Information Behavior of Information Behavior of HBCU College Students: HBCU College Students: An Exploratory Case Study An Exploratory Case Study Alex Gorelik, Anton Bezuglov Benedict College
Information Behavior of HBCU Information Behavior of HBCU College Students:College Students:
An Exploratory Case StudyAn Exploratory Case Study Alex Gorelik, Anton Bezuglov
Benedict College
• Essential• Personal• Inadequate
Information LiteracyInformation Literacy
Wilson’s (1994) Model of information behaviorWilson’s (1994) Model of information behavior
Information user
“Need”Satisfaction or non-satisfaction
Information use Information seeking behavior
Information exchange
Demands on information systems
Demands on other info sources
Other people
Success Failure
Information transfer
• Explore the elements of the Wilson’s model, focusing ono “Needs”o Information seeking behaviorsoDemands on info systems / other
sources
• Build an exploratory case study of information behavior (at a large HBCU)
Study objectives:Study objectives:
• Scope: Benedict college students from HASS and STEM (n=43)• Information search task
o Search engine requests intercepted by a server, compiled specifically for the study
• Exit Interview• Recorded observations
Method:Method:
• Proxy server intercepts all traffic from the machine to the Web• If (1) traffic goes to Google Search
Engine and (2) it contains a keyword, the results of HTTP Get are modified;• The first search result is changed:
For instance Solipsism -> Solarism
ToolsTools
ToolsTools
oReasons for preferring a specific resource:o Speed of access (20%)o Reliability / Credibility (17%)o Authoritativeness (17%)o Convenience (15%)oStem different from HASS, Seniors
different from Sophomors / Juniors
FindingsFindings
FindingsFindings
Major of respondent
Mass Comm /
English
Comp Sci /
Engineer.
Total
Count Col. N % Count Col. N % Count Col. N %
Derived ranks
of sources
Dictionary 11 44.0% 10 55.6% 21 48.8%
EBSCO web
interface4 16.0% 1 5.6% 5 11.6%
Electronic
Dictionary11 44.0% 9 50.0% 20 46.5%
Google search 15 60.0% 16 88.9% 31 72.1%
Total 25 100.0% 18 100.0% 43 100.0%
FindingsFindings
Classification - Collapsed
Senior Junior/Soph. Total
Count Col. N % Count Col. N % Count Col. N %
Derived ranks of
sources
Dictionary 10 55.6% 11 44.0% 21 48.8%
EBSCO web
interface3 16.7% 2 8.0% 5 11.6%
Electronic
Dictionary10 55.6% 10 40.0% 20 46.5%
Google search 12 66.7% 19 76.0% 31 72.1%
Total 18 100.0% 25 100.0% 43 100.0%
oBehavior dominated by considerations of o speed of access o clarity o accuracy o convenience / familiarity
Information behaviorInformation behavior
oDemands on sources: o speedo straightforward presentation of
information
Information behaviorInformation behavior
o“Success” = ability to quickly match the answer to the question
Information behaviorInformation behavior
oAbout half of those presented with a “modified” answer failed to detect thato The necessity to critically evaluate and
corroborate is trumped by the considerations of speed, clarity and convenience of access
Information behaviorInformation behavior
oStudents recognize the need to corroborate the informationo …even if not all of them may decide to
do so
Information behaviorInformation behavior
oThis study is a “proof of concept”, what’s next?o looking at the gap between the self-
reported level of information literacy and the actual performance on test tasks
o comparing the resulting among HBCUs and mainstream academic institutions
Information behaviorInformation behavior
Questions, please?Questions, please?
Q?