Brenda Dervin: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 18:04, 8 November 2025

Brenda Dervin (1938–2022) was a US professor of communications.

Life

Brenda Louise Dervin was born in November 20, 1938 in Beverly, MA. She received her BS degree in journalism and home economics and with a minor in philosophy of religion at Cornell University in 1960, then MA and Ph.D. degrees in communication research from Michigan State University in 1971.

She started her career as a public relations assistant for the American Home Economics Association, 1961 to 1962, then worked as a communication specialist at the Center for customer affairs at the University of Wisconsin from 1963 to 1965. During 1966-1967 she was a teaching assistant for the Department of Business Law and Office Administration at Michigan State University. She eventually became a research associate for the Department of Communications, 1966-1970.

Her appointment at the School of Library and Information Sciences at Syracuse University in 1970 began her lifelong interest in library and information sciences before she moved on to the School of Communication at the University of Washington in 1977. Conversations with Richard Carter helped her to develop what has come to be known as Sense-Making Theory and Methodology. In 1986, she moved to Ohio State University where she chaired the Department of Communication before returning to research and teaching.

She died in Seattle on 31 December 2022.

Contributions

Dervin's main contribution was in developing and popularizing the study of sense-making, especially in the context of communication and library services. Her 1976 article "Strategies for Dealing with Human Information Needs: Information or Communication?" (Journal of Broadcasting, 20(3), 324–333) posited a typology of information as (1) "the innate structure or pattern of reality;...(2) the structures imputed onto reality by people' ...[and] (3) the procedures by which people acquire what they didn't previously know. From those three types, she proposed ten assumptions about information needs regarding objectivity, rationality, coping, contextuality, availability, of everyday life information seeking, or the processes that humans use to become informed. She (1983) described the information gap as the motivator for information seeking. Her work pushed information science to develop more theories of information that focused on information users outside of work contexts (everyday life).

She edited Progress in Communication Sciences for its first 14 years. In 1986 she acted as the first president of the International Communication Association.

Publications

For a list to 1997 see Clark, Kathleen D. (1997). Bibliography of writings of Brenda Dervin. 1997. [1]

"Information needs and uses." With M. S. Nilan. Annual review of information science and technology 21 (1986): 3-33.
"From the mind’s eye of the 'user': The sense-making qualitative-quantitative methodology." In Qualitative Research in Information Management [edited by] Jack D. Glazier, Ronald R. Powell. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1992, pp 61-84.
"Sense-making." With Charles M. Naumer. In: Encyclopedia of library and information sciences. 3rd ed. 2010, pp 4,696-4,707; 4th ed., 2017, pp 4113-4124. A wider survey.
Sense-making methodology reader : selected writings of Brenda Dervin. Cresskill, NJ : Hampton Press, 2003.

Honors

University of Helsinki. Honorary doctorate in the social sciences, 2000.
American Society for Information Science and Technology. Research in Information Science award, 2006.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+[[File:Brenda Dervin.jpg|alt=Brenda Dervin|thumb|<nowiki>Brenda Dervin | Credit </nowiki>[https://www.asist.org/2023/01/06/in-memoriam-brenda-dervin/ ASIS&T]]]
+'''Brenda Dervin''' (1938–2022) was a US professor of communications.
-Brenda Dervin (1938–2022) was a professor of communication at Ohio State University,[1] working in the fields of communication and library and information science. Her research about information seeking and information use led to the development of the sensemaking methodology.[2]
 == Life ==
-Dervin was born in 1938.[3] She received a bachelor's degree in journalism and home economics from Cornell University, with a minor in philosophy of religion, and her M.S. and PhD degrees in communication research from Michigan State University. In 1986 she acted as the first president of the International Communication Association. Dervin reviewed articles and was on editorial boards for communication and library and information science journals.[4]
+'''Brenda Louise Dervin''' was born in November 20, 1938 in Beverly, MA. She received her BS degree in journalism and home economics and with a minor in philosophy of religion at Cornell University in 1960, then MA and Ph.D. degrees in communication research from Michigan State University in 1971.
-She died in Seattle on 31 December 2022.[5][6]
+She started her career as a public relations assistant for the American Home Economics Association, 1961 to 1962, then worked as a communication specialist at the Center for customer affairs at the University of Wisconsin from 1963 to 1965. During 1966-1967 she was a teaching assistant for the Department of Business Law and Office Administration at Michigan State University. She eventually became a research associate for the Department of Communications, 1966-1970.
-== Publications ==
+Her appointment at the School of Library and Information Sciences at Syracuse University in 1970 began her lifelong interest in library and information sciences before she moved on to the School of Communication at the University of Washington in 1977. Conversations with Richard Carter helped her to develop what has come to be known as Sense-Making Theory and Methodology. In 1986, she moved to Ohio State University where she chaired the Department of Communication before returning to research and teaching.
-Dr. Dervins original artwork of the Sense-Making Metaphor
-Dervin, B. (2003a). Audience as listener and learner, teacher and confidante: The sense-making approach. In B. Dervin, L. Foreman-Wernet, & E. Launterbach (Eds.), Sense-making methodology reader: Selected writings of Brenda Dervin (pp. 215–231). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, Inc.
+She died in Seattle on 31 December 2022.
-Dervin, B. (2003b). Information as non-sense; information as sense: The communication technology connection. In B. Dervin, L. Foreman-Wernet, & E. Launterbach (Eds.), Sense-making methodology reader: Selected writings of Brenda Dervin (pp. 293–308). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, Inc.
+== Contributions ==
+Dervin's main contribution was in developing and popularizing the study of sense-making, especially in the context of communication and library services. Her 1976 article "Strategies for Dealing with Human Information Needs: Information or Communication?" (''Journal of Broadcasting'', 20(3), 324–333) posited a typology of information as (1) "the innate structure or pattern of reality;...(2) the structures imputed onto reality by people' ...[and] (3) the procedures by which people acquire what they didn't previously know. From those three types, she proposed ten assumptions about information needs regarding objectivity, rationality, coping, contextuality, availability, of everyday life information seeking, or the processes that humans use to become informed. She (1983) described the information gap as the motivator for information seeking. Her work pushed information science to develop more theories of information that focused on information users outside of work contexts (everyday life).
-== References ==
+She edited ''Progress in Communication Sciences'' for its first 14 years.
-"OSU School of Communication: Dr. Brenda Dervin". Comm.ohio-state.edu. Archived from the original on 2006-09-01. Retrieved 2010-12-07.
+In 1986 she acted as the first president of the International Communication Association.
-Ross, Catherine Sheldrick; Nilsen, Kirsti; Dewdney, Patricia (2003). Conducting the Reference Interview: A How-to-do-it Manual for Librarians. Neal-Schuman. p. 93.
+== Publications ==
+For a list to 1997 see Clark, Kathleen D. (1997). ''Bibliography of writings of Brenda Dervin''. 1997. [https://web.archive.org/web/19970710232837/http://communication.sbs.ohio-state.edu/sense-making/bib/dcmpleat.html]
-"Dervin, Brenda". Retrieved 2024-03-02.
+*"Information needs and uses." With M. S. Nilan. ''Annual review of information science and technology'' 21 (1986): 3-33.
-"Brief Narrative Summarizing Dervin Cv". Communication.sbs.ohio-state.edu. 2007-10-02. Archived from the original on 2010-06-23. Retrieved 2010-06-09.
+*"From the mind’s eye of the 'user': The sense-making qualitative-quantitative methodology." In ''Qualitative Research in Information Management''  [edited by] Jack D. Glazier, Ronald R. Powell. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1992, pp 61-84.
+*"Sense-making." With Charles M. Naumer. In: ''Encyclopedia of library and information sciences''. 3rd ed. 2010, pp 4,696-4,707; 4th ed., 2017, pp 4113-4124. A wider survey.
-"In Memoriam: Brenda Dervin". Retrieved 2024-03-02.
+*''Sense-making methodology reader : selected writings of Brenda Dervin''. Cresskill, NJ : Hampton Press, 2003.
-"In Memoriam: Remembering Professor Brenda L. Dervin". February 15, 2023. Retrieved 2024-03-02.
-Further reading
-Neill, S. D. (1992). The dilemma of the subjective in information organization and retrieval. Dilemmas in the study of information. Westport: Greenwood Press.
-Ross, C. S., Nilsen, K., & Dewdney, P. (2002). Conducting the reference interview. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.
-== External links ==
+== Honors ==
-Sense-Making [archived outdated content]
+*University of Helsinki. Honorary doctorate in the social sciences, 2000.
+*[[ASIST|American Society for Information Science and Technology]]. Research in Information Science award, 2006.
-Sense-Making Methodology Institute: A collection of Dervin’s published papers
+== Further reading ==
+*''Remembering Professor Brenda L. Dervin.'' Ohio State University. School of Communication. February 15, 2023. [https://comm.osu.edu/news/memoriam-remembering-professor-brenda-l.-dervin]
+*"Dervin, Brenda." ''Femicon'' 2025. [https://www.femicom.es/en/investigadoras/dervin-brenda-2/]
+*''Brief Narrative Summarizing Dervin CV''. Oct 2, 2007. [https://web.archive.org/web/20100623041804/http://communication.sbs.ohio-state.edu/sense-making/bib/cvdervinbrief.html]
+*Sense-Making Methodology Institute Website: Dervin's Sense-Making Methodology. Extensive resources. [https://sense-making.org/]
+*Agarwal, N.K. "Making sense of sense-making: Tracing the history and development of Dervin’s Sense-making methodology." In T. Carbo & T.B. Hahn (Eds.). ''International perspectives on the history of information science & technology:  Proceedings of the ASIS&T 2012 Pre-Conference on the History of ASIS&T and Information Science and Technology'', (pp. 61-73). Medford, NJ: Information Today, 2012.
+*Given, L.M., Case, D.O. and Willson, R. (2023). ''Looking for Information'' (''Studies in Information, Vol. 15''), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds.