| The work of the Information Use Group falls under five main categories: |
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| Human Information Behaviour |
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Information Literacy |
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| Information Management |
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| Information Policy |
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| Information Profession Education and Learning |
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| Members of the Group have also supervised a number of higher research degree students to completion of their degrees.
Information about the students and their theses can be found on our Dissertations page. |
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Human Information Behaviour |
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Humans have sought, organized and used information for millennia as they evolved and learned patterns of human information behaviours (HIB) to help resolve their human problems and continue to survive. HIB is developing a framework that integrates various approaches, including information seeking/problem solving approach, a sense-making approach, an everyday life information seeking approach (ELIS) and an information foraging approach, information organizing and information use.
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| Recent publications on this topic include: |
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Spink, A. and Cole, C. B. (Eds.). (2005). New Directions in Human Information Behavior. Berlin: Springer.
Spink, A. and Cole, C. B. (2006). Human information behavior: Integrating diverse approaches and information use. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 57(1) 25-35.
Spink, A. and Currier, J. (2006). Toward an evolutionary perspective on human Information behavior: An exploratory study. Journal of Documentation, 62(2).
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| Other recent and current research includes: |
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- Internet searching model
- Knowledge in government
- First year students' information use
- Disability community information use
- IT success in PNG
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Information Literacy |
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| Information literacy research at QUT bridges research interests in information use and learning, particularly in higher education and community contexts. Several doctoral projects are under way or recently completed in this area focussing on topic areas such as:
- Learning to search the internet
- Virtual communities for people with disabilities
- The relationship between information literacy and learning
- Psychological aspects of the digital divide
- International students' use of the internet
- Ethical decision making amongst IT professionals.
Researchers with projects in the information literacy area have key interests in teaching and learning and the application of information literacy in curriculum, community and workplace contexts. |
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Information Management |
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| We are interested in information management in a variety of contexts ranging from business processes to document and content management and library systems. We characterise it into 3 domains: strategical, analytical and operational as detailed by Middleton (2002) . We are interested in applying different methodological approaches to advance the understanding of information management. Our investigations include knowledge management to the extent that organisational knowledge is treated as a resource and when in documentary form may be treated as information.
Our specific lines of inquiry at present are:
- Information management in business processes, for example as detailed in the thesis of Nelson (2004).
- Document and content management as detailed in the book by Asprey and Middleton (2003).
- Discipline formation in information management, for example as reported by Middleton (2005), and its historical application in scientific and technical information services as reported by Middleton (2004).
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Information Policy |
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Group members concentrate upon both corporate information policy and public information policy.
Corporate information policy is of interest for its influence on information management and is covered by that research
area. Public information policy is the focus of a number of investigations including:
- Strategic telework, for example through Dr Meyers' input to the Australian Telework Advisory Committee.
- Public information policy influence on information services, for example the group provided the faculty
submission to the Senate Committee Inquiry into the Role of Libraries in the Online Environment.
- History of information policy, for example see Middleton (1997).
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| Specific projects pertaining to this research area: |
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- Telework
- Online libraries
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Information Profession Education and Learning |
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The future of the library and information profession is intrinsically linked to the quality of the skills of those people employed in the sector. Library and information education needs to offer current and relevant programs of study to ensure that students graduate with the knowledge, skills and attributes that will match employers' needs, whether in academic, public or special libraries, or in the broader information environment of Internet and intranet development, records management or policy development. We work closely with the profession to focus on:
- The core knowledge, skills and attributes of library and information professionals
- The professional development needs of employees at different stages of their career
- The current and future workforce requirements across the library and information sector
- Workforce planning initiatives to support effective recruitment and retention strategies
- Curriculum design and learning innovation
- Education pathways and models to support career-long learning
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| Current projects include: |
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- The DNA of the library and information professional in the 21 st century
- Workforce planning for academic libraries
- The development of a framework for continuing education/professional development for the library and information services sector
- Career planning for library and information professionals.
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