An author report: Elfreda Annmary Chatman

Abstract

The main aim of this report is to become familiar with Elfreda A. Chatman and her major works and theories. She has contributed information science by producing several theories such as "the theory of information poverty," "the normative behavior theory" and "the theory of life in the round" and implemented many studies about information seeking behavior of ordinary people. Although her major is library and information science, she focused on women in prison, the feminist movement, poor workers and janitors at large universities by using an ethnographic perception. She emphasized their information seeking behaviors in small communities and tried to describe their approach about information poverty. Also, she studied public libraries and the role of mentorship of the library leaders. The findings she found in her studies are useful not only for information science but also other disciplines such as sociology and psychology.

Information Abundance and Deficit

“…24 Chatman's ethnographic approach places significance on both the internal information or network structure of small worlds and the value of access to external information. 25 Her use of ethnographic observation and interviews suggest a commitment to participant perspectives but many of her analyses still take a deficit posture. This paper seeks to reconcile the balance of the deficit and abundance perspective in design, approach, analysis, of Chatman's ethnographic work.…”