[Siguse-l] Re: Siguse-l Digest, Vol 14, Issue 1

[Dr. Brenda Dervin]

While I much appreciate the commitment and intention behind Nyce's 
question, I would like to suggest that "best" is a troublesome term 
that would be usefully interrogated.  Following Gadamer, it seems to 
me there are many "bests" or perhaps no "best", depending on how you 
want to proceed philosophically.  There are, for example, compelling 
arguments (and some evidence) that best practices are not always the 
most useful way to proceed to improve practice and that worst 
practices might be more informative, certainly under some conditions.

Studies of how scholars (both academic and corporate) address the 
general concept of users (by whatever name -- audiences, patients, 
consumers, readers, etc) shows marked differences by discipline and 
context.  Each undoubtedly has its own set of "bests".  Further, 
following Gadamer, we might consider the possibility that best does 
not arise so much from the essential qualities of a thing (e.g. a 
study) but from the sense-making a viewer brings to bear 
comparatively on a set of things using whatever cognitive and 
procedural tools the sense-maker has trained self to use and whatever 
frames the sense-maker invents for the needs of the moment.

Yes, those trained in quantitative bench science often pursue the 
idea that there is one "best" but in my experience [myself having 
been trained as a quantitative bench scientist) the "best" the 
quantitative scientists do not treat "best" that way.  They treat it 
not only interpretively (which Nyce salutes when focusing on 'however 
you define best' but also dialogically as anchored in discourse 
communities and usefully compared across them.





>Message: 2
>Date: Thu,  1 Dec 2005 14:41:35 -0600
>From: Rachel Fleming May <rfmay at bama.ua.edu>
>Subject: [Siguse-l] Best user studies?
>To: siguse-l at asis.org
>Message-ID: <1133469695.438f5fff1da1e at bamamail.ua.edu>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
>Hello, SIGUSErs.
>
>After Dr. Jim Nyce of Emporia State University posted this query (see
>below) to JESSE he and I agreed that asking the question of SIGUSE
>subscribers would be a good thing to do, also. Being a list subscriber
>(and quite interested in his question), I offered to pass his email on
>to the list. I know it's a busy time of year; I appreciate (in
>adavance) your taking the time to respond.
>
>Thanks,
>Rachel Fleming May
>
>From: J Nyce <jnyce at ROCKETMAIL.COM>
>Subject: Best user studies...
>
>One of LIS contributions to the scientific literature has in the area
>of user studies, where a particular user group's (occupation,
>demographic category for example) information needs are defined.  In a
>PhD class recently students asked me if anyone has ever put together,
>out of this large literature, a top ten or twenty "hits".
>
>This seems a logical forum to post this question.  If you had to name
>the "best," however you define "best", user studies, which would you
>name?
>
>Much thanks (from my students and me).
>
>JM Nyce
>
>******************
>Rachel Fleming May
>Doctoral Student
>College of Communication & Information Sciences
>University of Alabama
>
>
>
>
>
>------------------------------
>
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>End of Siguse-l Digest, Vol 14, Issue 1
>***************************************

Brenda Dervin, PhD
Professor of Communication
Joan N. Huber Faculty Fellow in Social & Behavioral Sciences
Ohio State University
3016 Derby Hall, 154 N. Oval Mall
Columbus, Ohio 43210
614-292-3192, 442-0721 (work, home phones and answering machines)
614-292-2055, 442-0721 (fax numbers)
dervin.1 at osu.edu

Sense-Making Methodology web site
http://communication.sbs.ohio-state.edu/sense-making/

Sense-Making the Information Confluence Project web site
http://imlsosuoclcproject.jcomm.ohio-state.edu/