E-Mailed Questionnaire

Today I E-mailed the following Questioner to my client that will help me search for the information they are looking for:

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First of all, what would you like me to find information on for you?

Additionally, could you provide answers to the following questions that will help me in my searching...

Questions About Subject Area:

1.) What kind of information are you looking for? Research Studies,
Reviews, Articles, Statistics, Interviews, etc?

2.) What subject/s does this information request fall under? (ex.
biology, business, psychological)

Questions About User:

1.) How soon do you need the information by? (on or before May 4th?)

2.) If you have conducted any preliminary searches already, what

kinds of searches were they and what did you find?

3.) If you have searched, what terms did you use?

4.) Do you know any prominent researchers/authors in this field or

any specific journals or periodicals you would want to use?

5.) How will you be using the information?

Questions About Sources:

1.) Do you prefer databases over a web search engine? Vice versa? Or
doesn’t matter?

2.) How recent do you want the information to be? Restrictions on
publication year of sources?

3.) How much material do you need- a large amount of material, a few

good articles? Can you give a specific number range? (large and a few
depends on the individual, a range, like between 5-10 or 20-25 is more
defined and lets me know what is expected in return)

4.) Do you want only scholarly articles or can you also make use of
popular articles?

5.) Do you want me to provide you with only the citations, citation

and abstracts, or the full articles?

5.) What format do you want articles and citations?

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Facebook Messages

Below are the messages from our conversation on Facebook about the project, My responses are in Blue, hers are in Purple:

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For my class project.

Remember I told you one of my classes (Principals of Searching) has an assignment related to searching that requires I find a participant outside of family and class?

Well, the time has come to begin that project.

I'm not sure on the particulars yet, but here is a brief summary of what I know:
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The purpose of the project is for the student to act as an intermediary for answering a user’s information need, using various resources, as necessary. The situation should be real-life, i.e. involving a real user with a need, real interactions, and real submitted answers. Students will prepare a presentation to the class about their experience in searching for information during the project.

I can submit the final report in the form of a paper, journal, or blog.

I believe I will be using a blog for its versatility, and perhaps link it to some web pages I make containing tables and charts of information as it is collected during the search. We may also chat via IM and I may save those chats and use them in the report as examples of interaction and provide analysis of them as such.

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The best part about using a blog is that it is easily updated and you may view it as the report develops :)

You will be my "user" that I will be providing the "search services" for.

Let me know soon if your up to this, it should be easy since we see each other online all the time, and we live near each other so obviously communicating wont be a problem (otherwise I may have to ask my brother, ick.)

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If you can, please provide me with your name as you want it to appear in the report, the name of the Masters program you are in and the name of your school.

Include a brief description of the topic you will likely be asking me to search for (really, just a paragraph would be plenty!, the prof just wants and idea of whats brewing)

I need to submit this information to my professor Monday Feb. 23, 2009

Thank you Elyse!

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I'd be glad to help out! You can count me in as Elyse -.-------, and my program is the Masters of Geoscience at Montclair State University.

I would most likely be asking you to look up different geological answers and stuff - limited to but not including potential labs for my students, information on the different suites of rocks I'll be studying, and information on procedures and products/equipment I may be needing in the future relating to my thesis research. I think that's what you're asking - if you need anything more specific, let me know :)

No problemo!

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Thanks for your help,

thats just what i needed,

I'll keep you up to date, and let you know what comes next when i know then next step

Finding A Client

After being told it was not recommended we use a relative or fellow classmate for this assignment, I sought out my friend and a fellow graduate student at Montclair State University. Our initial conversation on Aim went as follows, and while her and my responses are clearly labled, mine will be Blue and hers will be Purple:

Me: elyse, I have a question to ask you.
Her: shoot
Me: Would you be willing to help me with my final project for one of my classes?
Her: sure, what's it about?
Me: Basically I help you, the client, search for information you need to answer an information request/question.
Her: okey!
Me: I'll send you a message on Facebook with some more details, asking you for some more details on subject matter, etc., ok?
Her: sure

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to gain some real life experience searching for information for a Client. Without more then a basic knowledge on the subject, searchers were to ask Clients about the information they needed, why they needed it, how it was going to be used, and etc. This would help searchers seek out and find the materials their Clients needed. Students are to reflect on the interactions with their client and the information seeking outcome.

For this paper the client was as graduate student attending a different college studying under a different subject. The searcher did not have a lot of knowledge on the subject but through communications with the Client they were able to find articles that were relevant, reliable and useful. The subject was:

"The extinction event at the Permo-Triassic (KT) boundary with a focus on articles that mention the physical extinction of life, NOT the meteor impact theory."

Most communication were through e-mail, though instant messaging and blogs were also used. In order to meet their Client's needs the searcher submitted a questioner for them to answer and preformed a preliminary search of both Google Scholar and relevant Rutgers Library Databases. The establishment of a good Searcher-Client relationship enabled constant stream of feedback, inquires, and comments which enabled the Searcher to provide materials that their Client

Project Instructions

Each student shall undertake a term project resulting in a technical report, which is the term paper or a journal or blog, with details to be developed during the semester.

The purpose of the project is for the student to act as an intermediary for answering a user’s information need, using various resources, as necessary.

The situation should be real-life, i.e. involving a real user with a need, real interactions, and real submitted answers.

Students will prepare a presentation to the class about their experience in searching for information during the project.