Lian Ruan, Director/Head Librarian, Ph.D. Student of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Illinois Fire Service Institute (IFSI) conducts a study as Principal Investigator, entitled "Information Use and Needs of Field Staff Instructors of Illinois Fire Service Institute." This research study involves 500 field staff instructors throughout the State.

The purpose of this study is to understand the Illinois Fire Service Institute field staff instructors' information needs and uses, and information seeking behavior. Through the study, we hope to conceptualize the type of information environment that would best support your activities and help clarify the IFSI Library's priorities for the development of rich information environments that are responsive to the context of your work.

You are selected and invited to participate in this study because you are currently an IFSI field staff instructor. You will be asked to take about 45 minutes to fill out a library survey. The survey can be completed online or by paper. Consent will be obtained from all those participating, and a thank-you letter will be made to individuals participating in this study and their departments.

Once completed, the survey answers will be stored and secured on a secured server for online surveys and in a locked cabinet in Lian Ruan's IFSI Office.

After completing the surveys, Ruan will code and analyze data, and interpret the findings. She plans to disseminate the context and purpose of the study, its methods, findings, limitations, and conclusions by writing research papers and present research findings at local, regional and national conferences, such as the Annual Conference of the American Library Association (ALA), Annual Conference of inFIRE (the international Fire Information and Reference Exchange, an international fire libraries consortium) and the American Society for Information Science (ASIS) Conference. She also aims to publish the research results in peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of the American Society for Information Science (JASIS). No individual names will be identified in any reports, presentations, and publications.

The data collection stage of the survey will last about seven (7) months from January to August 2007. It will take another at least two months to do data analysis and research presentations and publications.

Confidentiality

Your responses and any other information obtained related to this study will be confidential. None of the questions require participants to provide information that could lead to their personal identification. Survey will be data entered into an online database using codes so no personally identifying information can be linked to that data. Although direct quotes will be used, they will not be identified to any specific individual. Information maintained and reported will be stripped of identifying features and represented anonymously. We will keep all surveys and analysis in a locked cabinet and/or secured server only accessible by the investigator in the office.

Voluntary

Your participation in this research is voluntary. You may skip questions or terminate your participation at any time. Your decision to participate, decline, or withdraw from participation will have no impact on your present or future relations with IFSI and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in any way.

Risks and Benefits

There are no known risks from participation in this study beyond those that exist in normal daily life. Still, as this study investigates the work process and information practice, you may feel uncomfortable discussing aspects of your work and may choose to keep some of your activities private.

Although there may not be immediate direct benefits to you as a participant, you will be providing valuable information about your information needs and uses. You may benefit from this project by becoming more aware of your own information practices and how these practices impact your training and teaching. Moreover, there is the potential to aid in the development of information systems and programs that can enhance the IFSI Library's information services tailored to your information use environment.

Who to Contact

If you have any questions about the project, please contact the project staff at:

Lian Ruan, Director/Head Librarian
GSLIS Ph.D. Student
Illinois Fire Service Institute
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
11 Gerty Drive
Champaign, IL 61820
Tel. 217 265-6107
Fax: 217 244-6790
E-mail: lruan@fsi.uiuc.edu

You may also contact the Institution Research Board (IRB) Office at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for information about the rights of human subjects in UIUC-approved research. You may e-mail irb@uiuc.edu or call 217 333-2670 collect, identifying yourself as a research subject.

I HAVE READ AND UNDERSTOOD THE INFORMATION ABOVE AND CONFIRM THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS ON VOLUNTARINESS

I understand that my participation is entirely voluntary.
I understand that I may refuse to participate or may discontinue participation at any time during the project without penalty.
I understand that I may skip any questions that I don't wish to answer.
I understand that my name will not be connected to the questionnaire ID number in data analysis.
I grant the investigator permission to use excerpts of the survey response and profile survey in reports of this research at professional meetings and in professional publications. The names of participants or institutions will not be revealed.
Your signature indicates that you have read and understood the information provided above and have decided to participate. You may withdraw at any time after signing this form.