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COPYRIGHT AND CITATION INFORMATION:
© Ferreira, Sueli Mara S.
P., 1996. Cite as: Ferreira, Sueli
Mara S. P. (1996). The Sense-Making Approach to Study Information
Seeking Behavior in an Electronic Networking with Users at Physics
Institute at University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Paper presented
at International Communication Association annual meeting, Chicago,
Illinois, May 23. Available at: http://communication.sbs.ohio-state.edu/sense-making/meet/m96ferreira.html
ESSENCE OF PROJECT:
The essence of this project is to understand how the users at
the local area network of the Physics Institute at University
of Sao Paulo/Brazil are using the net to find information necessary
in their daily activities at academic life. More specifically,
the project is trying to make evident the information needs of
that community to understand better how the electronic network
has been used and how it is helping or not. The interview process
was based on the Sense-Making approach with some adaptation of
the TimeLine method to be used by electronic mail.
THE REASON I TOOK THIS ROAD:
* The basic impetus for the user-oriented approach is that currently,
a gap exists between the ways that system interfaces function
and the ways that system users express their needs. The Sense-Making
approach was chosen because it has been already used in several
researches in this field and showing your pertinence, usefulness
and relevance. This approach lets user behavior dictate how the
system should function before the system is created.
* Another important information to understand why I choose the Sense-Making was my previous (but not very long) experience at Syracuse University with a CWIS project developed by Professor. Dr. Mike Nilan and a group of the graduate students. That experience shows me the powerful of that approach and makes clear the systematic way to conduct a research and the several steps to analyze the findings.
* The reason to choose the users at Physical Institute were the stage of that LAN. It is one of the first net implemented at University of Sao Paulo and has a very organized information service available through it.
THE BEST OF WHAT I HAVE ACHIEVED:
* I think the best of what I have achieved with the research was
the richness of the information about the people/participant and
their feeling, point of view, perspectives. It was the result
of the methodology used, the Sense-Making approach, that works
very deeply with participant behavior and their comprehension
of their experiences. The participation by the users at Physics
Institute and their comments, answers and discussion about their
experience when using the net was very helpful also, and it is
something that surprises me.
WHAT HAS BEEN PARTICULARLY HELPFUL TO ME IN THIS PROJECT:
* The possibility to talk, by email, with experts in Sense-Making
so far from my country. The Brenda's help was very special, also
the materials and documentation She sent to me. Of course, my
last experience with Dr. Nilan and their students was also very
helpful in the preparation of the research instrument and the
several schemes to do the content analysis in order to evaluate
my findings. At this time two professors at my university, one
with background in Anthropology and the other in Statistical,
help me a lot.
WHAT I HAVE STRUGGLED WITH:
* I think the worst problem for me was to figure out how to adapt
all the conception of the Sense-Making approach to the Brazilian
culture. The Time line Interview is a very detailed process and
in our society we are not trained to be so systematic. On the
other hand the selected way to collect data (interview by email)
add another complex component: the researcher was not close to
solve problems and difficulties. Finally, I had some expectation
that the selected community (professors and students at Physics
Institute), with their technical background, could be resistant
people to answer all detailed questions used in the research instrument.
* Because it was the first trying to use the Sense-Making approach in some Brazilian research I couldn't find literature about that in Portuguese, than problems appear with the translation of the approach and the phenomena (I decided do no translate). Also, I couldn't find Brazilian peers to exchange information about my research and all the adaptations needed.
WHAT WOULD HELP NE NOW:
* I am looking for a broad comprehension of the ways to make a
really qualitative research using the Sense-Making approach. It
looks to me I have now a huge number of data that I didn't explore
all the possibility. There are enormous complexities in user perspectives,
needs and use of the information in the electronic network context
and it must be analyzed and interpreted better and more deeply.
* Of course, I am also hoping to get more knowledge in the theory and methodology of the Sense-Making approach to make another evaluation of my research already done. Also, to do further researches with better expertise, competence and training.
PROJECT ABSTRACT:
The integration of electronic networks and information needs is
used to study the information seeking behavior of the academic
community and to understand the impact of its technology in the
university activities, such as education, research and community
extension. Those are the issues of this paper, which is presented
in 3 parts.
In the first part the problem situation the concept of information and the methodology is presented. In the second part, two review studies are presented which refer to electronic networks' evolution (international and nationally) and information needs. The following aspects of electronic networks are discussed in a systematic way: their evolution; their basic characteristics and functions; their advantages and disadvantages; their influences on the scientific community with respect to the search and the use of information. Analysis of traditional versus oriented approach to study the user needs are presented, with special focus on the Sense Making Approach developed by Brenda Dervin from Ohio University, USA.
A research of the information seeking behavior of the electronic networking users of the Physics Institute of University of Sao Paulo (IFUSP), Brazil is the third part. A detailed presentation is given of the succeeding topics: the institutional environment, the research procedures, the variables to be studied, the description and implementation of the Sense-Making Approach and the Micro-moment Time Line Interview.
The electronic mail was used in order to get information from 87 users of IFUSP local network. The results were submitted to three types of analysis:
Similarities in the information seeking behavior of those IFUSP net users contribute to characterize the profile and the needs of the community studied. Users were classified in 4 groups, according to their performance in networking: (1) those in discovering electronic network benefits stage; (2) those using basic functions but only locally; (3) those seeking for solutions or immediate issues; (4) expert users. From this characterization and due to the user's frequencies in each of these stages, an inference of IFUSP net is done: most users are just at the communication stage, not using networks as an information source.
In order to improve the use of the electronic networks it is proposed to develop specific studies of user needs, implement services to attend these needs, offer programs for technical training of professional in the area of information seeking, propose services and training for end users.
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