Library and Information Science Commons^™

A Model Of The Information Seeking And Decision Making Of Online Coin Buyers, Donald O. Case

Information Science Faculty Publications

Introduction. The Everyday Life Information Seeking approach suggests that much information behaviour takes place in non-work settings, for example in the pursuit of leisure activities such as hobbies. This study focuses on a community of collectors to examine how they gather information to decide whether to purchase an item for their collection when the target item has an ambiguous or deficient description.

Method. Manual scanning of eBay and other online discussion board for coin buyers led to 187 postings indicating an attempt to reach a purchase decision, or to authenticate a purchased coin, through solicitation or posting of advice.

Analysis. …

The Timing Of The Research Question: First-Year Writing Faculty And Instruction Librarians‘ Differing Perspectives, Jennifer E. Nutefall, Phyllis Mentzell Ryder

Staff publications, research, and presentations

Faculty and librarians agree on the qualities of a good research question. However, in an exploratory study, they differed on when students should develop their research question. While librarians stated that students should develop their question early, first-year writing faculty advocated for delaying the development of the research question. The timing of the research question is an important issue because it has implications for the structuring of research assignments and library instruction, as well as having an impact on the students who get differing messages.