LIS 391D.5
Research and Writing Seminar
with Professor Dr. Donald G. Davis, Jr.
Spring 1999

Terse Writing

Saracevic, T. & Kantor, P. B. (1997). Studying the value of library and information services. Part II. Methodology and taxonomy. Journal of the American Society for Information Science: 48(6), 543-563. [APA style]

Saracevic, Tefko. & Kantor, Paul B. 1997. "Studying the Value of Library and Information Services. Part II. Methodology and Taxonomy." Journal of the American Society for Information Science 48 (June): 543-63. [Chicago, 14th ed. and Turabian, 6th]

Annotation:

This article reports on research that resulted in a faceted classification (taxonomy) describing the value library users receive when using library and information services. The model is called the Reasons-Interactions-Results model.

Indicative - Descriptive Abstract--Uses the Passive Voice and Present Tense--Discusses the Article that Describes the Research

Results of a study conducted for the Council on Library Resources are described in this report, that develops a use-oriented value of information taxonomy through the analysis of interviews with 528 users of eighteen library services in five academic research libraries. The value of library and information services is modeled so that decision-makers can ultimately gather data to use in benchmarking and making service improvements. Economic indicators such as time or money are recommended by the researchers as the next element in the refinement of a Derived Taxonomy of Value Using Library and Information Services, a user focused value set that includes three facets: (1) Reasons for use, (2) Quality of the interaction, and (3) Worth/Benefit or Results from use.

Informative Abstract--Uses the Active Voice and Past Tense and Discusses the research

This study conducted for the Council on Library Resources developed a user oriented Derived Taxonomy of Value Using Library and Information Services using transcripts from interviews with academic library users and the results of a coding system developed for this study. Researchers derived the taxonomy using content analysis of 528 interviews conducted in Fall1993 and Spring 1994 with primarily graduate level students and faculty members at five academic research libraries. The derived taxonomy included three classes: (1) Reasons for use, (2) Quality of the Interaction, and (3) Worth/Benefit or Results from Use; these are subdivided into 12 subclasses containing 90 specific categories. The researchers encouraged others to apply this methodology in library and information services settings and to take the next step to connect the taxonomy to economic indicators such as time or money. This study provided a first step toward creating a practical measurement tool for decision-makers in libraries to use in gathering data for benchmarking and making improvements in library services.

Thesauri

A nice list of Thesauri can be found at http://delite.darmstadt.gmd.de/~lutes/thesalpha.html

In this listing, you will find the ACM Computing Classification (1998) with an explanation of the four level tree it uses. The article I am abstracting fits well into this tree. It fits into H.1.1 Systems and Information Theory. The ACM Computing Classification represents a "systems" perspective. The subject entries for H.1.1 are:

Other possibilities
If co-mingling of terms from Library Literature and Inspec is allowed, I would select these three to represent the perspective of use and users:
Library Literature actually uses the following subject entries for this article:
Inspec uses two subject terms for this article:
Key phrases are also identified by Inspec: value-in-use taxonomy, library services, information services, methodology, use-oriented value, user assessments, research libraries, statistics, tests, service use reasons, interaction quality.

Information Science Abstracts (ISA) uses subject entries for this article which are quite large in scope:

Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA) classes this article in 10.0 Information communication, 10.1 Information work and uses two subject entries: Value of Libraries and Information Work.

Metadata Suggestions for this Abstract--using Dublin Core elements

Note: JASIS is indexed in Lexis/Nexis as Journal of the ASIS. Most other indexes refer to the Journal of the American Society for Information Science. JASIS in indexed in at least 31 journals. Articles by Saracevic are indexed in Sociological Abstracts, History of Science and Technology, and ArticleFirst.

I found a suggestion to make to the producers of PubList. They do not indicate where journals are indexed and this would be a very nice feature for them to add to their service.

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Last Updated 2/10/99