Case Study: "Information behaviour of migrant Hispanic farm workers and their families in the Pacific Northwest"

As an add-on to my work surrounding migrant farm workers this week, I also read a 2004 paper on the information seeking habits of migrant populations in the Yakima Valley, written by researchers at the University of Washington Information School. The article introduced the population by stating that immigrants are generally considered to be an "information poor" population, yet overall, little research around their information habits has been conducted. The authors of the study used established Community Technology Centers (CTCs), which I mentioned in my previous post, as a starting point for their research. They completed both field observations and in-depth interviews at the centers and also used CTC testing and intake data.

Sidebar: this paper also gave me a better picture of how the CTCs work in Washington. They are often housed in the same buildings as other organizations already providing services for migrant populations, places that are known to be sources of information on a variety of services; this automatically increases the CTCs' credibility and positive perception within the community. The CTCs detailed in this study each had 25 computers, available for both instructional and personal use, in a lab that was open six days a week. When asked about the benefits of the CTCs, respondents talked about a sense of community, an increase in language and technology confidence, homework help for their children, and the ability to communicate with family in their home countries via email.

The researchers framed their study around the theories of information habits detailed by Harris and Dewdney and Pettigrew's theory of information grounds. Harris and Dewdney claim that information seeking habits are deeply ingrained and that people tend to seek information from easily accessible sources, which are more often interpersonal than institutional. Pettigrew defines informational grounds as "environment[s] temporarily created when people come together for a singular purpose but from whose behavior emerges a social atmosphere that fosters the spontaneous and serendipitous sharing of information." Examples of these kinds of spaces include barber shops, quilting bees, bus stops etc. Further work on information grounds has detailed the importance of drawing on opinion leaders/gatekeepers to facilitate information flow.

In terms of their findings, the researchers detailed a general emphasis on the importance of interpersonal sources, along with the extreme informational influence of Spanish-language radio. Respondents described churches, schools, and workplaces as the most important information grounds; The migrant medical clinic, barber shops and hair salons, a day-care center, and a Pizza Hut were also specifically mentioned as other information sharing locations. Obviously, language was found to be the biggest barrier to information seeking; instead of actively seeking out a translator, many individuals simply wouldn't ask questions, rather waiting until someone helpful came along. One of the greatest information sources for newly arrived immigrants were their family members that had already established themselves in the U.S., along with connections they made in the workplace after they had arrived. Schools were also an important information source, particularly migrant education programs and bilingual teachers who gained the trust of families. As with other immigrant populations, the children of migrant workers often function as a primary information source, which often leads to them also acting as an information barrier to their parents' English-language acquisition.

And now, what can we take away from this study in terms if of library services? Well, the findings of this study reaffirmed some of the material I've come across in my other readings, for example, the importance of children as facilitators for drawing the larger community into the library. Along that same line, forming relationships with local schools can be incredibly valuable. In terms of outreach efforts, it is obvious that libraries must seek out the important information grounds for their desired population, often thinking outside of the box of traditional locations. Once those grounds have been defined, it is then key to discover the individuals who act as informational gatekeepers; in communities that revolve around word-of-mouth communication, their value is paramount. I also think that the CTC model can be a great source of inspiration for libraries serving these communities. With a little work and advocacy, there is no reason these populations should continue to be informationally impoverished!