Competencies

Competency 10: Seeking

Picture of a compass and a map

A compass and a map–venerable tools for finding information

COMPETENCY STATEMENT

Each graduate of the Master of Library and Information Science program is able to…

…describe the fundamental concepts of information-seeking behaviors

Page Contents

IMPORTANCE OF THE COMPETENCY TO ME

Finding information should be as easy as knowing the author's name is "Frank Herbert", knowing the book's title is Dune, and going to the shelf with books written by authors with "H" names and finding the one Frank Herbert book on the shelf, which happens to be Dune.

That's not really how it works, though. What seems intuitively as though it should be a relatively simple task–find the item that you know you're looking for–actually involves all sorts of pesky principles that come into play when you actually try to do it. In order to be a data curator, I have studied library science, including the principles and practices of information retrieval. In order to assist users with successful information retrieval, I must understand the behavior of information-seeking.

Devin provides this definition of information-seeking: "The goal of information seeking is to fill the [cognate] gaps to make sense of a current situation" (as cited in Cleveland & Cleveland, 2013, p. 102). Rubin (2004) adds that information-seeking and information-gathering are not the same: "Information seeking is 'an attempt to satisfy an immediate need by searching for relevant information.' Information gathering is 'an attempt to satisfy a deferred need by searching for relevant information.' (p.8)" (p. 40).

Theories on information-seeking behavior include:

Zipf's principle of least effort (Bernier, 2008, p. 2)
Reliance on grey literature and the invisible college are evidence of this phenomenon. Brown and Ortega (2005) comment on this tendency in one group: "Responses to the survey indicate that physical science librarians place a significantly higher value on the invisible college as an information resource for their daily activities than the journal literature" (p. 235).
Uses and gratifications (Bernier, 2008, pp. 2-3)
This is the idea that people are active seekers of media instead of passive recipients of random messages. This theory is especially pertinent in light of today's social media.
Sense-making (Bernier, 2008, pp. 3-5)
Kuhlthau's theory of a six-step process of information-seeking is focused more on the experience of the information seeker, positing that one goes through these stages: initiation, selection, exploration, formulation, collection, and search closure ("Information-seeking models", 2014) or presentation (Bernier, 2008, p. 4).
Social constructionism (Bernier, 2008, pp. 5-6)
This is, in part, the idea that information has meaning only through the context of a community. I believe it is closely related to the new categorization of folksonomy (Mathes, 2004).
Play theory and entertainment theory (Bernier, 2008, pp. 6-7)
These theories lead to data visualization–they say that people may be more drawn to some information sources than others due to the attractiveness of the presentation. "Take the greater mass appeal of the USA Today, for instance, versus The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal. They are all newspapers. But one incorporates more graphic and format variety than the other two" (p. 6).

This collection of theories lends truth to Cleveland and Cleveland's (2013) assertion: "The one recurring conclusion in user studies is that users seek out and use information in many different ways" (p. 103). Some differences pertinent to a data archive are between scientists and humanities scholars: the former use grey literature and the informal college, whereas the latter are more reliant on books and library reference materials (Rubin, 2004, p. 38) (although Haglund and Olsson [2008] theorize that that is less important than addressing the needs of a specific audience [p. 53]). Pinelli (2001) further delineates a difference between the information needs of scientists and engineers: "Journal articles are appropriate for scientists to describe the development and testing of one idea. In contrast, technical reports are more appropriate for engineers to document engineering outcomes" (p. 144), which can have implications on the potential patrons of a data archive.

Understanding information-seeking behavior can help a librarian or curator find ways to combat Haglund and Olsson's (2008) observation that patrons do not turn to librarians first: "'Research is increasingly taking place outside library walls, be they physical or virtual' and that there are indications that researchers prefer to locate material using Internet search engines, rather than digital libraries or subject portals" (p. 53). Clearly, marketing a data archive is important to draw users' attention to its existence and information content. The body of research about information-seeking behaviors is just as useful to a data curator as to a librarian in knowing how to better help patrons.
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WHAT WORK PREPARED ME TO UNDERSTAND AND PERFORM THIS COMPETENCY?

Specific classes focused on the phenomenon of information-seeking. "Reference and Information Services" (LIBR210) gave me up-close, in-person experience with reference interviews and information-seeking behaviors of patrons in public, academic, and special libraries. "Resources and Information Services in the Disciplines and Professions: Maps and Geographic Information Systems" (LIBR220) and "Resources and Information Services in the Disciplines and Professions: Science and Technology" (LIBR220) taught me more about information-seeking behavior, specifically the use of grey literature and the informal college. "Vocabulary Design" (LIBR247) and "Beginning Cataloging and Classification" (LIBR248) taught me the nuts and bolts of ways to create and understand metadata that make information have meaning per social constructionism. "Information Technology Tools and Applications: Big Data Analytics and Management (LIBR246) and "Information Technology Tools and Applications: Information Visualization" (LIBR246) showed me techniques for presenting information that might be more accessible for those using a play theory approach combined with uses and gratifications seeking-behavior, in that data visualizations speak to viewers in ways that a catalog cannot. Through these classes, I have learned more about how users interact with catalogs and wrangle search engines, how to give search clues and tutorials, how to make metadata easier to use, and how to make information more findable. I observed the stages of sense-making behavior in patrons and in myself.

In addition, of course, I have my own information-seeking experiences to draw upon. I have been practicing Internet searching since there was an Internet to search. In general, my Internet searching follows the principle of least effort; I expect Google to give me the answer I want, or a pointer to where to find the answer, on the first page (and am satisfied about 80% of the time). During iSchool I became more starkly aware of my habits and my sometimes limited understanding of the options of search tools, and I have practiced information seeking countless times on the databases in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. library, on Google and various web-based archives, and within documents. I have gone through the sense-making stages:

Initiation: I would experience "personal anxiety" (Bernier, 2008, p. 4) generated by an assignment
Selection: Would happen whenever the assignment did not have a specific topic (where I would try to come up with some way to make the assignment about geoinformatics)
Exploration: I would consult Google and usually Wikipedia, with the accompanying "uncertainty, confusion, [and] doubt" (Bernier, 2008, p. 4)
Formulation: Armed with keywords, I would head off to the King library databases
Collection: I would find and discard several mostly irrelevant articles in databases such as Elsevier and EBSCOhost and eventually discover more usable articles
Presentation: I would experience the concepts found in the articles coming together as knowledge and I would pour that knowledge onto the electronic page

I can now observe and identify information-seeking behaviors, and I will be able to use this in my work as a data curator.
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EVIDENCE

Paper: "Comparing Content- and Context-Based Image Searching"

An interesting assignment in LIBR247 was to search for visual images, which introduced me to some search elements that are now available, such as color- and context-based searching for visual images. The information-seeking behavior used should have been play theory, with search engines making it attractive to search for images, but the technology is new enough that the interfaces are require a lot of participation and dedication from the seeker. This experience gave me information on information-seeking that will be very helpful when working with an archive filled with remote sensing images.

Project: "Disney Thesaurus"

For the final project in LIBR247, my group decided to create a thesaurus that addressed the field of Continental U.S.-based Disney resorts and their economic and ecological impacts. I was in charge of coming up with the elements related to ecological impact, as that was close to my interests in remote sensing and climate change. We each created an equal number of terms and, through intense discussion, decided how to classify them with an appropriate notation scheme. I now have a better understanding of what goes into creating an index. Creating this thesaurus forced us to think deeply about the terms we selected in the context of our audience, where the uses and gratification theory would dictate that their understanding of the terms was not necessarily that of a crisp dictionary definition. We worked hard to make our terms make sense in the context of our topic.

Discussion Post: "Asking a Reference Librarian a Question in Person"

In LIBR210, most of our assignments dealt with watching and evaluating the work of reference librarians in various settings. For one discussion post, I asked a question about how often the company I work for, Cytobank, has been referenced in journals. (Scientists upload their flow cytometry experiements to our website and use our software to analyze them, then reference them in journals so that readers can go interact with the data directly and judge the veracity of the papers' claims.) This was a great exercise in watching a reference librarian assess my information needs and my abilities, ask focusing questions, and do the search to answer my question. Because this was an assigned information-seeking experience, I would relate this to sense-making theory. The reference interview process itself, whereby the librarian works to understand the motivations driving the information-seeking behavior of the patron, is something I plan to use in my career as a data curator.

Discussion Post: "Evaluating a Thesaurus"

For a discussion post in LIBR247, I evaluated a geoscience thesaurus that I used in gathering and verifying terms for the final project. I had not really considered thesauri beyond the kind that helps you with English language synonyms and antonyms before this class, so this was an eye-opening introduction to another powerful research tool. The thesaurus definitely would not help someone using Zipf's path of least resistance, but it has a depth and breadth of information, and someone willing to invest effort in sense-making information-seeking would reap the rewards.
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CONCLUSION

If users can't find the information they need, the whole purpose of creating, having, organizing, and storing information is lost. If I understand how users look for information–what their assumptions are, what their information paradigms are, how humans in general approach the finding process (physically and psychologically), what biases might get in the way–I can create and structure metadata that can help them find the ideal information items more often.

I leave iSchool with a much better understanding of these user approaches and the processes that can make information-seeking easier, more successful, and more rewarding.
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REFERENCES

Bernier, A. (2008). Theories of information seeking and practice [PDF document].

Brown, C. M., & Ortega, L. (2005, May). Information-seeking behavior of physical science librarians: Does research inform practice? College and Research Libraries, 66(3), pp. 231-247.

Calsidyrose. (2010, August 21). Compass study [Online image]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/calsidyrose/4925267732/

Cleveland, D. B., & Cleveland, A. D. (2013). Introduction to indexing and abstracting [4th ed.]. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO

Haglund, L., & Olsson, P. (2008, January 24). The impact on university libraries of changes in information behavior among academic researchers: A multiple case study. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 34(1), pp. 52-59.

Information-seeking models. (2014, October 23). Retrieved from http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php/Information-seeking_models#Kulhlthau.27s_visual_model_in_six_stages

Mathes, A. (2004, December). Folksonomies–Cooperative classification and communication through shared metadata. Retrieved from http://www.adammathes.com/academic/computer-mediated-communication/folksonomies.html

Pinelli, T. (2001). Distinguishing engineers from scientists–The case for an engineering knowledge community. Science & Technology Libraries, 21(3/4), pp. 131-163.

Rubin, R. E. (2004). Foundations of library and information science (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Neal-Schuman Publishers.

Last updated: Friday, April 17, 2015