Describe the fundamental concepts of information-seeking behaviors and how they should be considered when connecting individuals or groups with accurate, relevant and appropriate information

Introduction

Incorporating fundamental concepts of information-seeking behaviors into their work will help librarians understand patrons more clearly. The classic model of information retrieval, focused on an individual query fetching one set of results, had provided a solid foundation for researching and developing these concepts. However, such a cognitive model has become restrictive, too linear to represent users who can access today’s emerging technologies (Bates, 1989). Marcia Bates had coined “berrypicking” to illustrate how information retrieved will change the user’s information needs and invite more, increasingly complex queries.

Learning to recognize where in the query process users will need the mental and emotional space to berrypick, librarians can better create and improve programs and services.

English-language learners have difficulties on various levels. International students, taking classes with their host countries’ universities, must learn in a foreign language why one should not, and how not to plagiarize. Recent immigrants and refugees need any language support available to begin again. ESL (English as a second language) children can be brought out of their shells in school, but their courage to intellectually explore can still be stymied by constraints like the “imposed query”.

Remote reference services are a blessing to college students unable to visit campus libraries. However, academic librarians should not mistake this ease of accessing their patrons for how simple the reference interviews would be; each student’s information needs are still complex and can change in response to suggestions or questions.

English-language learners and berrypicking

Learning new subjects in one’s non-primary language is possible, but can feel otherwise without patient teachers who will lesson-plan and pivot according to their students’ mercurial needs. Teaching that cheating is unacceptable seems easy, straightforward even. However, grown international students from cultures and education systems that had not necessarily forbade plagiarism must be given a variety of resources and opportunities to discover and discuss their own values towards academic integrity.

This struggle is similar for recent immigrants, refugees, and those who can barely read. This population also has to contend with cultural misunderstandings with their instructors and/or classmates that can lead to lessons getting lost in translation. The difference is the international students are expected to return home after studying abroad, whereas future quality of life for the recently displaced rely heavily on their teachers’ capabilities and willingness to work with students’ berrypicking behaviors.

ESL grade-school students share this dependence on knowledgeable and mindful language teachers. Not only must they contend with translating instruction through their as-yet developed mother tongues, they also have the “imposed query” –expectation to follow assignment parameters- and other age-related restrictions hampering their natural curiosity.

Berrypicking while using remote reference services

The RUSA (Reference and User Services Association) Guidelines for Behavioral Performance of Reference and Information Service Providers (RUSA, 2022) are clear on how online reference librarians can offer the same level of service as in-person librarians. This is a great help for college students who cannot visit their campus library, or are too shy to approach a reference librarian in person.

Guideline 3.0, Listening/Inquiring, is where a patron’s berrypicking behavior can be most encouraged. Adhering to this guideline, an online reference librarian can help patrons bypass mental restrictions like embarrassment or fear of failure as related to the subject of their query, thereby opening up their courage and curiosity to consider other sources or topics/subtopics they could use to expand their research.

Evidence

INFO 204 – Information Professions – Assessment Planning: Evaluation of Library English as a Second Language (ESL) Programs

I evaluated two library ESL programs for INFO 210, Reference and Information Services. The Ohio State University Libraries (OSUL) Course Enhancement Grant Program (CEGP) and the University of Ballarat’s ESL Information Literacy Program (ESLILP) have taught information literacy to ESL students in a Western library setting.

The CEGP helped develop an OSUL writing course that taught 45 ESL international, mostly Japanese and Chinese, university students the meaning of intellectual property and how to avoid plagiarism by citing sources, while helping them work through their biases about information professionals in their home countries (Herring, 2014). The ESLILP’s mission was to build and evaluate a course for non-academic ESL students to settle in Australia through using library resources. The main goal was to provide their students –mostly recent immigrants, refugees, and those with little to no literacy- a safe space that is mindful of their extreme loss, can help build them up to pursue further education, and realize their power in defining library services (MacDonald, 2008).

Both programs used the qualitative method of ethnography –that avoided focusing on short term views and immediate improvements (Magnus et al., 2018)- to familiarize ESL-learners with new skills before assessing what could be needed to continue meeting their needs. This way, the programs made space for their students’ berrypicking behaviors to teach each other more about creating and influencing library services.

This evaluation is evidence I understand the above library ESL programs had succeeded because the teachers gave time, opportunity, and emotional labor so their students could feel free to learn and invest themselves in the course subjects.

INFO 210 – Reference and Information Services – Discussion: Virtual Storytelling

For INFO 210, Reference and Information Services, I discussed the advantages of virtual storytelling as an ESL teaching aid in K-12 schools. Yang and Wu (2012) wrote about DST (Digital Story Telling) helping 10^th grade ESL students to think critically and better understand the course material. Then, I recalled my ESL-kindergartener days, when celebrating Halloween had meant making papier-mache masks and telling scary stories.

And though we were still constrained by expectations to follow the assignment, information seeking-related embarrassment, and barriers to access as dictated by authority (Cassell & Hiremath, 2018), the chance to tell stories had given space for our minds to wander. Through this, those 10^th graders and I succeeded in class while realizing the many ways we could fit into our new cultures and societies.

This discussion is evidence I understand how storytelling supports berrypicking information seeking behaviors in youth, and how much the academically-underserved can thrive during such lessons.

INFO 210 – Reference and Information Services – Reference Services and Reference Interviews

For INFO 210, Reference and Information Services, I applied RUSA guidelines on Listening/Inquiring to an online reference inquiry session with a remote librarian from San Jose State University’s King Library.

First, I reviewed the steps to starting a chat online with a King librarian. It took some seconds scanning the Library’s main page to find the daily chat hours and the “Chat Now” button. Clicking that brought me to the “Ask a Librarian” page that asked me to verify my student-status with a SJSU ID number and password. I did, and began my chat. I inquired about sheet music available online. After some back and forth, while I explained my inability to access campus and the librarian discussed loan policies before suggesting two online databases and my local public library, they asked if I needed anything more before the chat ended.

The librarian’s enthusiastic “hi!” had encouraged me to ask for a specific piece of sheet music. When they explained the print collection lending policy, I was inspired to request a delivery to San Francisco State University. Though not changing my information needs concerning library sheet music, each of their responses did redirect where I had wanted the reference interview to go for the purpose of the assignment.

This application of RUSA guidelines on Listening/Inquiring to an online chat is evidence I understand how a reference interview can be engaging and fruitful when a librarian asks questions that beg dynamic answers so patrons can be encouraged to expand their queries.

Conclusion

Marcia Bates’s (1989) model for information retrieval, termed “berrypicking”, fits how the internet’s voluminosities embolden today’s users to modify their queries over and over as each new set of search results inspire them to learn more. Librarians can develop programs and services to support this fundamental information-seeking behavior so patrons can dive deeper into library resources, make more connections, and expand their knowledge. This competency reminded me how much I enjoy teaching. In future, I would like to lead Advanced Placement History study groups, or hold character-building workshops with other novelists, both writing-heavy endeavors that require extensive modification of initial ideas.

References

Bates, M.J. (1989). The design of browsing and berrypicking techniques for the online search interface. Online Review, 13(5), 407-424.

Cassell, K.A. & Hiremath, U. (2018). Reference and information services: An introduction (4^th ed.). ALA Neal-Schuman.

Herring, D. N. (2014). A purposeful collaboration: Using a library course enhancement grant program to enrich ESL instruction. The Reference Librarian, 55(2), 128–143. https://doi.org/10.1080/02763877.2014.880317

Macdonald, K. (2008). ESL library skills: an information literacy program for adults with low levels of English literacy. The Australian Library Journal, 57(3), 295–309. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049670.2008.10722481

Magnus, E., Belanger, J., & Faber, M. (2018). Towards a critical assessment practice. In the Library with the Lead Pipe. Retrieved from http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/towards-critical-assessment-practice/

Reference and User Services Association. (2008). Guideline for Behavioral Performance of Reference and Information Service Providers. American Library Association. Retrieved November 1, 2022, from  https://www.ala.org/rusa/resources/guidelines/guidelinesbehavioral

Yang, Y.C. & Wu, W.I. (2012). Digital storytelling for enhancing student academic achievement, critical thinking, and learning motivation: A year-long experimental study. Computers and Education, 59(2), 339-352. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.12.012

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