Breakout Session
Monday, October 28, 11:30-12:30PM

Implementing a Digital Library Study Using Sense-Making

Presented by

Brenda Dervin, Ph.D.
Department of Communication
Ohio State University
3016 Derby Hall
154 N. Oval Mall
Columbus, Ohio 43210
dervin.1@osu.edu
(614) 292-3192
(614) 442-0721 fax

This session was led by Brenda Dervin and ably assisted by Michael Nilan. Participating were Ann Bishop and Michael Twidale.

I was the chief beneficiary of the session. We decided to use the time to help me, as a hapless unreconstructed computer scientist, understand some of the basics of sense-making so as to be able to use the technique in informing the design of elements of digital libraries.

Clearly this is an epic undertaking. We have two different academic cultures trying to find out how to communicate with each other. As a computer scientist I get confused when social scientists start using long words. Essentially what I was asking Brenda to do is something like: "sum up and distill your life's work in half an hour using words of one syllable so that I will not only understand the methods but be able to go off and apply them."

That Brenda was even willing to do this says much. Any credit for my learning and understanding what was said go to her and Michael (and to Ann for interjecting clarifying questions). All failures such as misrepresentations in this document of the rich theory and practice of sense-making are entirely my fault.

Background information to the ideas of sense-making can be found in the material supplied by Brenda at the Allerton web site for Workshop I, which she led. The following extracts give an overview of how a novice to sense-making acquired at least a superficial understanding of how to apply some of the ideas in a crude form. My aim was to learn how I might use sense-making as part of the activity that computer scientists term 'requirements capture'. This is where one attempts to find out what it is that the clients or potential beneficiaries of systems development (or users of research prototypes) want or would find useful. The last two are distinct and important in a research context. We need to learn what would actually prove useful to real people doing real things as opposed to what we think would be good for them. But also, our users are not computer scientists and potentially we could provide really useful functionality that they have not even considered as an option and so can't be expected to ask for.

The following fragments are from my notes of our session. Some of them are the words of wisdom of Brenda and Michael. Others are what I understood them to be saying, which may be quite different. In retrospect, the format I've used makes it look rather like an extract from a holy book: the proverbs of a guru. Maybe that reveals my unconscious feeling about the process of sense-making. That to a computer scientist/engineer, it requires a substantial change of mindset and has serious implications for one's whole view of the world and how to go about doing things. Maybe it does have faint analogies to religious conversion. What I hope is that you can do sense-making and still be an engineer of computer systems and build things that help people to do what they want to do.

The Thoughts of Brenda

You are trying to find out about the nature of what they do.
It is a process of speaking their language.
Of trying to learn how to look at the activities from their perspective.

There is a difficulty of language: people will try to adapt to your language. They will rephrase their responses to what they think you are asking for, or are interested in. So if you start using technical computer-world language too early on, they start looking at their problems in those terms when what you want is for them to describe things to you in their terms (and only LATER as a computer scientist should you look at the issues in computery terms).

A part of the problem is that people are too helpful in adapting their discussion to your needs, interests and language.

So be very careful not to use words, terms etc. that are in your language but not in their normal way of talking about what they do.
Take great care in your questions, responses, use of language etc.
Try to prepare questions in advance.
Ask yourself: "Does this make sense to them in their context." ,p> Things you might say:

"What was the last struggle for you? What would have helped?"

"Think about your last experience of XXX" (whatever it is that they do that you are interested in. For example, 'writing a research paper' for an academic).

"What would have made it easier for you?"

"How would that thing have helped you?"

"When did you last get help from someone else?

How did that help?"

"Do you think it would help you if XXX?"

"What was the most helpful article on XXX you have used?

What did it help you with?"

"What is/was blocking you from where you want to go?"

"If someone else was in a similar situation, what would you say to help them get there?"

"If you had to find this again, what could we call it so that someone else could find it?"

Ask them about struggles solved and not solved:

"What has been your last major struggle?"

"Pretend you had a magic wand. Is there one thing that you would change that would have fixed the problem?"

"What would have helped? How would it have helped?"

Last Updated: Feb. 17, 1997