This page provides information about how information is created, evaluated, and managed as people move through various stages of their academic and professional careers. It describes how information becomes knowledge, and how the value of information is dependent upon local community behaviors and standards. The bottom box contains a diagram that highlights the stages of researchers and their relevant materials.
Let us first recognize that there are many types of information. See our short video describing the Types of Information that you may choose to explore.
The types of information that are important to an individual change depending upon the needs of the particular moment, and the circumstances of the individual and the surrounding community.
Information Lifecycles: Role and Responsibilities
As people move through their academic careers (and even in the Real World) they assume changing roles and have associated responsibilities in terms of information fluency. In addition to using technologies effectively, there is great value in understanding the types of information that exist, the networks that exist to create and transmit this information, and the best tools and techniques to maximize these resources for a particular situation.
Examples of considerations include:
Student – Study skills: develops from from repeating ideas to critical thinking, synthesis, and creating new content. Benefits from building a Knowledge Management portfolio to capture, organize, and retrieve discovered information. Utilize autoalerts for remaining current and for competitive advantage. May use social networking and other information sharing tools.
Graduate Student – In addition to all the skills mentioned above, many graduate students are involved in research, which requires a new set of skills. Considerations include leading research groups, legal liability, documenting operations and discoveries, and publishing results. Many graduate students area also involved in teaching, and must develop skills in the following areas: integrating primary and secondary materials into curriculum, developing learning outcomes, assessment, reader’s advisory, KM portfolio suites for self and the course, and recognizing and addressing plagiarism.
Teaching and Research Faculty - In addition to all the skills mentioned above, many faculty are involved in leading research groups, obtaining grants, addressing legal liability concerns, documenting operations and discoveries, and publishing results. Autoalerts are essential for performing competitive intelligence scans. In addition, many faculty are involved in editing and must develop skills in peer review practices, ethics within priority challenges, current awareness of research fronts, and monitoring Impact Factors for their publications.
Corporate researcher – Similar to research faculty in terms of discovery and current awareness skills, but also requiring a knowledge of internal knowledge sharing tools (SharePoint), patent and intellectual property law, and developing overviews of industry trends and identifying new applications using competitive intelligence techniques.
Editor – Must be able to perform effective historical searches for priority and comprehensive context analysis, and maintain a cohort of experts to evaluate new materials for novelty. Requires the use of an editorial system to accept and track manuscripts and reviewers throughout the process. Must be able to justify decisions about acceptance or rejection. Should be aware of costs associated with publication and stewardship, and advocate for a fair and rapid distribution of articles plus supplementary materials. May be expected to generate a profit, or in other cases promote Open Access methods.
Administrator – Should be able to utilize bibliometric and other analyses tools to determine unit productivity, impact, and Return on Investment). Responsibility for the records management and stewardship of unit products over time.
Association Officer – Responsible for association finances, and stewardship of all produced materials, awareness of current trends, coordinating editors, maintaining websites, providing state-of-the-art networking, promoting standards, training, and advocacy for member interests.
Changing Responsibilities as people assume different Roles in the Information Lifecycle
ASPECTS: Search/Awareness,
Critical Thinking (filtering, expanding using onotologies, synthesis/assessment),
Knowledge Handling and Sharing (pkm, organizational enterprise, crowdsourcing),
Fair Use,
Licensing,
Attribution ...
Editor (validation, credentialing, promoting),
Administrator (RoI, association stewardship, training, advocacy).
ROLE & RESPONSIBILITIES
Searcher
Info types: news, books, magazines, aggregated journal databases, subject indexes, image databases, locally produced databases, data sets, course packets, reading lists, www sources (Google, Google Scholar), mixed media.
Compiler/Knowledge Manager (graduate students)
Info types: news, books, journals, trade magazines, pre-prints, listservs, conference proceedings, grey literature, subject indexes, image databases, locally produced research databases, data sets, lab manuals, www sources (Google), mixed media.
Teacher
Info types: news, books, magazines, trade journals, aggregated journal databases, subject indexes, SIGs, listservs, society materials/memberships, image databases, locally produced databases, data sets, lab manuals, demonstration tools, course packets, reading lists, www sources (Google, Google Scholar), mixed media.
· teach discovery, critical thinking, personal information management, writing (mentor)
· Fair Use rules (purpose, amount, nature <fact v creation>, effect, citations/attribution)
· Public Domain
· Orphan works
· Service learning integration
· Civic engagement elements
Researcher (academic)
Info types: news, books, trade journals, equipment information, subject indexes, SIGs, listservs, society materials/memberships, standards, patents, licenses, grants, DMP requirements compliance, image databases, locally produced research databases, data sets, www sources (Google), mixed media.
Researcher (corporate)
Info types: corporate knowledgebase and rules, competitive intelligence services, news, books, trade journals, equipment information, subject indexes, SIGs, listservs, society materials/memberships, standards, patents, licenses, grants, DMP requirements compliance, image databases, locally produced research databases, data sets, www sources (Google), mixed media.
Administrator
Info types: news, books, magazines, aggregated journal databases, subject indexes, image databases, locally produced databases, data sets, course packets, reading lists, www sources (Google, Google Scholar), mixed media.
Editor
Info types: locally produced editorial tracking databases, news, books, subject indexes, data sets, www sources (Google, Google Scholar), mixed media.
Association Officer
Info types: newsletters, standards, policies and procedures, best practices, web sites, conferences, publications plus supplementary materials, stewardship, locally produced databases, data sets, lobbying/advocacy, www sources (Google), mixed media.
FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Author
Info types: news, books, magazines, aggregated journal databases, subject indexes, image databases, locally produced databases, data sets, course packets, reading lists, www sources (Google, Google Scholar), mixed media.
Resources Lifecycles
Starting resources and potential cycles through other networks:
Social Networks -- news, WWW pages
WWW info: personal, societies/associations (teaching tools, equipment reviews) -- news
Books – news, WWW pages, reviews, professional reviews
Reference tools (dictionaries, encyclopedias)
Videos/Music/Art – news, aggregators, museum catalogs, books
Popular magazines – news, WWW pages
Peer review journals (evidence, theories) -- reference tools, books, news, popular magazines, WWW pages