Tour Update - Week 10

Now that Alex and I have done a good bit of background research on our tour topic, we have learned so much about the information needs of this particular population. One of the most important lessons has been that every woman, in every situation, is unique because of the emotions and state of mind that come with this environment; thus her search needs are also unique. This article by Jennifer Dunne was particularly useful because it analyses the needs of battered women at various places in abuse (i.e., the beginning, help seeking, going back/staying out, etc.).

Dunne, J. E. (2002). "Information seeking and use by battered women: A 'person-in-progressive-situations' approach". In Library and Information Science Research, V. 24, p. 343-355.

Dunne uses Allen's person-in-situation model (see citation below) which looks at how people in certain situations, and in various stages of these situations, seek information. Dunne says that the information seeking context here is defined by what she terms 'personal and situational factors' (emotions and state of mind or mental health) as well as the individual woman's response to the situation. Dunne's article basically takes Allen's approach and analyses other articles on the needs of battered women. The author looks at the various stages the abused woman goes through: the need for emotional support, securing help and a plan to escape, securing safety and shelter, and follow-up emotional support. Her conclusions are that the information needs of this group of people changes throughout each of these stages AND is dependent upon the individual's situation and emotional response. For public libraries, Dunne reports that they should serve as an information central, so to speak, for these women. Libraries should have information useful to women in every stage of this situation. They should also coordinate these services with organizations in the community who help battered women: social workers, police officers, lawyers, women's centers, etc.

Citation for the theoretical basis of Dunne's article:

Allen, B. (1996). Information needs: A person-in-situation approach. In P. Vakkari, R. Savolainen, & B. Dervin (Eds.), Information seeking in context: Proceedings of an International Conference on Research in Information Needs, Seeking and Use in Different Contexts (pp. 111-122). Tampere, Finland: Taylor Graham.

The person-in-situation model was used in this article and obviously reflects a situational perspective. However, I think this model directly relates to the Information Use Environments (IUE) because of the situation. What I mean is that these women are in very unique environments, one of abuse, and therefore, their access to not only information, but emotional support and safety may be very limited. Their environment is what forms their situations. Using this model shows the information professional just how unique this particular set of information seekers are, and points out all of the obstacles blocking access to information for this group.