Thrilled for being in this heaven of information world! by Stephanie Lee
Stephanie Lee, the author of this post, is a student volunteer at #ASIST2015.
Before I start my report, I’m truly grateful for having an opportunity to participate as a member in this heaven of the information world. Attending ASIST 2015 was definitely invaluable experiences, and the conference motivated me a lot to work harder and make my research more meaningful! 🙂
November 8
How does the information look like?: An international study. Dr. Jenna Hartel’s iSquare team, University of Toronto (Canada), and a team of 12 international collaborators asked a question, “How is the concept of information visualized in my community and beyond?” to investigate the concept of information to their students. Their arts-informed, visual research project intrigued a number of scholars not only from the United States, but also from other countries (e.g. Canada, France, China, etc.). The multimedia and interaction session included not only in-person presentations, short videos from collaborators overseas, dialogue with the audience, but also an art exhibition. Thanks much again to Dr. Hartel and other scholars for organizing this session. It was super interesting!!
November 9
Information seeking and beyond: Impacts of studying different forms of information behavior Scholars in this session talked about diverse information behaviors in order to extend the territories of information behavior research beyond seeking and use. Dr. Agarwal (Simmons College) introduced serendipitous findings of information, Dr. Oh (Simmons College) explained the concept of information organizing and keeping behaviors, and Dr. Koh (University of Oklahoma) introduced information creating behaviors among teenagers. Since studies of information behaviors have been noted for quite a while, it was considerably interesting to hear new concepts of information behaviors beyond previous concepts. One key point brought up during the session was as follows: in the previous literature, there are a number of studies in the field of information behavior (e.g. information use, information seeking, information management etc.). Then, to make our research more meaningful, connecting each area should be our next goals for the future researchers in the field of information science. As a baby researcher in the realm of information science, I firmly believe it is very important to keep in mind. 🙂
In the evening, I was one of poster presenters titled “Health information needs and seeking behaviors among Korean mothers in the United States”. I was very delightful to hear diverse thoughts of other scholars who were also parents of children, health information professionals from different countries (e.g. Canada, Uganda, China, etc.). Sharing ideas is always so fun! Looking forward to seeing more scholars and information professionals in Copenhagen in next year!!
P.S. I would love to express my special gratitude to Stephan Addo, Dr. Diane Pennington, and other ASIST staff members who have organized this conference and have helped me to share my impressions in this blog.