Information Seeking In Context Research Articles

Analysing humanities scholars’ data seeking behaviour patterns using Ellis' model

Introduction. Much of humanities data are existing materials. Yet there are few works examining humanities scholars’ data seeking behaviours. The study aims to address this gap building upon Ellis’ model. Method. We recruited 27 humanities scholars with diverse academic backgrounds and conducted in-depth interviews. Analysis. A preliminary codebook was developed from existing literature. Researchers combined deductive and inductive coding to analyse the interview transcripts. Results. Humanities scholars’ data interactions fall into two approaches: data-driven and structure-driven, each involving three phases – exploratory seeking, focused seeking, and supplementary seeking. We identified eleven characteristics of data seeking behaviours operating at different levels and revealed their variations across research approaches and seeking phases. Conclusion. The study contributes to the conceptual growth of Ellis' model and expands its utility beyond the original information seeking contexts, indicating its potential applicability to data seeking. It also provides practical implications for system design and humanities data curation.

Information seeking and communication model (ISCM): application and extension

PurposeThe paper reports on developments in the Information Seeking and Communication Model (ISCM) since it was first presented in 2013, focussing on how the model, derived by explicitly drawing on previous models, frameworks, and concepts, has been applied, adapted and extended. This paper summarises the reception of the ISCM, and describes two new applications in different contexts.Design/methodology/approachA literature review details applications of, comments on and critiques of, the ISCM since its introduction. Two exploratory studies of health information seeking behaviour show the application of the ISCM in novel contexts.FindingsThe literature cited here, and the two studies outlined show the applicability and extendibility of the ISCM, as well as its value in helping to capture the holistic context of information seeking, the interplay between providers and seekers of information, including fluidity of provider/seeker roles, and emotional dimensions of information seeking and use.Originality/valueThe paper responds to the call by Case and Given (2016) for further empirical testing of the ISCM and similar conceptual models. It shows the range of applicability of this model, and models drawn from it, and makes recommendations for further development.

Who helps best? Children’s evaluation of knowledgeable versus wealthy individuals in negative event contexts

Children favor knowledgeable people in information-seeking contexts, but is this preference maintained when other resources are available to resolve problems? This study addressed whether children relied on knowledge or wealth to decide who is qualified to help someone in need. Sixty-four 5- to 8-year-olds heard stories in which two bystanders (i.e., knowledgeable versus wealthy) witnessed a negative event. Children judged which bystander should assist a victim and which should supervise the situation. Children evaluated each bystander’s strategies and duty to help. Across ages, children indicated that the knowledgeable bystander should provide aid, supervise, and help more than the wealthy bystander, but made positive trait attributions about both bystanders. Children referenced how knowledge could produce solutions and with age, were better able to make knowledge- rather than wealth-related predictions about helpful behavior. These findings shed light on children’s understanding of wealth and draw connections between children’s reasoning about knowledge, wealth, and morality.

Factors Affecting Physicians' Credibility on Twitter When Sharing Health Information: Online Experimental Study.

Largely absent from research on how users appraise the credibility of professionals as sources for the information they find on social media is work investigating factors shaping credibility within a specific profession, such as physicians. We address debates about how physicians can show their credibility on social media depending on whether they employ a formal or casual appearance in their profile picture. Using prominence-interpretation theory, we posit that formal appearance will affect perceived credibility based on users' social context-specifically, whether they have a regular health care provider. For this experiment, we recruited 205 social media users using Amazon Mechanical Turk. We asked participants if they had a regular health care provider and then randomly assigned them to read 1 of 3 Twitter posts that varied only in the profile picture of the physician offering health advice. Next, we tasked participants with assessing the credibility of the physician and their likelihood of engaging with the tweet and the physician on Twitter. We used path analysis to assess whether participants having a regular health care provider impacted how the profile picture affected their ratings of the physician's credibility and their likelihood to engage with the tweet and physician on Twitter. We found that the profile picture of a physician posting health advice in either formal or casual attire did not elicit significant differences in credibility, with ratings comparable to those having no profile image. Among participants assigned the formal appearance condition, those with a regular provider rated the physician higher on a credibility than those without, which led to stronger intentions to engage with the tweet and physician. The findings add to existing research by showing how the social context of information seeking on social media shapes the credibility of a given professional. Practical implications for professionals engaging with the public on social media and combating false information include moving past debates about casual versus formal appearances and toward identifying ways to segment audiences based on factors like their backgrounds (eg, experiences with health care providers).

Grassroots information divides in China: Theorising everyday information practices in the Global South

The internet is becoming a major source of everyday information, yet existing research often focuses on specific information seeking contexts such as health, climate change, news, or hobbies. In this paper, we put forward a more holistic theoretical model of information seeking practices in everyday life that combines the social phenomenological perspective of everyday life information seeking practices and the domestication framework. We extend the cultural context to the Global South countries, where there is less research on “mobile first” societies centred on emerging mobile platforms. Based on extensive and mixed-methods fieldwork in rural and industrial China about everyday information seeking practices, the paper goes beyond previous research about digital divides in internet access and internet literacy. Instead, it focuses on divides in everyday information seeking practices. We argue that new divides are emerging between those with more restricted everyday internet uses and those with broader and more diverse ones. We compare everyday information practices and divides in China with those in India and show how a theory of digital divides in everyday information seeking practices can be applied beyond both countries to the Global South. Such a theory can also contribute to the design of informatisation policies.

The Information Needs of Chinese Family members of Cancer Patients in the Online Health Community: What and Why?

Meeting the information needs of cancer patients’ family members is critical for improving care quality and family members’ well-being. An online health community (OHC) can be an effective channel to provide information support, thus attracting many cancer patients’ family members. Several studies have examined the information needs of cancer patients’ family members in OHCs. However, most of them only focused on health-related information needs for improving patients’ physical well-being and did not consider the context of information seeking. Furthermore, most of these studies were conducted in Western countries; thus, their findings may not be generalizable to Chinese culture that emphasizes family-centered decision-making, protection of family members toward the patients, and collectivism.In this study, we investigated what kinds of information Chinese family members of cancer patients seek in the OHC and why they seek them. Hence, we analyzed 8,334 messages for information seeking posted by 2,788 family members in one of the most significant Chinese online cancer communities. Stressful events that trigger information needs were also identified for further studying the context of information needs. Based on qualitative content analysis, we discussed the information needs of cancer patients’ family members in the OHC and the potential impacts of Chinese culture on family members’ information needs. Furthermore, the results confirmed that information seeking could be a method to help family members of cancer patients cope with stressful events in the journey of cancer.

Coming to America: Iranians' use of Telegram for immigration information seeking

PurposeThis study examines Iran-US migrants' use of the most popular messaging application in Iran—Telegram—and shows how they use it to manage their migration information practices.Design/methodology/approachThis study took a qualitative observation approach. Over the course of six months, over 80 h of observations were conducted on Iran-US migration-related settings within Telegram.FindingsThis work identifies the information practices that emerge as users seek and share information related to Iran-US migration. Telegram plays a vital role across the immigration stages, predominantly in the pre-migration stage. This work also shows how the constraints and features of Telegram influence users' information sharing and seeking practices.Practical implicationsThe findings support the implication that a social media platform that provides multiple ways to interact is likely to better support niche or unanticipated uses.Originality/valueThis study is the first of its kind to explore Iranian Immigrants information practices in the US. The immigration information practices observed during this study represent a valuable example of end-user appropriation within extraordinary constraints, which may be of use in other information-seeking contexts where dedicated or bespoke tools are impractical or ill-advised.

Writing for Patients on the Participatory Web: Heuristics for Purpose-Driven Personas

Background: The participatory web complicates professional communicators' goals of providing accurate, usable, and trustworthy content, especially for health and medical topics. Professionals can better reach their audiences by understanding individuals' purposes for using e-health. Literature review: Previous literature has shown the need for audience analysis in e-health, and has called for personalized, nuanced, and contextualized methods for developing audience-centered content. Professional communicators in e-health can use personas as a strategy to help account for users' diverse, evolving, and extra-institutional purposes in accessing e-health, whether that content is professionally-generated or user-generated. Research questions: 1. What are patients' larger information-seeking contexts? 2. For what purposes do patients use e-health? 3. How can professional communicators leverage this deepened understanding of their audience's purposes to improve their content? Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted with seven community members who self-identified as e-health users. They were asked about their larger health information-seeking practices, specific instances of using e-health, and website preferences. Results: Participants use e-health among other sources including medical professionals. They use an array of e-health sites, including professional and user-generated sites, and have diverse purposes in using that array of sites. Conclusion and implications: The results suggest that professional communicators deepen their audience analysis to account for informational context, emotional context, and the diverse and shifting purposes of their users. Heuristics for professionals are provided to develop purpose-driven personas.

The Intonation and Pragmatics of Greek wh-Questions.

We experimentally tested three hypotheses regarding the pragmatics of two tunes (one high-ending, one flat-ending) used with Greek wh-questions: (a) the high-ending tune is associated with information-seeking questions, while the flat-ending tune is also appropriate when wh-questions are not information-seeking, in which case their function can instead be akin to that of a statement; (b) the high-ending tune is more polite, and (c) more appropriate for contexts leading to information-seeking questions. The wh-questions used as experimental stimuli were elicited from four speakers in contexts likely to lead to either information-seeking or non-information-seeking uses. The speakers produced distinct tunes in response to the contexts; acoustic analysis indicates these are best analysed as L*+H L-!H% (rising), and L+H* L-L% (flat). In a perception experiment where participants heard the questions out of context, they chose answers providing information significantly more frequently after high-ending than flat-ending questions, confirming hypothesis (a). In a second experiment testing hypotheses (b) and (c), participants evaluated wh-questions for appropriateness and politeness in information- and non-information-seeking contexts. High-ending questions were rated more appropriate in information-seeking contexts, and more polite independently of context relative to their flat-ending counterparts. Finally, two follow-up experiments showed that the interpretation of the two tunes was not affected by voice characteristics of individual speakers, and confirmed a participant preference for the high-ending tune. Overall, the results support our hypotheses and lead to a compositional analysis of the meaning of the two tunes, while also showing that intonational meaning is determined by both tune and pragmatic context.

Information Seeking Motivation Scale development: a self-determination perspective

PurposeUsing self-determination motivation theory as a theoretical framework, the purpose of this paper is to examine information seeking motivation at the domain level in higher education setting.Design/methodology/approachConfirmatory factor analysis was used to validate the Information Seeking Motivation Scale – College Version (ISMS – C).FindingsISMS – C was validated in the information seeking context. Consistent with self-determination theory (SDT), the results imply that students approach research tasks for both controlled and autonomous reasons.Research limitations/implicationsAll constructs representing extrinsic and intrinsic motivation on a continuum were confirmed. However, amotivation proved difficult to define with the current sample. Additional studies need to be conducted in higher education setting in order to confirm its existence.Practical implicationsGiven that the situational motivation is contingent on domain-level motivation, the ISMS – C scale can be helpful in promoting lasting intrinsic information seeking motivation at that level.Originality/valueConsistent with the subjectivist orientation in information sciences which aims to account for cognitive and affective forces behind information need, ISMS constructed in the current study is one of the first measurement instruments to account for a spectrum of information seeking motivations at the domain level.

New service system as an information-seeking context

PurposeThe purposes of this paper are to understand the user information seeking (IS) process under a new service system, to explore how users construct strategies and to identify the influences of the new service system on the IS process and behaviour.Design/methodology/approachA quality research study design that included questionnaires survey, observation, thinking-aloud and interviews was employed. In all, 20 participants from 12 social science disciplines at Sichuan University, Chengdu, China were observed using the proposed Discovery Service system. The user IS process characteristics and taxonomy were analysed, and the stages matrix of IS under new system was built.FindingsUsers’ IS processes under the new system proved to be very complex. The features of three process stages, i.e. searching, scanning and verifying stages, and four different behaviour patterns were identified. Moreover, characteristics of IS behaviour under the new service system were described.Originality/valueUser IS behaviour was addressed in a new service system context in this study, as has seldom been done in previous IS research. A comprehensive and user-centred understanding of users’ exploratory practices in a new service system context was obtained, which will inform the development of information services for digital libraries. In addition, it indicated that the uncertainty of the IS process should be addressed by considering the relationships among IS, information retrieval and user-computer interaction.

Multirelational Recommendation in Heterogeneous Networks

Recommender systems are key components in information-seeking contexts where personalization is sought. However, the dominant framework for recommendation is essentially two dimensional, with the interaction between users and items characterized by a single relation. In many cases, such as social networks, users and items are joined in a complex web of relations, not readily reduced to a single value. Recent multirelational approaches to recommendation focus on the direct, proximal relations in which users and items may participate. Our approach uses the framework of complex heterogeneous networks to represent such recommendation problems. We propose the weighted hybrid of low-dimensional recommenders (WHyLDR) recommendation model, which uses extended relations, represented as constrained network paths, to effectively augment direct relations. This model incorporates influences from both distant and proximal connections in the network. The WHyLDR approach raises the problem of the unconstrained proliferation of components, built from ever-extended network paths. We show that although component utility is not strictly monotonic with path length, a measure based on information gain can effectively prune and optimize such hybrids.

HealthRecSys: A semantic content-based recommender system to complement health videos

BackgroundThe Internet, and its popularity, continues to grow at an unprecedented pace. Watching videos online is very popular; it is estimated that 500 h of video are uploaded onto YouTube, a video-sharing service, every minute and that, by 2019, video formats will comprise more than 80% of Internet traffic. Health-related videos are very popular on YouTube, but their quality is always a matter of concern. One approach to enhancing the quality of online videos is to provide additional educational health content, such as websites, to support health consumers. This study investigates the feasibility of building a content-based recommender system that links health consumers to reputable health educational websites from MedlinePlus for a given health video from YouTube.MethodsThe dataset for this study includes a collection of health-related videos and their available metadata. Semantic technologies (such as SNOMED-CT and Bio-ontology) were used to recommend health websites from MedlinePlus. A total of 26 healths professionals participated in evaluating 253 recommended links for a total of 53 videos about general health, hypertension, or diabetes. The relevance of the recommended health websites from MedlinePlus to the videos was measured using information retrieval metrics such as the normalized discounted cumulative gain and precision at K.ResultsThe majority of websites recommended by our system for health videos were relevant, based on ratings by health professionals. The normalized discounted cumulative gain was between 46% and 90% for the different topics.ConclusionsOur study demonstrates the feasibility of using a semantic content-based recommender system to enrich YouTube health videos. Evaluation with end-users, in addition to healthcare professionals, will be required to identify the acceptance of these recommendations in a nonsimulated information-seeking context.

How can you tell if it’s working? Recent developments in impact evaluation and their implications for information literacy practice

This paper surveys the (patchy and uneven) advances in LIS impact evaluation over the past ten years and notes the surge forward in public library impact evaluation, before looking more broadly at international and educational impact evaluation scene and noting the advance of programme-theory driven approaches. The authors then identify various trends drawn from the wider evaluation discourse that they think are likely to be relevant to information literacy (IL) practitioners, academic staff, employers and others who are concerned with impact evaluation of IL work. The trends identified are: 1) growing clarity about the levels of evaluation expertise needed to deliver information literacy support from the perspectives of leaders of LIS education programmes, staff of academic institutions, library leaders and managers and IL practitioners; 2) growing interest in more inclusive or democratic approaches to impact evaluation; 3) the limitations of the simple logic model of evaluation; 4) re-purposing of existing data to meet new evaluation needs collecting and presenting stories of change as impact evaluation evidence. Implications for IL practitioners are offered in relation to each of these trends. The authors then predict that over the next ten years there will be a strong focus on whether IL interventions are having an impact in combating misinformation and disinformation; more systematic and sustained approaches to IL impact evaluation in the health and higher education sectors but less so in some school libraries and other settings. They think that the more proactive public libraries will adopt IL evaluation approaches, that workplace IL will continue to depend upon the organisational culture, and that research on information seeking in context will shed light on evaluation priorities. Finally, they hope that future IL work will be underpinned by programme theory-based evaluation.

Information Worlds and Interpretive Practices: Toward an Integration of Domains

ABSTRACT This article proposes an interwoven three-part framework for conceptualizing and analyzing the role of infor-mation in human activities, melding the cognitive and affective domain of the individual, the collective domain of the social, and the domain of signification and communication practices, focusing on the ways in which indi-vidual characteristics, social context and interaction, and signification and representation work together to form information behavior. The article presents an overview of each of these three domains and discusses the ways in which they are intertwined. It argues that considering the three domains in relation to each other offers a holistic framework within which to consider the ways in which information – needs, behavior, creation, and use – depends simultaneously on all three. It concludes by offering a brief discussion of the implications of the framework for in-formation services, including (but not limited to) libraries. Keywords : Information Behavior, Information Seeking in Context, Semiotics, Hermeneutics

‘Unearthing farmers' information seeking contexts and challenges in digital, local and industry environments’

The information seeking contexts of Australian grain and cotton growers were explored as they undertook self-directed learning to make farming system changes. This investigation provided insights into information seeking and what constitutes ‘information’ that supported learning. Growers' information seeking contexts were individual, personalised, situated within experiential practices, bounded by locales, and facilitated by social practices. Farmers are agents who must personalise both information content and processes to produce relevant meanings and to progress their own learning agendas and pathways. Information seeking in online, local, and industry environments highlighted differences between available content and farmers' individual information needs. Information and communications systems that facilitate and empower individual farmer knowledge processes and onfarm outcomes are a necessary strategy of agricultural development.

Young learners’ use of social media for information seeking : exploring core LIS journals from 2010-2014

ABSTRACTBackground. Increased use of media for information seeking and learning calls for more and knowledge of how these emerging technologies can support students' learning.Objectives. The focus is on recent studies of young learners' use of media for information seeking in an academic context.Methods. The is based on critical reading of core library and information science (LIS) journals and a selected number of conference proceedings spanning 2010 to 2014. The examination of the selected journals and proceedings was guided by two general questions: 1) Which information seeking activities, strategies and preferences can be identified when young learners use media for information seeking in relation to course work and other study-related work tasks? 2) What motivations can be identified among young learners for using media for information seeking in a study context?Results. Seven studies were identified and reviewed. According to the reported results, use of media tends to afford certain types of behavior. Specific strategies, tactics and criteria were used when requesting and evaluating information or formulating information needs. The reported factors motivating information seeking were convenience and easy access to information, in addition to the content associated with specific media types. Students' use of media for information seeking was associated primarily with their private information landscape.Contributions. The challenges of using non-traditional sources for information seeking identified in the studies raise questions of how teachers and information professionals can educate young learners to use media competently as information seekers and authors of information.INTRODUCTIONIn recent years a growing interest in on media has emerged in many disciplines in the humanities and sciences. The development is demonstrated by an increasing number of scholars now labeling their social media research and by more conferences on the topic. Use of media has also drawn significant attention from educators with an increasing number of practitioners using media in their teaching. This interest is further reflected by the appearance of a new International Journal of Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments (IJSMILE).In information science, a similar tendency of increased interest in media has been observed. In 2011 a new International Conference on Information Science and Social Media (ISSOME, 2013) was established to discuss the role of information science in this new area. Themes of interest are the perspectives and values that information scientists can add to the study of media and vice versa. A recent Workshop on Information Behavior on Social Media at the Information Seeking in Context (ISIC) Conference 2014 further highlights this new interest. Social media have introduced new opportunities and challenges to LIS and practice: the traditional conception of user and author has changed fundamentally, individuals seek and share information in new ways, and critical approaches to information have become even more crucial.Turning to young learners, an increasing use of media and mobile technology for course work has recently been reported (Dahlstrom, 2012; Dahlstrom, Walker and Dziuban, 2013). More undergraduate students, for example, use Twitter and studying sites (such as CourseHero) with peers and friends. Parallel to this tendency more researchers and practitioners are concerned with questions related to young learners' digital competences. At a national level, media and information seeking has, for example, become one of four strategic elements in a Danish national policy paper on digital fluency and secondary schools (DEFF, 2012).Given that media have become a part of young peoples' digital information behavior and learning, more knowledge is needed on how and why they use media in a study context. …

Information Seeking in Context: Results of Graduate Student Interviews

Abstract We conducted a qualitative research study examining the information seeking behaviours of Psychology, Sociology and Women’s Studies graduate students at a large research intensive university to determine how graduate students find information; the roles that faculty members, fellow graduate students and librarians play in the information search; and graduate students’ knowledge of information resources and services. The context of graduate student information seeking was uncovered through an analysis of the data using the trichotomy of people, place and information. Across the disciplines, Master’s students were more likely to ask for librarian assistance than PhD students. The interview findings will be used to improve librarian support to this user group via an instruction plan aimed at those graduate students most in need of librarian assistance: Master’s students. We recommend a series of several (e.g., approximately four to eight) strategically timed brief (e.g., ten-minute) sessions offered via a first-year mandatory research methods course. Sessions would introduce students to key resources, explain the role librarians can play in their research and advertise the office hours service. This enhanced librarian support will ensure that all new graduate students have a common information seeking knowledge base and that they understand the services offered by their liaison librarians. Most importantly, it places librarians in close proximity to graduate students providing opportunities to uncover and address their actual research needs. Future research will look at the effectiveness of this plan in supporting graduate students with their research.

A United States-China Comparison of Risk Information–Seeking Intentions

We applied structural equation modeling to examine how the Risk Information Seeking and Processing (RISP) model predicts information-seeking intentions in the United States and China. The context for this comparison was climate change. Results indicate that in the Chinese sample, seeking intentions were less influenced by environmental attitudes, risk perceptions, negative affect, information insufficiency, and behavioral beliefs. Across the two samples, subjective norms had similar impacts on seeking intentions. Overall, the model has cross-cultural validity and applicability in accounting for risk communication behaviors in these two nations. Based on prior support for this model outside of the context of climate change, the model is well poised to serve as a framework for a variety of cross-cultural risk information–seeking contexts.

The Role of Information for People Planning for Retirement

This study presents the preliminary findings from research on the Everyday Life Information Seeking behaviours of Korean government officials in their 50s. The main objectives of this study were to characterize the daily life of baby boomers waiting for retirement by understanding their basic information use contexts, and to also identify a range of information seeking and search behaviours. Sixteen people, aged between 50 and 56, participated in this study. Qualitative data was collected through semi-structured interviews. The data was analyzed from four perspectives: 1) information seeking environments; 2) personal context of information seeking; 3) patterns of information searching; 4) recognition of discontinuation of information seeking. The qualitative findings indicate that the participants preferred to use physical materials and their existing social networks as information sources. The study participants generally held unfavourable or uncomfortable views of libraries as their source of information to satisfy their information needs. Nevertheless, the participants expected that libraries, acting as information centres, would be another useful place for their lives if libraries continue to transform. Finally, the study reveals the relationship among environment, context, and interaction with respect to personal information-seeking behaviours based on the analysis. This study should serve as strategic implications for library practitioners to develop the information services and the corresponding library management process in accordance to the potential and powerful evolving user group in a future aged society.