Everyday information behavior studies individuals' information behaviors based on their everyday experience. To analyse one participant's information behaviors across daily life contexts, we used interviews and observations as primary research methods. Findings demonstrated that one individual's regular behavioral patterns, such as cross‐referencing, information reviewing, and vision driven information seeking, were consistent across contexts. This work also confirmed the potential to conduct information behavior research by closely looking into one individual across different life situations.

This empirical study offers a new theoretical perspective in information behavior research by identifying interrelationships between certain information behaviors. While previous work recognizes the iterative nature of information acquisition, information behavior research has so far been dominated by the identification and conceptual elaboration of discrete behaviors. We introduce the theoretical concept of 'information behavior patterns' to characterize the intricate connectedness of information interaction in an arts and crafts context. A qualitative study comprising naturalistic observation and semi-structured interviews with 20 arts and crafts hobbyists was conducted in two 'browse-first' information environments that support various forms of active and passive information acquisition: Pinterest and a brick-and-mortar crafts store. Findings revealed a variety of information behavior patterns across both environments. We illustrate several of these through in-depth discussions of two specific information acquisition sessions. We visualize observed patterns from these sessions to illustrate the interweaving of active, passive acquisition, and personal goals. Our findings demonstrate the complex interconnectedness of human information behavior, highlighting the importance of going beyond compartmentalizing behaviors into 'buckets' when trying to understand the complex, dynamic and evolving nature of information interaction.

Introduction. We investigate the use of information creation in everyday life, where individuals carry out various commonplace work. While there have been an increasing number of studies on information creation, little research exists on discussing its function and relationship to navigating life activities. Method. To identify the ways information creation facilitates information tasks in the everyday world, we conducted two qualitative studies, each reflecting a particular aspect of our daily lives. We held semi-structured interviews and think-aloud observation in physical grocery stores and on the Pinterest website. A total of twenty-eight participants (eighteen grocery shoppers and ten arts and crafts hobbyists) were recruited for the two studies. Analysis. Transcribed interview data and field notes were analysed inductively. We assigned and refined a series of codes iteratively to identify themes. Results. Findings highlight a variety of circumstances in which participants made use of information creation as an end product to support their ordinary actions (in this case, grocery shopping and idea collecting, respectively). Conclusions. This study gives an in-depth analysis of information creation, underlining its potential functions in efficiently and engagingly aiding the accomplishment of routine activities. We demonstrate the practical and affective value associated with information creation, expanding this concept in information behaviour research.

Online citizen science projects recruit members of the public (volunteers) to contribute to scientific research. Many projects involve volunteers donating processing capacity on their computers to process datasets. Retaining and motivating volunteers is a critical challenge. Existing studies of volunteers identify categories of volunteers, describing the main motivations and contributions of these categories. Based on case studies comprising surveys (n = 2031) and interviews (n = 39) with volunteers in two projects, Einstein@Home and Cosmology@Home, we identify volunteers who do not fit easily into these categories. These volunteers exhibit non‐typical motivations (e.g., getting acknowledgements in scientific publications, and accumulating Gridcoin) or non‐typical contributions (e.g., successfully proposing new lines of work or projects, and conducting and presenting studies of subgroups of volunteers to teams running projects). These volunteers make vital contributions to projects. However, measures taken by project teams based on prior studies of volunteers may be ineffective in retaining and motivating these non‐typical volunteers.

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