Talk given at the BOBCATSSS 2015 conference - http://www.bobcatsss2015.com/. Information seeking and searching is a complex cognitive process often used by students for resolving their academic tasks. In order to find relevant literature and sources for those tasks they search the World Wide Web. The purpose of this study is to identify the information problem solving model of students from different fields of science (social sciences vs. technical sciences vs. natural sciences). Also, the goal is to identify the information search techniques and strategies used by students as well as differences in their usage (depending on different subject fields) and obstacles they encounter. The assumption is that the model and search techniques and strategies of students studying natural and technical sciences differ from the model and search techniques and strategies of students studying social sciences. The final purpose of this study is to offer guidelines to library and information professionals for a better library instruction of users based on findings of this study.

1. Information Problem Solving by Students From Different Fields of
Science
Ema Čelebić (ecelebic@ffos.hr)
Vedrana Filić (vfilic@ffos.hr)
Magdalena Kuleš (mkules@ffos.hr)
Under supervision of Kristina Feldvari, Phd teaching/research senior assistant at Department of Information Sciences, Faculty of Humanities and Social
Sciences

2. • Information explosion
• Important role of information specialist
– Brand-Gruwell (2005.)
• process of information seeking and searching literature on the
Internet deserves more detailed discussion and analysis
– Bates (1996.)
Introduction

3. • five strategies: browsing, analytical, empirical, known site and
similarity
– Marchionini (1995.)
• two types of searching: directed searching and browsing
– Rowley and Farrow (2007.)

4. Methodology and research design
• University in Osijek in November 2014.
• Sample:
– Four students, four different fields of science (engineering, chemistry,
information sciences and medicine)
– Four information specialists from coresponding libraries
• Methods used:
– simulated task
– in-depth interview with information specialist
– content analysis

5. Analysis of simulated task
• Search process:
–Engineering student
• The web site of his faculty  faculty library catalog 
Google search engine  Scribd
• Databases: Croatian scientific portal, Hrčak, Project
Gutenberg
–Chemistry student
• The web site of his faculty  Google search engine
• Databases: Springer Link, Pubmed

6. –Student of information sciences
• Public library catalog  national library catalog
• Databases: Hrčak, DOAJ
• Service „Ask a librarian”
–Medicine student
• Google search engine
• Databases: Pubmed/Medline, Perpetuum lab and Ovid

7. Analysis of simulated task: results
• Students rely on Web sites and resources enabled by their faculty
• The most type of searches used were: author search and keyword
search
• Most frequently used search strategies are browsing, similarity search
strategy and berrypicking
• Only technique they used was two Boolean operators (AND, OR)

8. Interview analysis of information specialists: results
Workshops:
• most of academic libraries within the Osijek University have user
education workshops
• workshops take place in computer labs
• workshops are organized in groups or individually
• workshops are offered in English and Croatian language

9. Workshops include:
• tasks shown on concrete examples and later students are given
tasks which they must solve themselves
• information guides
Academic course:
• „Introduction to scientific work“

10. Conclusion
• First assumption
–model and search techniques and strategies of students studying
natural and technical sciences differ from the model and search
techniques and strategies of students studying social science
Rejected

11. • Second assumption
–students of various fields of science have different information
needs considering that certain areas of science are advancing
rapidly (e.g. Medicine and Chemistry) and demand more recent
literature
Rejected

12. • great passivity of students
• students put the emphasis on speed and time spent, and to sideline the very
quality of the source
– 'quick and dirty' search
• students do not engage in the use of advanced techniques and search
strategies
• students do not use any advanced techniques and rely mostly on simply
listing keywords
• recommendation for information specialist

13. Thank you for your attention!
• Any questions?