Transcript Exploration of Academic Information Seeking and Library Use of the Blind and Visually Impaired Students in Croatia Silvana Šehić Sanjica Faletar Tanacković.

Exploration of Academic Information Seeking
and Library Use of the Blind and Visually
Impaired Students in Croatia
Silvana Šehić
Sanjica Faletar Tanacković
Introduction
• 285 million visually impaired persons in the world
(World Health Organization, 2013)
 almost 20 000 in Croatia (0,5% of total population)
• persons with reduced vision face many barriers in their
everyday life and have limited access to postsecondary education
Introduction
• in order to facilitate the social participation of visually
impaired students and improve their educational
experiences, studies are needed to gain deeper
understanding of how they interact with academic
information
 paucity of studies of their information needs and information
seeking behavior (Smale, 1992; Schuyler, 1999; Saumure &
Given, 2004)
Study
• Research questions
 How are blind and visually impaired students accessing and
using academic material?
 What factors enhance/impede their successful information
seeking?
 How can academic libraries better serve the needs of this
specific user group?
Study
• qualitative study conducted in September 2013
 intensive process of population identification and recruitment
of the interviewees
• semi structured interviews with nine visually impaired
students enroled at Croatian universities
• two interviewed in person, seven via Skype
• duration 30 to 90 minutes
Study
• Instrument
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demographic data
educational experience
academic information behavior
academic library use
• Ethical considerations
 respect for dignitiy, autonomy, equality, diversity of participants
 verbal consent
Major findings
• General demographic data
 six blind, and three with reduced vision who cannot read
conventional print
 six female, three male
 all study social sciences and humanities
 from three universities: Osijek, Split, Zagreb
 three undergraduate, six graduate students
 all have GPA above 3,5
 eight live independently
Major findings
• Living with visual impairment
 disability influences their independence and quality of life
 their position in the society depends as much on the
community as on themselves
• important personal characteristics: open, communicative, hardworking, persistent
„We have to be aware that we are creators of our destiny… We have
to do something… and change something” (R2)
Major findings
• Studying with visual impairment
 have to invest more time, effort and finances than sighted
students
 cannot participate in extracurricular activities (e.g.
conferences)
 have to fight prejudices
 perceived as „special”
 always have to ask for special treatment
"Technical problems can always be solved and once you learn how to deal
with them they are no more a problem. But prejudices, misunderstanding
and labeling is something that, in my opinion, is much harder to deal with."
(R1)
Major findings
• Information access and use
 prefer electronic materials
• print materials have to be first transformed into the appropriate
adapted format
 face many challenges in location, access and use of
academic information
• time intensive process
• depend on intermediary
• inaccessible information
– lack of electronic materials
– electronic documents in .pdf, documents scanned as
pictures, hyperlinks in electronic documents , pictures with
embedded text
Major findings
• Information access and use
 put more value on information quality and its reliability than
on the level of effort and time needed to find it (and adapt for
usage)
 very persistent
 fully equal to their sighted peers in relation to information use
"In interpreting the information a blind person can be just as good as,
sometimes even better than the sighted student." (R5)
Major findings
• Information access and use
 importance of interpersonal sources
 adaptive technology facilitates their interaction with
information
• scan print materials
• enlarge text/magnify screen
• translate text into audio forms (screen readers, speech
synthesizers)
– BUT
» adaptive technology is expensive and its use is timeconsuming!
Major findings
• Academic library use
 although librarians treat them with respect students visit
libraries (phyisically or virtually) only if they cannot find the
material in any other way
• for only one interviewee library was always the first choice
 barriers to library use
•
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architectural design
complex procedure to check out books
lack of accessible (electronic) material
lack of adaptive technology in the library
rigid library policies
Conclusion
• study produced valuable insights into the educational
experience and information behavior of visually
impaired students
• students contributed to the formulation of several
recommendations aimed at improving academic
library services for this specific user group
Recommendations for academic
libraries
• pay more attention to the patrons’ handling of library
material
• revise their policies
• provide guidelines for the design of accessible
educational materials
Recommendations for academic
libraries
• acquire adaptive technology and train the staff for its
use
• adapt library materials for visually impaired students
• maintain the repository of adapted material
• collaborate with other academic libraries in the
country and abroad, and NGOs
Thank you!