Reading Analysis
Brenda Dervin’s “Information as a User Construct: The Relevance of
Perceived Information Needs to Synthesis and Interpretation”
Summer Luster
LIS 5053
September 19, 2012
Summer Luster
In “Information as a User Construct: The Relevance of Perceived Information
Needs to Synthesis and Interpretation,” Brenda Dervin identifies the
underutilization of literature and formal information as a problem among
professionals and non-professional alike. Dervin provides information overload and
a lack of coherent, applicable synthesis and interpretation in information systems as
a possible antagonist to literature and formal information underutilization.
Throughout the paper, Dervin discusses the weaknesses of “system centric” or
“controller centric” approaches to information and the advantages of the concept of
an individual and user centric approach to information. She concludes that the
concept of information as a user construct and the relationship between users’
perceived information needs and coherent applicable synthesis and interpretation
products could help information professionals create a communication based
information system that is better able to intersect with its user and their individual
sense making, thus increasing the potential of information services and the
utilization of literature and formal information sources.
Dervin begins by re-examining the problem of underutilization of formal
information sources and discusses that a lack of a user centric approach has led
systems and researchers of this problem to study something they themselves called
information rather than something that users call information. Dervin suggests that
users are not disinterested in information as some studies have concluded, but are
merely defining information differently than information researchers who view
information as an observer construct (Dervin 1983, 158). Information as an
observer construct is treated like a brick. Information is an absolute value as in
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physical sciences where the results of an experiment, under the same variables and
conditions, can be duplicated again and again by different people. In this situation
then, people are treated like empty buckets in which bricks of information can be
thrown (Dervin 1983, 160). Given that information is absolute every person should
draw the same conclusions when information is presented to them. Yet, it is long
accepted that differences in perceptions, ideas, and meanings exist, particularly in
the social sciences (Dervin 1983, 162). Students in the same classroom may be
presented with the same information, but due to their past experiences, their
cognitive functions, and idiosyncrasies, each may form unique perceptions of the
information presented.
To illustrate this point, Dervin gives the example of teachers attending
professional development on the concept of participatory teaching. One teacher has
strong preconceived negative feelings and experience toward participatory
teaching, one has strong preconceived positive feelings and experience toward
participatory teaching, and the other is neutral, having never heard of participatory
teaching before. Even if they all attend the same training presenting the merits of
participatory teaching the three teachers perceptions and resulting actions will
differ. The teacher with negative feelings and experiences toward the idea would
most likely not attempt to practice the participatory methods at all while the teacher
with the positive feelings and positive previous experience might find a refresher of
such methods useful and beneficial and cause her to fully implement participatory
teaching in her classroom. The neutral teacher might try some of the new methods
however, without previous experience using these methods or an understanding of
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how to adapt such methods to better suit her classroom, the methods may or may
not work. The neutral teacher may abandon the participatory methods or may
discuss these methods with the negative teacher who could dissuade her from
participatory teaching, or the positive teacher who could persuade her to try again.
Despite attending the same professional development training and receiving the
same “brick” of information, different results occurred depending upon the teachers’
differing situations and backgrounds (Dervin 1983, 161-162).
Dervin argues that it is not because some empty buckets are actually “a notso-empty bucket with a recalcitrant cover and troublesome holes in the bottom”
(Dervin 1983, 165) that prevents the information bricks from landing and staying in
the empty buckets, but rather because information is a user construct. Each person
is actively involved in making sense of information and their unique situation
shapes the construct of their perception of what information is to them (Dervin
1983, 165). Thus, Dervin creates an alternative view that information is not an
absolute, but rather subject to user perception. “In this view, the empty bucket has
evolved into a thinking, self-controlling human being. And information changes
from brick to clay, moved and shaped in unique ways by each perceiver” (Dervin
1983, 169).
The shaping of information clay by the user is further impacted by space and
time. For information to be used by someone, it must be useful to their sense
making for the time and place that they are presently existing. “The understanding
created for one time or place doesn’t transplant willy-nilly to another” (Dervin 1983,
170). Thus information needs are personalized based on a users’ situation. So,
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Dervin argues that information needs and information seeking behaviors are best
studied and predicted on a situational basis. This is a particularly important
consideration when designing information systems or Dervin’s original solution to
the underutilization of literature and formal information sources, “the design of a
synthesis and interpretation system for educationally relevant research and
development” (Dervin 1983, 173).
Dervin states, “unless messages are constructed in terms that have meaning
in the day-to-day lives of users and potential users, they won’t be used (1983, 176).
The information as user construct approach to the design of information systems
and synthesis and interpretation products and systems allows for communication
between users and systems that leads to a personalization of information based on
the user situation and helps in creating a message that has meaning in the day-today lives of users.
Aside from the strong applications to information system design, Dervin’s
view of information as a user construct and the notion that the user is the raison
d’etre, can also be applied by information professionals to information retrieval
systems and processes; institutional culture, policies, and procedures; and
education and learning processes.
Information retrieval systems like Google have made millions from user
centric designs that allow for fast, convenient, simple keyword searching in plain
language with automatic spell checking. Today, many library information retrieval
systems are still very system centric, requiring users to know exact spelling, and
specific subject headings that might appear in the catalog to get the best search
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results. An information retrieval system that allows for system to user and user to
system communication may make it easier for users to fulfill their information
needs based on their specific situation. A communication based system may also
help lead to a shift in an information institution’s organization culture. A user
centric focus could lead to better customer service, stronger system user
interaction, and better, friendlier policies and procedures. The change in the
information system and culture could ultimately help to positively affect the use,
impact, and the relevancy of the information institution within its community.
Further the concept of information as a user construct is similar to reader’s
response criticism, which is a method for teaching literature to children and young
adult. Dervin’s ideas help form a framework for understanding and implementing
ideas about reader’s response criticism. Reader’s response criticism provides that
literature is written for the reader rather than critics, and that each reader will
make sense of the literature based on their situation. This additional framework is
particularly helpful for school library media specialists who deal directly with
students as well as teachers using this method. School library media specialists
could further apply the framework provided by Dervin and reader’s response
criticism to other school subjects and classes where information is not absolute.
Such methods could be ideal in political science, history, geography, and other
settings. Overall, Dervin’s ideas on user constructed information and information
relevancy open up a vast amount of possibilities that span from technical aspects of
information design to human interaction and learning.
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Reference List
Dervin, Brenda. 1983. “Information as a User Construct: The Relevance of Perceived
Information Needs to Synthesis and Interpretation.” In Knowledge Structure
and Use: Implications for Synthesis and Interpretation, edited by Spencer A.
Ward and Linda J. Reed, 155-183. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
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