Reference interview are used by the librarian to clarify the library users information need. This is done by asking questions, one of the questions librarian ask is the “why “question. By asking “why” questions, the librarian can develop a productive search strategy and avoid unnecessary and useless searching for information that does not help the users need. It is of importance to note that the “why” questions may considered intrusive and meet with hostility. (Dewdney, Mitchell, 1997)
Misinterpretation of the why question is due to the fact that it may be perceived as violating the user need for privacy if the user’s need are legal, medical or sensitive.”Why do you need this information? ” does not really give the user clues on what is the expected response. Proper interpretation of the “why” question depends on the extent to which the questioner and the answerer share the same knowledge and same understanding of the activity. (Dewdney, Mitchell, 1997)
Since “why” are unlikely to work well in a reference interview as they are perceived as ambiguous, intrusive or irrelevant. Librarians then have to find out “why” without asking a question likely to be misinterpreted by the user. Some of the solutions suggested to overcome this include: providing a context for the user that is stating the reason for asking “why”, preface a why question with I think I can I can help you help you better, if… ,asking of neutral questions also known as help chaining. In help chaining a sequence of questions are formulated that encourage responses to identify user’s goals. (Dewdney, Mitchell, 1997)
In this reading material we learn about a reference interview and the question why and its importance to librarian in directing the user to the correct information. The question why is of importance but also problematic it therefore importance to address problem caused by asking the question. The problems are addressed by two main strategies: contextualization, which helps user understand role of reference interview and the use of neutral questions. Librarians also need to begin seeking information in different way.
When Google arrived five years ago, the web stopped being slow, becomes faster and offered variety of information when someone clicked the search button. This made people thing Google was like God but everything has its setback, not always when you search for an item do you get the desired result, sometimes the page does not open or the information you get is futile.(Johnson, 2003)
Most times when you search for an item example a flower a DVD you tend to get sales of this item and not the item itself and what the item entails. To get what the item is all about you will have to go through various sales and shop sites before you get some information, this is frustrating. Due to this Google becomes more of a shopping site than a research one. (Johnson, 2003)
Skewed synonyms are another problem, when you type apple on the search engine you will get so many results that don’t relate to what you are looking for. Maybe what you had in mind was the apple group of electronics but instead you got the definition of the word apple, an apple supplier or a designer website of the apple brand of clothes. (Johnson, 2003)
When it comes to book learning Google does not prove to be a reliable research source. Many a times you will search for a certain book in PDF form but you will not get the information you are looking for but instead you will get a lot of PDF’s written by people on their opinions about the books material. (Johnson, 2003)
In this material, reading 9b, everything was understandable and straight to the point. Most of the things highlighted here are things I have encountered when using Google as a search engine.
In reading week 10 both Kyoko Toyoda and Miranda van Roosmalen have background in international research. Miranda van Roosmalen distinguishes between a librarian and researcher the former she refers as one who keeps the library up to date with books while the later are dedicated to a particular industry. . (Bates, 2001)
According to Kyodo and Miranda they both agree that the internet is powerful source of accessing information. When conducting global research most Asian and European countries information is still not easy to locate especially laws, regulations and accounting standard and anything that requires background knowledge in the field. (Bates, 2001)
Searching for information across borders is a problem during global research information may not be available because of a regulation, or maybe if it’s a matter of business custom hence the importance of networking. Search tools may be in a foreign language hence language barrier is a problem. Many options are available when gathering information hence it is hard to decide on the best source of the information.
Miranda Van Roosmalen admits to have seen changes in international recourses available: more market research is available digitally , the price structure has become more flexible, growth in subject library of fee based informational services, full text reports from government agencies is also increasing in their numbers. More companies publish external reports about their companies on their own websites. (Bates, 2001)
References
Johnson. S (2003): Digging for Google Holes: Google may be our new god, but it’s not omnipotent, Retrieved July 16 2003 from ET
Bates, M. E (2001): Kyoko Toyoda: Asian Business Research Expert, Miranda Van Roosmalen: Dutch researcher and Trainer in Super searchers cover the world: the online secrets of international business researchers (pp 57-68, 185-200), Medford, New Jersey: Information today
Dewdney, P $ Michell, G (1997): Asking “Why” Questions in the Reference Interview: A Theoretical Justification (Vol 67 no. 1pg 50-7i) retrieved 1997 from the University of Chicago
