A theoretical framework and an instructional model for educating end users of online bibliographic information retrieval systems: A research monograph

The study investigated the knowledge that experienced and inexperienced researchers employ in accessing information. The information gathering patterns which emerged from analysis of the two data sets informed the construction of a conceptual model of the search process. This framework was further elaborated with research results reported in the library and information science literatures and developed into an educational program for end-users of online bibliographic information retrieval systems.;Novice researchers described familiarity with everyday information gathering through community-based communication networks. Their interviews revealed a sense of the structure and organization of society's information sources and an ability to retrieve information in familiar information environments. In these domains, novices' retrieval experiences were characteristically interactive and generative, as represented by changes in their lines of inquiry.;Expert researchers identified themselves as participants in informal and formal scholarly communication networks. To retrieve information, they utilized their knowledge of the interconnections among scholarly information networks to interrogate appropriate access systems for useful substantive or bibliographic references. Through such activities, new knowledge was produced, suggesting that information retrieval functioned as information generation.;The study results informed the development of an instructional program, a search guide for end-users of online bibliographic information retrieval systems. Inexperienced researchers' existent knowledge of community-based information networks served as the introductory framework for the search guide. Experienced researchers' knowledge of scholarly communication networks provided additional conceptual information for "thinking like a searcher.";The two part study first identified the knowledge used to access information by experienced researchers (N = 39) and inexperienced researchers (N = 65). Qualitative analysis of the two sets of interview data revealed that both populations described participation in dynamic information networks. However, their "information universes" were different.;The search guide's usefulness was assessed in the second part of the study through interviews of end-users (N = 6) and end-user educators (N = 2). Results indicated that the references to everyday information seeking experiences produced feelings of intellectual accessibility in readers. The conceptual communication network model was described by readers as producing useful mental models.