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Patricia Dewdney

Page history last edited by PBworks 17 years, 4 months ago

Personal

Patricia Dewdney is Associate Professor at the University of Western Ontario in the graduate department of Library and Information Science. She is currently on leave (FIMS Full-Time Faculty, 2006).

 

Education

Dr. Dewdney received her PhD from the University of Western Ontario in 1986. Her dissertation was titled The Effects of Training Reference Librarians in Interview Skills: A Field Experiment (Dewdney, 1986). Dewdney looked at training librarians in communication skills for the reference interview, which included neutral questioning and microskills, and measured the results by satisfaction ratings assigned by library users and ratings of transcriptions by experts. Users reported the highest satisfaction with librarians trained in neutral questioning, though ratings for both groups were high.

An abstract of this dissertation is available here: http://communication.sbs.ohio-state.edu/sense-making/diss/dissabsdewdney86.html

 

Research

Dr. Dewdney’s research has focused primarily on the reference interview. She has focused on training to improve the reference transaction. Her writings have both a theoretical and a practical dimension.

 

Dewdney has been part of the University of Western Ontario’s Library Study Visit program. She, along with colleagues Catherine Sheldrick Ross and, later, Kirsti Nilsen, conducted the three-phase Library Study Visit in which students and researchers at the University of Western Ontario have recorded their experiences of reference transactions. Phase I (1991-1993) involved asking librarians in physical libraries; phase II (1998-2000), comparison of Phase 1 findings to electronic transactions and a study of how electronic resources were used in physical transactions; and Phase III, continues with physical transactions but also looks at virtual reference (Nilsen, 2004).

 

The data from this study have been integral to many of Dewdney’s writings. Further, she has supplemented this data by personally observing and taping many more reference interviews and using it in her writings (Ross, Nilsen & Dewdney, 2002).

 

Professional Accomplishments

On three occasions, Dr. Dewdney has won three Reference Service Press Awards, which honors the best article to appear in Reference and User Services Quarterly in the preceding two volume years. She won for the following articles:

 

1996 Award: "Flying a Light Aircraft: Reference Service Evaluation from a User's Viewpoint," by Patricia Dewdney and Catherine Sheldrick Ross (Dewdney & Ross, 1994)

 

This article looks at ratings by 77 MLIS students based on their experiences with reference librarians. Some common complaints that emerged among users were inability to identify librarians, acceptance of initial user question, unmonitored referrals, and lack of follow-up questions.

Link to full text: http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusapubs/rusq/specialfeatures/rspawardwinning/1996/1996.htm

 

1998 Award: "Oranges and Peaches: Understanding Communication Accidents in the Reference Interview," by Dr. Patrica Dewdney and Dr. Gillian Michell (Dewdney & Michell, 1996)

 

Looking at actual stories of miscommunication in reference transactions, the authors identify types of communication failures, present explanations, and look at them in context. They also present potential ways to avoid or alleviate miscommunication.

Link to full text:

http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusapubs/rusq/specialfeatures/rspawardwinning/19981/1998.htm

 

2000 Award: "Negative Closure: Strategies and Counter-Strategies in the Reference Transaction" Catherine Sheldrick Ross and Patricia Dewdney (Ross & Dewdney, 1998)

 

This article looks at the experiences of 100 MLIS students with reference librarians and specifically at how the reference interview was ended. It looks at how librarians try to end the interview (“negative closure”) and how users persist in order to have their question answered.

Link to full text: http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusapubs/rusq/specialfeatures/rspawardwinning/20001/2000.htm

 

References

 

Dewdney, P. & Michell, G. (1996). Oranges and peaches: understanding communication accidents in the reference interview. RQ, 35, 520–36.

 

Dewdney, P. & Ross, C.S. (1994). Flying a light aircraft: reference service evaluation from a user's viewpoint." RQ, 34, 217–30.

 

Dewdney, P. H. (1986). The effects of training reference librarians in interview skills: A field experiment. Doctoral dissertation, University of Toronto. Advisor, Catherine Ross.

 

FIMS Full-Time Faculty. (2006). Retrieved November 21, 2006 from www.uwo.cahttp://www.fims.uwo.ca/whoswho/FacultyFullTime.htm

 

Nilsen, K. (2004). The Library Visit Study: user experiences at the virtual reference desk. Information Research, 9(2) paper 171 [Available at http://InformationR.net/ir/9-2/paper171.html].

 

Ross, C.S. & Dewdney, P. (1998). Negative closure: strategies and counter-strategies in the reference transaction. RUSQ, 38, 151–63.

 

Ross C.S., Nilsen, K., and Dewdney, P. (2002). Conducting the reference interview: A how-to-do-it manual for librarians. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers.

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