Seeking Meaning: A Process Approach to Library and Information Services (Information Management, Policy, and Services)

Rating:
Summary: How students do their research
Review: Carol Kuhlthau, in her book, 'Seeking Meaning-a process approach to library and information services', describes clearly her theory about the methods students use when they research a topic.The book, covers step by step, the development of her study and the methods she used to validate her theory.

She details the stages of the search process, emphasizing that the stages are not necessarily linear. Students initially suffer anxiety when faced with an assignment.She claims that at this point of time they need to have an invitational mood which will enable them to cope with the new ideas as they jostle with their own personal world view. Some students then begin to form a focus.For students who find a focus, the search process becomes more directed.At this point the anxiety lessens.The search then moves into the closure phase.

I would recommend this book to any librarian,teacher or student. The book not only clearly shows how research is conducted, it contains effective ways students can deal with each stage of the information process. It also describes, for librarians, ways they can help the different types of researchers, both professional and recreational, they are likely to meet in their libraries.