Information Behavior of Professional Women Artists, Women Teaching Artists, and Women Art Students in Higher Education Visual Arts Programs
Creators: name: Dawson, Susan
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022

description: <strong>Information Behavior of Professional Women Artists, Women Teaching Artists, and Women Art Students in Higher Education Visual Arts Programs </strong> <strong>Author’s Affiliation</strong> Susan Dawson Information Science and Learning Technologies University of Missouri, U.S.A. <strong>Keywords </strong><br> Information Behaviors; Women Artists; Gender and Diversity <strong>STRUCTURED ABSTRACT</strong> <strong>Aim of the contribution</strong> This study aimed to further the research of artists' information behavior by adding new positional identities of women and gender, hoping that further studies on the complicated intersections of multiple identities of person, place, and profession will continue. Although research on the informational behaviors of artists exists (limited in quantity and scope), published informational behavior studies have revealed that artists, often defined as a large professional group of mostly highly educated people, do indeed have information-seeking needs and related activity behaviors. What has not been studied, however, is the information needs of women artists (students, teachers, and professionals) and whether they differ from men. For instance, do women artists specifically seek information about other women artists of the past or present to use as a basis for their creative work developments? Are their information needs or seeking behavior guided by their gender? Does gender play any role at all? <strong>Value of the contribution</strong> The findings in this study demonstrate that women artists do indeed have information needs and can meet those needs through various sources. As teaching, professional, or student artists, their information behavior is not as dependent on their situational work status as the earlier literature suggests nor are they easily situated in romantic notions of isolated silos. Indeed, their seeking behaviors and informational needs and practices are positioned and met primarily within their Communities of Practice, further underscoring the intersectional dependencies of their artist identities. This study hopes to further the literature and inspire new areas of research in the information behavior of artists, diversity and gender, and Communities of Practice. <strong>Research outline</strong> A qualitative, exploratory narrative study was conducted to generate an initial understanding of the information behavior of women artists. Women artist participants’ interviews took place using live synchronous, electronic meeting software that provided a video and textual transcript of the session, each lasting one to two hours. Although the participants received the interview questions in advance, the participants stated that they did not exactly understand what was asked of them. They were confused by the terms "information behavior" and "information seeking." Although this discipline-specific terminology was verbally defined at the beginning of the interview sessions, the participants remained unsure how these terms applied to them. One participant apologetically remarked, "I admit that I probably didn't like prepare for this like I normally would”. Changing the opening interview question to "Tell me how you became who you are today" proved a substantive choice, leading the study to a new level of inquiry and findings outside the actual information behavior seeking categories anticipated. The original open-ended interview questions - how do artists determine information needs, seek out that information, and how does gender play a role in that professional or personal identity information behavior process- were reviewed with the participants as the sessions began. As the participants told their stories of how they became who they are today, the researcher then inserted information behavior questions- needs, seeking, and use- during the conversational narrative to answer the main research question: What is the information behavior of professional female artists, and female teaching artists and female art students in higher education visual arts programs? As a result, the unexpected participant confusion in terminology led to a different approach of initiating data responses <em>by</em> the researcher and a deeper understanding of the data gathered <em>fo</em>r the research. By using a narrative inquiry approach, desired data is often deeply embedded within the conversation between researcher and participant, often revealing the “untold stories”. As a result, a storied narrative with a beginning, middle, and end is created, enabling the researcher to learn the context and holistic nature of the participants’ lived experiences. Consequently, large chunks of the participants' stories were used in the research report, as the findings, analysis, and discussion overlap and are intrinsically inseparable within the chosen methodology. The detailed data captured the essence of the qualitative narrative methodology employed and advances the proposition that identity formation is a complex intersection of multiple factors as is information behavior. Due to the limited number of participants (to date, only two teaching women artists have participated), the findings in this study are not complete. 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