Consulting engineers are professionals who are either self-employed or work for a consulting engi... more Consulting engineers are professionals who are either self-employed or work for a consulting engineering company. They do not all necessarily have formally organised information services, such as libraries, available in their companies to provide in their information needs. The objective is to report on a qualitative study investigating the information behaviour of a small group of self-employed consulting engineers working in Gauteng. A combination of convenience and snowball sampling was used to select the eleven responding consulting engineers for this study. Semi-structured time-line interviews were conducted to collect the data. The gap-metaphor in Dervin's sensemaking approach was used to analyse the data. Leckie, Pettigrew and Sylvain's general model of the information-seeking of professionals provided the framework for the study. The results showed that consulting engineers rely heavily on people, personal files and personal knowledge for information. Other frequently used information sources include the Internet, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) sites and digital cameras. Consulting engineers need information from varied sources in the initial stages of a project. Information in the final stages of a project comes from the project itself. In conclusion comments are made on the use of Leckie et al's model and the gap-metaphor in Dervin's sense-making methodology.
Distance teaching of online searching poses a number of problems especially with regard to its pr... more Distance teaching of online searching poses a number of problems especially with regard to its practical aspects. The principles of sound instructional design and technological developments can, however, be used to develop a multimedia study package that can solve these problems and be used to teach end-users, information specialists as well as Information Science students. At the University of South Africa (Unisa), the Department of Information Science uses a multimedia study package to teach online searching and to make students aware of teaching principles. The Library Service offers online training courses for their end-users. Combining the experience and expertise of the Department and of the Library, the objective is to develop a multimedia study package that allows for independent study where the student need attend only the practical sessions. The application of instructional design to the study package is explained and examples are given of the content, objectives, learning events, teaching methods and media combinations. The study package is suitable for different levels of online searching and for people from both developed and under-developed environments. It also caters to adult learners' interests. The proposed package includes the use of printed media, videos, practical exercises, workshops, e-mail and use of the Internet. The package is based on the characteristics of distance teaching and multimedia study packages.
In 2007 an exploratory study was conducted with patients and families in a palliative cancer care... more In 2007 an exploratory study was conducted with patients and families in a palliative cancer care setting in South Africa. It was based on semi-structured interviews conducted by an oncology social worker according to a detailed questionnaire. Individual interviews were also held (by the author) with healthcare professionals (i.e. oncologists, doctor specialising in palliative care and oncology nurses) operating in the same setting. The results showed marked differences between the information needs reported by patients and family members, and the information needs and information behaviour of patients and family members as perceived by the healthcare professionals. Apart from using the results of the study to gain a better understanding of information behaviour in palliative care cancer contexts it is important to interpret the results in terms of practical implications and how healthcare settings can make a difference in supporting the information behaviour of patients and families. The paper will focus amongst other things on: allowing for dormant information needs (e.g. patients not realising that they have a need for information and that information may make a difference), encouraging patients and their families to note that they may have different information needs at different stages of the disease as well as their psychological well being, encouraging the availability and use of information on emotional and psycho-social issues, allowing for information provision on issues patients and their families find difficult to address (e.g. sexual well-being), considering tailor-made information, and allowing for personal support in contextualising information according to individual situations and needs.
Purpose - To explore the value of web information-seeking studies for practice, and to bring sele... more Purpose - To explore the value of web information-seeking studies for practice, and to bring selected research findings and their potential to the attention of library and information science (LIS) practitioners. Design/methodology/approach - Based on a selective literature review of web information-seeking studies to highlight findings considered most relevant to LIS practitioners. A fairly extensive, but not exhaustive, list of
... Paulson, Paulson and Meyers's [12] definition of portfolios was taken as the poi... more ... Paulson, Paulson and Meyers's [12] definition of portfolios was taken as the point of departure: ... Research has also shown that there are different search styles (eg, the work done by Fidel [24,25]). However, search styles are something that develop over time and with experience. ...
Consulting engineers are professionals who are either self-employed or work for a consulting engi... more Consulting engineers are professionals who are either self-employed or work for a consulting engineering company. They do not all necessarily have formally organised information services, such as libraries, available in their companies to provide in their information needs. The objective is to report on a qualitative study investigating the information behaviour of a small group of self-employed consulting engineers working in Gauteng. A combination of convenience and snowball sampling was used to select the eleven responding consulting engineers for this study. Semi-structured time-line interviews were conducted to collect the data. The gap-metaphor in Dervin's sensemaking approach was used to analyse the data. Leckie, Pettigrew and Sylvain's general model of the information-seeking of professionals provided the framework for the study. The results showed that consulting engineers rely heavily on people, personal files and personal knowledge for information. Other frequently used information sources include the Internet, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) sites and digital cameras. Consulting engineers need information from varied sources in the initial stages of a project. Information in the final stages of a project comes from the project itself. In conclusion comments are made on the use of Leckie et al's model and the gap-metaphor in Dervin's sense-making methodology.
Distance teaching of online searching poses a number of problems especially with regard to its pr... more Distance teaching of online searching poses a number of problems especially with regard to its practical aspects. The principles of sound instructional design and technological developments can, however, be used to develop a multimedia study package that can solve these problems and be used to teach end-users, information specialists as well as Information Science students. At the University of South Africa (Unisa), the Department of Information Science uses a multimedia study package to teach online searching and to make students aware of teaching principles. The Library Service offers online training courses for their end-users. Combining the experience and expertise of the Department and of the Library, the objective is to develop a multimedia study package that allows for independent study where the student need attend only the practical sessions. The application of instructional design to the study package is explained and examples are given of the content, objectives, learning events, teaching methods and media combinations. The study package is suitable for different levels of online searching and for people from both developed and under-developed environments. It also caters to adult learners' interests. The proposed package includes the use of printed media, videos, practical exercises, workshops, e-mail and use of the Internet. The package is based on the characteristics of distance teaching and multimedia study packages.
In 2007 an exploratory study was conducted with patients and families in a palliative cancer care... more In 2007 an exploratory study was conducted with patients and families in a palliative cancer care setting in South Africa. It was based on semi-structured interviews conducted by an oncology social worker according to a detailed questionnaire. Individual interviews were also held (by the author) with healthcare professionals (i.e. oncologists, doctor specialising in palliative care and oncology nurses) operating in the same setting. The results showed marked differences between the information needs reported by patients and family members, and the information needs and information behaviour of patients and family members as perceived by the healthcare professionals. Apart from using the results of the study to gain a better understanding of information behaviour in palliative care cancer contexts it is important to interpret the results in terms of practical implications and how healthcare settings can make a difference in supporting the information behaviour of patients and families. The paper will focus amongst other things on: allowing for dormant information needs (e.g. patients not realising that they have a need for information and that information may make a difference), encouraging patients and their families to note that they may have different information needs at different stages of the disease as well as their psychological well being, encouraging the availability and use of information on emotional and psycho-social issues, allowing for information provision on issues patients and their families find difficult to address (e.g. sexual well-being), considering tailor-made information, and allowing for personal support in contextualising information according to individual situations and needs.
Purpose - To explore the value of web information-seeking studies for practice, and to bring sele... more Purpose - To explore the value of web information-seeking studies for practice, and to bring selected research findings and their potential to the attention of library and information science (LIS) practitioners. Design/methodology/approach - Based on a selective literature review of web information-seeking studies to highlight findings considered most relevant to LIS practitioners. A fairly extensive, but not exhaustive, list of
... Paulson, Paulson and Meyers's [12] definition of portfolios was taken as the poi... more ... Paulson, Paulson and Meyers's [12] definition of portfolios was taken as the point of departure: ... Research has also shown that there are different search styles (eg, the work done by Fidel [24,25]). However, search styles are something that develop over time and with experience. ...
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Papers by Ina Fourie