INFO 521: Information Behavior IB

Chapter Seven: Information behavior in

different contexts
Instructor
Dr. Lawrence Abraham Gojeh;
Department of Information Science,
College of Compting and Informatics,
Haramaya University, Ethiopia
 Chapter 7: Objectives
• Discuss information behavior in different
contexts
 Introduction
• Information behavior, is a sub-discipline within the field of library
and information science or library science.
• It describes how people need, seek, manage, give and use
information in different contexts.
•  It may also be described as information-seeking behavior or human
information behavior.
• Information behaviour is an underlying factor, which can contribute
to poor use or non-use of the information or information services at
the disposal of indigenous people in a development context.
• Context in information behavior studies may be defined as the
particular combination of person and situation that serve[s] to frame
an investigation of information behavior. 
 Context and Information Behaviour
• Three types of contexts that are commonly studied: 
– occupation, 
– social role, and 
– demographic grouping.
• Each of these contexts has boundaries, constraints and privileges as
perceived by participants and outsiders.
• The perceived boundaries may not be identical across all participants
and non-participants, yet many could agree on some of the
boundaries.
• That is, there is some shared understanding about the context.
• For example, many researchers in academia would agree that writing
journal and conference papers is more typically done within the
context of academia than the context of family life.
 Context…(cont.)
• That is, writing papers is within the boundaries of the academic
context and outside the boundaries of family life.
• We frequently speak of context in our everyday worlds; we speak of:
– the larger context;
– in the smaller context;
– in the broader context;
– in a narrower context;
– in a more well-defined context.
• These phrases help illustrate that the boundaries of contexts are
malleable, that is, flexible and subject to change.
• We can negotiate the boundaries.
 Context…(cont.)
• Multi-dimension of context
• Contexts are multi-dimensional in that they can be described by a
variety of attributes (Dervin, 1997).
• The identification of attributes and their importance to information
behavior is an active research issue.
• Examples of attributes that have been used to describe contexts
include:
– place,
– time,
– goals,
– tasks,
– systems,
– situations,
 Context…(cont.)
– processes,
– organizations ,and
– types of participants.
• Difficulties arise when attempting to exhaustively characterize a
context.
• For example, as Simon (1981) points out, a bird’s eye view of an ant
walking between two points along a sandy beach shows a seemingly
erratic path.
• It is only when we view the ant’s path from a 3-dimensional
perspective and notice the hills and valleys caused by the grains of
sand that we begin to realize that the ant’s path is ingenious, not
erratic.
 Context…(cont.)
• “Digger deeper” when conducting research on human information
behavior, as suggested by Dervin (1997), helps researchers to
understand the relationships among factors and human information
behavior.
• Characterizing contexts is further complicated because contexts are
not discrete entities; two or more contexts may share common
attributes.
• For example, a faculty member may be a teacher, researcher and
administrator.
• From an outsider’s perspective, it may be difficult to determine when
the faculty’s behavior is attributable to the context of teaching,
research or administration.
 Context…(cont.)
• An individual may concurrently try to satisfy constraints of different
contexts, e.g., as happens when a parent bringing children to the
office when no other child-care options exist for them.
• We often learn more about contexts when conflicts among contexts
emerge.
• Every day each of us is forced to solve many different vital problems
connected with:
– working and training,
– recreation and education of children,
– the family budget and hobby.
• For decision making in every concrete situation, it is necessary to have
as complete and recent information about these things and
circumstances as possible:
 Context…(cont.)
– The choice of information sources and seeking strategies,
– methods of verification of its reliability and correspondence with
earlier data,
– the ways of evaluation of relevance and utility of the findings for
problem resolution; are the factors characterizing human
information behaviour.
• Context of information seeking
• Context of information seeking may be described by means of many
different parameters such as:
– the time and place of appearance of information need,
– the time for information seeking,
– types of participants of the seeking process, for example:
• their demographic,
• social,
 Context…(cont.)
• professional,
• Educational,
• behavioural characteristics,
• the purpose of information seeking,
• the concrete task for which this information is looked
for,
• the processes and situations of information seeking,
and many others.
• There is a great deal of different context for which
information behaviour can manifest or be explored.
 Context…(cont.)
• For example:
• “information seeking” in the context of ICT impact.
• Information is anything that can change a person’s state
of knowledge (What one knows) and physical
representations of abstractions that can cause this
change.
• Information used to be obtained only from friends,
experts, printed books, serials, audio-visual materials,
etc.
• Information used to be accessible through the card
catalog, printed bibliographies, etc.
 Context…(cont.)
Impact of ICT on information resources and Digital:
tools for access Internet
Print

Digital: CD-ROM, DVD, DAT

The digital environment has led

to changes in the creation,
storage, distribution, access and
delivery of information.
 Context…(cont.)
• Information Resources
• Printed and electronic books (e-books)
• Printed and electronic journals (e-journals)
• Printed and electronic reference tools (e-
dictionaries, e-abstracts and indexes, multimedia
encyclopedias, etc.)
 Context…(cont.)
• Information Seeking
• 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 retrieval is concerned with getting
information from databases.
• Searching is the behavioral manifestation of
information seeking.
 Context…(cont.)
Steps in Information Seeking
Recognize Assess Information.
Extract
the Modify search,
information
problem monitor
Developments or
Stop and synthesize

Define
The Examine
Problem Information Results

Seeking
Process
Choose an
Execute
information Formulate/ search
resource query
 Context…(cont.)
• Ways to Represent Documents to Support Information Seeking
• Indexing using a standard indexing language (e.g. Library of Congress
Subject Headings List) or a knowledge-based indexing language
(MESH)
• Indexing using terms in the document and generating an inverted
file. Boolean algorithms may be used for searching
• Full text indexing or indexing all the words in the document and
(String search)
• Treating documents as vectors—Accounts for the number of times a
term is used in the document. Retrieved document can be ranked.
• Latent semantic indexing-Compares an input vector with all
document vectors to determine the best match.
 Context…(cont.)
• Developments in Electronic Environments
• Hardware, data structuring and algorithms
• Interfaces—Human computer interaction, GUIs and WIMPS
• Hypermedia research
• Research in document representation and retrieval
• Information Searching Tools
• Printed tools (Card catalog, printed bibliographies,
printed abstracts and indexes, etc.)
• e-tools for library collections(OPAC, Web OPAC, Online
databases—abstracts and indexes)
• Search engines for the Web collection (Google, Alta
Vista Advanced Search, AllTheWeb), Meta-Search
Engines--most of which are not recommended, others)
• Subject Directories
• Invisible Web (Searchable databases)
 Context…(cont.)
Information Seeking Behavior
 Reasons for searching and strategies used to
find and use information.
Reference materials
• OPAC/WebPAC
• Abstracts and indexes
• Dictionaries and
encyclopedias
Full text and multimedia
materials
E-mail • Print
to peers • E-books
• E-journals
 Context…(cont.)

Behavioral Model of Information Seeking or

Literature Searching
Motivations + Moves = Information seeking
behavior

 Motivations—Reasons for information

seeking
 Moves—Strategies used to find information.
 Context…(cont.)
• Strategies in Information Seeking
• Automated library system
• Services for e-onsite resources: CD-ROM, e-
journals on subscription, e-books
• Internet services
• Information services: SDI, Repackaging of
information
• Resource sharing activities: Interlibrary loan,
document delivery
 Context…(cont.)
An Automated Library
An automated library system that uses a
single database for its various operations and
services is called an integrated library system
(ILS)

SERVER
Cataloging
Circulation workstation
workstation

OPAC
 Context…(cont.)

OWNERSHI ELECTRONIC
LIBRARY ACCESS
P
•Printed books Staff/
and e-books Services/
Internet
•Printed serials and Infrastructure
Resources
e-journals
•Audio-visual
materials and
microforms Other
•CD-ROMs, DVD, Libraries
USER
DAT and
•Special collections Information
Centers

The Library in the Digital Environment

Electronic Library Model
 Context…(cont.)
Impact of the Digital Environment on Librarians: New Roles

•Create
•Collect
•Consolidate Information User
•Communicate
•Preserve
In an electronic library these
functions and services are done
and provided using ICT
 Context…(cont.)
Impact of the Digital Environment on Librarians:
New Knowledge

Understanding of the broader context within which the information

professional works.

Subject Librarian
knowledge
Library
User
Service
behavior

User information User

needs
New knowledge
 Context…(cont.)
• Impact of ICT on the Library and the
Librarian
• The digital information environment changed
the way information is created, collected,
consolidated, and communicated.
• Library services became automated and
information services became electronic.
• Librarians had to learn new knowledge and
skills in order to meet user needs for new
information services using ICT and e-
resources.
 Context…(cont.)
• Library Services in a Digital Environment
• Automated library system
• Services for e-onsite resources: CD-ROM, e-
journals on subscription, e-books
• Internet services
• Information services: SDI, Repackaging of
information
• Resource sharing activities: Interlibrary loan,
document delivery
 Context…(cont.)
ICT has Greatly Affected the Information
Environment

Librarians and other users of information must adapt to

the changing technological environment to:
• be able to use electronic resources and access tools
• be able to respond to new user information needs and
information-seeking behaviors
• be able to participate in the national, regional and
global infrastructure.
 Context…(cont.)
• Research focus in the area of contexts and information behaviour
• To understand human information behaviour, it is important to know
the context of information behaviour as well as humans themselves.
• While contexts can be conceptualised in different levels and from
different angles, most research on information behaviour has been in
academic research or work-related contexts, as improving users'
performance in such contexts is considered crucial.
• Interest in information behaviour in everyday life contexts, however,
has continued to grow and more research has focused on
information behaviour in everyday contexts.
• Although a number of studies have been conducted focusing on the
use of social media, there is a dearth of research on social media use
as information sources.
 Context…(cont.)
• Furthermore, little attention has been paid to factors affecting social
media use.
• Much library and information science (LIS) research has focused on
the information-seeking practices of practitioners within various
fields of professional work.
• Studies have been carried out into the information-seeking behaviors
of librarians, academics,[ medical professionals, engineers, and
lawyers (among others).
• Context plays a significant role in generating study findings and
implications of study result.
• However, very few efforts have been made to delineate exactly what
impacts context has on producing implications of particular studies,
as well as the information behavior field as a whole.
 Exercise 7.
• Outline and explain at least four (4)
characteristics of online information seeking
behavior

• Total score = 5%