Information seeking behavior

Information seeking behavior refers to the way people search for and utilize information.[1] The term was coined by Thomas D. Wilson in his 1981 paper, on the grounds that the then current 'information needs' was unhelpful as a basis for a research agenda, since 'need' could not be directly observed, while how people behaved in seeking information could be observed and investigated.[2] However, there is increasing work in the information searching field that is relating behaviors to underlying needs.[3]

In 2000, Wilson described information behavior as the totality of human behavior in relation to sources and channels of information, including both active and passive information-seeking, and information use.[4] He described information seeking behavior as purposive seeking of information as a consequence of a need to satisfy some goal. Information seeking behavior is the micro-level of behavior employed by the searcher in interacting with information systems of all kinds, be it between the seeker and the system, or the pure method of creating and following up on a search.

A variety of theories of information behavior – e.g. Zipf's principle of least effort, Brenda Dervin's sensemaking, Elfreda Chatman's life in the round – seek to understand the processes that surround information seeking.[5] The analysis of the most cited publications on information behavior during the first years of this century shows its theoretical nature.[6] Together with some works that have a constructivist focus, using references to Dewey, Kelly, Bruner and Vygotsky,[7] others mention sociological concepts, such as Bourdieu's habitus.[8] Several adopt a constructionist-discursive focus,[9] whereas some, such as Chatman,[10][11] who can in general be described as using an ethnographic perspective, stand out for the quantity and diversity of references to social research.[5] The term 'information behaviour' was also coined by Wilson and occasioned some controversy on its introduction,[12] but now seems to have been adopted, not only by researchers in information science but also in other disciplines.

The digital world is changing human information behavior and process. Focused almost exclusively on information seeking and using, information receiving, a central modality of the process is generally overlooked. As information seeking continues to migrate to the Internet, and artificial intelligence continues to advance the analysis of user behavior on the Internet across a range of user interactions, information receiving moves to the heart of the process, as systems "learn" what users like, want and need, as well as their search habits.[13]

Models

Information search process (ISP)

ISP was proposed and developed by Carol Kuhlthau.

An holistic framework based initially on research into high school students, but extended over time to include a diverse range of people, including those in the workplace. It examined the role of emotions, specifically uncertainty, in the information seeking process, concluding that many searches are abandoned due to an overwhelmingly high level of uncertainty.[14]

ISP is a 6-stage process, with each stage each encompassing 4 aspects;

  • Cognitive (thoughts) – what is to be accomplished
  • Affective (feelings) – what the searcher was feeling
  • Actions (physical) – what the searcher did
  • Strategies (physical) – what the searcher was trying to achieve[14]
StageTaskThoughtsFeelingsActionsStrategies
1Task initiationContemplating assignment, comprehending task, relating prior experience and knowledge, considering possible topicsApprehension of work ahead, uncertaintyTalking with others, browsing libraryBrainstorming, discussing, contemplating possibilities, tolerating uncertainty
2Topic selectionWeighing topics against criteria such as personal interest, project requirements, information available, time available; predicting outcome of possible choices, choosing topic with potential for successConfusion, sometimes anxiety, brief elation (after selection), anticipation of taskConsulting informal mediators, using reference collections, preliminary searchesDiscussing possible topics, predicting outcomes of choices, gaining general overview of topic
3Pre-focus explorationBecoming informed about general topic, seeking focus in general information found, identifying possible foci, inability to express precise information neededConfusion, doubt, sometimes threat, uncertaintyLocating relevant information, reading to become informed, taking notes, making bibliographic citationsReading to learn about topic, tolerating inconsistency and incompatibility of information encountered, intentionally seeking possible focus, listing descriptors
4Focus formationPredicting outcome of possible foci, using stage 2 task criteria, identifying ideas in information to form focus, sometimes characterised by a sudden moment of insightOptimism, confidence of ability to complete taskReading notes for themesMaking a survey of notes, listing possible foci, choosing a focus while rejecting others OR combining several themes to form one focus
5Information collectionSeeking information to support focus, defining and extending focus through information, gathering pertinent information, organising information in notesRealisation of extensive work to be done, confidence in ability to complete task, increased interestUsing library to collect pertinent information, requesting specific sources, taking detailed notes with bibliographic citationsUsing descriptors to search out pertinent information, making comprehensive search of various types of materials i.e. reference, periodicals, non-fiction and biography, using indexes, requesting assistance of librarian
6Search closureIdentify need for any additional information, considering time limit, diminishing relevance, increasing redundancy, exhausting resourcesSense of relief, sometimes satisfaction, sometimes disappointmentRe-checking information for information initially overlooked, confirming information and bibliographic citationsReturning to library to make summary search, keeping books until completion of writing to re-check information

[15]

David Ellis

Investigated the behavior of researchers in the physical and social sciences[16] and engineers and research scientists[17] through semi-structured interviews using a grounded theory approach, with a focus on describing the activities rather than a process.

These initial investigations produced six key activities within the information seeking process:

  • Starting (activities that form the information search)
  • Chaining (backwards or forwards – following references in initial information sources)
  • Browsing (semi-directed search)
  • Differentiating (filtering and selecting sources based on judgement of quality and relevance)
  • Monitoring (keeping track of developments in an area)
  • Extracting (systematic extraction of material of interest from sources)

Later studies by Ellis (focusing on academic researchers in other disciplines) resulted in the addition of two more activities;

  • Verifying (checking accuracy)
  • Ending (a final search, checking all material covered)

Episodic model

The episodic model was developed by Nicholas J. Belkin.

The episodic model is based largely on intuition and insight and concentrates on interactions with information. There are 4 dimensions which characterize search behavior. These dimensions can be combined in 16 different ways.

  • Method of interaction (scanning/searching)
  • Goal of interaction (learning/selecting)
  • Mode of retrieval (recognition/specification)
  • Resource considered (information/meta-information)

Anomalous state of knowledge (ASK)

ASK was also developed by Nicholas J. Belkin.

An anomalous state of knowledge is one in which the searcher recognises a gap in the state of knowledge. This, his further hypothesis, is influential in studying why people start to search.[18]

Wilson's theory of information behavior

Thomas Wilson proposed that information behavior covers all aspects of human information behavior, whether active or passive.

Information Seeking behavior is the act of actively seeking information in order to answer a specific query.

Information Searching behavior is the behavior which stems from the searcher interacting with the system in question. This system could be a technological one, such as the searcher interacting with a search engine, or a manual one, such as the searcher selecting which book is most pertinent to their query.

Information Use behavior pertains to the searcher adopting the knowledge they sought.

Information foraging

Developed by Stuart Card, Ed H. Chi and Peter Pirolli.

This model is derived from anthropological theories and is comparable to foraging for food. Information seekers use clues (or information scents) such as links, summaries and images to estimate how close they are to target information. A scent must be obvious as users often browse aimlessly or look for specific information. Information foraging is descriptive of why and not how people search in particular ways.[19]

Life in the round

Developed by Elfreda Chatman.

She defines life in the round as a world of tolerated approximation. It acknowledges reality at its most routine, predictable enough that unless an initial problem should arise, there is no point in seeking information.[20]

Chatman examined this principle within a small world: a world which imposes on its participants similar concerns and awareness of who is important; which ideas are relevant and whom to trust. Participants in this world are considered insiders.[20]

Chatman focused her study on women at a maximum security prison. She learned that over time, prisoner's private views were assimilated to a communal acceptance of life in the round: a small world perceived in accordance with agreed upon standards and communal perspective. Members who live in the round will not cross the boundaries of their world to seek information unless it is critical; there is a collective expectation that information is relevant; or life lived in the round no longer functions. The world outside prison has secondary importance to inmates who are absent from this reality which is changing with time.[20]

Sensemaking

Brenda Dervin developed the concept of sensemaking. Sensemaking considers how we (attempt to) make sense of uncertain situations.[21] Her description of Sensemaking consisted of the definition of how we interpret information to use for our own information related decisions.

Brenda Dervin described sensemaking as a method through which people make sense of their worlds in their own language.

Principle of least effort

This principle explains that information seekers prioritise the most convenient path to acceptable information.[22]

This compares the internet search methods of experienced information seekers (navigators) and inexperienced information seekers (explorers). Navigators revisit domains; follow sequential searches and have few deviations or regressions within their search patterns and interactions. Explorers visit many domains; submit many questions and their search trails branch frequently.[23]

Information sources: Other people and/or information repositories

Robinson's (2010)[24] research suggests that when seeking information at work, people rely on both other people and information repositories (e.g., documents and databases), and spend similar amounts of time consulting each (7.8% and 6.4% of work time, respectively; 14.2% in total). However, of theoretical interest, the distribution of time among the constituent information seeking stages differs depending on the source. When consulting other people, people spend less time locating the information source and information within that source, similar time understanding the information, and more time problem solving and decision making, than when consulting information repositories. Furthermore, the research found that people spend substantially more time receiving information passively (i.e., information that they have not requested) than actively (i.e., information that they have requested), and this pattern is also reflected when they provide others with information.

Similarities between models

A review of the literature on information seeking behavior shows that information seeking has generally been accepted as dynamic and non-linear (Foster, 2005; Kuhlthau 2006). People experience the information search process as an interplay of thoughts, feelings and actions (Kuhlthau, 2006).

Information seeking has been found to be linked to a variety of interpersonal communication behaviors beyond question-asking, to include strategies such as candidate answers.

A search for information may be linked to decision making. The decision involved may vary from a trivial personal matter to a decision which affects billions or may have cumulative economic or political effects as individual buying or voting decisions may.[25]

Types

Nicolaisen[26] described four distinct types of information seeking behavior: visceral, conscious, formalized and compromised. The visceral need is expressed as the actual information need before it has been expressed. The conscious need is the need once it has been recognized by the seeker. The formalized need is the statement of the need and the compromised need is the query when related to the information system.

JISC's study of the Google Generation[27] detailed six different characteristics of online information seeking behavior;

  • horizontal information seekers
  • navigation
  • viewers
  • squirreling behavior
  • diverse information seekers
  • checking information seekers.

Horizontal information seeking is the method sometimes referred to as "skimming". An information seeker who skims views a couple of pages, then subsequently follows other links without necessarily returning to the initial sites. Navigators, as might be expected, spend their time finding their way around. Wilson found that users of e-book or e-journal sites were most likely spend, on average, a mere four to eight minutes viewing said sites. Squirreling behavior relates to users who download lots of documents but might not necessarily end up reading them. Checking information seekers assess the host in order to ascertain trustworthiness. The bracket of users named diverse information seekers are users whose behavior differs from the above sectors.

Notes

  1. ↑ Fairer–Wessels, 1990, page 361.
  2. ↑ Wilson, T.D. (1981). "On user studies and information needs". Journal of Documentation. 37 (1): 3–15. doi:10.1108/eb026702.
  3. ↑ BJ Jansen, D Booth, B Smith (2009) Using the taxonomy of cognitive learning to model online searching. Information Processing & Management. 45 (6), 643-663.
  4. ↑ Wilson, T.D. (2000). "Human Information Behaviour". Informing Science. 3 (2): 49–55.
  5. 1 2 Case, DO (2012). Looking for information: a survey of research on information seeking, needs and behavior. Emerald. ISBN 9781780526546.
  6. ↑ Gonzalez-Teruel, A; González-Alcaide, G; Barrios, M; Abad-García, MF. (2015). "Mapping recent information behavior research: an analysis of co-authorship and co-citation networks". Scientometrics. 103 (2): 687–705. doi:10.1007/s11192-015-1548-z. hdl:2445/100263.
  7. ↑ Kuhlthau, CC (1993). Seeking Meaning: A process approach to library and information services. Ablex.
  8. ↑ Savolainen, R (1995). "Everyday life information seeking approaching information seeking in the context of "way of life"". Library & Information Science Research. 17 (13): 259–294.
  9. ↑ McKenzie, PJ (2003). "A model of information practices in accounts of everyday-life information seeking". Journal of Documentation. 59 (1): 19–40. doi:10.1108/00220410310457993.
  10. ↑ Chatman, EA (1996). "The impoverished life-world of outsiders". Journal of the American Society for Information Science. 47 (3): 193–206. doi:10.1002/(sici)1097-4571(199603)47:3<193::aid-asi3>3.3.co;2-m.
  11. ↑ Chatman, EA (1999). "A theory of life in the round". Journal of the American Society for Information Science. 50 (3): 207–217. doi:10.1002/(sici)1097-4571(1999)50:3<207::aid-asi3>3.3.co;2-#.
  12. ↑ JESSE, discussion list http://listserv.utk.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9912&L=JESSE&D=0&P=3346
  13. ↑ (1998 October) Giannini, Tula. ASIS Annual Conference, Pittsburgh, PA. "Information Receiving, a Primary Mode of the Information Process.
  14. 1 2 Kuhlthau, Carol. "Carol Kuhlthau". Retrieved 2017-12-05.
  15. ↑ "Kuhlthau's Model of the Stages of the Information Process". Retrieved 2011-03-30.
  16. ↑ Ellis, David; Cox, Deborah, Hall, Katherine (1993). "A COMPARISON OF THE INFORMATION SEEKING PATTERNS OF RESEARCHERS IN THE PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES". Journal of Documentation. 49 (4): 356–369. doi:10.1108/eb026919.
  17. ↑ David, Ellis; Haugan, Merete (1997). "Modelling the information seeking patterns of engineers and research scientists in an industrial environment". Journal of Documentation. 53 (4): 384–403. doi:10.1108/eum0000000007204.
  18. ↑ Belkin, Nicholas J. "Anomalous states of knowledge as a basis for information retrieval". Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science. 5: 133–143.
  19. ↑ Chi, E.H; Pirolli, P; Chen, K; Pitkow, J. "Using information scent to model user information needs and actions and the web". In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 2001: 490–497.
  20. 1 2 3 Chatman, Elfreda (1999). "A theory of life in the round". The Journal of the American Society for Information Science. 50 (3): 207–217. doi:10.1002/(sici)1097-4571(1999)50:3<207::aid-asi3>3.0.co;2-8.
  21. ↑ Klein, G.; Moon, B.; Hoffman, R.F. (2006). "Making sense of sensemaking I: alternative perspectives". IEEE Intelligent Systems. 21 (4): 70–73. doi:10.1109/mis.2006.75.
  22. ↑ Case Donald O. "Principle of least effort,"Theories Of Information Behavior, Karen Fisher ed. p50.
  23. ↑ White, Ryen W and Drucker, Steven M "Investigating behavioural variability in web search," 16th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW 2007)
  24. ↑ Robinson, M. A. (2010). "An empirical analysis of engineers' information behaviors". Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. 61 (4): 640–658. doi:10.1002/asi.21290.
  25. ↑ Case, Donald O. (2002). Looking for information: a survey of research on information seeking, needs and behavior. Academic Press. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-12-369430-0.
  26. ↑ Nicolaisen, J. (2009). "Compromised need and the label effect: An examination of claims and evidence". Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. 60 (10): 2004–2009. doi:10.1002/asi.21129.
  27. ↑ JISC. "The Google Generation".
  • Donald O. Case, Looking for information: a survey of research on information seeking, needs and behavior, Academic Press (2002) 370 pages ISBN 012150381-X
    • Review Information Research
    • 2nd edition (December 26, 2006), hardcover, 440 pages, ISBN 0123694302 ISBN 978-0123694300
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