Lesson Learned from the Preliminary Stage of Research on

Thai Citizens Information Seeking in the Flood Situation

Assist. Prof. Somsak Sriborisutsakul, PhD

Department of Library Science Faculty of Arts Chulalongkorn !ni"ersity

Outline
#eflection in a one year$path%ay of my o%n research pro&ect' () Selecting my research topic *) #ecognizing some cautions in my research proposal +) Doing a critical re"ie% of + literature e,tensi"ely
(

Thai Citizens Information Seeking in the Flood Situation

SELEC !"# $% RESEARC& OP!C

&E #AR'A#E CA" $ODEL

(actors in (inding !deas to Consider

Systems 2S -eople The *3(( flooding crisis in Thailand

-re"ious .I/ #esearch

1ccupation Social #oles Demographic groups

-ersonal 0,perience
IT Communication -ublic administration 4ental health etc)

Current -ractice
-olicy$related large$ scale studies

1ther Disciplines
Financial support Academic community Facilities etc)

Future -ractice

#esources

!nformation Seeking of (lood )ictims in 'angkok $etro*olitan and its )icinity

5hen obtaining the initial idea for research in +,-+ my in6uiry proposal %as submitted to the !ni"ersitys e,ecuti"e board to get a grant called 7Fund for 8o"ice #esearchers)9

!n my initial *ro*osal .
A sur"ey method %ould be used to collect and analyze data about information seeking of /angkokians suffering from the *3(( flood crisis in terms of' purposes of seeking information sources of sought information contents of sought information obstacles to information seeking utilization of sought information 1riginally I &ust %anted to generate a single/occasion snapshot of flood "ictims information seeking)

hen, ! tried to .
design a research tool i)e) 6uestionnaire to gather sur"ey data by applying Sa"olainen :*33;< s conceptual frame%ork in the conte,t of seeking problem$specific information to this effort) but this frame%ork is aimed especially for making sense of citizens information source preferences rather than their information beha"iors in a specific situation :flooding<)

Sa"olainen #ei&o :*33;<) 7Source preferences in the conte,t of seeking problem$specific information9 !nformation Processing and $anagement == :*33;< *>?)

!sing the garbage can model again to carefully pursue the ideas

RECO#"!0!"# SO$E CA1 !O"S !" $% RESEARC& PROPOSAL

(actors in Selecting !deas to Pursue

Study fundamental issues Focus on rich and deep understanding of a phenomenon Find ne% insights Create 8e% 2alue Fit %ith Current and Future #esearch

#ele"ant theoriesBmodels :-erception Communication Crisis Informatics< .uman /eha"iors 81T @!ST Information Sources

/efore During A After Flood Situation

!t seemed not right if ! 2ould hurry to collect sur3ey data 2ithout kno2ing the true nature of D!SAS ER RESEARC&

Lack of this understanding might lead me to gain unreliable e"idence) 5hyC /ecause D

Some cautions in my research *ro*osal

here 2ere a fe2 as*ects o3erlooked 2hen ! *lanned the research *ro*osal
1. Timescale' .o% come I %ould gather "alid data t%o years later :*3(+< after this %orst flooding happened in *3((C Did the respondents still remember the information they sought at that timeC 2. Phases/stages of a disaster 3. Groups of people in a disaster 4. Psychological factors in disaster conditions 5. Mobility of the residents in the affected area

The disaster ris management cycle

4ho are information seekers in a flood situation5

The aged handicapped %omen children etc) Age Eender 0ducational background Career

Psychology of disaster

Things to do ne,t D

DO!"# A CR! !CAL RE)!E4 O( L! ERA 1RE

he state of the art in the domain of flood/related information seeking

Define the terms e)g) flood risk flood crisis Set criteria for selecting studies 0,amine research design B methodological issues of the pre"ious literature Find out theories used in research on flood$related information seeking 0,plore key constructs B "ariables studied in the literature Eain clear rigorous sub$ topics under the umbrella of my research interest

Perception ! "ommunication ! #uman$%&' (eha)iors

Contact "ia email address'

somsak)srFchula)ac)th &A"6 %O1 (OR %O1R A E" !O"