Investigating Information Seekers' Selection of Interpersonal and Impersonal Sources

Abstract

Information source selection is essential to individuals' information seeking behaviors. Existing studies have focused on the criteria seekers employ when choosing information sources, such as sources' accessibility and quality, as well as the contextual factors that shape a seeker's selection. However, existing findings are somewhat conflicting and lack in-depth understanding of the reasons behind individuals' choices. The study reported here invited 53 participants from diverse backgrounds to perform simulated information seeking tasks over a two-day period and to report their experiences and findings in an online logbook. Semi-structured interviews with 23 of them were also conducted in order to examine the issues that arose from the logbooks. Our preliminary findings present several factors associated with participants' choices between impersonal and interpersonal sources. While interpersonal sources are deemed to be more suitable in capturing the context of an information query and providing personalized information, impersonal sources are found to be more accessible under a time constraint while depicting no emotion towards sensitive issues.