make room for serendipity: exploring accidental discovery

G E O R G I A C O M O 2 0 1 4 : T R A N S F O R M I N G O U R L I B R A R I E S …TA M M E R A R A C E , M S , M L I S N E W C O L L E G E O F F L O R I D A

O C T O B E R 2 , 2 0 1 4

Make Room for Serendipity:Exploring Accidental

Discovery

Serendipity…

What does it feel like?

Happy, excited, energized

Serendipity…

What does it look like?

Serendipity is…

Mutable, depends on individual perception Accidental, random, unpredictable

(McBirnie, 2008; Hoeflich, 2007; Hoffman, 2005) Elusive (McBirnie, 2008; Foster and Ford, 2003) Positive, exciting, fulfilling

(McBirnie, 2008; Hoeflich, 2007; Hoffman, 2005) Rare but regular occurrence (McBirnie, 2008) Active “happening upon” (McBirnie, 2008) Passive “a happening” (McBirnie, 2008) Fundamental “… to all science, especially the most

creative and important” (Friedel, 2001) ….but also to social sciences and humanities research,

and artistic endeavors (Foster and Ford, 2003)

SERENDIPITY IS “THE OCCURRENCE AND DEVELOPMENT OF EVENTS BY CHANCE IN A HAPPY OR

BENEFICIAL WAY.”OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY, 2013

Definition:

Origin of the term

http://images.library.yale.edu/hwcorrespondence/page.asp?vol=20&page=408&srch=serendipity

Describe your experience…

Use your notecard to describe your experience of serendipity. What was the accident? Why was it fortunate? How did you know? (PS Write neatly…)

When you and your neighbor are done writing, share your serendipitous experience with each other.

Pass your notecard to me…

Role of context

People Temporal FactorsEnvironment

Sun, X., Sharples, S. & Makri, S. (2011). " A user-centred mobile diary study approach to understanding serendipity in information research "Information Research, 16(3) paper 492. [Available at http://InformationR.net/ir/16-3/paper492.html]

Makri and Blandford (2012) propose a framework for serendipity, composed of:

• Unexpectedness• Insight• Value

Each person perceives these elements in their own unique way.

“Serendipity is an inherently subjective phenomenon…what we really need to do is recognize its complexity” (p. 716)

Projects: SerenaAchance encounters in the space of ideas

“The vision of the SerenA project is to transform research processes by proactively creating surprising connection opportunities. We will deliver novel technologies, methods and evaluation techniques for supporting serendipitous interactions in the research arena.” http://www.serena.ac.uk/vision/

Our experiences

What do we note that is common?Are there some people who experience

serendipity more often than others?Can we create environments that make

serendipity more likely to happen?Can we create tools that help us manage our

serendipitous encounters?

Is serendipity important?

Documented as key to important discoveries…Penicillin (by Alexander Fleming; Lightman, 2006,

Gest, 1997) Elephant communication via ultrasound (by

biologist Kay Paine; Hoffman, 2005)Existence of microbes (by tailor Antonie van

Leeuwenhoek; Gest, 1997)

Gest, H. (1997). Serendipity in scientific discovery: A closer look. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 41(1), 21-28; Hoffman, R. (2005). Serendipity, the grace of discovery. Innovation (Abingdon), 5(2), 68-69; Lightman, A. (2006). Wheels of fortune. Science & Spirit, 17(3), 28-33. doi: 10:3200/SSPT.17.3.28-33.

Is serendipity important?

Leads to creative problem-solving, innovation – surprises help us get beyond what we know

Ford, S. (2013). The Dewey Decimal System and innovation goes wrong. January 14, 2013. http://pepperdigitalblog.com/?s=serendipity

Is serendipity important?

Accidental discovery stimulates different views & different connections

Erdelez, S. (1999). Information encountering: It’s more than just bumping into information. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science (Feb/Mar), 25-29.Foster, A. & Ford, N. (2003). Serendipity and information seeking: An empirical study. The Journal of Documentation, 59(3), 321-340. doi: 10.1108/00220410310472518

Is serendipity important?

Accident begets creativitySabelli, H. (2008) Bios theory of innovation. The Innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal, 13(3), article 12. p. 1-13.

Is serendipity important?

Accidental discovery

jumpstarts innovation

New course of action or interpretation Guha, M. (2009). Serendipity versus the superorganism. Journal of Mental Health (Abingdon, England), 18(4), 277-279 Johnson, S. (2010) Where good ideas come from: the natural history of innovation. 2010. Penguin Group, Inc., USAMcBirnie, A. (2008). Seeking serendipity: The paradox of control. Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives, 60(6), 600-618. doi: 10.1108/00012530810924294

New perception of “big picture” Sabelli, H. (2008) Bios theory of innovation. The Innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal, 13(3), article 12. p. 1-13.

…important to student researchers & their teachers

1. Personalizes the search processMental state + experience + found information (Campo and deFigueiredo, 2001; Cosign and Bothma, 2006, Steinerova, 2007).

Recognizing the subjective, emphasizes individual exploration, helping students take ownership. (Kennedy, Cole, and Carter, 1999).

…important to student researchers & their teachers

2. Energizes the searchAccidental discovery creates positive feelings (Erdelez, 1999).

…important to student researchers & their teachers

3. Stimulates creative scholarship

developing new ideas new ways of viewing issues creating pathways confirming particular research paths

(Erdelez, 1999; Foster and Ford, 2003)

…important to student researchers & their teachers

4. Reflects the true process of research.

“…the entire information seeking endeavor is a grand, messy process of inquiry and education, which may be uncontrollable, unpredictable, and quite possibly serendipitous” p. 384George, J. (2005). Socratic inquiry and the pedagogy of reference: Serendipity in information seeking. In ACRL Twelfth National Conference: Navigating the rivers of change ( p. 384-387). Chicago, IL: American Library Association.

Where does serendipity occur?

Brainstorming sessions (Johnson, 2010)Browsing print resources (Nutefall & Ryder, 2010)Browsing electronic resources, such as Online

Public Access Catalogs (OPAC’s; Rice, 1988)Reviewing large pools of citation results (Kennedy,

Cole, & Carter, 1999)Encountering unexpected information (Toms,

2002; Campos & deFigueiredo, 2001)Social connections, including social media

tools

Can we build systems that encourage serendipity?

IIR focuses on support for the subjective aspects of searching.

Beale (2007) Haiku system presents raw data visually by linked data relationships

Beale (2007) Mitsikeru system builds a master table of results for each Internet browsing session based on word frequencies

Cosign & Bothma (2006) describe the need for interactive information retrieval to support the subjective aspects of relevance

Steinerova (2007) recommends that information retrieval systems focus more on “features of ranking, relating, and recommending” (p. 50).

Stevenson, Tuohy, & Norrish (2008) use ISO Topic Map technology support non-linear, flexible exploration

Can we build environments that encourage serendipity?

Identifying and measuring dimensions

McCay-Peet & Toms (2013) identify “enabled connections ,” “introduced the unexpected,” “presented variety,” “triggered divergence,” and “induced curiosity” as elements that support serendipity.

Combining visualization with interaction

Rädle et al. (2012) design a tool to combine virtual collaborative keyword formulation and interactive scatter plot presentation of results for searching online book repositories.

http://aquabrowser.rclreads.org/

Aquabrowser® (Proquest)

Can we teach serendipity?

Emphasizing that research takes time Tolerating large pools of search results and learning to use tools that help analyze Stimulating ventures into other fields Being receptive to connections

Ways to support happy accidents

Schedule time for resource exploration, structured and

unstructured

Ways to support happy accidents

Build searches that step across boundaries (databases across

disciplines, search keywords in different disciplines)

Ways to support happy accidents

Use tools that help to visualize the project and the results and track the search (concept and mind mapping, Topic Maps, visual search options, faceted searching, “bread crumbs”

trails)

Ways to support happy accidents

Create personal journals of databases of key thoughts throughout

the year. Include readings, discussions, quotes

(ex. DEVONthink program, EVERNOTE)

Ways to support happy accidents

Create the “innovation café”…Bring people together. In the classroom (virtual or in situ) provide time for students to

discuss research topics and plans with others who are studying

different topics

Ways to support happy accidents

~5 to 10 minutes~Describe an activity

(can be for yourself or others)How will you make room for

accidental information discovery?~lightning share if time~

Questions?

For full list of references; send an email to trace@ncf.edu

Tammera RaceNatural Sciences LibrarianNew College of Florida5800 Bay Shore RoadSarasota, FL 34234(941) 487-4405