discursive to get a clearer picture of what the authors were addressing: the definition from dictionary.com is: "proceeding to a conclusion by reason or argument rather than intuition."


• We all have a version of reality unique to us, and, "When we talk and write, we produce and organize our social reality."-- communication is a means of constructing social mores, etc., and information use is an agent in this construction


• Conversation (either written or verbal) is a method by which individuals combine and adjust their internal thoughts/feelings with the external social world.


• Facts and reliable information are constructed as such by social discourse, rather than being "real" facts or neutrally reliable sources. There is no neutrality because everything is affected by the social world in which it is encountered, reacted to, employed, and modified.



• Information is used within a social context and should also be studied within that context.

Talja: Knowledge Formations

• Knowledge produced through language-- objective truth is a myth
  


• Knowledge is "intersubjective"-- we all share a set of meanings that inform the knowledge we produce


• Researching users is really researching how knowledge is "made"

Analysis
These researchers focus on the construction of knowledge and how information behavior fits into that construction. They seem to focus on social relationships and constructions, rather than the inner world of the individual. This approach appeals to me because of my background in gender studies which is heavily grounded in social constructionism. However, I think that taking the perspective that there is no value to the cognitive approach is not useful either. The two clearly interact-- how does a user integrate the social "realities" that have been constructed into his/her own life experiences, habits, and personal preferences? Just because we all live in the same society does not mean our realities are the same. This is what Kulthau seems to be pointing out when she says that individuals adjust their internal ideas of the world as the external social world changes.

I also think that these ideas have application to library land. Can we construct a social environment in the library that creates the perception of openness and helpfulness? Can we attempt to adjust our institutions to better fit into the user's idea of the information he/she needs? I think we can, but I'm not sure exactly how it can be accomplished. I suppose first we must intimately understand the social world in which our users exist in order to deal with them in a more compassionate and informed way. This is especially important in areas like New Jersey with such a large immigrant population. People coming from other cultures often live in very different social worlds from those who've grown up in the U.S. If we don't understand their worlds, how can we expect to serve them well?