Just doing a quick note because I am exhausted and have to get some sleep. Karen, quantitative data on seniors' use of libraries just isn't available, partly because of privacy issues and partly because that just isn't tracked when books are checked out. Yeah, we could probably link the application record and the circulation record, but that hits on the privacy issues again, and would involve indexing that currently doesn't exist. Additionally, circs aren't the only place seniors will show up. Nancy mentioned several, and I've seen a lot of folks show up just to read magazines and newspapers or attend a program, work in the Friends store, etc. They did do some qualitative work, but I'm unsure whether I want to undertake that at this stage, largely because I am concerned about "intrusiveness" in asking for interviews or surveys with people who "look" old. And knowing there are some folks who never actually enter the building but are avid users of the library. The researchers in my article did do some interviews, but even they acknowledged their sample was amazingly small. There was another article I liked better, with lots of justifications and impassioned pleas, but it was a literature review, not a study. Will write more tomorrow, but just unable to keep my eyes open any longer.

Nancy, I'm not sure that sustainability really is the main measure of an IR after reading this article. Given that the authors aren't sure whether they're measuring 10 items or 90 (I didn't really understand that bit, but I'll take their word for it), or what those items are (they gave examples of full-text articles, single JPEGs or metadata), deposit rate could easily be manipulated -- or misunderstood. If, for example, a department uploaded 5,000 pictures in one day but not any other day, that could easily cause a spike. Alternatively, differences in faculty size between schools and departments, coupled with differences in deposit protocol, could account for differences. If these issues are correct (and certainly might not be), deposit rate seems to be an artificial measure. My other quibble with the article is simply that the graphs are on vastly different scales, which skew the visual perception of occurrences. This article was of course heavily quantitative. I'm wondering if it might have been enhanced qualitatively with surveys or interviews of IR administrators to learn more about procedures or reasons for spikes. This is a much more interesting subject than I would have originally anticipated, though, and I will eagerly watch the unfolding of your research.

Added note to Karen: the researchers did do qualitative research by interviewing 24 people they thought were seniors. I only highlighted the quantitative portion because I thought we were only to discuss one data point.

Hi Michael! Good point with the inability to keep quantitative data. It seemed reasonable at the time but clearly it would be extremely difficult to get accurate data, probably impossible. I noted the qualitative data, I just thought it might be nice if there was a way to add quantitative data. I suppose they could potentially send out letters to every single patron asking for feedback or whatever information they are looking for and have a separate section for those who are whatever age, 55, 65, whatever is chosen, or older to respond to specific questions for the study. Feedback from everyone would benefit the library and extra feedback from seniors would cover the study. However you run into the issue of people actually responding and the cost of sending things out if its not done via the internet which at this point it would have to be sent out to the older folks as not as many are as technologically fluent as the younger crowds. You could also have those who want to respond anonymously...this could be addressed by allowing them to send it back without a return address? So that would be pretty involved too, but potentially doable in areas and the information asked for could also potentially be quantified? Just throwing ideas out there. Feel free to point out the holes in my "arguments" again haha. :)

Karen, you've chosen an interesting field of study, and I will look forward to your results. About the only kind of data that might have been helpful in addition to that presented might have been some kind of interaction with the parents. Librarians are likely to "get" what is going on in a study, but I think self-reporting is always a scary proposition once you move into conjecture. A parent's point of view could have validated or contradicted librarians' responses. As respects the literature review statement, I think you did a pretty good job, but I think (not sure, really) that we're to reference the material and what we can draw from it. One last point: there wasn't much in the article about *where* the research was taking place: it's apparently Maryland, like the one I presented. Apparently a happening' place for research.

Robert, your article did provide a fascinating chronicle of an important series of events in UWis history, but I just don't see the research. Honestly, it reads a lot more like an op-ed piece than research. I do think it would be interesting to see some research on how prevalent speech codes are and what elements are present to any extent, or perhaps a qualitative analysis of reactions to speech codes.

Great posts and discussion! You got it. It appears that the article Rob discusses does not provide data and is not a research article on IF. However, it does provide background on the problem he is investigating. These types of articles are very helpful in terms of identifying research that is needed.

Duff, Wendy M. and Catherine A. Johnson. 2002. Accidentally found on purpose: Information-seeking behavior of historians in archives. The Library Quarterly 72, no. 4: 472-496. This article reports on a small, qualitative study of the information-seeking behavior of historians in archives. The authors' found, through oral interviews,that the historians constantly built "contextual knowledge" of their topic through a systematic approach to archival research. This finding refutes previously held beliefs that historians approached their research haphazardly and found information mostly through luck. Duff and Johnson reported the results of their survey eight years ago, before online finding aids and digital archives had become widespread. Their findings would be useful to a study of academic and student historians' current archival research tactics, both online and in person. Sorry this is late everyone. I've had problems using Zotero and Internet accessibility at home. I agree with Robert this is not good for forums. I should be finished commenting on your articles by the end of the day. I hope you enjoy the article. Hopefully, I included everything I was supposed to -I understand historical research much better than the type we're learning in class, at least for now.

One more thing. My articles are under my name in library.

Hope I am not posting twice, since my computer is jumping around a bit. Lisa, this is a fascinating article to me as a librarian (sometimes on digital projects) and as a genealogist. I will definitely be approaching preparing finding aids with more enthusiasm after this! It had not occurred to me that historians would approach information-seeking differently than others (and I'm still not entirely convinced), but I'm now wondering if this group should be broken out as a group in studies of this nature. I was surprised that footnote-linking is considered "undirected and unsystematic", as I find many excellent sources this way, and always approach this kind of search with a distinct purpose. I liked the qualitative nature of this study and currently can't imagine it done any other way, although I'm sure you'll come up with something quantitative, too. -- Just a note, when you put in a URL, you linked to the first page, not the article.You might want to try attaching a file to the Zotero item.

Michael, thanks for your comments. As a historian, I don't find the use of footnotes unsystematic either. I'll try to link the file as you suggested if I can figure out how. So far, I absolutely hate Zotero. I was trying to put another article from WilsonWeb into my folder and the text ended up on the general list.

Michael, I enjoyed the article you chose about services to older adults. The author raised an interesting question regarding the time of day that the data was gathered. Socio-economic differences also play into these results and need further research. I noticed that the median income for all three areas was higher than the national average; two were significantly higher. I couldn't help but wonder how the results might have been different in an area where the median income was lower than the national average. Given the same services offered at the libraries, would lower income senior patrons be less or more satisfied with those services?

Lisa, I have to admit I was focusing more on the services provided and opinions thereof than the framework of the study! While I will likely perform more of a survey -- what services are available to or include seniors and what is the prevalence -- your suggestion would be an interesting avenue. I can't speak to senior services, but lower-income patrons at my library tend to be most vocal when they want more, which is counter-intuitive to me. Ref WilsonWeb, it's my understanding that it doesn't work properly with Zotero. I found articles through WilsonWeb (because they own the database I usually use), then found them another way, and THEN was able to bring more information in. For copies of the articles, I saved them to my hard drive and attached a copy. I'm not too keen on this program and think there must be a better way, but I'm not sure what it is yet.

Nancy, I had never heard of an IR until I read your article and I have no library experience so I'm not sure I'll have much to offer. I do agree with Karen and Michael that quantitative date would enrich your study. Surveys of IR administrators, as Michael suggested, or of users would create a more complete image of IR use and sustainability.

Lisa, I can only see the abstract to your article...is the entire article here? Also, I used the Locate It button and it too was just the abstract. Jstor and Library Quarterly frustrated me as I searched for your article...I found the 2002, but it would not open it for me for some crazy reason. Nevertheless, the abstract clearly stated what type of research was being presented, I wish my articles would do that for me! The first thing that comes to my mind about the research habits of historical researchers is why and how are they any different from any other 'type' of researcher. If historical researchers know tips, secrets, and efficient techniques, then I am going to want to know about them too! So, I guess I will have a lot to learn from your topic and it will be interesting to learn about it as time goes along. On the very first night of class, I asked you what is historical research...now I know WHY you know all about it...oh, and now you see I don't know anything about it...ha!