Morten Hertzum and Jette Seiden Hyldegård
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how four international students at a Danish university cope with their study-related and everyday information needs, behaviorally as…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how four international students at a Danish university cope with their study-related and everyday information needs, behaviorally as well as affectively, and how their information seeking blends with their cross-cultural adaptation.
Design/methodology/approach
Each of the four participants contributed ten diaries and took part in three interviews during the first semester of their stay.
Findings
International students’ information needs and seeking behavior are shaped by their host university but also by cross-cultural, personal and situational issues. While the cross-cultural issues set international students apart from domestic students, the personal and situational issues create individual differences that call for more individually tailored support. The studied international students lacked information about both study-related and everyday issues. These two types of issues were intertwined and experienced as equally stressful. However, study-related information needs were more important, whereas everyday information needs were more difficult to resolve. In addition, participants tended to feel on their own when it came to finding needed information, but studying abroad also had elements of personal growth in meeting life’s challenges.
Research limitations/implications
More participants are needed to investigate how international students’ information seeking evolves over time.
Originality/value
This study contributes detailed information about international students’ study-related and everyday information seeking during their first semester abroad. The study has implications for everyday-life studies of international students’ information behavior and the international classroom in general.
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Abstract
Details
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Haakon Lund and Niels Ole Pors
The purpose of the research is to investigate Norwegian web‐tutorials in contexts consisting of organizational issues and different forms of usability in relation to students’…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the research is to investigate Norwegian web‐tutorials in contexts consisting of organizational issues and different forms of usability in relation to students’ perception and use of the system. Further, the research investigates the usefulness of the concepts concerning affordances and different forms of usability.
Design/methodology/approach
The research has employed a variety of data‐collection methods including interviews with librarians, interviews and focus group interviews with students, coupled with tests of their capabilities using the systems. A detailed research design is included in the paper.
Findings
In the organizational context, the research confirmed the importance of a close contact with teachers and disciplines and it was also clearly indicated that disciplines that supported an evidence‐based approach to research were much more active in using the tutorials as part of the requirements. Further, examples of organizational amnesia are discussed, pointing to the necessity for leadership support and systematic knowledge sharing. System Usability Scores are analysed in relation to solution of tasks and interesting relations are analysed. The perceptions of students were also interesting, clearly indicating marked differences in perceptions depending on study year and discipline but also different valuation of the different forms of usability. Overall, the research indicated a discrepancy between design intentions versus use and perception of the tutorials.
Originality/value
The theoretical approach has not been used often in library and information science research and the paper indicates its usefulness for further research. The findings presented in the paper also have implications for the way libraries design and promote information literacy tools.