The bibliographies collected here would reflect the focus group assigned to students at the beginning of the semester. Hence, the emphasis on users from science and technology background; apart from reading list given by the lecturer and general literature about the models of information behaviours such as those propounded by Wilson, Ellis, Dervin and Kuhlthau, to mention the most noted and discussed in the field.
1. Manduca, Cathy A., Ellen R. Iverson, Sean Fox and Flora McMartin. 2005. Influencing user behavior through digital library design: an example from Geosciences, D-Lib Magazine 11, no.5 (May)(accessed January 11, 2008).
This article discussed the effect of Starting Point Digital Library portal design to faculty users that teaches introductory level geoscience. The portal tried to introduce to the faculty members the full range of teaching methods that can be used in classes.
Three techniques or tools that they use to understand user needs and behavior were: (1) techniques of user-centered design that engage users in design and testing (2) research on the work needs and habits of targeted user groups [how faculty learn about teaching, how they make decisions about what they do in class, and how they use the web in preparing for class] and (3) evaluation techniques that use webmetrics to understand use patterns.
Upon evaluation, it showed that the portal design that was built based on the research of user needs and behavior increase the usage of the digital library for the benefit of the users themselves.
2. Bawden, David. 2006. Users, user studies and human information behaviour: a three-decade perspective on Tom Wilson’s “On User Studies and Information Needs”, Journal of Documentation 62, no. 6: 671-679 pp. (accessed January 11, 2008).
This article reviews the seminal article of Tom Wilson titled ‘On User Studies and Information Needs’ published in 1981 in Journal of Documentation. The author concluded that Wilson’s article is important because of its effect in the development of information science.
It dealt with several fundamental issues, including the nature of information itself and of information need, models of information seeking and information behaviour, particularly those based on phenomenological or “whole life” concepts, appropriate research methods for these areas, and the nature of information science as an academic discipline.
3. Wilson, Tom. 1999. Models in information behaviour research, Journal of Documentation 55, no. 3: 249-270 pp. (accessed February 29, 2008).
In this article, Tom Wilson discussed about information behaviour, information seeking behaviour and information searching in the light of information retrieval systems. He discussed the available information behaviour or information seeking behaviour models proposed by Dervin, Kuhlthau, Ellis and himself.
He also discussed information searching models which were related to IR systems such as those formulated by Saracevic, Ingwersen, Belkin and Spink. In some of these models, Wilson suggested improvement and explored its strength and weaknesses.
He then made comparisons between all the models and tried to combine some models into simplified diagram or suggested new diagrammatic approach to it. He differentiate some of the models with his. He found that the models have different unique perspectives in the eyes of their authors.
He put in perspective the connection between information behaviour, information seeking behaviour and information searching behaviour into overlapping areas of study, with information behaviour as the main set and information searching behaviour as the subset in information seeking behaviour which is also a subset in the main.
The article also looked into the connection between human communication behaviour and information behaviour. Wilson suggested information science researchers should venture into this area of studies to built an all-inclusive model.
Towards the end of the article, Wilson proposed another model which he called problem-solving model. This model can be used with Kuhlthau's or Ellis' model.
Wilson concluded that the all the models, even though different in perspective, actually complement each other rather than competing.
4. George, Carol, et al. 2006. Scholarly use of information: graduate students' information seeking behaviour. Information Research, Vol. 11 no. 4 (272) (accessed March 12, 2008).
This research focused on the information seeking behaviour of graduate students (Master and Doctoratal degree) from various disciplines such as arts and architecture, business and policy, computer science, engineering, humanities and sciences.
The research questions attempted in this research were: (1) How do graduate students seek and obtain information, and what are the related issues? (2) What information resources do graduate students value, and where do they find them? (3) What role do people have in graduate students' information seeking? (4) What other factors influence graduate students' information seeking behaviour?
Using qualitative method (face-to-face interview), the researches purported to understand user behaviour in the light of sense-making approach of Dervin's and Kuhlthau three realms of search process i.e. affective, cognitive and physical.
They interviewed 100 students from different but all-encompassing faculties in Carnegie Mellon University. Students from arts/architecture and business/policy were mostly doing masters, while students from computer science, engineering, humanities and sciences were doing PhD.
The questions asked were open-ended question which gave opportunity for broader explanation and exploration of answers. The interview records were then coded to form quantitative data which can be manipulated further using different techniques.
The results of this study indicate that the graduate students' information seeking behaviour is influenced by people, primarily academic staff, in addition to other students, friends, university library staff and people outside the university. Graduate students, who rely heavily on the Internet, prefer online resources, which they find on the Internet and the university library intranet.
They also use print resources from the university library and other libraries. A few graduate students mentioned factors that influence their search for information including convenience, speed and time restrictions; knowledge of services and sources; and course requirements.
The research found that the graduate students from computer science background relies more heavily on web-based research and tend to seek information online than other groups of graduate students, for example 93% using Google as first searching step; 93% search from websites; and 64% search for papers/articles.
Citation chaining is a research technique mostly invoked by students particularly those doing PhD rather than general open-ended searches that were mainly used by masters level students. The authors suggested that the discrepancies in technique might be due to the level of study and not the field of study.
For library online resources like intranet and databases for online articles and full-text, the percentage varies from discipline to discipline. While for printed materials, the percentage were consistent across discipline.
It is concluded by the authors that the information seeking behaviour were random across discipline and level of study. There are many influences that will determine the students behaviour in information seeking, especially human factors and Internet. Most of the time it depends on convenience, speed and availability (ease of access).
Personal opinion: This study did not highlight the differences between disciplines, thus not really giving insights to the questions that I am seeking answers to. This research can be modified by formulating questions to reflect the aspects.
5. Heinstrom, Jannica. 2004. Fast surfing, broad scanning and deep diving: the influence of personality and study approach on students' information-seeking behavior. Journal of Documentation, Vol. 61 no. 2 (accessed March 13, 2008).
This study looked into the information behaviour from a psychological perspective by relating information seeking to personality traits and study approaches. It is different from previous studies within psychological perspective which seeks to understand users from cognitive aspects and feelings.
The respondents in this study were masters students at Abo University (AU) in Finland. They represented the general population of AU, reflecting the general composition of students based on gender with 61% female students answering the questionnaires. The sample also covered all departments in the university.
The method used were quantitative with 3 questionnaires given out: (1) the NEO Five Factor Inventory; (2) the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students; and (3) a questionnaire about information behaviour.
In this study, information seeking behaviour was measured by various aspects, i.e. critical information judgement, relevant judgement, information choice criteria, effort used, thoroughness in information seeking and information sources used.
Upon findings, the author suggested that there are three groups of information users based on their personality traits and study approaches; they are those who seek information by fast surfing, broad scanning and deep diving.
Fast surfers want to find information quickly and easily with least possible effort. Depth and quality of information are minor concern. It is linked to surface study approach which is more influenced by regulatory aspects of particular education system.
Negative emotionality is also one of the factor and corresponds with previous findings from other study. Low level of conscientiousness contributed to fast surfing seeking style as well. Fast surfers tends to accept information that conforms to their previous ideas rather than opposite views. And this still depends on the level of easiness of digestion of those papers, because they also shun away from highly scientific and explorative papers by authoritative authors.
Broad scanners practice exhaustive and flexible information seeking in a wide range of sources. It developed gradually rather than planned. They are more open to finding high quality information incidentally because broad scanners are usually those with extravert, open and competitive in nature. They also made better evaluation of information and have critical thinking attitude.
While deep divers are hard workers at information seeking, they emphasize on the quality of the information rather than quantity. They seldom found information by chance (but may be by careful formulation of searching techniques, modes, terms, etc). It is linked to deep study and strategic study approach. Good study results should be expected from this group of information seekers.
As a conclusion, the author found that personality and study approaches (i.e. psychological influences) will determine the way someone goes about doing their information seeking, rather than course-based influences or stages of masters thesis or its process. However in certain situations, the person who is at core a deep divers or broad scanners may turn into fast surfers, for example when the requirement needs them to hand over an assignment within a short time.
6. Golbold, Natalya. 2006. Beyond information seeking: towards a general model of information behaviour. Information Research, Vol. 11 no. 4 (July) (accessed March 14, 2008).
Based on the models developed by Wilson, Dervin, Kuhlthau and Ellis, the author proposed three other models which is not restricted to explain information seeking behaviour, but also other modes of information behavior such as spreading / disputing information, taking mental note, disbelief / avoidance of information, creating information and destroying information. According to the author, these modes are not exhaustive.
The author also discussed greatly on the gap in Dervin's model. Instead of bridging the gap, she said that someone may also make the gap smaller or ignore the gap (taking different paths).
According to her, her models are non-linear and multi-directional compared to the other models which is linear and in sequential stages. The application and implementation of her new models are discussed at the end of the article that gave more depth to her study and clarify more her model proposition.
7. Niedzwiedzka, Barbara. 2003. A proposed general model of information behaviour. Information Research, Vol. 9 no. 1 (October) (accessed March 14, 2008).
In this paper the author discussed several models of information behavior and the differences between them in perspective. According to her, Wilson's model is the most complete among all. Choosing this model as her research framework, however she found the model not sufficient to describe the category of users under her study i.e. managers in health industry and services. She suggested an improved Wilson's model to cover group users behavior.
8. British Library and JISC. 2008. Information behaviour of the researcher of the future. Stephen's Lighthouse (accessed March 15, 2008).
In this longitudinal study, the notion and interpretation of Google generation was discussed and the truth about the generation were revealed in the light of academic research. It was suggested that the culture associated with Google generation cannot be said to apply only to the younger generation born after 1993, but permeating all generations now embracing Internet as part of their life culture. The effect of the new culture upon libraries were quite alarming and the libraries were not fully aware and respond to these changes. The behavior of the new researchers were characterised as horizontal, bouncing, checking and viewing in nature. The study gave important suggestions on how to improve libraries of today to reflect the current situation and needs of users.
9. Wilson, Tom D. 2000. Human information behavior. Informing Science, Vol. 3 no. 2. (accessed March 15, 2008).
Wilson revisited human information behavior based on latest development in information studies that went beyond information science. He gave interpretation to information behavior, information seeking behavior, information searching behavior and information use behavior with examples of the situations. He then explained the history or development of the field since its formally recorded and cited research in 1948. During that time, the focus was on documents use by scientists. Newer studies in the field were started by Warner, Mote and Palmer with more emphasis on users behavior rather than systems use. Development of information behavior models were then followed by efforts of scholars such as Dervin, Wilson, Kuhlthau and Ellis. In the last sections, Wilson brought forward the current status of multidisciplinary research and also interesting development in second Information Seeking in Context Conference in 1998 and whither the researchers were heading in this field.
10. Meho, Lokman I and Helen R. Tibbo. 2003. Modeling the information-seeking behavior of social scientist: Ellis's study revisited. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Vol. 54 no. 6: 570-587 pp. (accessed March 20, 2008).
This paper reports the founding of a research purportedly conducted to review Ellis's empirical research of academic researchers from various disciplines. The authors believed that since the advance of the WWW, there must be substantial changes in the behavior of researchers when seeking information.
The sample of this study is unique because in order to cover as much researchers from social background as possible, the authors chosed those doing research on 32 stateless nations worldwide - incorporated among others were study disciplines such as anthropology, political science, sociology, history, geography and area studies.
The founding of the study revealed certain obstacles in research relating to political conditions where research support were not given to reseachers of this topic; difficulty to find sources of information because they were purposely estranged from them in the countries of abode; subject indexing failed to help them because stateless nations were considered part of the countries where they now reside; and difficult conditions of conducting research in the field for example when they need to do fieldwork they must consider high risks even to the point of death or imprisonment.
As for types of information, they depended largely on fieldwork data and difficult-to-find information except online or in national, special or well-funded research university libraries. An example is grey literature. Archival materials were second in list of types of information.
The authors, upon acknowledging that the study confirmed Ellis's model, suggested the process of information-seeking laid down by Ellis for those in the field of social science be improved by adding four more stages - those are accessing, verifying, networking and information managing.
11. Abrizah Abdullah, and A.N. Zainab (2005) Internet usage and information seeking behaviour of students conducting history projects: determining the need of a digital library for historical resources. Jurnal PPM, Vol 1 . pp. 1-20.
This paper reports the results of a user study done at the formative stage of development of a collaborative resource development (CoreDev) digital library for Malaysian historical resources by collaborating partners. CoreDev aims to provide an electronic system to help students obtain information on local history; collect, store and organize information in digital format; publish and share electronic resources.
While most digital library projects were driven by technology development and research, there has been little investigation into how to develop a creative, working community around a digital library. This paper presents preliminary findings on students’ readiness and receptivity to participate in the building of the digital library as content providers and developers, and their motivation and willingness to collaborate and share digital resources, as well as their understanding of their role in the collaborative digital library environment.
Authors' findings indicate the feasibility of implementing the digital library for Malaysian schools. Series of surveys and interviews have led to rich findings of the students’ and teachers’ concerns and priorities regarding the digital library. Insights from these descriptions will then be used to establish a set of framework and design principles that could be used in designing our digital library.
12. Ruzita, Ramly. 2002. Navigating the WWW: a web usability study. Kekal Abadi, Vol. 21, no. 1: 1-5 pp. (accessed April 2, 2008).
The ability to navigate in a virtual environment is crucial in the search for information. Without a proper navigational scheme and well designed searching or browsing capabilities, the information that is abundantly available in the Internet cannot not be effectively retrieved, disseminated or used by users.
This paper briefly discusses how usability testing can be used to provide general guidelines for web designers to develop navigational schemes and searching or browsing systems that will help people navigate the virtual world. This paper also provides results of a study undertaken to test a new website developed by the University of Malaya Library, based on the usability test.
13. Meho, Lokman I. and Stephanie W. Haas. 2001. Information-seeking behavior and use of social science faculty studying stateless nations: a case study. Library & Information Science Research 23(1):pp. 5-25. (accessed April 2, 2008).
The information-seeking behavior of social science faculty studying the Kurds was assessed using a questionnaire, citation analysis, and follow-up inquiry. Two specific questions were addressed: how these faculty locate relevant government information and what factors influence their seeking behavior and use of such information.
Results show that besides using traditional methods for locating relevant government information, social science faculty studying the Kurds use the World Wide Web and electronic mail too for that purpose, suggesting that these faculty are aware of, and utilize, new information technology to support their research. Results also show that the information-seeking behavior of social science faculty studying the Kurds is influenced by factors similar to those influencing other social science faculty.
Moreover, results also show that accessing the needed materials is a major information-seeking activity that should be added to David Ellis's behavioral model, and that faculty examined here employ a somewhat more elaborate "differentiating" information-seeking activity than the one described in the model.
Some elements of interdisciplinarity of Kurdish studies as a field of research has been discovered, however, further research is required to verify that. Implications on library services and suggestions for future research are presented.
1. Mohd Saad, Mohd Sharif and A N Zainab. 2007. Information search and use of computer science and information technology undergraduates. Paper presented at the International Conference on Libraries, Information and Society, ICoLIS 2007, 26-27 June, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.
This study used the diary-interview and in-depth interview approach involving 14 final year Computer Science and Information Technology undergraduates who shared their information search and use process.
It was found that students relied heavily on their friends and lecturers as their sources of information. Other main information sources were the Internet, books and previous final year project reports. Very few used journal articles, seminar papers or other sources.
Quite shocking is the revelation of their feelings and image of library to them. They seldom use the sources provided by the library, even though for books which they prefer to bought from outside particularly for these projects. And they think they failed to find what they need from library and it is time-consuming, while online databases not user-friendly and difficult to navigate.
2. Wang, Peiling. 2006. Information behaviors of academic researchers in the Internet era: an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural study. Paper presented at the first International Scientific Conference eRA: the Information Technology to Science, Economy, Society & Education, 16-17 September, Cultural Centre of Tripoli, Greece. (accessed March 20, 2008).
The purpose of this project was to identify the differences or gap and factors interdisciplinarily and culturally. The research questions sought to be solved in this paper were: (1) which Internet Information and Communication Technologies (IICT) are used in research? How important is each of it in supporting the research? (2) How do the researchers use the IICTs to facilitate specific information-seeking activities? (3) To which extent are information needs satisfied by digital resources? (4) What are the interdisciplinary differences in the use of IICTs for research? (5) What are the cross-cultural differences in the use of IICTs for research?
As a result, Wang suggested a new conceptual framework combining Ellis's and Meho and Tibbo's (2003) research on the topic. A list of IICT types used widely among researchers were also listed. Qualitative collection of data was made by the author in US and China to incorporating disciplines such as Information Science, Computer Science, Journalism, Humanities and Engineering. The result so far has shown differences based on disciplines and cultures.
E-resources satisfied 63% of information needs of social scientist, while in humanities the percentage was at 40%. The most used IICTs for research include the Web, email, database, e-journal, online library catalog (OPAC), and digital library. New IICTs such as wiki, instant messaging are not yet widely adopted for research. The author found that the "digital divide" between hard sciences and humanities is more obvious than that between the two selected cultures of the same discipline.
1. Gray, Sharon M. 2003. Looking for information: a survey of research on information seeking, needs, and behavior. Review of Looking for information: a survey of research on information seeking, needs, and behavior by Donald Case. Journal of the Medical Library Association, Vol. 92 no. 2 (April).
Research into information-seeking behavior occupies a niche at the intersection of psychology, management, communications, and information science. Donald Case estimates there are more than 10,000 publications in these and other disciplines related to the basic human quest for knowledge.
The author makes a convincing case for the complexity of research that, among other things, attempts to define information, describe need, and explicate information use. Case's book is an especially useful source, assembling and framing user-centered studies.
Case outlines other sources of social and psychological theory in information seeking, concluding “the diversity of theoretical borrowings makes a single, comprehensive comparison impossible”. His review indicates that the lack of a theoretical center limits meta-analysis and generalizations from combined data and continues to hinder empirical research into information-seeking behaviors.
He provides methodological examples—such as case studies, experiments, and surveys—and he introduces evolving qualitative approaches and combinations of interviews, focus groups, diaries, historical analysis, and content analysis that characterize many information-behavior studies as they appear in contemporary information-seeking research.
He assesses a widening occupational base of information-seeking behavior studies of social scientists, humanities scholars, managers, lawyers, and journalists.
[Note: The above annotation were taken straight from the review itself without summarization or paraphrasing]
The author of this web site is a final semester MLIS student at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. She is currently in charge of a one-man-library in a marine consulting company in Petaling Jaya. Previously she worked as an assistant librarian at a National Library of Malaysia village library in her hometown, Machang, Kelantan.
Technology is so much fun, but we can drown in our technology. The fog of information can drive out knowledge.
Daniel J. Boorstin - American social historian and educator, 1914.
Apart from information retrieval there is virtually no other area of information science that has occasioned as much research effort and writing as "user studies".
Tom Wilson, 1981.
In early days, I tried not to give librarians any trouble, which was where I made my primary mistake. Librarians like to be given trouble; they exist for it, they are geared to it. For the location of a mislaid volume, an uncatalogued item, your good librarian has a ferret’s nose. Give her a scent and she jumps the leash, her eye bright with battle.
Catherine Drinker Bowen (1897–1973), U.S. biographer.