Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Informed By Joy: A Christian Librarian's Reflection On C.S. Lewis, David H. Michels

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In Surprised by Joy C. S. Lewis offers us his account of his conversion to Christianity. Using his experiences of joy as “signposts,” he leads us through his early life up to his conversion at age thirty-one. I reflect on Lewis’s account as a librarian, researcher, and fellow Christian, considering his information world and the people who aided and hindered him on his faith journey. I conclude with some thoughts on his and my own conversion, as both unique yet shared experiences within the Christian tradition.

"Real joy seems to me almost as unlike security or prosperity as it is …

Religion In The News On An Ordinary Day: Methodology, Choices, And Bias, David H. Michels, Christopher Helland

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In this article we explore the Religion on an Ordinary Day (RoD) methodology in detail. The RoD project collected news stories published on September 17 over the period of three years (2013, 2014, 2015) in Australia, Canada, Finland, and the United Kingdom. We consider our decisions regarding the variability of language, researcher bias, and intercoder reliability in data collection and coding and the implications of those decisions. We offer a case study that analyzes references to New Religious Movements in the news. We considered the intentional choices, unintentional choices in the forms of accidents and misunderstandings, as well as unconsidered …

Religion In The News On An Ordinary Day: Diversity And Change In English Canada, David H. Michels, Christopher Helland

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Canada has a deeply rooted connection with Christianity in its Protestant and Catholic forms. However, over the latter half of the 20th century there has been a strong shift toward secularization and the promotion of religious diversity. Through our study, we identified 186 news articles that made one or more references to conventional religion, common religion, or secular sacred themes. We then considered news stories with references to religion where religion was the main issue of the story and found 56 articles with majority of their focus on Islam. In the analysis it became clear there was a conflict in …

Canadian Legal Professionals' Information Activities: What Do They Do, And How Do They Tweet, Hannah Steeves

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The use of social media in professional settings has increased significantly over the past decade. This article presents the results of a statistical analysis performed on a sampling of Canadian legal professionals’ Twitter accounts between 2015 and 2016. A series of tweets were reviewed and subsequently categorized to determine the most common types of information activities occurring on social media accounts, specifically Twitter, from legal professionals.

L’utilisation des médias sociaux dans les milieux professionnels a considérablement augmenté au cours de la dernière décennie. Cet article présente les résultats d’une analyse statistique réalisée sur un échantillon de comptes Twitter de professionnels …

Sailing Through Law School: Assessing Legal Research Skills Within The Information Literacy Framework, David H. Michels

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In this study I ask the question: Can standardized information literacy tests help assess and benchmark the learning of information skills by Canadian law students? This study replicates an earlier study that found that a standardized test of information literacy competencies, SAILS, was not an effective measure of law student information literacy levels. By applying the same test under similar conditions to another group of law students, I found that while the test did not measure legal research competencies, it was effective in measuring basic information literacy skills in law students with often surprising results. I argue that legal research …

Digital Faith: Law, Ethics, And Theology For The Online-Engaged Church, David H. Michels

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Keynote Address at the 2015 CSIR ConferenceAfzal (2012) defines “information organizations” as “organizations that engage in all or one of the activities involving acquisition, organization, preservation, processing, recording, creation, assimilation, packaging, repackaging, presentation, dissemination, transfer, and access of information” (p. 102-103). Libraries, museums, publishers, music companies, and news channels are all examples of information organizations. I propose that North American Christian churches are information organizations. Weekly they create and present information in the forms of sermons, classes, bible studies, and music through organized events and activities. To support these activities they produce documents like newsletters, bulletins, and reports in print …

Seeking God’S Will: The Experience Of Information Seeking By Leaders Of A Church In Transition, David H. Michels

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What is the experience of information seeking (IS) by leaders of a church in transition, as they seek the will of God for their church? In this ethnographic pilot study, I begin to create a picture of leaders’ information seeking, first for personal faith building and then for corporate decision making, and I consider the impact of new technologies on these processes. Religious IS did not differ significantly from other everyday-life information seeking (ELIS) experiences, except when subjects were acting in leadership roles. Prominent themes were theological diversity and prayer.

The Place Of The Person In Lis Research: An Exploration In Methodology And Representation, David H. Michels

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In this exploratory study, the researcher reflects on personal experience as a student at an academic library over the course of one year of PhD study. Data were gathered using an autoethnographic methodology, and the reflections on these data are presented in the form of three two-minute video clips narrated with accompanying poems. This study assumes that the different paradigms and theories about information behaviour affect how the individual is understood within this system. These reflections raise questions about the influences our models have at ground level of the library profession and the people libraries claim to serve.

Dipping Into A Shallow Pool Or Beginning A Deeper Conversation: A Case Study Of A Minister's Engagement With The Internet For Preaching, David H. Michels

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The study considers the question “What is the pastor’s experience of engagement with the Internet for preaching?” The study responds to van der Laan’s work on the potential negative impact of Internet use by Protestant Christian ministers for sermon preparation. My case study ethnographically explores one minister’s experience of Internet seeking (IS) for sermon preparation alongside earlier research on clergy information behavior. The respondent recounted being actively engaged with the Internet in the course of his devotional and intentional IS. He appeared to use online sources critically, and his formal IS activities for sermon preparation were comparable to earlier descriptions …

The Changing Shape Of Legal Information, David H. Michels, Mark Lewis

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As IT, Reference and Instruction librarians, we have experienced significant changes to the shape of legal information over the past five years. The changes are to both the very nature of legal information and how we perceive it. This can be illustrated by our use of the phrase "legal information". Depending on your age and life situation, the words "legal information" will have created specific images in your mind. These changes in perception challenge how we develop our programs of legal research instruction.

The Use Of People As Information Sources In Biblical Studies Research, David H. Michels

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In this exploratory study, I examined the role that people play as informal information sources in biblical studies research. Using semi-structured interviews, I asked a group of seven biblical studies researchers specific questions about their information-seeking behaviour. The study demonstrated that the majority of the researchers regularly used people as information sources in their research. Sometimes they sought factual information from these sources but most frequently they sought affective information; they sought evaluation and affirmation from their colleagues regarding the direction of their research.

Intra-Individual Information Behaviour In Daily Life, David H. Michels, Heidi Julien

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This study addresses the lack of attention in the literature paid to detailed analysis of individuals information behavior in daily life contexts. In particular, the study characterizes one individuals information behavior across different daily life situations, to seek behavioral patterns that might be associated with various aspects of each information seeking situation. Data was collected through participant diaries, and subsequent oral interviews. This study reports on source selection, and influence of various aspects of the situations described. These aspects were identified from analysis of the interview transcripts, and include time constraints and pressures, motivation for the information need, context of …

Source Selection Among Information Seekers: Ideals And Realities, David H. Michels, Heidi Julien

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In a study examining the information behavior of 9 individuals over 10 weeks in daily life contexts, participants were asked to identify ideal sources of help for the questions and issues they faced. The data show how people’s expectation of the usefulness of information sources varies by the information seeker’s gender, and source characteristics such as accessibility, trustworthiness, and reliability. Usefulness of sources has both cognitive and affective aspects. Further, discrepancies between participants' stated ideals, and the sources actually used, are analyzed. The study results suggest ways to encourage use of formal information systems and services.