Abstract

The University of Sheffield’s new undergraduate study facility, the Information Commons (IC), is staffed by both library and computer service (CiCS) staff. The author of this dissertation worked as a member of library staff in the IC, and uses ethnographic methods to analyse the differences between these two groups.

The theoretical background to ethnography is explained, and the method’s highly interpretive nature and the importance of the author’s place in this type of research is stressed. The holistic and interdependent relationship between the field work, the review of theoretical literature and any discussion of field work in the light of this literature is explained. The few existing ethnographic studies conducted in this area are presented, and ethical or epistemic issues raised by this study are highlighted.

The findings from three days of intensive observation are recorded from a first person perspective. Andrew Abbott’s theory of professional conflict is reviewed, and studies which have applied it to the information professions are explored. The part of the literature of expertise that concerns the dichotomy between the nature of expertise if viewed from a psychological or sociological perspective is then reviewed.

CiCS staff are shown to display considerably greater levels of expertise from both perspectives and various explanations for this are offered. Abbott’s idea of ‘jurisdictional settlement’ is then characterised in the IC as a settlement which involves the subordination of the Library staff by the CiCS staff, but in which there exists considerable recognised interdependence between these groups.

The use of ethnographic methods is then discussed. The various impacts of the time constraints under which this research was conducted, and the various impacts of the structural constraints under which this research was presented, are commented on. When taken as a whole, this study is found to have produced valuable and interesting results.


“…it is only interpretation that goes all the way down to
the most immediate observational level…”
(Clifford Geertz, 1973: 28)