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A persona represents a group of target users that share common behavioural characteristics. The personas method, an approach to systems design, has been receiving significant attention from practitioners. However, only anecdotal evidence currently exists for the effectiveness of personas and there have been criticisms about its validity as a scientific approach to research. This paper attempts to demonstrate how incorporating personas may lead to better understand the information needs of humanities scholars. Humanities scholars in an advanced ICT environment in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan are sampled as a case. Previous studies show that the humanities scholars have a significant negative relation with ICT use; they are using it less than scientists and social scientists, and they demonstrate a significantly higher use of library facilities than other academics. There is also a lack of up-to-date international research on the humanities scholars' information needs that takes into account recent rapid increases in the availability of ICT infrastructure, especially the Internet. As such, the objective of this study is to understand the information needs of humanities scholars and the effect of the electronic environment on their information seeking behaviour using personas. This study is conducted within a conceptual framework based on an integration of existing models of information-seeking behaviour, along with additional new elements representing the information context environment, such as languages, decision to seek and format of information resources. The four personas that were uncovered in this study may be able to effectively communicate the actual information needs of the humanities scholars through the personal narrative, name, and face, which continuously will remind the academic library of what their users really want and need from their services. This study also lays the foundation for future research by identifying variables of interest, and building construct validity through the themes of information needs that emerged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore humanities scholars' perceptions and uses of newspapers as an information source, a study was conducted with Croatian researchers and academics in history and linguistic departments at universities and research institutes. This paper presents only a portion of the findings: those from respondents in the field of linguistics. The study began with the general assumption that newspapers are a relevant information source for scientific research in the humanities, but their potential is not fully exploited because of limited access to newspaper collections and search options. An additional assumption was that newspapers are especially important in linguistics research because they reflect the evolution of and changes in a language and provide information on the relations between a language and its socio-political context in a certain place and time. The results partially confirmed these assumptions, showing a clear divide between those who perceive newspapers as an important research source and those who do not. In addition, respondents expressed the need for better technological solutions, but they do not always use those already available to them. The results also show perceptions of the value of and actual use of newspapers; information behavior related to newspapers (e.g., type and format of newspapers used, type of information need in newspapers, motivation for newspaper use, employed search strategies, and approaches to managing information from newspapers); and the challenges researchers face in using newspapers. The results contribute to analyzing the information needs and behavior of a specific newspaper user group, and provide data which can aid in the development of innovative services based on newspaper collections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Scholars have long been interested in the relationship between the amount of consensus in an academic field and the amount of scholarly production. In this paper, I describe previous theory and research that suggest four possible relationships between the amount of scholarly production and the degree of consensus. These relationships are tested with data on the content of 50 sub-debates in the field of bioethics from 1973 to 1995. I find support for the conclusion that increased consensus leads to increased scholarly production. I conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for the humanities in general and bioethics in particular. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]