Information Seeking Activities Research Articles

Artificial Intelligence Chatbots in Chemical Information Seeking: Narrative Educational Insights via a SWOT Analysis

Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots are next-word predictors built on large language models (LLMs). There is great interest within the educational field for this new technology because AI chatbots can be used to generate information. In this theoretical article, we provide educational insights into the possibilities and challenges of using AI chatbots. These insights were produced by designing chemical information-seeking activities for chemistry teacher education which were analyzed via the SWOT approach. The analysis revealed several internal and external possibilities and challenges. The key insight is that AI chatbots will change the way learners interact with information. For example, they enable the building of personal learning environments with ubiquitous access to information and AI tutors. Their ability to support chemistry learning is impressive. However, the processing of chemical information reveals the limitations of current AI chatbots not being able to process multimodal chemical information. There are also ethical issues to address. Despite the benefits, wider educational adoption will take time. The diffusion can be supported by integrating LLMs into curricula, relying on open-source solutions, and training teachers with modern information literacy skills. This research presents theory-grounded examples of how to support the development of modern information literacy skills in the context of chemistry teacher education.

Examining the roles of social media information exposure and seeking on COVID-19 vaccination through the S-O-R model: A two-wave panel in Hong Kong

This study draws upon the stimulus-organism-response (S–O-R) framework in examining the influence of stimulus factors (i.e., passive exposure to and active information seeking for COVID-19 vaccine information on social media) on users' internal psychological mechanisms (i.e., perceived information overload and psychological reactance) and vaccination behavior. We collected two-wave online panel data (W1 N = 411, W2 N = 264) in Hong Kong and tested our hypothesized model using structural equation modeling. The results showed that passive information exposure and active information seeking on social media were positively associated with both vaccination initiation (i.e., receiving the first dose) and full vaccination (i.e., completing the recommended 3-dose schedule at W2). We identified different mediation pathways from passive information exposure and active information seeking to vaccine skepticism through perceived information overload and psychological reactance. Specifically, a double-edged sword effect was found for active information seeking. Active information seeking was associated with lower vaccine skepticism both directly and indirectly through lower psychological reactance. On the other hand, active information seeking was associated with higher perceived information overload, which in turn was associated with higher psychological reactance and subsequently higher vaccine skepticism. Passive information exposure indirectly affected psychological state and vaccine skepticism through higher active information seeking. These findings contribute to the literature on the impact of social media use on vaccination behavior in the context of public health emergencies and offer practical implications for governments and social media platforms in risk communication and vaccination promotion.

Suggestive answers strategy in human-chatbot interaction: a route to engaged critical decision making.

In this study, we proposed a novel chatbot interaction strategy based on the suggestive ending of answers. This strategy is inspired by the cliffhanger ending narrative technique, which ends a story without specifying conclusions to spark readers' curiosity as to what will happen next and is often used in television series. Common chatbots provide relevant and comprehensive answers to users' questions. In contrast, chatbots with our proposed strategy end their answers with hints potentially interest-triggering users. The suggestive ending strategy aims to stimulate users' inquisition for critical decision-making, relating to a psychological phenomenon where humans are often urged to finish the uncompleted tasks they have initiated. We demonstrated the implication of our strategy by conducting an online user study involving 300 participants, where they used chatbots to perform three decision-making tasks. We adopted a between-subjects factorial experimental design and compared between the following UIs: (1) plain chatbot-it provides a generated answer when participants issue a question; (2) expositive chatbot-it provides a generated answer for a question, adding short summaries of a positive and negative person's opinion for the answer; (3) suggestive chatbot-it provides a generated answer for a question, which ends with a suggestion of a positive and negative person for the answer. We found that users of the suggestive chatbot were inclined to ask more questions to the bot, engage in prolonged decision-making and information-seeking actions, and formulate their opinions from various perspectives. These findings vary with the users' experience with plain and expositive chatbots.

Active Data Selection and Information Seeking

Bayesian inference typically focuses upon two issues. The first is estimating the parameters of some model from data, and the second is quantifying the evidence for alternative hypotheses—formulated as alternative models. This paper focuses upon a third issue. Our interest is in the selection of data—either through sampling subsets of data from a large dataset or through optimising experimental design—based upon the models we have of how those data are generated. Optimising data-selection ensures we can achieve good inference with fewer data, saving on computational and experimental costs. This paper aims to unpack the principles of active sampling of data by drawing from neurobiological research on animal exploration and from the theory of optimal experimental design. We offer an overview of the salient points from these fields and illustrate their application in simple toy examples, ranging from function approximation with basis sets to inference about processes that evolve over time. Finally, we consider how this approach to data selection could be applied to the design of (Bayes-adaptive) clinical trials.

Exploring the research domains, gender gap and labour market perspectives of doctoral research in library and information science in India

The present study aims to analyse the research domains, gender gap, and labour market perspectives of doctoral research in LIS in India. Sodhganga, a digital repository of Indian thesis and dissertations, was used for extracting doctoral thesis information and Jarvelin & Vakkari classification system was used for categorising the doctoral research topics. A total of 808 doctoral dissertations awarded between 2016 and 2020 were analysed using IBM SPSS and Tableau. The study's findings revealed that the growth of doctoral research in LIS is on rising trends with 150 PhD awarded in LIS every year. Information seeking (33.8%), library and information service activities (30.7%), and scientific & professional communication (16.5%) were found to be the preferred research themes among doctoral students during the study period. Furthermore, it is revealed that there is a gender gap in the number of PhDs conferred, with more men than women receiving these degrees. LIS professionals with a doctorate have the highest employment rate, at 96.2%, and most are in government jobs. Besides, only 40 percent of doctoral candidates reported receiving an incentive after the doctoral degree.

Understanding the social-emotional components of our "number sense": insights from a novel non-symbolic numerical comparison task.

A large body of work has identified a core sense of number supported by the Approximate Number System (ANS) that is present in infancy and across species. Although it is commonly assumed that the ANS directly processes perceptual input and is relatively independent from affective factors, some evidence points at a correlation between ANS performance and math anxiety. However, the evidence is mixed. We tested whether giving participants active control in completing a numerical task would change the relationship between math anxiety on performance. Adult participants (N = 103) completed a novel four-alternative-forced-choice non-symbolic numerical comparison task. In a repeated-measures design, participants either passively viewed different dot arrays or actively chose to view each array (i.e., active information-seeking) before deciding on the largest quantity. Participants also provided confidence judgments during the passive version of the task. We replicated the ratio-dependent signature in participants' accuracy in both the passive and active versions of the task using this novel paradigm, as well as in trial-level confidence judgments and information-seeking behavior. Participants' self-reported math anxiety significantly correlated with their accuracy on the passive version of the task. Critically, the correlation disappeared in the active version of the task. Gender also emerged as a predictor of confidence judgments and a moderator of the effect of task on overall accuracy and the effect of active information seeking on accuracy in the active version of the task. Exploratory analysis of estimated Weber Fraction suggests that these results may be driven by auxiliary factors instead of changes in ANS acuity. These findings have implications for understanding the relationship between math anxiety and performance on numerical tasks.

INFORMATION WANTS AND INFORMATION SEEKING ACTIONS FROM PORTUGUESE NEUROLOGIST

Background: Medical professionals nowadays must be well-versed in the most recent, scientifically confirmed facts on illness diagnosis, treatment, and patient care. Despite the fact that there are an increasing number and variety of information sources available to physicians, many questions remain concerning the authenticity, quality, and usefulness of medical information. With the goal of improving current medical information delivery, new methodologies are needed to assess doctors’ real-life demands. Objective: The goal of this study was to explore the information requirements and seeking behaviour of Portuguese’s neurologists treating patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and migraine. Methods: An exploratory mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) investigation of 15 consecutive days was conducted. It was necessary to recruit a total of 50 neurologists (25 MS experts and 25 migraine specialists). An instant messaging programme built for this study was used to gather data. Personal interviews were conducted by computer at each information-seeking session, which included semi structured interviews and closed-ended questions. Content analysis was used to identify emergent themes from the mobile app interactions and physician enquiries. Results: A total of 36/20, or 71 percent, of the questions posed by neurologists were linked to treatment management and pharmacological information, followed by diagnostic techniques and procedures. Online resources were preferred by doctors (48/50, 96 percent) over offline alternatives (24/50, 47 percent) in a quantitative study. In 33% of information-seeking activities, a multi-channel strategy was used, which included using both online and offline resources to address the same demand. Neurologists were more likely to use internet resources than offline ones (F=1.7; P=.01) to get information. Compared to migraine neurologists, MS specialists were 53% more likely to participate in a single information-seeking event (risk ratio 1.54; 95% CI 1.12 to 2.05). More than two-thirds of MS specialists (28 percent [7/25] vs. 10 percent [2/25], P=.06) were interested in patient-related material, whereas migraine physicians (85% [21/25] vs. 60% [15/25], P=.05) were more inclined to seek information on treatment management. Both online and offline information searching was more difficult for migraine experts (F=12.5, P=.01) and offline channels were utilised less often (30 percent [8/25] versus 60 percent of information-seeking events, P=.02). To get information from various sources, both migraine and MS experts reported lower satisfaction rates (single source vs multiple sources P=.003). Conclusion: Portuguese MS and migraine neurologists are described in great depth in this research, including their real-life search activity as well as educational requirements and information sources they use. Neurologist information demands and information-seeking behaviour are influenced by their professional field. Identifying the temporal and context-specific demands of physicians is essential for designing a successful medical information strategy, according to these results.

Issue Fatigue Over the Course of the Covid-19 Pandemic

During times of uncertainty, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, people tend to cope through active information seeking. However, information overexposure can also lead to issue fatigue, a state in which recipients are increasingly annoyed and may actively avoid further information on this specific issue. Against this backdrop, we were interested in (1) whether people in Germany have experienced Covid-19 related issue fatigue over the course of the pandemic, (2) and if so, how Covid-19 information behaviour may have contributed to it, and (3) to what extent TV news coverage exhibits characteristics that are considered to contribute to recipients’ issue fatigue. To address these questions, we combined a two-wave panel survey (2020) and a cross-sectional survey (2021) of the German population with a quantitative content analysis of Covid-19 related TV news (2020 and 2021). The results show an increase in issue fatigue over time. However, there was no evidence indicating that people’s Covid-19 information behaviour has contributed to this. Rather, both information seeking and the reception of public TV news were negatively related to issue fatigue. Notably, TV news coverage showed characteristics that are considered determinants of issue fatigue, including its extent and an overall ambivalent-to-negative tone.

Measuring Health Information-Seeking Behavior: The Online Self-care Scale

During the last decades, researchers have shown an increased attention towards the practice of health information seeking online. This interest has been driven by a desire to understand how it influences health beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors among laypersons. Although many tools have been proposed to measure health information seeking, they present some limits. Through an online survey among 783 Italian university students, our study aims at developing a self-report instrument to measure individuals' online health information-seeking behavior, the Online Self-care Scale (OSS), considering the twofold activity of seeking and employing information (the "Information seeking" and "Self-care practice"). We examined the reliability and construct validity of the OSS's self-report scale and explored the association between Online Self-Care Scale and gender, socioeconomic status (SES), self-reported health status, and digital health literacy. Our findings show both acceptable discriminant and convergent validities for the OSS. The validity has also been assessed through the known-group validity, namely evaluating if OSS can discriminate between groups of individuals demonstrating different scores on the test. Therefore, the OSS Scale is a valid and reliable instrument to measure the level of involvement of individuals in health information retrieval, allowing researchers to distinguish between a merely information-seeking activity and an application of the information by the seekers.

토픽 모델을 활용한 지역 글로벌 컨퍼런스에 대한 참여자 만족도 분석

This study investigates the features of replies per question and the differences in subjects based on geography and age of respondents based on the findings of a satisfaction survey for the 2022 Global Beverage Conference. Semantic network analysis was conducted using online survey results, and Structural Topic Model(STM) was conducted using in-depth interviews. Overall, we found that active information seekers were more likely to be in their 20s and 30s, who used social media to engage with the event. This age group was also more likely to participate in event programs such as beverage tasting booths and sommelier competitions. On the other hand, those in their 50s and 60s were more likely to be interested in conferences and beverage brands themselves. In addition, those in their 50s and 60s who live in Daegu are more likely to acquire and share event information through interpersonal relationships than through social media. This study is useful for event planning and promotional strategies that take into account participants' perspectives.

The preferred IT sources and tools of Iranian people for accessing health information

IntroductionPeople need health information to maintain their health. Despite the variety of sources and tools for providing health information, there is little evidence about Iranian people's preferences in using these sources and tools. The objective of this study was to identify the preferred health information sources, tools, and methods for presenting health information in these tools.MethodsThis national survey was conducted among a sample of 4000 Iranian people between April and September 2021. The data was collected using a valid and reliable questionnaire (α = 0.86) consisting of four sections: participants' demographic information, current sources of obtaining health information, preferred information technology (IT) tools for accessing health information, and the method of presenting this information. Linear regression was used to investigate the relationship between demographic factors and other questions.ResultsThe participants received health information mostly from the "Internet" (3.62), "family or friends" (3.43), "social networks" (3.41), "specific websites" (3.41), and "mobile apps" (3.27). "Social networks" (3.67), Internet "websites" (3.56), and "mobile apps" (3.50) were the most suitable tools for receiving health information. The participants preferred the presentation of health information in the form of "Images" (3.85), "educational videos" (3.69), and "texts" (3.53). Age, education, and marital status had a significant relationship with most of the preferred information sources, tools, and information presentation methods (p < 0.05).ConclusionThe results of this study showed that Iranian people are more active information seekers than passive ones compared to a decade ago. The preferred sources and tools identified in this research can be used by healthcare planners and policy-makers in Iran and other developing countries to design and develop IT interventions that meet people's needs. Improving access to the Internet, social networks, and mobile apps and providing health information via images, educational videos, and texts on these platforms enhance access to the information people need.

Insight in the Conspiracist's Mind.

Academic AbstractThe motto of the conspiracist, "Do your own research," may seem ludicrous to scientists. Indeed, it is often dismissed as a mere rhetorical device that conspiracists use to give themselves the semblance of science. In this perspective paper, we explore the information-seeking activities ("research") that conspiracists do engage in. Drawing on the experimental psychology of aha experiences, we explain how these activities, as well as the epistemic experiences that precede (curiosity) or follow (insight or "aha" experiences) them, may play a crucial role in the appeal and development of conspiracy beliefs. Aha moments have properties that can be exploited by conspiracy theories, such as the potential for false but seemingly grounded conclusions. Finally, we hypothesize that the need for autonomous epistemic agency and discovery is universal but increases as people experience more uncertainty and/or feel epistemically excluded in society, hence linking it to existing literature on explaining conspiracy theories.

The Effect of Information Exchange Activities on Literacy in Online Health Community: The Evidence from PatientsLikeMe

Online health communities (OHC) consist of individuals with shared health-related interests who exchange health-related information among themselves and for the benefit of others. Unfortunately, a notable issue within these communities is the dissemination of a substantial volume of inaccurate health information by various online health groups. Nevertheless, a dearth of research examining the impact of information-seeking activities within OHCs exists. This study aimed to examine the influence of direct and indirect health information-seeking behaviors, specifically among users diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes who have reported complications in OHC, also called claims. Employing association rule mining (ARM) techniques, user data from PatientsLikeMe were extracted to capture information on users’ reported complications subsequent to being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes (N = 6371). Subsequently, we utilized zero-inflated negative binomial regression (ZINB) to evaluate the effect of direct and indirect information search activities on false notes, including their interaction of them. The outcomes of this investigation have the potential to offer patients valuable insights regarding the reliability and trustworthiness of information derived from OHCs.

A Typology of Metagamers: Identifying Player Types Based on Beyond the Game Activities

Previous research on player profiles or types is based on players’ in-game behaviors and their motivations to play games. However, there are many other activities related to digital games beyond playing the games properly. Using learning analytics methods, the study investigates the prevalence and interconnections between these different metagame activities and classifies gamers based on their use thereof into distinct profiles. The results show that digital game–related information-seeking activities are key metagame activities with connections to other metagame activities. Three distinct profiles of players were identified based on their metagame activities: versatile metagamers, strategizers, and casual metagamers. The results contribute to the existing literature on metagaming and provide insights for game studies, game design and marketing, and digital games and learning.

Quality and Reliability of Liver Cancer–Related Short Chinese Videos on TikTok and Bilibili: Cross-Sectional Content Analysis Study

Background Liver cancer incidence has been increasing in China in the recent years, leading to increased public concern regarding the burden of this disease. Short videos on liver cancer are disseminated through TikTok and Bilibili apps, which have gained popularity in recent years as an easily accessible source of health information. However, the credibility, quality, and usefulness of the information in these short videos and the professional knowledge of the individuals uploading health information–based videos in these platforms have not yet been evaluated. Objective Our study aims to assess the quality of the information in Chinese short videos on liver cancer shared on the TikTok and Bilibili short video–sharing platforms. Methods In March 2023, we assessed the top 100 Chinese short videos on liver cancer in TikTok and Bilibili (200 videos in total) for their information quality and reliability by using 2 rating tools, namely, global quality score (GQS) and the DISCERN instrument. Correlation and Poisson regression analyses were applied to discuss the factors that could impact video quality. Results Compared to Bilibili, TikTok is more popular, although the length of the videos on TikTok is shorter than that of the videos on Bilibili (P&lt;.001). The quality of the short videos on liver cancer in TikTok and Bilibili was not satisfactory, with median GQS of 3 (IQR 2-4) and 2 (IQR 1-5) and median DISCERN scores of 5 (IQR 4-6) and 4 (IQR 2-7), respectively. In general, the quality of videos sourced from professional institutions and individuals was better than that of those sourced from nonprofessionals, and videos involving disease-related knowledge were of better quality than those covering news and reports. No significant differences were found in the quality of videos uploaded by individuals from different professions, with the exception of those uploaded by traditional Chinese medicine professionals, which demonstrated poorer quality. Only video shares were positively correlated with the GQS (r=0.17, P=.01), and no video variables could predict the video quality. Conclusions Our study shows that the quality of short videos on health information related to liver cancer is poor on Bilibili and TikTok, but videos uploaded by health care professionals can be considered reliable in terms of comprehensiveness and content quality. Thus, short videos providing medical information on TikTok and Bilibili must be carefully considered for scientific soundness by active information seekers before they make decisions on their health care management.

Perception and Educational Needs of Developmentally Supportive Care At-Home for Parents of Pre-Term Newborns.

After discharge from neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), the parents of pre-term newborns have to provide developmentally supportive care (DSC) to their children; thus, educational support for parents is essential. This study aimed to explore the lived experiences of parents providing DSC to their children born as pre-term newborns at home and to investigate their parenting-related needs. This study included 10 mothers who were identified through theoretical sampling. In-depth interviews were conducted for data collection. For data analysis, grounded theory was used according to Corbin and Strauss's process. The mother's perception and educational needs were characterized by the phenomena "Coexistence of familiarity and unfamiliarity" and "Desire for expert support". Causal conditions include the "Incomplete education system" and "Gap between expectations and reality". Contextual conditions include the "Fear of developmental disability" and "Lack of good evaluation criteria". Intervening conditions include the "Difficulty in obtaining useful information". Action/interaction strategies include the "Active information seeking" and "Continuing to provide DSC". The consequences were the "Needs for professional educational support". The core category was the "Parenting routine that continues without awareness" and "Hope to establish parenting system supported by multidisciplinary experts". These results may provide the preliminary evidence base for suitable educational programs and for developing a social support system for parents.

Hubungan Pencarian Informasi Lee Jeno pada Akun Twitter @LeeJeno_IDN dengan Kebutuhan Informasi Followers

Information seeking activities are also usually carried out to meet the needs of each individual and on this activity can be done on social media especially Twitter. Purpose Research. This study aims to find out whether there is a significant correlation between information seeking with the fulfillment information of cognitive needs, affective needs, social integrative needs, and escapist needs of @LeeJeno_IDN’s followers. Methods. This research used correlational quantitative method by using Pearson Correlation. On this population of this research were the followers themselves and got drawn sample with amount 100 using Simple Random Sampling. Result. And the result of this research shown that there is a significant correlation between information seeking with the fulfillment information of cognitive needs, affective needs, social integrative needs, and escapist needs of @LeeJeno_IDN’s followers. Keywords: Information Seeking, Information Needing, Twitter, Social Media, Information

The Influence of Communication Messages on Adoption of Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP) Vaccine among Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) Pastoralists in Kenya

Purpose: The purpose was to establish influence of communication messages on adoption of Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP) Vaccine among Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) pastoralists in Kenya. Messages were studied under parameters of inoculation site, benefits, required frequency of vaccination and side effects. The focus on the vaccine messaging was informed by the slow pace of adoption of live T1 vaccines currently being used to eradicate CBPP in Kenya. Diffusion of innovation and social learning theories were used to support the study.&#x0D; Methodology: Study population were pastoralists in Narok South Sub County. 468 respondents inclusive of qualitative and quantitative samples where 440 responded to questionnaire, 24 in focus group discussions, and 4 in key informant interviews participated. Multi stage, purposive, simple random, systematic and stratified sampling techniques were then employed to come up with respondents. Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) version 20.0 was used to analyze data, which was presented using regression coefficients and ANOVA.&#x0D; Findings: CBPP messaging influenced respondents to vaccinate although some had more influence than others. Messages on inoculation site, benefits, required frequency of vaccination side effects and communal vaccinations were important for the survival of their cattle and significantly influenced the decisions of respondents to vaccinate against the disease. Moreover, messages helped them to know important information details such as vaccination venues, and costs of vaccination and availability of the veterinary officers. CBPP vaccine messages attributes were key in the success of influencing respondents. However, the messaging ran into already held misinformation by some pastoralists confirming earlier study that vaccination rate was at 20-60% because some skipped the exercise.&#x0D; Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: CBPP vaccine messages and attributes significantly influenced CBPP vaccinations decisions among pastoralists. This study validated diffusion of innovation and social learning theories that innovation-decision process is essentially an information seeking and processing activity in which an individual is motivated to reduce uncertainty about the advantages and disadvantages of the innovation. For policy and practice, this study recommends development of communication plans, and packaging of CBPP vaccine messages for dissemination in the ASALs where disease is prevalent. Considering that CBPP is a trans-boundary disease, these plans and messages could be harmonized across ASAL counties to enable consistency and coherence.

Political ideology and differences in seeking COVID-19 information on the internet: examining the comprehensive model of information seeking

PurposeGuided by the Comprehensive Model of Information Seeking (CMIS), this article identifies significant predictors that impact individuals seeking COVID-19 information. People with different political ideologies read contradictory information about the COVID-19 pandemic. However, how political ideology may affect COVID-19 information seeking remains unclear. This study explores the major information channels for individuals with different political ideologies to seek COVID-19 information. It further examines how political ideologies influence CMIS's effectiveness in predicting online health information-seeking.Design/methodology/approachThis study collected 394 completed survey responses from adults living in the United States after the 2020 lockdown. ANOVA analyses revealed the differences in salience, beliefs, information carrier characteristics, utilities and information-seeking actions between Liberals and Conservatives. Regression analyses discovered variables that predict Liberals' and Conservatives' online health information seeking.FindingsResults suggest that the internet is the top channel for COVID-19 information seeking. Compared to Conservatives, Liberals report more COVID-19 information-seeking actions. Liberals also express stronger salience, perceive higher trustworthiness of online COVID-19 information, are more likely to think of seeking online COVID-19 information as useful and helpful and report more substantial efficacy to mitigate the risk. Most CMIS variables predict Liberals' information seeking; however, only salience significantly predicts Conservatives' information seeking.Originality/valueThis article indicates that CMIS should include political ideology to refine its prediction of information seeking. These findings offer practical implications for designing health messages, enhancing information distribution and reducing the public's uncertainty.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-08-2022-0436.

Accessing information during the COVID-19 pandemic era: a study of GCC citizens and noncitizens

Purpose Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a new disease that has led to rapid and dramatic global changes. This study aims to investigate how Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) citizens and noncitizens search for necessary information and assess available information sources, their associated awareness and anxiety levels, voluntary work, compliance with quarantine regulations and technology. Design/methodology/approach An electronic questionnaire was designed using Google Forms and distributed on Twitter and WhatsApp. In total, 1,006 responses were received. Findings The results showed that 75.25% of the participants were active information seekers because of their daily search for necessary information. “Formal sources,” “Social media” and “Television” were the most preferred information sources found by the study sample. Originality/value This study investigates the behavior of GCC citizens and noncitizens in searching for necessary information during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, it draws attention to the importance of digitization and digital preservation in building a specialized digital library for future access to pandemic-related information distributed by the government authorities and institutions in the State of Kuwait.