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?