In dieser Dissertation untersuche ich die Forschungswege von sechs Wissenschaftlern, die in verschiedenen Disziplinen und Institutionen in den Vereinigten Staaten und in der Tschechischen Republik arbeiten. Um dies zu tun, verwende ich sogenannte „multi-sited“ ethnographisch-methodische Strategien (d.h. Strategien, die Anthropologen verwenden, um Kulturen an zwei oder mehr geografischen Standorten zu vergleichen), mit dem Ziel, informationsbezogene Verhaltensweisen dieser Wissenschaftler im global vernetzten akademischen Umfeld zu untersuchen, englisch abgekürzt „GNAE“, ein Begriff, der sich speziell auf die komplexe Bricolage von Netzwerkinfrastrukturen, Online-Informationsressourcen und Tools bezieht, die Wissenschaftler heutzutage nutzen, d.h. die weltweite akademische e-IS, oder akademische Infrastruktur (Edwards et al. 2013). Die zentrale Forschungsfrage (RQ1), die in dieser Dissertation beantwortet wird, ist: Gibt es, gemäß der multi-sited ethnographischen Analyse der beteiligten Wissenschaftler in dieser Studie—Personen, die Forschung in verschiedenen Disziplinen und Institutionen sowie an unterschiedlichen Standorten betreiben—Hinweise darauf, dass ein signifikanter Anteil der nicht-institutionellen/informellen informationsbezogenen Forschung über Mechanismen im GNAE, die nicht von Bibliotheken unterstützt werden, betrieben wird, sowie (RQ2): Was für Muster sind vorhanden und wie beziehen sie sich auf informationswissenschaftliche und andere sozialwissenschaftliche Theorien? Und drittens (RQ3): Haben die Resultate praxisnahe Bedeutungen für die Entwicklung von Dienstleistungen in wissenschaftlichen Bibliotheken? Ethnographische Strategien sind bisher noch nicht in der Informationswissenschaft (IS) eingesetzt worden, um Fragen dieser Art zu untersuchen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass eine informelle Informationsexploration nur bei zwei Wissenschaftlern, die mit offenen Daten und Tools einer verteilten Computing-Infrastruktur arbeiten, zu finden ist. / In this dissertation I examine the pathways of information exploration and discovery of six scientists working in different research disciplines affiliated with several academic institutions in the United States and in the Czech Republic. To do so, I utilize multi-sited ethnographic methodological strategies (i.e., strategies developed by anthropologists to compare cultures across two or more geographic locations) to examine the information-related behaviors of these scholars within the global networked academic environment (GNAE), a term which specifically refers to the complex bricolage of network infrastructures, online information resources, and tools scholars use to perform their research today (i.e., the worldwide academic e-IS, or academic infrastructure [Edwards et al. 2013]). The central research question (RQ1) to be answered in this dissertation: According to the multi-sited ethnographic analysis of scientists participating in this study—individuals conducting research in various disciplines at different institutions in several geographical locations—is there evidence indicating a significant allotment of non-institutional/informal information-related exploration and discovery occurring beyond official library-supported mechanisms in the GNAE?, and—part two (RQ2) of the central research question—What (if any) patterns are exhibited and how do these patterns relate to information science (IS) and other social science theories? Both RQ1 and RQ2 are exploratory. I additionally ask (RQ3): What might all this mean in the applied sense? by showing examples of services piloted during the research process in response to my observations in the field. Multi-sited ethnographic strategies have not yet been employed in IS, as of the date of publication of this thesis, to examine such questions. Results indicate informal information exploration occurring only with two scientists who use of open data and tools on a distributed computing infrastructure.

Catastrophes like Katrina destroy a community's critical infrastructure-a situation that instigates several dilemmas. Immediately, the community experiences information disruption within the community, as well as between the community and the outside world. The inability to communicate because of physical or virtual barriers to information instigates instant isolation. Prolonged, this scarcity of information becomes an information poverty spell, placing hardship on a community accustomed to easily accessible and applicable information. Physical devastation causes the scarcity of what Abraham Maslow calls basic survival needs-physiological, security, and social-a needs regression from the need to self-actualize, to meet intellectual and aesthetic needs. Because needs regress, the type of information required to meet the needs, also changes-regresses to information regarding survival needs. Regressed information needs requires altered information behaviors-altered methods and means to meet the information needs of the post-disaster situation. Situational information behavior follows new mores-altered norms-norms constructed for the post-disaster situation. To justify the unconventional, situational social norms, residents must adjust their beliefs about appropriate behavior. Situational beliefs support situational social norms-and situational information behaviors prevail. Residents find they must trust strangers, create makeshift messaging systems, and in some cases, disregard the law to meet their post-disaster survival needs.

Following the decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association (2011), which struck down the state of California’s appeal to restrict the sale of games deemed to have “deviant violence” to those 18 or older and the court’s recommendation that parents use the ESRB Ratings System instead, this ethnographic study sought to better understand what parents thought of laws on video games and how they used the recommended ratings system. A total of 30 interviews using semi-structured open-ended questions were conducted and analyzed to reveal what parents thought of laws on video games, how they used the ESRB Ratings System to assess video game content, and what other methods they used for video game content assessment in addition to the ratings system. This research utilized Dervin and Nilan’s (1986) sense-making methodology as a way to learn how parents bridged their knowledge gap when it came to learning about video game content and how they made sense of the knowledge gained to determine the content appropriateness for their children. Analyses of the collected data provided the foundation for a model on the effects of the parent-child relationship on parental information behavior.

This dissertation considers digital games and simulations as complex systems of information representation and explores their specific aspects influencing the process of knowledge acquisition. It focuses on process of mental model creation, information behavior and situational emotional and cognitive engagement. The methodological approach is grounded in variety of disciplines including information science, educational science, new media studies and computer science. The main method used is educational experiment. The use of digital game-based and non-digital game-based educational intervention is compared to similar program based on traditional schooling methods and classic lectures. The experiment outcomes are divided into four large segments exploring influence of digital games on process of mental models creation, motivation for future information behavior, situational emotional experience and social interaction.

This thesis strives to explore the PhD students’ information behavior (information needs, information search strat-egies and information management) to see how information literacy (use of information services and resources as well asinformation accessibility and intermediation) can evolve through increased access to information, resources and ideas. The theoretical foundation of the study is Carol C. Kuhlthau’s model of the information search process (ISP-model). Two different surveys were used, first a participant observation and then interviews, with a user group consisting of six postgraduates. The postgraduates were all from different disciplines within the same collage, in the middle of their dissertation and highly motivated by regular information seeking sessions. The study shows that postgraduate students’ knowledge of information behavior and information literacy is inadequate, something that graduate students are largely aware of and wish to change. In conclusion, PhD students need support to maintain, adapt and expand their knowledge. The study indicates that there are many areas where postgraduates’ information literacy can be developed and that there is much to be gained by enhancing the knowledge transfer between information specialists (librarians) and users. This thesis is a two years’ Master’s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.

Extant literature has documented well that people seek health information via the internet as patients and consumers. Much less, however, is known about interaction and creation behaviors in the development of new online health information and knowledge. More specifically, generalizable sociodemographic data on who engages in this online health behavior via social media is lacking in the sociological literature. The term “social e-health” is introduced to emphasize the difference between seeking behaviors and interaction and creation behaviors. A 2010 dataset of a large nationally representative and randomly sampled telephone survey made freely available from the Pew Research Center is used to examine social e-health behavior according to respondents’ sociodemographics. The dependent variable of social e-health behavior is measured by 13 survey questions from the survey. Gender, race, ethnicity, age, education, and income are used as independent variables. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the odds of engagement in social e-health behavior based on the sociodemographic predictors. The social determinants of health and digital divide frameworks are used to help explain why socioeconomic variances exist in social e-health behavior. The findings of the current study suggest that predictable sociodemographic patterns along the dimensions of gender, race, age, education, and income exist for those who report engaging in social e-health behavior. This study is important because it underscores the fact that engagement in social e-health behavior is differentially distributed in the general U.S. population according to patterned sociodemographics.

This study applied social disruption as a concept that highlights factors responsible for the breakdown of social relationships in societies. Social disruption has many forms, however, the focus in this study was on strikes, which create constant social disruption in Nigerian public universities and could have serious impact on students' information behavior. Two universities – Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) and Imo State University Owerri (IMSU) – were chosen for the study, and data was obtained through an online survey across sample of approximately 250 participants from the two selected public universities in Nigeria. The study applied the principle of least effort theory and the model of information search process to investigate the research questions of this dissertation which were: (1) what kinds of information do university students in Nigeria seek, and to what extent do strikes have implications on their information behavior?; (2) how do Nigerian students perceive the impact of strikes on their information source location and information resource usage?; (3) to what extent can information and communication technology (ICT) minimize the impact of strikes on students' information behavior?; and (4) how can universities in Nigeria prevent strikes from impacting students' information behavior? t-Tests were applied to test the hypotheses. Findings suggested that strikes negatively impacted students information behavior in certain areas of information needs, information use and information sources.

Orientador: Cássia Regina Bassan de Moraes / Resumo: Em vista de sua complexidade, projetos de software são, comumente, desenvolvidos em equipes. Esta atividade requer a busca, uso e compartilhamento de informação e conhecimento, além do aprendizado e atualização constante das habilidades profissionais. São empregadas metodologias de projetos que enfatizam a produtividade e restringem processos considerados burocráticos, como a documentação. A documentação, contudo, é imprescindível para comunicar informações de projetos e compreender o código-fonte, visando sua adaptação e manutenção. Portanto, é relevante investigar o comportamento informacional dos desenvolvedores de software, verificando as barreiras para a satisfação de suas necessidades informacionais. Deste modo, os objetivos do presente estudo são: estudar o comportamento informacional dos referidos profissionais quanto à busca, seleção, uso, reuso e compartilhamento de informações e conhecimentos, salientando a influência da cultura organizacional. A hipótese apresentada é que a maior intensidade de uso da Internet por estes profissionais, evidenciada na literatura científica, resultaria da indisponibilidade de informações e conhecimentos registrados, na organização. Outra hipótese é que a rotina acelerada afetaria, por restrições de tempo, o compartilhamento de informações, essencial ao trabalho em equipe. Portanto, realizou-se um estudo de casos múltiplos com abordagem qualiquantitativa em uma empresa de desenvolvimento de software do município de Marília, São Paulo,... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: In face of their complexity, software projects are commonly developed in teams. This activity requires the search, use and sharing of information and knowledge, as well as learning and constant updating of professional skills. Project methodologies that emphasize productivity and restrict processes considered bureaucratic, such as documentation, are employed. The documentation, however, is essential for communicating project information and understanding the source code for adaptation and maintenance. Therefore, it is relevant to investigate the information behavior of software developers, verifying barriers to the satisfaction of their information needs. In this way, the aim of this research is to study the information behavior of these professionals, regarding the search, selection, use, reuse and sharing of information and knowledge, highlighting the influence of organizational culture. As hypothesis, it is stated that the greater intensity of Internet use by these professionals, evidenced in scientific literature, would result from the unavailability of recorded information and knowledge in the organization. Another hypothesis is that the accelerated work routine would affect, by time constraints, the sharing of information, essential to teamwork. Therefore, a multiple-case study with a qualitative approach was carried out at a software development company in Marília city, São Paulo, member of the Associação de Empresas de Serviços de Tecnologia da Informação, and a compa... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

This study began with an interest in corporate libraries and a genuine curiosity in the information preferences and resources valued by executive leaders at JET Aircraft Co. Executive information preferences and the downward trend in special libraries initiated the investigation of information seeking among executive leaders and yielded the inquiry: What resources do JET Aircraft Co. executives value when they need information? Employing an ethnographic approach, this study investigated what JET Aircraft Co. executives know about information resources, what they believe about information resources, and how they act when they require information. While JET Aircraft Co. maintained a special corporate library called the Company Research Library (CRL), the purpose of this study was to determine what resources were of value to executives at JET Aircraft Co., understanding that the CRL may or may not be a resource executives’ value. As a byproduct, this study also sought to establish executive information preferences and perceptions of the CRL. Information seeking at the executive level, studied through an ethnographic lens, provided insight into how executives at JET Aircraft Co. work and what they prefer, and it established a baseline for the Company Research Library’s position among the resources valued by executives.

A presença constante das imagens fotográficas, na contemporaneidade, evidencia-se em um cotidiano marcado pelo intenso uso da imagem fotográfica, levando a um olhar naturalizado e que, em princípio, não impacta a vida dos sujeitos. A partir da aliança entre o smartphone e o acesso à internet banda larga, nasce a fotografia conectada, da qual é difícil evadir, pois, em todos os momentos do cotidiano, podemos nos expor e nos comunicarmos numa fusão de fala e de imagem. Nos atuais estudos sobre comportamento informacional e práticas informacionais, falta compreensão de como os sujeitos fazem uso das imagens. Neste contexto, do ponto de vista do sujeito, cabe a questão - podemos identificar efeitos positivos ou negativos no uso de imagens fotográficas, na perspectiva da Ciência da Informação? O objetivo geral consistiu em analisar estudos sobre o uso da imagem na Ciência da Informação e, com base em critérios da Ontopsicologia, agregar valor aos estudos das práticas e comportamentos informacionais dos sujeitos frente a imagens fotográficas contemporâneas. O objeto de estudo comportou o uso dessas imagens fotográficas. A pesquisa, de abordagem qualitativa e de natureza interpretativa, baseou-se em três fases: a) identificação de distintas formas de uso das imagens fotográficas, resultando em cinco práticas de uso: I. Imagem conectada; II. Imagem híbrida e reapropriada; III. Imagem e autorretrato; IV. Imagem efêmera; V. Imagem e os valores sociais. Uma vez identificados os usos, propomos: b) a identificação de funcionalidades (positivas ou negativas) no uso das imagens fotográficas. Após essas duas fases, com auxílio da Ontopsicologia, entendemos que o uso de imagens fotográficas e a funcionalidade desses usos devem estar associados à percepção visceral (organísmica) e desenvolvemos: c) um experimento. Neste, utilizamos 09 imagens fotográficas, analisadas por 20 adolescentes, em que objetivamos compreender o uso da percepção visceral com atenção voltada às variações emotivas. Ao analisarmos o uso da imagem fotográfica, concluímos que não podemos enfatizar apenas quais usos os sujeitos fazem da imagem, mas, sim, observar também o que a imagem ocasiona aos sujeitos, sugerindo, nesta pesquisa, portanto, que é a imagem que dá a funcionalidade (positiva ou negativa), e não o uso, isto é, a funcionalidade ou não funcionalidade, antes de tudo, dá-se pela imagem. Para conhecermos a funcionalidade, substancialmente, adicionamos o critério organísmico (visceral) ao critério lógico-racional. Por fim, é importante ainda salientar que o uso da imagem fotográfica conectada traz a característica do uso interativo, isto é, o sujeito se crê ativo na interação por meio das imagens fotográficas, mas é passivo diante da ação dos complexos. / The constant presence of photographic images nowadays is seen in a routine marked by an intense use of photographic images, accounting for a naturalized view upon images and giving the impression that they do not cause any impact on subjects. Since the alliance between the smartphone and broadband internet access, the connected photography comes to be, from which it is difficult to escape because at any moment in our daily life, we may expose ourselves and communicate with each other in a fusion between speech and image. In contemporary researches about information behaviour and information practices, such studies lack the comprehension of how subjects make use of images. In this context, from the subject\'s point of view, a question arises: can we identify the positive or negative effects in the use of photographic images according to Information Science? The main objective consisted in analyzing studies about the use of image in Science Information and according to the criteria of Ontopsychology, aggregating value to the studies about information behavior and information practices of subjects before contemporary photographic images. This research is of qualitative approach and of interpretative nature, focusing in three stages: a) identification of distinct ways of photographic image use, resulting in five practices of image use: I. Connected image; II. Hybrid reappropriated image; III. Image and selfie; IV. Ephemeral image; V. Image and social values. Once the uses were identified, carried out the b) identification of functionalities (positive and negative) in the use of photographic images. After these two stages, with the support of Ontopsychology, it was identified that the uses of photographic images and their functionalities must be associated with visceral perception (organismic perception) and developed c) an experiment. In this experiment, we used 09 photographic images were analyzed by 20 adolescents in which the aim was to comprehend the use of visceral perception with a focus on emotive variations. In analyzing the use of photographic image, rather it was concluded that one cannot emphasize only what uses such subjects make use but as well as to observe what the image causes in the subject hence suggesting, in this research, that it is the image that provides the functionality (positive or negative) and not the use itself, that is, the functionality or the non-functionality comes to be through the image. In order to know substantially the functionality, one must add the organismic (visceral) criterium to the logical and rational criterium. Lastly, it is important to highlight that the use of connected photographic image brings the characteristic of interactive use; the subject sees himself in the interaction through photographic images but becomes passive before the action of complexes.