[Siguse-l] Message #6: Newsflash - Information Behavior Research Has Arrived!

Mon Oct 3 20:21:11 EDT 2011

**Dear SIG-USErs,

A bibliometric* study by Milojevic', Sugimoto, Yan, and Ding (2011 
<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asi.21602/abstract>) that 
examines the "cognitive structure" of library and information science 
(LIS)//contains exciting news for the information behavior (IB) 
community. Their analysis of the terms used in the titles of articles in 
LIS journals over the past 20 years reveals that information behavior is 
establishing itself as a 4^th major branch of LIS (see it illustrated 
<http://www.jennahartel.com/cognitive-structure-of-lis.html>). A similar 
conclusion was reached by Åström (2007 
<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asi.20567/abstract>) and 
Järvelin and Vakkari (1990), but the recent research is more sweeping 
and current. Many of us have intuited this development already and the 
strength of SIG-USE within ASIS&T is just one parallel indicator; still, 
it is great to have empirical evidence.

The paper offers additional insights into the publication patterns of IB 
scholarship. Interestingly, our work is distributed /across/ the major 
academic journals, unlike other main branches of LIS whose research is 
concentrated in sources devoted to library science /or/ information 
science. Further, our enterprise exhibits an "internal 
multidisciplinarity" that transcends the technological nexus of LIS to a 
"larger scope that can be described as processes, phenomena, and 
institutions that bring people, technology and written records together" 
(p. 1951). Bravo!

While information behavior research is experiencing a "surge" these 
developments are called "tentative" (p. 1950). When a slightly different 
analysis technique is applied to the data, IB disappears into the 
library science branch of LIS. Therefore, we cannot consider our 
ascendant status to be secure or permanent. Another matter (not 
addressed by the authors) is that concepts such as "information 
practice" and "information use" do not yet register as popular terms in 
the data, perhaps due to their relative novelty or an ongoing lack of 
consensus.

This study raises questions to ponder at the ASIS&T annual meeting in 
New Orleans next week during the workshop 
<http://www.asis.org/asist2011/SIG_USE_Workshop.html>, SIG-USE business 
meeting (Monday, October 11, 11:30-12:30), and via informal 
conversations with each other. Is it time for a dedicated IB journal to 
concentrate and better organize our scholarship, as proposed by Michael 
Olsson 
<http://datasearch2.uts.edu.au/fass/staff/listing/details.cfm?StaffId=1656> 
at the 2010 SIG-USE business meeting? Should we seek greater consensus 
around nascent terms and concepts?What can SIG-USE and each of us 
individually do to help fortify our research area?

Jenna Hartel

*A note to doctoral students of information behavior: /Go 
//bibliometric/ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliometrics>/!/I 
strongly encourage you to digest studies such as the one at hand or the 
classic co-citation analysis of information science by White & McCain 
(1998 
<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/%28SICI%291097-4571%2819980401%2949:4%3C327::AID-ASI4%3E3.0.CO;2-4/abstract>). 
(Reading the latter was a "eureka" moment during my own doctoral 
studies, when I came to understand the organization and purpose of 
information science.) Bibliometric research designs target literatures; 
are unabashedly quantitative and positivistic; and contrast sharply with 
more qualitative approaches prevalent in the information behavior realm. 
I can imagine that some SIG-USErs have an allergic reaction to research 
of this kind. But here are three reasons to embrace bibliometrics: 1.) 
It is the only/original/ research method generated by LIS and should be 
a point of fluency and pride for all; 2.) Bibliometric studies provide a 
high-level view of the LIS landscape to more strategically locate your 
own research amidst various concepts, specialities, scholars, and 
journals; 3.) Anyone championing an /holistic/ approach to IB can employ 
bibliometrics to establish the backdrop, that is, the /literature/, 
where information behavior unfolds; therefore bibliometrics is a 
natural/complement/ to information behavior studies. Newcomers to 
bibliometrics who are attending the ASIS&T annual meeting in New Orleans 
may benefit from the panel Bibliometrics and LIS Education: How Do They 
Fit Together? 
<http://www.asis.org/asist2011/abstracts/190.html>(featuring Dangzhi 
Zhao, Howard White, Dietmar Wolfram, Jamshid Beheshti, Judit Bar-Ilan, 
and Jonathan Levitt on Tuesday, October 11 at 10:30).

_References_

Åström, F. (2007). Changes in the LIS research front: Time-sliced 
co-citation analysis of LIS journal articles 
<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asi.20567/abstract>, 
1990--2004. /Journal of the American Society for Information Science and 
Technology, 58/(7), 947--957.

Jarvelin, K. and Vakkari, P. (1990). Content analysis of research 
articles in library and information science. /Library and Information 
Science Research, //12/, 395-421.

Milojevic', S., Sugimoto, C.R., Yan, E., and Ding, Y. (2011). The 
cognitive structure of library and information science: Analysis of 
article title words 
<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asi.21602/abstract>. 
/Journal of the American Society for Information Science and 
Technology/, 62(10), 1933-1953.

White, H. D. & McCain, K. W. (1998). Visualizing a discipline: An author 
co-citation analysis of information science 
<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/%28SICI%291097-4571%2819980401%2949:4%3C327::AID-ASI4%3E3.0.CO;2-4/abstract>, 
1972-1995. /Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 
//49/(4), 327-355.

-- 
Jenna Hartel, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Faculty of Information
University of Toronto
140 St. George Street
Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G6
website: www.jennahartel.com

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.asis.org/pipermail/siguse-l/attachments/20111003/486c4b7a/attachment.html 