LIS520 Janes

Autumn 2011

Research Consultation

This assignment will give you the opportunity to conduct a small research endeavor for another person.

I’d like you to find another person—a friend, colleague, relative, whoever—for whom you can conduct a real research consultation. The more real the need, the better. (I’d prefer that you find someone not affiliated with the school.) You should solicit someone with a problem that is more than just a quick question or two, but not one that would be overwhelming. The user’s need should be something he or she honestly wants to know more about and not something contrived or “made up” for the purpose of the assignment. Ask the user if they would be willing to let you help them find information to address their need as part of a course assignment. The topic can be anything—within reason. You may find these lists of topics from previous years of interest or help: 2010 2009

Have your client fill out this form, conduct an interview, and then plan out and execute your search. You may use any resources you like, print, digital, Web, other people (except professional librarians and other information professionals), and so on. Treat this as you would a professional session. You may find that you need more than one interview/search/presentation session to do a complete and thorough job.

After your search, reflect on the experience and compose a brief report on it. You should tell me who your user is (I don’t need names but enough so that I have an idea of why you did the search the way you did) what you did and why you did the search the way you did, along with anything else you want me to know (including search techniques you used, as appropriate).

You should submit the following, in a single package, clipped together, in this order:

• the research request form
• your brief narrative (including search strategies, terms, technique you used)
• a copy of whatever results you presented to the user; if those results are large, summarize them for me
• a brief, confidential evaluation (downloadable Word document) by your user, which they may send separately directly to me
• a brief evaluation (downloadable PDF document) from you

Your submission will be evaluated based on the quality of your decision-making (by which I mean the sources, databases, approaches you used, didn’t use, and your stated reasons why), the strategy you used (the techniques of search, terms, your stated reasons for those, etc), the results you obtained and how they are presented, how challenging the topic is, and the overall quality of presentation of your report. In your narrative and discussion, the more you tell me about what you did and why, the better I’ll be able to assess your work.

The Assignment is due by noon on December 12. You should submit this in print; see the above instructions for more details.

TIPS ON SOLICITING A QUERY:

“Am I to rush out into the street, collar the first man of wealthy appearance that I meet, shake him, and say, ‘Go to law upon the spot, you dog, and retain me, or I’ll be the death of you?’” 

Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, Chapter III

Although you may imagine it is awkward and intrusive to approach people about the prospect of “probing their needs” and “resolving their problems,” this task is not as difficult as it may initially sound.

· Listen to people in everyday conversation. Quite often, someone will indicate they need to “find out about ...” or were going to “look into something...” or were “considering whether or not to...” Such comments are a natural “in” for you to offer to help and explain about your course assignment. When you read your email, look for similar phrases.

• If someone starts talking about their work or hobby, listen to determine if they begin to describe a problem or obstacle. If it involves locating information in some form, offer to help, but be careful not to give the user false expectations regarding how much work you plan to do.
• The next time you hear someone mention, “Oh, I have so much to do!” try to determine if one of the tasks involves searching for information. Offer to help.
• If no other opportunity presents itself, explain to a relative or friend that you are working on a class project that involves providing research assistance to anther person. Ask the person, “Is there anything you need to check up on?” or “Is there anything you want to know but aren’t sure who to ask?” If the person can’t think of anything, tell them to keep you in mind and check back with them later that day or the next day. Ask many different people until you find a suitable subject.