Department of Information and Records Management Students' Information Search Process Experiences: Misconceptions

The aim of this work is to understand the personal experiences of Department of Information and Records Management (IRM) students engaged in information search processes, to determine whether there are misconceptions about the processes, and if so to find out which misconceptions exist. The research is based on the model of Kuhlthau's six-staged Information Search Process (BAS). The data were obtained using a semi-structured interview technique with 13 Ankara University IRM students using purposeful sampling. The data were analysed using the content analysis method. It was determined that the students had misconceptions related to the BAS's stages of "topic selection", "information collection", "search closure", alongside "determination of research methods" and "research paper" which were classified into the "others" category. This evidence indicates that misconceptions can prevent students from performing effectively and efficiently in their information search processes. The results of this research should make an important contribution to library staff, trainers and information retrieval system designers.