Section Two

2.5 Dervin, B., Nilan, M. (1986). Information Needs and Uses. Annual Review of Information Science Technology, 21, 3-33.

Brenda Dervin and Michel Nilan present the advances of the information science field from 1978 to 1986 by reviewing the available literature. They discover "a certain schizophrenia" (p. 9) as there is a schism in the findings between the classic system-oriented approach and those that branched out into a more comprehensive view of the user. The authors further broke down the differences between the two groups into six different approaches of understanding information needs and seven main paradigm shifts they observed.

I found this reading to be especially useful to have at the beginning of the course. It helped me orient myself with the different things that I will be looking out for in the readings throughout the semester. It not only explained the directions that the field is growing towards, but also the systems approach that defined the field previous to 1978. The layout of the article made it very easy to understand. The headings and short definitions also makes it easily accessible in case I need to call upon it in the future.

While I found this information useful for understanding the literature in the class, I am having trouble placing it into the context of my future librarianship. It paints a picture of paradigm shifts and suggests where the research needs to go, but does not relate specifically to where the literature is now, over two decades later. And while I can use this to appreciate where the field has been, there are different sources of information available now that were not even dreamed of in 1986. In order to make myself a media specialist of the twenty-first century I have to be aware of what the current literature is saying. If there was a follow up article to this containing the same premise, but for the years 1986-2007, I would find it more useful.