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Dissertation Information for Diane Nahl-Jakobovits

NAME:
- Diane Nahl-Jakobovits
- (Alias) Diane Nahl

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- University of Hawaii (USA) (1993)

ADVISORS:
- Carol Tenopir

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Andrew Arno
- Curtis P. Ho
- Miles Merrill Jackson
- Walter Nunokawa

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: CD-ROM point-of-use instructions for novice searchers: A comparison of user-centered affectively elaborated and system-centered unelaborated text

Abstract: A review of the literature in technical documentation shows that there is a paradigm shift occurring. The emphasis in writing computer manuals is changing from a system-centered focus to a user-centered focus. Affective and cognitive speech acts were extracted from point-of-use instructions written by academic librarians for the H. W. Wilson CD-ROM databases. A taxonomy of affective and cognitive speech acts was constructed, and instructional elaborations based on it were written and added to the original instructions. The affective elaborations consisted of providing orientation, advice, and reassurances to searchers. The two types of instructions were tested with 62 novice searchers from a college population using a two by two factorial ANOVA, with task complexity as the second factor. During one-hour search sessions in the Readers' Guide Abstracts database, 11 dependent variables were assessed using transaction logs and measures designed to assess success, satisfaction, and search style. Results showed that the affectively elaborated instructions were rated more helpful, and searchers were more satisfied with results, but success was not affected. Searchers who expected to succeed were more successful, more satisfied, had faster search times, lower interactivity scores, and reported less frustration during searching than those who reported lower self-confidence as a searcher. Interpretation of results resulted in a theory of the searcher's world in which seven environmental layers are described: information need, indexing language, search mode options, point-of-use instructions, knowledge of commands, search strategies, and motivation or self-confidence. Individual differences in search literacy are attributed to acquired search role types, i.e., self-verbalizations that mimic either positive and effective search models or negative and ineffective ones. It is suggested that writers of point-of-use instructions and other online help facilities for novices use the taxonomic approach as a guide to writing affective elaborations that not only give advice and reassurance, but model positive search literacy role types and self-efficacy as a searcher.


MPACT Scores for Diane Nahl-Jakobovits

A = 0
C = 2
A+C = 2
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2009-06-08 19:23:10

Advisors and Advisees Graph

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Students under Diane Nahl-Jakobovits

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- Joyce Yukawa - University of Hawaii (2005)
- Paolo Maurin - University of Hawaii (2008)