Finding Family Facts in the Digital Age: Family History Research and Production Literacies
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Finding Family Facts in the Digital Age: Family History Research and Production Literacies A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Drexel University by Heather Lynn Willever-Farr in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2017 ii Copyright ©Copyright 2017 Heather L. Willever-Farr. All Rights Reserved. iii Table of Contents COPYRIGHT ............................................................................................................................................... ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................................................... III LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................................... VII TABLE OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................... VIII ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................... IX 1. PROBLEM STATEMENT ................................................................................................................... 1 2. INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEM SPACE ........................................................................... 3 2.1 Family History Research and Production: A Ubiquitous Hobby in the U.S. ............................................... 3 3. PILOT PROJECTS ................................................................................................................................ 9 3.1 Pilot #1-- Analysis of Ancestry.com Message Board ................................................................................. 9 3.2 Pilot #2 -- Production Practices on Ancestry and Find A Grave .............................................................. 14 4. LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................... 30 4.1 Information Behaviors ............................................................................................................................. 32 4.2 User-Centric Studies of Information Behaviors ....................................................................................... 33 iv 4.3 Web-based Information-seeking Models ................................................................................................ 42 4.4 Information Behaviors of Family History Researchers ............................................................................ 51 4.5 Historical and Archival Expertise ............................................................................................................. 61 4.6 Open Collaboration Systems ................................................................................................................... 65 4.7 Social and Collaborative Learning ........................................................................................................... 76 5. METHODS ........................................................................................................................................... 80 5.1 Overall Study Design ............................................................................................................................... 81 5.2 Initial Interviews ...................................................................................................................................... 82 5.3 Survey ...................................................................................................................................................... 93 5.4 Think-Alouds ............................................................................................................................................ 99 5.5 Analysis .................................................................................................................................................. 108 6. FINDINGS ......................................................................................................................................... 112 6.1 Participant Demographics ..................................................................................................................... 113 6.2 Characteristics of the Problem Space/Setting ....................................................................................... 123 6.3 Coping with the Online Family History Research and Production Environment: .................................. 133 Literacies and Strategies ............................................................................................................................. 133 6.4 Other Family History Research and Production Literacies .................................................................... 156 v 6.5 Model of FHRs’ Information Behaviors ................................................................................................. 188 6.6 Exceptions ............................................................................................................................................. 193 7. DESIGN IMPLICATIONS FOR FAMILY HISTORY WEBSITES ........................................ 195 7.1 Situational Learning Support ................................................................................................................. 195 7.3 Other Ways to Support Collaboration ................................................................................................... 198 7.4 Family History Production Tools Are Not Enough ................................................................................. 199 7.5 Design of Related Online Tools ............................................................................................................. 204 8. CONTRIBUTIONS AND DISCUSSION ...................................................................................... 208 8.1 A Better Understanding of the Family History Digital Landscape ......................................................... 208 8.2 Online Information Behaviors of Novice vs. Experienced FHRs ............................................................ 210 8.3 Web-based Publishing and Assessment of User-Contributed Content Literacies ................................. 214 8.4 Comprehensive Model of FHRs’ Information Behaviors ....................................................................... 216 8.5 Literacies Framework ............................................................................................................................ 217 8.6 Design Implications for Family History Information and Publishing Systems ....................................... 224 9. FUTURE RESEARCH GOALS AND CONCLUSION ............................................................... 227 9.1 Future Research Goals ........................................................................................................................... 227 9.2 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 228 vi LIST OF REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................... 231 APPENDIX A: SOLICITATION MESSAGE – INITIAL INTERVIEWS .................................. 253 APPENDIX B: SOLICITATION MESSAGE –THINK-ALOUD STUDY .................................. 255 APPENDIX C: INITIAL SURVEY ON EXPERIENCE LEVEL ................................................... 257 APPENDIX D: FINAL SURVEY ........................................................................................................ 264 APPENDIX E: INTERVIEW GUIDE – INITIAL INTERVIEWS .............................................. 273 APPENDIX F: THINK-ALOUD RESEARCH AND PRODUCTION SCENARIO .................. 277 APPENDIX G: INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR THINK-ALOUD PARTICIPANTS ...................... 279 VITA ........................................................................................................................................................ 281 vii List of Tables Table 1: Askers' and Answerers' Posts ........................................................................................... 11 Table 2: Choo, Detlor, and Turnbull’s model of Behavioral Modes and Moves of Information- seeking on the Web ....................................................................................................................... 44 Table 3: Visual mapping of interview questions and the study’s research questions ................... 85 Table 4: Research Questions and Findings Sections .................................................................... 113 Table 5: Demographics of Initial Interview Participants .............................................................. 119 Table 6: Demographics of Think-Aloud Participants .................................................................... 121 viii Table of Figures Figure 1: Find A Grave Memorial ................................................................................................... 17 Figure 2: Ancestry Family Tree ....................................................................................................... 19 Figure 3: Example of a Code Family Generated with ATLAS.ti .................................................... 110 Figure 4: Race and Gender of Survey Respondents ..................................................................... 114 Figure 5: