Describe the fundamental concepts of information-seeking behaviors and how they should be considered when connecting individuals or groups with accurate, relevant, and appropriate information.

Introduction

At the very core of information science is a fundamental directive to connect people to the resources that they need. Understanding how they seek information and the motivations behind why they seek information will influence the development of library services and more widely affect the storage and arrangement of information in all organizations.

The study of information-seeking behaviors tends to categorize information deficits as information needs. Ordinary people do not consciously define their behaviors in terms of information needs rather the process of information seeking is part of the natural progression to overcoming a challenge. In this day and age characterized by the unbridled proliferation of unfounded rumors, reasons for why people reject and ignore information is of particular concern to the profession.

Explication

Brenda Dervin’s Sense-Making Theory outlines how people recognize their current understanding of a situation as being inadequate for the that they are facing; how they identify the needs and craft the questions that arise from their understanding; and how information drawn from multiple sources bridge the gap to conceive a new understanding.

People often minimize the effort expended in obtaining information and are likely to settle for a satisfactory solution rather than the best solution. This reflects my experience as a library assistant with the Fresno County Public Library where many users conduct what amounts to a general keyword search. They will not stop to specify their search terms as title, author, or subject and will often mix such terms without specification. Due to other demands on their time, patrons will settle for “good enough” and carry on with their day.

People prefer to seek information from friends and family and will use that information over contradictory data supplied by institutional sources such as libraries. The information-seeking process is iterative. Meeting one information need often leads to another need.

Importantly some information seeking is not motivated to overcome a problem but rather is sought for creative reasons or obtained serendipitously. Institutional information systems are slow to meet the evolving needs of the public. Because of the need a more responsive information system and the emphasis on the role of individuals to bridge gaps of understanding, the Dervin’s Sense-Making approach advocates for a user-centric information retrieval system (Savolainen, 2009, p. 1783).

In Elfreda Chatman’s theory of information poverty, people engage in deception as a deliberate attempt to act out a false social reality. Useful information will be ignored because it is not legitimized by “contextual others.” Chatman further develops this idea in her theory: A Life in the Round. Chatman states that “small world inhabitants will ignore information if they perceive that their world is working without it” (Savolainen, 2009, p. 1784). This theory suggests that life in the round adversely affects information seeking in everyday situations. The implication of the theory A Life in the Round is that an ethnographic approach may be most effective in reaching persons who confine themselves within an echo chamber with a narrow range of information sources validating a limited set of beliefs. To reach these marginalized groups, this premise challenges librarians to develop inclusive services. To do so, libraries will have to reexamine institutional attitudes and seek to understand the many different groups that their communities are comprised of. Only then will librarians have an opportunity to craft programs and services to meet the specific needs of marginalized classes. These groups include immigrant communities, which include a high proportion of non-English speakers and English as a second language speakers, the elderly, individuals with special needs, residents in rural areas, veterans, low-income populaces, and the homeless. I have witnessed how the Fresno County Public Library as tried to address some of these needs through the operation of a dedicated library van to conduct Popup libraries at the retirement homes, an AprendoVan that caters to the Hispanic communities, and a traditional book mobile to provide library service to small rural communities.

Carol C. Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process (ISP) model parses the information-seeking process into stages. The ISP model holds that anxiety and a lack of confidence are both comm0n and natural Kuhlthau’s Uncertainty Principle articulates….

Uncertainty is a cognitive state that commonly causes affective symptoms of anxiety and lack of confidence…. As knowledge states shift to more clearly focused thoughts, a parallel shift occurs in feelings of increased confidence. Uncertainty due to a lack of understanding, a gap in meaning, or a limited construct initiates the process of information seeking.

(Savolainen, 2015)

It is crucial that librarians offer encouragement specific directing to specific information resources and referring to alternative avenues of exploration when guiding patrons through their anxiety.

As a library assistant, I have witnessed first-hand that providing encouragement to guiding patrons to resources and offering novel ideas are instrumental in ensuring that patrons’ needs are met.

Should credible, readily assessable resources be available, librarians, through education and promotion, can teach patrons to use these credible resources, but by and large such credible readily available resources are the exception and not the rule.

The vast majority of a population will not pay a subscription to access a resource that they will only use incidentally. Even if they would likely use (and therefore benefit from) such a resource more frequently, it would be difficult to persuade them to purchase a subscription. In this matter, libraries can mitigate the barrier of a paywall by leveraging their buying power to purchase access on behalf of their patrons, but this does not make resources readily assessable.

Generally, web resources provided by any library are disjointed. From my own experience as an employee of the Fresno County Public Library, logging into one resource does not necessarily grant access to other library-provided resources. Even if the authorization from a single login grants access to a group of resources, these library-provided resources may only be accessed through a specific web portal. To be truly accessible, a single universal login should grant access to all library-provided material whether it be retrieved through a library’s discovery tools or surfing the web. While I recognize that such a seamless environment is unlikely to occur, that should not stop libraries from striving to create an environment that is as close to possible to this ideal.

Because libraries are slow to meet the information needs of the public. Opening new channels in which they may engage their patron base can increase their responsiveness. For instance, libraries have had success in implementing reference services through instant messaging (IM) and short message services (SMS).

Evidence

Evidence 1: Child Development Information Community Research Paper

As evidence of my knowledge of the information-seeking behavior of the child development information community, I offer this term paper from my INFO 200 Information Communities class. The submission is titled “Child Development Information Community Research Paper.”

As libraries adapt to the new pressures it is critical that they retain their role as safe places for children and their families. It is critical to acclimate people at a young age to the role of libraries as places to acquire knowledge whether it be fiction or nonfiction, so that they will continue their patronage as independent adults.

In this regard, it is crucial that libraries actively engage with the child development community by keeping abreast of any trends and developments and trends as well as contributing their own knowledge drawn from their experiences to the child development information community.

Evidence 2: Mini Activity 5 Search Strategies

I am including my submission for “Mini Activity 5 Search Strategies” (from INFO 210 Reference and Information Services) as proof of my comprehension of information-seeking behavior within a library setting. This document demonstrates proficiency in EBSCO and Gale databases building complex queries using Boolean logic to generate the desired results. This exercise also had me execute phrasal search and the use of wild cards.

This exercise also had me experiment with free reference tools such as Quora and Google Search and addressed concerns of credibility by evaluating an infographic in accordance with the CRAAP model (currency, relevancy, authority, accuracy, purpose).

Evidence 3: About Travel Blogging [blog]

Travel Blog: https://jasonsuelibrary.wordpress.com/

To attest to my understanding of the behavior of an information community, I submit my blog “About Travel Blogging” from my INFO 200 class where I discuss attributes of the travel blogging information community.

Libraries can take lessons from the travel blogging community when trying to start blogs of their own blogs to engage their surrounding community or to highlight specific programs. The travel blogging community is formed around the need to distribute information on travel destinations to potential tourists and is composed of a group of bloggers and their readers who communicate across posts and comments in a network of blogs connected through hyperlinks. Travel bloggers can be divided into two broad categories as either hobbyists or professionals. Professional blogs appear to adhere to the standard of journalism; some corporate blogs are purely for advertisement, such as the Disney Parks Blog. Information from such blogs should be taken with a grain of salt. Hobbyist travel bloggers tend to be more honest but are required by the FTC Act Section 5 to disclose a material connection such as discounted goods or services or material family relationships. Some travel bloggers are held in higher regard than others. This influences whether a prospective traveler will accept or reject a blogger’s testimony. It should be noted that the community is highly critical of bloggers who receive payments and kickbacks and still present their blogs as unbiased narratives.

Conclusion

People seeking do not frame their deficits in terms of information needs but rather seek information as part of a progression to overcome a dilemma. Some information seeking is not motivated to overcome a problem but rather is sought for creative reasons or obtained serendipitously. When information science professionals examine how marginalized groups seek information, they must shed their preconceived notions and proactively remove barriers to the information acquisition process. For libraries to maintain relevancy in the digital age, they must understand how the residents in their communities seek information and the motivations behind why they seek information. It is certain that the public has been acclimatized to instantaneous fulfillment of their information needs from platforms such as Google, Wikipedia. Regardless of the questionable credibility of the information that these resources may provide, reference librarians cannot afford to ignore the impact that they are having on society and in particular on their patrons. The answers to these questions will shape the future of library services.

References

Savolainen, R. (2009, December 9) Everyday life information seeking. In Encyclopedia of library and information sciences, (3rd ed., pp. 1780–1789). Taylor and Francis. http://dx.doi.org/10.1081/E-ELIS3-120043920

Savolainen, R. (2015) Approaching the affective factors of information seeking: the viewpoint of the information search process model. Information Research: An international Electronic Journal, 20(1). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1060493.pdf

Sue, J. (2021, November 12). About Travel Blogging. https://jasonsuelibrary.wordpress.com/

Walt Disney Company (2021, November 12). Disney Parks Blog. https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/