Human Information Behavior

The Imposed Query

by Melissa Gross

Gross, Melissa. (1995). The imposed query. RQ, 35, 236-243.

This is a copy of my original paper on the imposed query model.  It was published in Reference Quarterly, which was only available in paper at the time.

The acquisition of information in service to or on behalf of someone else is an information-seeking behavior that is... more The acquisition of information in service to or on behalf of someone else is an information-seeking behavior that is already present in the literature of library and information science in an implicit way. This paper seeks to make this process explicit by naming it and providing a model through which its special nature can be discussed. Key features of the model are presented and questions concerning implications for research and practice are examined.

Listening to patients: How understanding health information use can contribute to health literacy constructs

by Maria L. Souden

Beyond information seeking: towards a general model of information behaviour

by Natalya Godbold

Godbold, N. 2006, ‘Beyond information seeking: towards a general model of information behaviour’, Information Research, vol. 11, no. 4. http://informationr.net/ir/11-4/paper269.html

Introduction. The aim of the paper is to propose new models of information behaviour that extend the concept beyond... more Introduction. The aim of the paper is to propose new models of information behaviour that extend the concept beyond simply information seeking to consider other modes of behaviour. The models chiefly explored are those of Wilson and Dervin.
Argument A shortcoming of some models of information behaviour is that they present a sequence of stages where it is evident that actual behaviour is not always sequential. In addition, information behaviour models tend to confine themselves to depictions of information seeking.
Development. A model of 'multi-directionality' is explored, to overcome the notion of sequential stages. Inspired by authors such as Chatman, Krikelas, and Savolainen, modes of information behaviour such as creating, destroying and avoiding information are included.
Conclusion. New models of information behaviour are presented that replace the notion of 'barriers' with the concept of 'gap', as a means of integrating the views of Wilson and Dervin. The proposed models incorporate the notion of multi-directionality and identify ways in which an individual may navigate 'gap' using modes of information behaviour beyond information seeking.

Interaction and the epistemic potential of digital libraries

by Karl Fast

Fast, K. V., & Sedig, K. (2011). Interaction and the epistemic potential of digital libraries. International Journal on Digital Libraries, 11(3), 169-207. Springer Berlin / Heidelberg. doi:10.1007/s00799-011-0066-8

This paper presents a framework of micro-level interactions with visual representations of information in digital... more This paper presents a framework of micro-level interactions with visual representations of information in digital libraries. The framework is comprised of 3 basic interactions—conversing, manipulating, and navigating—and 13 task-based interactions: animating, annotating, chunking, cloning, collecting, composing, cutting, filtering, fragmenting, probing, rearranging, repicturing, and searching. In a typical digital library, the purpose of interaction is to locate and access relevant information. In this framework, the purpose of interaction is to help people create knowledge, develop understanding, solve problems, and acquire insight from the resources in a collection. In other words, interaction can have epistemic benefits and, consequently, it can be used to leverage the epistemic potential of digital libraries.

“I Still Like Google”: University Student Perceptions of Searching OPACs and the Web

by Karl Fast

Fast, K. V., & Campbell, D. G. (2004). "I still like Google": university student perceptions of searching OPACs and the Web. Proceedings of the 67th Annual Meeting of ASIS&T (Vol. 41, pp. 138-146). doi: 10.1002/meet.1450410116.

This paper reports on an exploratory study of how university students perceive and interact with Web search engines... more This paper reports on an exploratory study of how university students perceive and interact with Web search engines compared to Web-based OPACs. A qualitative study was conducted involving sixteen students, eight of whom were first-year undergraduates and eight of whom were graduate students in Library and Information Science. The participants performed searches on Google and on a university OPAC. The interviews and think-afters revealed that while students were aware of the problems inherent in Web searching and of the many ways in which OPACS are more organized, they generally preferred Web searching. The coding of the data suggests that the reason for this preference lies in psychological factors associated with the comparative ease with which search engines can be used, and system and interface factors which made searching the Web much easier and less confusing. As a result of these factors, students were able to approach even the drawbacks of the Web—its clutter of irrelevant pages and the dubious authority of the results—in an enthusiastic and proactive manner, very different from the passive and ineffectual admiration they expressed for the OPAC. The findings suggest that requirements of good OPAC interface design must be aggressively redefined in the face of new, Web-based standards of usability.

A Conceptual Model for Scholarly Research Activity

by Costis Dallas

Cite as: A. Benardou, P. Constantopoulos, D. Gavrilis & C. Dallas, “A conceptual model for scholarly research activity”. In H. Rosenbaum & K.E. Fisher (eds.) iConference 2010 Proceedings, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (2010), 26-32. Available: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/14945

This paper presents a conceptual model for scholarly researchactivity, developed as part of the conceptual modelling... more This paper presents a conceptual model for scholarly researchactivity, developed as part of the conceptual modelling work within the “Preparing DARIAH” European e-Infrastructures project. It is inspired by cultural-historical activity theory, and is expressed in terms of the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model, extending its notion of activity so as to also account, apart from historical practice, for scholarly research planning. It is intended as a framework for structuring and analyzing the results of empirical research on scholarly practice and information requirements, encompassing the full research lifecycle of information work and involving both primary evidence and scholarly objects; also, as a framework for producing clear and pertinent information requirements, and specifications of digital infrastructures, tools and services for scholarly research. We plan to use the model to tag interview transcripts from an empirical study on scholarly information work, and thus validate its soundness and fitness for purpose.

Understanding the Information Requirements of Arts and Humanities Scholarship

by Costis Dallas

Cite as: A. Benardou, P. Constantopoulos, C. Dallas & D. Gavrilis, “Understanding the information requirements of arts and humanities scholarship”. International Journal of Digital Curation 5, no. 1 (2010), 18-33. Available: http://www.ijdc.net/index.php/ijdc/article/viewFile/144/206

This paper reports on research of scholarly research practices and requirements conducted in the context of the... more This paper reports on research of scholarly research practices and requirements conducted in the context of the Preparing DARIAH European e-Infrastructures project, with a view to ensuring current and future fitness for purpose of the planned digital infrastructure, services and tools. It summarises the findings of earlier research, primarily from the field of human information behaviour as applied in scholarly work, it presents a conceptual perspective informed by cultural-historical activity theory, it introduces briefly a formal conceptual model for scholarly research activity compliant with CIDOC CRM, it describes the plan of work and methodology of an empirical research project based on open-questionnaire interviews with arts and humanities researchers, and presents illustrative examples of segmentation, tagging and initial conceptual analysis of the empirical evidence. Finally, it presents plans for future work, consisting, firstly, of a comprehensive re-analysis of interview segments within the framework of the scholarly research activity model, and, secondly, of the integration of this analysis with the extended digital curation process model we presented in earlier work.