Information eking behaviours of business students and the development of academic digital libraries
Joyline Makani, Kelli Woo Shue
Dalhousie University, Canada
Introduction
There is a wealth of rearch on the development of digital libraries, particularly regarding information retrieval and technical considerations. However, little has focusd on how information is sought and transformed into knowledge and how this should influence digital library design. Digital libraries are not simply collections of digital versions of existing resources.Covi and Kling (1996) obrved that just building a digital library would not be enough; the digital collections, storage, and transmission should be uful to people who u them. In other words, effective digital library design requires an understanding of how urs do their work, how they u information, how they create knowledge, and how digital libraries support the process. Rearch on undergraduate students indicates that they
are increasingly able to u digital resources even though they are not necessarily information literate. (Lombardo and Miree, 2003) It is critically important that digital libraries help improve the transferable information literacy of students. This rearch project examined and analyd how business students gather and u information individually and collectively, and how they share their work across geographic boundaries. The recommendations emerging from this study form the basis for best practice guidelines for developing a future business digital library.
Methodology
The students studied were drawn from the School of Business at Dalhousie University. The study was bad on qualitative and quantitative data collected through a survey, in-depth mi-structured interviews, obrvational study and document analysis of business students at Dalhousie University as they perform group rearch tasks. The study sample for the group study was purposively lected since the focus was on understanding and illuminating the behaviour of business students as a ca rather than generalizing from a sample to the general population. (Patton, 1999) To corroborate and get a real grip on the academic business information ur’s behaviour, the data from the group study was compared to data collected from a web-bad survey of full-time students enrolled at Dalhousie in the MBA and Commerce programs.
Analysis
brothData collected in the group study was coded using QSR N6 qualitative data analysis software. The data was categorized using Atkinson’s “Model of Business Information Urs” and Renda and Straccia‘s personalized collaborative DL model. Atkinson’s model defines the expectation of business students in terms of cost, time, effort required, and the avoidance of pleasure/pain. Renda and Straccia’s model of a personalized and collaborative digital library centres around three concepts: actors, objects, and functionality. The survey data was analyd using the Zoomerang software.
Results
Regardless of their status (i.e., graduate, undergraduate), business students were most likely to arch Google (or another similar arch engine) as the initial step in their information eking process. In terms of communication modes, the participants relied primarily on e-mail for communicating and sharing information with their professors, TAs, peers, and experts. The students noted a number of shortcomings associated with e-mail (e.g., slow respon times) which accounted for their significant u of other communication modes, namely telephone, instant messaging (chat),
and discussion forums. The study results also revealed that students tend to lect resources bad on cost (free or for fee), accessibility, ea of u, speed of delivery (of results), and convenience. Concerning speed of delivery and convenience, the organization of the resources was paramount. Students tended to prefer ur-defined resource lists, alert rvices, and expert-created business resource collections. When asked about the ufulness of potential digital library functionalities, students valued a personalized ur interface and communal virtual spaces that would allow the students to share information and communicate in real-time with their peers.
Conclusions
Bad on the survey and group study data, collaboration, communication, and personalization are key elements to be considered when developing digital libraries for business students. Also, similar to Atkinson’s findings, the business students’ information eking behaviour is influenced by the concept of cost-benefit (break-even) analysis that underlies business education. Thus, providing information and information tools tailored to this specific audience is more likely to increa the appeal and u of an academic business digital library.
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