Information Seeking And Communicating Behavior Of Scientists And Engineers

This inspiring book addresses a topic that is far too often ignored or disregarded by sci-tech librarians: Exactly how do scientists and engineers really discover, select, and use the countless information and communications resources available to them when conducting research? The answer to this question should be a major influence on the way information specialists develop information systems in their libraries. Unfortunately, many librarians are not as familiar with the work, information needs, and communicating behavior of the research worker. Information Seeking and Communications Behavior of Scientists and Engineers looks at this question from several perspectives to give an overall view of how to best serve the needs of the scientific community. This book is an encouragement and a challenge to sci-tech librarians to make an ever greater effort to understand the work of their users, the differing information channels and sources they employ, and thus tailor the library’s systems and services to best support their information-seeking behavior.

Stay up-to-date with the latest developments in sci-tech librarianship! Information and the Professional Scientist and Engineer examines how electronic resources have affected the ways engineers and scientists seek, use, and communicate information vital to their research and development needs. Information specialists working in academic, corporate, government, and organization libraries discuss the changes in user behavior as academics in science and engineering fields rely more and more on the Internet and online journals. The book provides unique insight into the specific educational needs of college and university students as librarians and department faculty determine appropriate instruction for science and engineering classes. Information and the Professional Scientist and Engineer addresses the distinctions among various science and engineering fields, types of libraries, communities of users, and users within a field or discipline. Within these discussions, librarians also examine the differences between commercial and academic databases, and between personal or group subscriptions to database services, print, and online journals. The book also addresses Geographic Information Systems users through a study of the interconnection among disciplines associated with GIS. Information and the Professional Scientist and Engineer includes bibliographies that provide valuable information resources, reviews of pertinent web sites, tables, figures, and interviews while addressing: the information-seeking behavior of chemists, geologists, pharmacists, botanists, and zoologists the case for an engineering knowledge community online bibliographic sources in hydrology a practical guide to finding physical properties of chemicals new reference works in science and technology new age e-journals, indexes, and services Information and the Professional Scientist and Engineer is a unique resource for librarians and other information specialists, science and engineering faculty and students, and academic administrators.

Stay on top with the latest developments in scientific and technical journal publications! In Scholarly Communication in Science and Engineering Research in Higher Education, experts in the academic community propose cost-effective alternatives to commercial publications in the face of increased journal prices and reduced budgets. This book discusses recent technological innovations that can maintain the needs of researchers who need to stay on the cutting edge of science and technology as well as scholars who must be published and peer-reviewed in order to achieve tenure and promotion. This text also examines the latest developments in information retrieval that will effectively cut time and costs for academic researchers in the library. Scholarly Communication in Science and Engineering Research in Higher Education focuses on the need for the academic community to accept new, economical methods of producing and making available publications such as peer reviews, research papers, letters, technical and experiment reports, preprints, and conference papers. This volume also emphasizes that scientists and engineers—whether graduate students or professionals—must have access to the latest relevant research in their fields and rely on libraries to provide it. Several chapters in this book examine the problem areas of information technology that will need to be fixed, such as bottlenecks to the flow of information, difficulties using information retrieval systems, and the challenges with archiving electronic journals. Using research and case studies, this book offers strategies for obtaining benefits such as: more efficient and inexpensive ways to access and navigate information more cost-effective means of authentication and quality control new initiative programs in electronic theses and dissertations to assist graduate students increased dissemination and access for conference papers at significantly less cost alternative and more effective approaches for solving underlying problems within the scholarly communication circuit of scientists activities for librarians to help expand utilization of digital technologies at the local level accurate and reliable retrieval of citation data from online sources Using Scholarly Communication in Science and Engineering Research in Higher Education, you can play an important role in improving the means and methods in this area of academics. This important guide will help librarians, science and engineering faculty and students, researchers, and publishers maintain funding, improve efficiency, and offer new methods for scientific studies.

Looking for Information presents examples of information seeking and reviews studies of the information-seeking behavior of both general and specific social and occupational groups: scientists, engineers, social scientists, humanists, policy experts, the aged, the poor, and "the public" in general. It also discusses general research on information seeking, including basic research on human communication behavior as found in the literature of psychology, anthropology, sociology, and other disciplines.

Discussion paper for conference / Martin M. Cummings -- Transactions of the Conference on Communications in Support of Science and Engineering / Eleanor W. Sacks -- Special studies resulting from the conference (The users and uses of scientific information resources : recommendations for study / Helen H. Gee -- Library resources and research productivity in science and engineering : report of a pilot study / Nancy Van House -- (In preparation) A comparison of costs of library and information services in academic and industrial libraries that support science and engineering / David Penniman and Jay Lucker).

Communication Patterns of Engineers brings together, summarizes, and analyzes the research on how engineers communicate, presenting benchmark data and identifying gaps in the existing research. Written by two renowned experts in this area, the text: Compares engineering communication patterns with those of science and medicine Offers information on improving engineering communication skills, including the use of communication tools to address engineering departments' concerns about the inadequacies of communication by engineers Provides strong conclusions to address what lessons engineering educators, librarians, and communication professionals can learn from the research presented

What will future sci-tech libraries be like? Who will be the key players? In this insightful volume, first published in 1992, leaders in sci-tech librarianship reflect on their years in the profession and predict how the sci-tech library will look in ten years. It takes a close look at the revolution in the communication of scientific information and how technology has transformed the process of knowledge delivery and acquisitions. It prepares libraries to react to new channels of scholarly communication that in the future may challenge the viability of the research library. Most importantly, it emphasizes how the rapid pace of change in science, communication, and computers has pushed libraries to aggressively seek to become central to the knowledge formation and transfer process - just to survive. These provocative chapters reveal how sci-tech librarians need to work with scientists and engineers to understand their changing information needs and to participate in the planning and development of new information systems. This book examines all areas of the scientific process that will be affected by change: the way research is conducted, communicated, transferred, stored, and delivered. The changes discussed in this book encompass researchers, librarians, information managers, publishers, and users. Some of the important topics discussed include an in-depth analysis of the information needs of science and engineering and how to best develop the electronic means to meet them; leadership challenges in the future electronic, computer, or virtual library; concern over the quality of information services for scientists delivered by non-scientist librarians; a ten-year prediction for sci-tech librarians and sci-tech publishers; the science library building of the future; the impact of increasingly interdisciplinary scientific research; and the effect of federal policy on sci-tech libraries.

In Deflating Information, Bernd Frohmann draws on recent work in the social studies of science, finding the most significant material in the coordination of research work, the stabilization of matters of fact, and the manufacture of objectivity.