Many research-based models of information seeking behaviour are limited in their ability to describe everyday life information seeking. Such models tend to focus on active information seeking, to the neglect of less-directed practices. Models are often based on studies of scholars or professionals, and many have been developed using a cognitive approach to model building. This article reports on the development of a research-based model of everyday life information seeking and proposes that a focus on the social concept of information practices is more appropriate to everyday life information seeking than the psychological concept of information behaviour The model is derived from a constructionist discourse analysis of individuals' accounts of everyday life information seeking.T h e E m era ld R es ea rc h R e g ister fo r th is jo u rn a l is a v a ila b le a t http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister T h e c u rren t is su e a n d fu ll tex t a rc h iv e o f th is jo u rn a l is a v a ila b le a t http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
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Health visitors in North Staffordshire, Edinburgh and Lewisham were given the opportunity to participate in a training programme in the detection, treatment and prevention of postnatal depression, based on previously reported successful intervention strategies. They were trained in the use of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), and given information about the value and practice of non-directive counselling and about preventative strategies. Knowledge acquisition was evaluation by self-report questionnaires given before and after training. The health visitors were encouraged to screen postnatal women at three specified times using the EPDS and to offer non-directive counselling to women who obtained high scores. A baseline measure of the incidence of postnatal depression was obtained by asking health visitors to give an EPDS form to all women in their caseload with a 6-month-old baby before training commenced. A comparison of the number of women with high EPDS scores at 6 months postnatally, before and after training, showed that participation in the programme enabled health visitors to positively influence the emotional well-being of postnatal women. These results have implications for the role of health visitors which is currently being challenged, as well as for components of their training and continuing professional development.
Studies of everyday life information seeking have begun to attend to incidental forms of information behavior, and this more inclusive understanding of information seeking within broader social practices invites a constructionist analytical paradigm. Positioning theory is a constructionist framework that has proven useful for studying the ways in which interactional practices contribute to information seeking. Positions can construct individuals or groups of people in ways that have real effects on their information seeking. This article identifies some specific types of discursive positioning and shows how participants in a clinical care setting position themselves and one another in ways that justify different forms of information seeking and giving. Examples are drawn from an ongoing study of information seeking in prenatal midwifery encounters. The data consist of audio recordings of nine prenatal midwifery visits and of 18 follow-up interviews, one with each participating midwife and pregnant woman. The midwifery model of care is based on a relationship in which the midwife provides the pregnant woman with information and support necessary for making informed decisions about her care. Midwife-client interactions are therefore an ideal context for studying information seeking and giving in a clinical encounter. Positioning Theory and Information Seeking in a Clinical Midwifery SettingAs library and information science (LIS) researchers have begun to focus on everyday life information seeking (or ELIS, Savolainen, 1995), they have also begun to attend to forms of information behavior beyond active or purposeful information seeking on the part of the individual. These varieties of information behavior encompass a range of practices which include actively scanning a source to meet a known information need, serendipitously encountering an unexpected source relevant to a future need, or being given information without actively seeking (for a review, see
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