The pervasive, personal crisis of intimate partner violence (IPV) demands community information resources in workforce, health care, mental health, public housing, criminal justice, and social service arenas. Although generally underutilized, public libraries have a pivotal role to play as the only public institution specifically structured to…

This article reports research findings related to converging formats, media, practices, and ideas in the process of academics' interaction with electronic texts during a research project. The findings are part of the results of a study that explored interactions of scholars in literary and historical studies with electronic texts as primary…

Research conducted at Fisher Library, University of Sydney, which measured user failure to locate known items in catalog or on shelves, yielded overall failure rate of 35.9 percent (26.2 percent at catalog; 46.1 percent at shelf). User errors caused two-thirds of failures at catalog and more than half at shelf. Fifteen references are provided.…

This article is an exploration of the relationship between Australian soldiers and wartime libraries in the First and Second World Wars. It examines the way soldiers, as readers, used a variety of libraries, including those of charitable organizations, the education libraries organized by military authorities, and the libraries formed in Prisoner…

Three studies examined public library reference services use by patrons in Anglo, Hispanic, and Vietnamese communities in California. Interview questions concerned search topics, use of staff help, perceived usefulness of search result, successful search strategies, reasons for not seeking help, foreknowledge of sources, reasons for using the…

Reports results of a survey of 613 heavy users of scientific and technical books and journals in U.S. libraries. Information obtained through interviews includes sex and occupation of interviewees; the type of resource most recently used; why and how it was used; and the type of library used. (EM)

Examines the information-gathering habits of individuals, the communications environment of modern society, and the role of the public library in these contexts. (CWM)

Information literacy has thus far been mostly a practical and strategic concept guiding the library field's efforts in teaching information seeking and using skills. Texts on information literacy rarely attempt to account for how individuals interact with other people and technical artifacts in their information environments. This article…

A questionnaire survey of academic economists indicates that their information gathering behavior varies as they progress through research projects. (Author)

This study explores the concept and functions of collection from the perspective of the user. In-depth interviews with ten professors from a social science discipline and a natural science department provided descriptions of their information seeking involving material sources and their perceptions of the library collection. Participants used the…

Examines how much and what kind of knowledge of prior research is needed and wanted by those conducting research, whether it is best acquired by the use of the original reports of prior research, and what the implications are for libraries in light of these questions. (Author/CWM)

Investigates the information-seeking behavior of artists by surveying them on their sources for visual, inspirational, and technical information; for current developments in the arts and marketplace; and on their attitudes toward libraries, books, and technology. Artists utilize libraries and print materials unrelated to art and find art scene…

The purpose of this paper is to describe and criticize a very common strategy in which the operations reseacher relies strongly on managerial judgement and the existing system as a basis for his inquiry. (10 references) (Author/NH)

Presents a model of four factors differentiating significant from routine research--behavioral patterns of problem formulation, economic analyses of information seeking, psychological schemes of optimal effort, and basic dilemmas of the theory-practice gap. Within this context, four myths dominating the research process in library and information…

A discourse analysis of a user-centered library and information science text determined that users and librarians were positioned in an unequal power relationship. Calls for critical reflexivity in how scholars and practitioners of library and information science construct the identities of people as information seekers and users. (59 references)…