Presentation given by Stuart Macdonald at the IASSIST 2010 Conference, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. 1 - 4 June 2010.

1. CC image by ecstaticist courtesy of Flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/ecstaticist/1337749333/ RIN Disciplinary Case Studies: understanding the information needs of life science researchers Stuart Macdonald Researcher EDINA & Data Library University of Edinburgh [email_address] IASSIST 2010, Cornell University, 2 June 2010

3. CC image by Hurley Gurley courtesy of Flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/hurleygurley/5134027/ Seven case studies were conducted across a diverse range of laboratories and research groups from botany to clinical neuroscience. Deployed a range of quantitative methods and tools designed to ‘enhance understanding of how researchers locate, evaluate, organise, manage, transform and communicate information sources as an integrated part of the research process’. 5-day information diaries (x55) F-2-F interviews, (x24) Cognitive mapping (1 per case) Focus groups (1 per case)

5. Cognitive Maps Adapted from a lifecycle model developed by C. Humphrey (2006) different colours represent different types of activity within an information cycle. CC image by philippeleroyer courtesy of Flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/philippeleroyer/3944665610/

8. CC image by CaptPiper courtesy of Flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/piper/22584430/ ‘ Impressionistic’ taxonomy of case study research data Some form of taxonomic ordering is needed to facilitate a comparative analysis of the diversity of our cases Our findings proposed a simple two-by-two matrix along two dimensions: • Volume of data being handled • Complexity or heterogeneity of that data

12. CC images by enggul courtesy of Flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/enggul/2361808668 / Thanking You! Acknowledgements: Dr. Wendy Marsden (ISSTI / Innogen) Ann Bruce (ISSTI / Innogen) The full report ‘Patterns of information use and exchange: case studies of researchers in the life sciences’ is available at: http://www.rin.ac.uk/case-studies . All images CC Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic or Attribution 2.0 Generic