User-centered Decision Making: A New Model for Developing Academic Library Services and Systems

by: Lynn Silipigni Connaway, David White, Donna Lanclos, Alison Le Cornu, and Erin Hood

This longitudinal study tracks US and UK participants' shifts in their motivations and forms of engagement with technology and information as they transition between four educational stages. The quantitative and qualitative methods, including ethnographic methods that devote individual attention to the subjects, yield a very rich data set enabling multiple methods of analysis. Instead of reporting general information-seeking habits and technology use, this study explores how the subjects get their information based on the context and situation of their needs during an extended period of time, identifying if and how their behaviors change.

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