11 Information Science Information Seeking Behaviour: Concept and Methods

Dr Jogindar S Burman

Introduction

Libraries are essential in bridging the gaps that information seekers from various backgrounds may have. They are seen as the gatekeepers of access to knowledge and are liable for disseminating it to fulfil information needs. They can provide the necessary access to all of the information from both within and outside an information seeker’s field. Through the years people of all professions have been searching for information needed for various reasons. In the past, this has been done through books, magazines, journals, conferences and meetings to mention a few sources. The current information environment is rich, characterized by a proliferation of information sources and providers, a multiplicity of methods for accessing information and a redundancy of content from multiple sources. In this “overloaded” information environment, many information users tend to experience a sense of information inadequacy and anxiety. In this complex information environment, insight into information seeking can be gained by understanding – how users seek information sources and how they choose content to meet their needs.

Meaning of Key Terms:

The definitions of key or important terms are given below:

Information: Information comes from in-forming, conforming, forming in our mind, things received externally by impact or stimulus. These have to be given shape and be understood in any form they should appear. It can be any difference you perceive in your environment or within yourself.

Information need: An information need is recognition that [one’s] knowledge is inadequate to satisfy a goal (Case, 2007) or an “uncertainty” (Kuhlthau, 1991). An information need evolves from an awareness of something missing, which necessitates the seeking of information that might contribute to understanding and meaning

Information Behaviour: According to Wilson (2000), “Information Behavior is the totality of human behavior in relation to sources and channels of information, including both active and passive information seeking and information use”.

Information Seeking: Case (2007) “a conscious effort to acquire information in response to a need or gap in your knowledge”. Thus, Information seeking is the process engaged in by humans to change their state of knowledge. It is a high level cognitive process that is part of learning or problem-solving. To seek information implies the need to change the state of one’s knowledge.

Information-Seeking Behaviour: Begins when someone realizes the existence of an information need and ends when that need is believed to have been satisfied. The type of information, people search for is situational in that it depends on a need that is linked to a given time and place. (Krikelas, 1983). The seeker turns to formal and informal sources of information and is ultimately satisfied or dissatisfied with the end result (Wilson, 1999). How information is gathered in personal, academic or work environments and the resources used. http://www.definitions.net/definition/information%20seeking%20behavior.<

Information Searching Behaviour: Information Searching Behaviour is the ‘micro-level’ of behaviour employed by the searcher in interacting with information systems of all kinds. Information Use Behaviour: Information use behaviour consists of the physical and mental acts involved in incorporating the information found into the person’s existing knowledge base.

Background of the Concept

The concept of “information behaviour” was coined in the late 1990s and closely related and often not precisely defined to the concept of user studies, use studies, information-need studies, information transfer studies, communication behaviour studies, information dissemination and utilization studies, user research etc. The term “information seeking research” was used to include all kinds of research on people’s interaction with information. Until 1980s, most of the studies were concerned with system-based rather than user-based and since 1980s, studies shift towards person-centred approach, accompanying by a switch from quantitative methods to qualitative methods. Recently, user studies were more and more a well-defined area in information science. Information seeking behaviour under digital and web environmental attracted more sight. However, some researchers came to feel that “information seeking” suggested only explicit efforts to locate information and did not include the many other ways people and information interacted.

Importance of Information Seeking Behavior

Information seeking behaviour has been a focus of research within the library and information profession. Understanding human information behaviour is a vital component in providing high quality library service. When LIS professionals understand human information-seeking behaviours and preferences, they can transform their services and resources to correspond to these patterns, to better serve users’ information needs. People from all walks of life seek out and utilize information every day. Information regarding studies and research, work, entertainment, health, money matters, family and other topics, is obtained from various sources. Knowledge of reasons and motivation – why people seek information and the types of information they seek in their everyday lives can impact “collection development, reference services, programming, and budget allotment practices” (Agosto and Hughes-Hassell, 2005). Students in navigating their academic and everyday life may face more problems. This has to do with their ability to access the most relevant information when they need it and knowing what information they need to make their decisions in a different culture. Traditionally, lot of orientation programmes tends to be provided from all around the world with different information needs, so catering each person’s need is very difficult (Mori, 2000). Therefore, it would seem that understanding Information Seeking Behaviour is of interest, because it can inform educational institutions how best to provide information to students. More importantly, this could help institutions to understand how to help students to improve and develop their Information Seeking Behaviour and to find the most relevant information as they navigate a new complex environment in a timely manner.

Phases of Information Seeking

An information search can be described as a process (see image below) with different stages. During the process, you will consider and define the problem area, using many different information sources, information-seeking methods and library services (www.helsinki.fi/tvt-ajokortti/english/)

The following list gives more details about the different stages in the process:

Problem/Subject: the information need arises when you need to find information to solve a problem.
Planning the information retrieval: define the information need, select information sources, search methods and search words.
Implementation of information retrieval: execute the planned information retrieval (information-retrieval methods).
Evaluation of search result: evaluate the results of the information retrieval (number of references and their accuracy).
Locating publications: find out where the publication (e.g. an article) is located.
Using and evaluating the information: evaluate the final result (source criticism and research ethics).

7.Methods of Information Seeking Behaviour:

It is important to understand that some methods of information seeking are sought out, or chosen by the seeker. Number of ways, the users’ studies can be conducted to identify what exactly users want from the library. Information user studies over the years have attempted to explain the information behaviour, use phenomena, to understand information use behaviour, to predict this to control and improve the information use by manipulating essential conditions. One of the preliminaries to the attainment of this objective is the description of user behaviour in many aspects (Ford, 1977). There are many user research methods that one can use and there are even more variations and names for them. But regardless of what name they’re given, methods should be chosen that are suitable for the situation at hand. The methods used so far may be broken down into two main categories, i.e. Direct Methods – where the researcher does very much interact with users and Indirect Methods – where the researcher does not actually interact with users.

7.1 Direct Methods

7.1.1 Interview Method:Interviews done with actual users are the mainstay of user research. In this method, the interviewer asks questions when he comes in face to face contact with the other person or persons. You can have a set of questions asked in a particular order called “structured” interviews or you could keep it completely open called “unstructured” in which, there is no fixed order of questions. Interviews are used to collect self-reported experiences, opinions, preferences and behavioural motivations. Interviews are often carried out after a test session to gather user’s opinion, such as the user’s satisfaction with the system and can also be used in interpretative evaluation. This method is more time consuming especially when the sample is large and involved higher costs for selecting, training and supervising interviews.

7.1.2 Observation Method: Observation is one of the important method which enables to study the behaviour of individuals as it occurs. User observation, which is aimed at learning from the direct or indirect observations of users (such as video recording) in the context of real usage by interviewing and observing users at work, while doing their own work. The systematic observation, which can be defined as a particular approach to quantifying behaviour. This approach is typically concerned with naturally occurring behaviour observed in a real context. These methods are most reliable and precise but they are also very expensive.

7.1.3 Focus Group: They are good for idea generation, brainstorming, comparing alternative designs. Focus group, which is a structured discussion about specific topics moderated by atrained group leader. A typical focus group session includes from 8 to 12 people and lasts for two hours. The people are carefully chosen to represent the potential users of the product. If the potential audience is large, several focus group sessions can be performed. Focus groups are excellent ways to probe users’ attitudes, beliefs and desires. They do not provide information about what users actually do. For that reason, they can be used before system implementation, during the requirement analysis phase. Depending on the kind of user involved (e.g. final users or domain experts) they can be utilized to gather functional requirements, data requirements, usability requirements and environmental requirements. Focus groups can also be used in interpretative evaluation. A focus group should be expected to generate a lot of useful information and ideas. It is suited for use at the early stages of design, but can (and should) be used during the whole process.

7.1.4 Scenario-based Design: A method used to describe existing activities or to foresee new activities. A scenario is aimed at illustrating a usage situation by showing the user’s actions step by step. It can be represented by textual descriptions, images, and videos and it can be employed in different design phases. Scenarios are stories which show the future. A scenario moves from the past to the future showing how things work and how people’s behaviour and preferences change. Scenarios help us to look at the technology in a context, and the invention of specific characters for the scenarios keep us connected to a range of users and preferences. A scenario makes us think about many levels of interaction at once including information about the environment, person, and details of screen and input devices as well as other objects and activities happening.

7.2. Indirect Methods

7.2.1 Questionnaires and Survey Method: Technically, questionnaires are self-reported (and thus indirect) whereas surveys are conducted by the researcher (and thus direct contact), but the terms are often used interchangeably. Most user research tends to use the self-reported form, wherein both the questions and the answers are fixed. Through this method, we study large and small population by selecting and studying samples chosen from the defined population. Questions in a questionnaire can be either open ended or closed ended. In a closed ended question, respondents are offered a set of answers from which they are asked to choose the one that most closely represents their views. In case of open ended questions, it is not followed by any kind of specified choice and the respondents answers are recorded in full. The closed-ended questions are easy to ask and can be quickly answered by the respondent. One major disadvantage of this method is that it may introduce bias either by forcing the respondent to choose from given alternatives.

7.2.2 Diary Method: In this method, individuals understudy are asked to keep a detailed record of particular information activities e.g. searching for information, actual reading, discussing with colleagues, library use, etc. for a given period of time. To facilitate the work of recording and the final analysis of data, diary forms are supplied to the users for different activities. It is quite evident that in this method, maximum effort is involved on the part of the users. Diaries provide a firsthand account of the individual’s life experiences. Many a times the respondents do not record the information item consistently needed in their day to day work and can be effective when the population under surveys is necessarily very small. The diary also gives people more time to think about what they feel is important and relate it to the project team. As a diary study explicitly encourages people to look at and think about their lives, it renders them sensitive to the issues-in their own context- that may be of relevance for a design project. In fact, diaries are a good means for preparing users for project-related interviews.

7.2.3 Citation Analysis: This method entails the analysis of the bibliographical references that are usually appended with every research communication. Analysis of such citations can reveal useful information like the relative use of different kinds of documents such as books, periodicals, reports, patents etc., the age of these documents which reveal the rate of obsolescence of literature, the most frequently used titles of periodicals, scattering of literature, language preference etc. within different scientific communities according to subjects, nationality, etc. This type of information can be utilized for acquisition of materials, selection of periodical titles and judicious distribution of library funds and so on.

7.2.4 Analysis of Library Record: Various types of library records have been used by librarians for a long time. Records of reference questions and literature searches can give librarians insight into the operations of a library, use of various types of documents, number of documents used per question, number of facets can be utilized in the design and improvement of library services. Similarly, circulation records can be analyzed to determine the activity of a library as well as to determine the reading habits of library users. A closely related method is the analysis of the personal indexes used by the researchers.

7.2.5 Repertory Grid Analysis: George A. Kelly developed the Repertory Grid Technique (originally The Rep Test) is a very useful method from the field of psychology that can be used to uncover customers’ perceptions of products and services and to identify their hidden needs. Customers are asked multiple times to compare and contrast random sets of three products or services which they are familiar with. Each set of three products is presented to them with the same question which is “In your experience, how are two of these products similar to each other and different from the third?” This forces interviewees to think deeply and articulate their views on products or services. The Repertory Grid is an instrument designed to capture the dimensions and structure of personal meaning. Its aim is to describe the ways in which people give meaning to their experience in their own terms. It is not so much a test in the conventional sense of the word as a structured interview designed to make those constructs with which persons organize their world more explicit.

The way in which we get to know and interpret our milieu, our understanding of ourselves and others, is guided by an implicit theory which is the result of conclusions drawn from our experiences. The repertory grid, in its many forms, is a method used to explore the structure and content of these implicit theories/personal meanings through which we perceive and act in our day-to-day existence. For example, Priyanshu may construe Hemu and Ankur as “nice” as opposed to Vipin whom he sees as “distant.” The “nice-distant” dimension enables Priyanshu to distinguish between these three people and to give meaning to his experiences with them, not only to interpret their past behaviour but also to predict future possibilities for action in relation to them. The advantages of repertory grid technique are the ability to determine the relationship between constructs, ease of use and the absence of researcher bias (Boyle, 2005).

7.2.6 Delphi Method: The name “Delphi” was developed by Project RAND during the 1950-1960s (1959) by Olaf Helmet, Norman Dalkey, and Nicholas Rescher. Delphi defined as, “an organized method” for collecting views and information pertaining to a specific area that allows dialogue between geographically separated experts while serving an effective means for learning, gathering a group of experts to forecast events and assess complex issues, collective human intelligence. A process of exploring, assessing and evaluating. It is a structured communication technique, originally developed as a systematic, interactive forecasting method which relies on a panel of experts. The experts answer questionnaires in two or more rounds. After each round, a facilitator provides an anonymous summary of the experts’ forecasts from the previous round as well as the reasons they provided for their judgments. Thus, experts are encouraged to revise their earlier answers in light of the replies of other members of their panel. It is believed that during this process the range of the answers will decrease and the group will converge towards the “correct” answer. Finally, the process is stopped after a pre-defined stop criterion (e.g. number of rounds, achievement of consensus and stability of results) and the mean or median scores of the final rounds determine the results.

7.2.7 Computer – Feedback: With the availability and use of computerized information services this technique is now available. Essentially, this method makes use of records obtained as by-products of a computer search. Usually, the technique is used to generate clues for the improvement of search strategies within the limited context of individual computerized systems.

7.2.8 Wikis, blogs and discussion forums: The general idea of wikis, blogs and discussion forums is that anyone having an Internet connection can contribute by posting or editing information, which has already been posted. In this sense, these technologies gather user opinions, experiences and practices of users from all over the world. For this reason, wikis, blogs and discussion forums may be a bountiful source for user requirements or user experience with a particular product or service. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites, to power community websites and for note taking. In business, they are used to provide intranet and knowledge management systems. Blogs are usually used to express personal opinions on activities, situations, services and products. Discussion forums are used to exchange information and views on a particular topic. Many wiki communities or discussion forums have limited access or require membership. Others, on the contrary, are “open to everyone”. All these technologies relying on remote user participation, user expression and collaborative generation of ideas can be used as a complementary technique for eliciting requirements. However, wikis, blogs and discussion forums should be used having in mind the following limitations:

They may express the point of view of a small number of people controlling the interaction (e.g. webmasters, moderators, etc.);
They provide indirect insight into the users’ experience;
They are focused on opinions, attitudes and views and may provide limited information about user characteristics, tasks and environment.

Specialized discussion forums of technologies for people with disabilities may be very useful to get acquainted with a community and to get feedback on existing products from “real” users. These forums may also be useful to gather and promote ideas about inclusive design and design for all.

Conclusion: The discussion in this paper aimed to contribute to enhanced understanding human information seeking behaviour and presenting the various methods of Information Seeking Behaviour. By gaining the fuller understanding of how users of traditional libraries behave and the reading styles of individuals, the knowledge can be applied to enhance a digital library environment. Librarians, users and systems developers alike must cope with the changing and emerging technological environment to adequately respond to user needs. Librarians and information service providers must be careful to address the information need of information seekers. They must avoid generalizing the need and attempting to fulfill it by providing the information seeker with basic information contained within their library.
1. Summary
In this module an attempt has been made to discuss and explore to contribute to enhanced understanding human information seeking behaviour and presenting the various methods of Information Seeking Behaviour. By gaining the fuller understanding of how users of traditional libraries behave and the reading styles of individuals, the knowledge can be applied to enhance a digital library environment. Librarians, users and systems developers alike must cope with the changing and emerging technological environment to adequately respond to user needs. They must be careful to address the information need of information seekers. They must avoid generalizing the need and attempting to fulfil it by providing the information seeker with basic information contained within their library.
1. References:
Agosto, D. E., and Hughes- Hassell, S. “People, places, and questions: An investigation of the everyday life information-seeking behaviors of urban young adults”. Library & Information Science Research 27, no.2 (2005): 141–63.
Barcellini, F., Deti enne, F., Burkhardt, J.M., and Sack, W. “A socio-cognitive analysis of online design discussions in an Open Source Software community”. Interacting with Computers 20, no.1 (2008): 141-165.
Belkin, Nicholas J. “Anomalous states of knowledge as a basis for information retrieval.” The Canadian Journal of Information Science 5, (1980):133-43.
Case, Donald O. Looking for Information: A Survey of Research on Information Seeking, Needs, and Behavior. 2nd ed. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2007.
Dervin, Brenda. “From the mind’s eye of the user: The sense-making qualitative-quantitative methodology”. In Jack D. Glazier and Ronald R. Powell (Eds.). Qualitative Research in Information Management, 68-70. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1992. 68-70.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_seeking_behavior
Ford, G. Research in user in university libraries. Journal of Documentation 29, (1973):85-106
Guha, B. Documentation and information. Calcutta: World Press, 1983.p.55-64.
http://www.definitions.net/definition/information%20seeking%20behavior
http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Repertory_grid_technique (Accessed on 16.4.2014).
http://liswiki.org/wiki/Information_behavior_theories#T.D._Wilson. (Accessed on 31.03.2014).
Ingwersen, P and Jarvelin, K. The turn: integration of information seeking and retrieval in context. Dordrecht: Springer, 2005
Krikelas, J. “Information seeking behavior: patterns and concepts”. Drexel Library Quarterly 19, (1983): 5-20.
Kuhlthau, Carol C. “A principle of uncertainty for information seeking”. Journal of Documentation 49, no.4 (1993):339-355.
Kuhlthau, Carol C. “Inside the search process: information seeking from the user’s perspective”. Journal of the American Society for Information Science 42, no.5 (1991):361-71.
Kumar, PSG. ed. Towards a theory of information science. Delhi: BR Publishing, 2002.pp.48-68.
Leckie, G.J. and Given, L.M. “Understanding information-seeking: the public library context”. Advances in Librarianship 29 (2005): 1-72.
Mori, S. C. Addressing the Mental Health Concerns of International Students. Journal of Counseling & Development 78 (2000): 137-144.
Prasad, H.N. Information use needs and users. Varanasi: Indian Bibliographic Centres, 1992.
Preez, Madely DU. “Information needs and information-seeking behavior of consulting engineers: a qualitative investigation”. (Master’s Thesis. University of South Africa April 2008).
UNESCO EPICT Module 1. Lesson 3
Wilson, T.D. “Models in information behaviour research”. Journal of Documentation 55, no.3 (1999): 249-70.
Wilson, T.D. “On user studies and information needs”. Journal of Documentation 37, no.1 (1981): 3-15.
www.helsinki.fi/tvt-ajokortti/english/