Information behavior

Abstract

IntroductionInformation behavior focuses on people's information needs; on how they seek, manage, give, and use information, both purposefully and passively, in the varied roles that comprise their everyday lives. Since the first ARIST chapters in the 1960s, the field of information needs and uses has expanded beyond studying academics and scientists to addressing non-work-related situations, employing mixed empirical methods, building a conceptual core for framing information behavior studies, and identifying key concepts for future investigation. This chapter reviews information behavior research published since Case's (2006) review, spanning the years 2005 to early 2008 and backpedaling to include several works from 2004. In addition to searching bibliographic databases, manual examinations were conducted of such key journals as further developed through solicitations on the ASIST SIG USE and ASIST listservs, which helped identify works in press. As Case (2006) noted, information behavior is a broad field that in its widest interpretation includes just about any paper that deals with information and people. In order to focus and manage the review, we excluded papers that limited themselves to the use of a particular source or system, did not encompass broader concepts or principles, and generally excluded other information science subfields such as information retrieval, information literacy, and knowledge management. We also excluded material written in languages other than English.Candidate papers were further limited to the formally published literature; we excluded reports to funding agencies and self-published papers. Beginning with an overview of the research methods used in post-2004 studies, this chapter traces the information behavior literature by discussing the theme of context, followed by elaborations of specific populations (academics, scientists, and students; occupational groups; and ordinary people in everyday life situations and health contexts), information sources (interpersonal, social networks and the Internet, and libraries), key concepts (including affect), and finally, theoretical frameworks. Case's (2006) chapter is recommended reading for an overview of past coverage of information behavior in ARIST. The current chapter is intended to complement cognate reviews on activity theory and information seeking (Wilson, 2008), multitasking behavior (Spink, Cole, & Waller, 2008), human geography and information studies (Downey, 2007), personal information management (Jones, 2007), scientific collaboration (Sonnenwald, 2007), context in information behavior research (Courtright, 2007), workplace 7-3 studies and technological change (Garcia, Dawes, Kohne, Miller, & Groschwitz, 2006), collaborative information seeking and retrieval (Foster, 2006), information failures in health care (MacIntosh-Murray & Choo, 2006), the social world of the Web (Haythornthwaite & Hagar, 2005), and children, teenagers, and the Web (Large, 2005). Method in Information Behavior ResearchThe methods used in recent info...

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