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Dissertation Information for Toby Pearlstein

NAME:
- Toby Pearlstein

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- Simmons College (USA) (1986)

ADVISORS:
- Richard Phillips Palmer

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- None

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: Information seeking patterns of government employees : a needs assessment of the Massachusetts Department of Public Works

Abstract: Government employees have not always enjoyed the availability of organized information resources such as are usually available in academic and public library situations. As a result they have had to fend for themselves in finding out what they need to know to perform their jobs. Employees of the Massachusetts Department of Public Works have historically found themselves in this type of informal information-seeking situation until the creation of the State Transportation Library, no organized information resource was readily available to them. In order to fulfill its goal of being a responsive information resource, the Library needed to ascertain the types of information these employees see as being necessary to their work, the criteria they use to assess this information and how they currently go about obtaining it. A self-administered mail-back survey was distributed to a randomly selected population sample of r1DPW non- clerical employees. The results of these open-ended questions were descriptively analyzed and several null hypotheses postulated. Answers were then codified and run through an SAS computer program utilizing the ANOVA and MANOVA tests. Results of the analysis indicate that the typical MDPW information seeking experience usually focused on information of one of five types and saw the seeker consulting with two or more providers, all of whom represented an interpersonal source. On those limited occasions when problems were encountered they usually had to do with the seeker's confidence in the information he was getting, especially as concerns its validity and timeliness. For the most part, the experience was a successful one with the seeker being either very or somewhat satisfied with the outcome of the episode. The experience of this study indicates that a survey administered as this one was can be effective under similar logistical conditions. Surveys like this one enable information professionals to gather the kind of data that will point the way to any weak links in the information seeking experience of an individual where it is appropriate for the library to interject its expertise. Respondents to this survey probably had little experience with the library as a resource so it is not surprising that they would rather choose the more familiar interpersonal provider. More likely, though, is that knowledge about the Library is inadequate, preventing it from being perceived as "approach- able" or "effortless" to use. This, at least, is a failing that is correctable.

MPACT Scores for Toby Pearlstein

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:33:25

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Students under Toby Pearlstein

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None