Modeling the information behavior of lay mediaries

Abstract

While previous general models of information seeking and behavior do not address proxy information behavior in-depth (e.g., Belkin 1980;Krikelas, 1983;Taylor, 1962;Wilson, 1999), several researchers describe specific types of lay mediary information behaviors. Gross (1995) and Gross and Saxton (2001), for example, studied proxy information seeking in school and public library environments. From this, Gross identified the "imposed query," which distinguished between se lf-generated or internally-motivated and externally-motivated information seeking characterized by the activities of "imposers" and those they impose queries upon (" proxies" or "agents").Erdelez (1997) studied information seeking among undergraduate and graduate students and discovered a behavior she describes as "informati on encountering," which focuses on individuals' ability to unexpectedly discover and sometimes share information found via various channels, including the Web (Erdelez & Rioux, 2000;Rioux, 2000). Rioux developed the concept "information-acquiring-and-sharing" or IA&S

Social types and personas: Typologies of persons on the web and designing for predictable behaviors

“…For many, his work prompted such questions as whether some people feel inclined to act as proxy searchers‐searching for information for others without being asked prior and without a care as to whether the information is actually used. Such was reported by Pettigrew, Durrance & Unruh (2002) on how people use the Internet for everyday situations, by Gross and Saxton (2001) for public libraries, by Abrahamson and Fisher (2006) for online consumer health, and by Erdelez & Rioux (2000) and Heinström (2003) regarding “super‐encounterers” and other personalities on the Web. Other questions address whether some people are very skilled or naturally talented at discerning unexpressed information needs?…”

“…Such was reported by Pettigrew, Durrance & Unruh (2002) on how people use the Internet for everyday situations, by Gross and Saxton (2001) for public libraries, by Abrahamson and Fisher (2006) for online consumer health, and by Erdelez & Rioux (2000) and Heinström (2003) regarding "super-encounterers" and other personalities on the Web. Other questions address whether some people are very skilled or naturally talented at discerning unexpressed information needs?…”