Humanities Scholars: Information Needs and Uses

Abstract

The literature of the information needs and uses of humanities scholars in universities is reviewed, using, in the main, material published from 1970 onwards. The areas covered include definitions of humanities, the way humanities scholars work and the materials of their research; secondary services; computers and new technology; the role of libraries and library services and comparisons between humanities and other disciplines. The review ends with a brief assessment of the state of the art; an outline of some unanswered questions and some consideration of the future of humanities. The main conclusions drawn are that the literature is piecemeal, at times confusing, and that progress in providing guidelines to librarians on the basis of systematic enquiry is slow.

Uso del Web of Science para el estudio de disciplinas minoritarias en Humanidades: el caso del folclore

“…Junto a esta característica aparecen otras también típicas de las disciplinas de humanidades (Stone, 1982;Watson-Boone, 1994), como que la colaboración sigue siendo inusual o la orientación regional y local de muchos trabajos, lo que suele traducirse en el hecho de que los autores tienden a publicar profusamente en otros idiomas diferentes al inglés. Los valores de obsolescencia son también los habituales en humanidades.…”

Informationswissenschaft und Digital Humanities

“…Um den FachwissenschaftlerInnen im Bereich der Geisteswissenschaften geeignete Werkzeuge und Informationsinfrastrukturen zur Verfügung stellen zu können, ist es wichtig, ihre Ziele und Vorgehensweisen zu begreifen (vgl. etwa Audenaert & Furuta, 2010;Stone, 1982;Toms & O'Brien, 2008). Auch Wilson (2000) argumentiert, dass ein "total view of the information user" schwierig ist und jegliche partielle Blickwinkel genaue Definitionen der jeweiligen Ausschnitte erfordern.…”

A Discipline's Composition: A Citation Analysis of Composition Studies

“…Stone, in her 1982 study of the "information needs and uses" of humanities scholars, found this assumption to be provable. 15 She also discovered that "having retrospective coverage may be more important to the humanist than having access to current material." 16 Watson-Boone updated Stone's study in 1993 and created a composite portrait of the typical humanities scholar, using a combination of meta-analysis and interview techniques.…”