LI 835 Information Transfer
in the Disciplines

Dr. Susan Ward Aber
Information transfer medium,
Štrba, Slovakia.
Photo by J.S. Aber, 17 July 2007.

Information Needs and Seeking Behaviors

Greetings from Kansas! My husband and I have returned from our Slovakian adventures in September, which occupied our time and talents for the previous two months. Your first lecture and supplemental course readings focused on our central European stay, which served as a real-time example of information transfer (academic.emporia.edu/abersusa/835/lecture01.htm). We conducted kite aerial photography (KAP) in the Vysoké Tatry or High Tatra Mountains and beyond, photographed scenes from the ground in four countries, and recorded the day-to-day happenings within a Slovakian cultural context. Observations and investigations lead to the creation of information, which was initially disseminated and preserved for a global audience through Internet webpages. Additional dissemination and diffusion of this information will occur in course lectures and seminars and eventually through journal articles or book chapters to be utilized by interested scholars and general public.

The authors of the Slovakian adventures are university educators who research and teach in geoscience and library science disciplines. Geoscientists seek to observe, document, and interpret Earth as an interconnected system involving lithosphere-solid Earth, atmosphere-air, hydrosphere-water, and biosphere-people and all living organisms. Library and information management professionals seek to provide guidance and access to resources and to coordinate, disseminate, and preserve the human record. The European adventure is a case study that serves as a window to view information transfer in the geoscience discipline. This study emphasizes the importance of visual media in some academic disciplines of study and demonstrates that libraries could add value by expanding their resource focus beyond books and journals. Librarians and library students could utilize this window into the geosciences to improve liaison and reference services to clients and to provide new directions in resource collection development.

Additionally, the case study may serve as a means with which to introduce theoretical frameworks or perspectives common to geoscientists and utilized by librarians to recognize information needs and seeking behaviors. For geoscientists, Force (2000) observed that they produce and convey information using a constructivist and sense-making lens or perspective. For librarianship, Case (2002) maintained that the sense-making paradigm as articulated by Brenda Dervin reformed research and served as a framework and methodology for library investigations (p. 288). Therefore, these two theoretical perspectives are appropriate to examine and essential for describing information transfer from a didactic construct where words and images are assumed to be tools of communication and coordination, and not a commodity or mere representation of one reality (Kivinen & Ristela, 2003, p. 368).

Introduction to Constructivism

A theoretical framework explains the nature of reality or how people view their world and convey their perspective. Constructivism is one lens to view the nature of reality with implications for learning and teaching, and it may be thought of as a framework that exemplifies the information transfer process. First, constructivism will be defined through a brief historical account that identifies some of the key people who influenced and refined this concept.

William James
One lens or perspective common to teaching and researching is Constructivism, which has grounding in Pragmatism and Radical Empiricism as articulated by William James. This educational psychology movement asserted for each individual truth was true, and an individual's truth was affected by their mosaic of experiences. For William James, who influenced education at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, pragmatism implied action, so learning information involved adventures! James (1955) suggested that learning from practical experiences was at the heart of education (p. 43). He explained it this way...

My course was first offered for university credit in the spring 2007 semester. Visit Course Schedule and Syllabi to see when it will be taught again for ESU, slim.emporia.edu/program/syllabus/syllabus.htm. Specifically, this course was designed to introduce students to the general nature of questions and guiding paradigms of information transfer and communication within academic disciplines using an international experience for geoscientists as an example. If you are interested in this course, please contact Dr. Aber at saber@emporia.edu.

References

  • Bartlett, F.C. (1920). Some experiments on the reproduction of folk stories. Folk-Lore 31: 30-47. Online www-bartlett.sps.cam.ac.uk/SomeExperimentsOn.htm.
  • Bartlett, F.C. (1932). Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Online http://www-bartlett.sps.cam.ac.uk/RememberingBook.htm
  • Boere, C. G. (1997, 2006). George Kelly 1905-1967. Personality Theories. PA: Shippensburg University. Online webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/kelly.html
  • Brekke, Brady, & Fisher (1994). Use of the GeoRef CD-ROM by geoscientists. Journal of Geological Education, 42(5), 491-494.
  • Brown, L. M., Kelso, P. R., & Rexroad, C. B. (2001). Introductory geology for elementary education majors utilizing a constructivist approach. Journal of Geoscience Education, 49(5), 450-453.
  • Bruner, J. (1971). The relevance of education. NY: Norton.
  • Bruner, J. (1973). Going beyond the information given. New York: Norton.
  • Bruner, J. S. (1983). In search of mind: Essays in autobiography. NY: Harper & Row, Publishers.
  • Case, D. O. (2002). Looking for information a survey of research on information seeking, need, and behavior. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
  • Davis, L. E., Brady, E., & Boehmke, M. R. (1994). Library research: The first step in geoscience writing. Journal of Geological Education, 42(5), 417-419.
  • Dervin, B. (1992). From the mind's eye of the user: The sense-making qualitative-quantitative methodology. In J. D. Glazier & R. R. Powell (Eds.), Qualitative research in information mangement (pp. 61-84). Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, Inc.
  • Dervin, B. (2005). Sense-Making methodology site. Ohio State University. Online communication.sbs.ohio-state.edu/sense-making/.
  • Force, J. M. (2000). A case study in sensemaking: An ethnographic inquiry into a pre-conference geological field trip as an instance of sensemaking and as an instance of pilgrimage. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
  • James, W. (1955). Pragmatism and four essays from the meaning of truth. NY: Meridian Books. [Reprinted from Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking, 1907, and The Meaning of Truth: A Sequel to "Pragmatism", 1909.]
  • James, W. (1962). Talks to teachers on psychology and to students on some of the life's ideals. NY: Dover. [Reprinted from 1899 book by the same name.]
  • Kelly, G. A. (1955a). The psychology of personal constructs volume one a theory of personality. NY: W.W. Norton & Company.
  • Kelly, G. A. (1955b). The psychology of personal constructs volume two clinical diagnosis and psychotherapy. NY: W.W. Norton & Company.
  • Kivinen, O., & Ristela, P. (2003). From constructivism to a pragmatist conception of learning. Oxford Review of Education, 29(3), 363-375.
  • Macdonald, R. H., & Bykerk-Kauffman, A. (1995). Collaborative and cooperative activities as tools for teaching and learning geology. Journal of Geological Education, 43(4), 305.
  • Mogk, D. W., & King, J. L. (1995). Service learning in geology classes. Journal of Geoscience Education, 43(5), 461-465.
  • Rosa, A. (n.d.). Sir Fredrick Barlett (1886-1969). An intellectual biography. Online www-bartlett.sps.cam.ac.uk/Intellectual%20Biography.htm, and Gerard Duveen, Alex Gillespie and Brady Wagoner, University of Cambridge, F.C. Bartlett Archive, www-bartlett.sps.cam.ac.uk/index.html
  • Schloman, B. F. & Feldmann, R. M. (1993). Developing information gathering skills in geology students through faculty-librarian collaboration. Science & Technology Libraries, 14(2), 35-47.
  • Shaw, M. and Gaines, B. (1995). Personal construct psychology: George Kelly. Online ksi.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/PCP/Kelly.html. .
  • Stuart-Hamilton, I. (1995). Dictionary of Cognitive Psychology. Bristol, PA: Jessica Kingsley Publisher.

    Return to the syllabus academic.emporia.edu/abersusa/835/syllabus.htm.

    This page is for the use and benefit of students enrolled at Emporia State University, School of Library and Information Management slim.emporia.edu/. For more information contact the course instructor, S. W. Aber, e-mail: saber@emporia.edu Thanks for visiting! Webpage created: September 2007; last update: June 17, 2008.

    Copyright 2007-2008 Susan Ward Aber. All rights reserved.