J - Information Seeking
Describe the fundamental concepts of information-seeking behaviors and how they should be considered when connecting individuals or groups with accurate, relevant, and appropriate information.
Introduction and Explication
In the library and information science (LIS) context, information behavior is defined as "the many ways in which human beings interact with information, in particular, the ways in which people seek and utilize information" (Bates, 2018). Information behavior is best understood when assessed within the socio-cultural contexts it occurs (Bates, 2018; Savolainen & Thomson, 2021).
Increasingly, that socio-cultural context is digital. Thus, an astute information professional advocates on behalf of their constituent communities by ensuring their organizations provide broad access to, and use of, current information and communication technologies. Additionally, they provide the skillful reference services and instructional programs necessary to empower their users' safe, informed, and efficient knowledge and skills when searching or browsing information databases via an information retrieval system. This is accomplished through the application of library and information science theories and models of information-seeking behaviors such as berrypicking, Everyday Life Information Seeking, and the Serious Leisure Perspective and targeted and enthusiastic outreach to, and engagement with, diverse communities of information seekers with the aim of improving their information and digital literacies and connecting individuals or groups with accurate, relevant, and appropriate information.
Berrypicking
Digital Information Age information seekers benefit from the abundance of information and knowledge made accessible to them via online databases and information retrieval systems (IRS) (Bates, 1989). However, these information technologies add to the complexity of users' information behaviors and have proven to impact user search techniques and strategies (Bates, 1989; Bates, 2018). In 1989, Marcia Bates introduced the LIS field to "berrypicking", an evidence-based theoretical model which considers online information seeking behaviors (e.g., querying) and offers recommendations for the design and use of IRSs. Berrypicking remains highly relevant to understanding information seeking behaviors.
Berrypicking is a predictable, non-linear, evolving, and iterative process of seeking and identifying pieces of information in the context of a specific universe of interest that resides within the comprehensive information universe (Bates, 1989; Infideos [Jenna Hartel], 2022b). Elements of the berrypicking process include a user-system interaction; a user query; retrieved documents (i.e., new information); user's new thoughts and ideas; revised query; and repetition of the process until problem resolution is achieved (Infideos [Jenna Hartel], 2022b). Common berrypicking strategies and techniques include backwards chaining/footnote chasing; forward chaining/citation searching; journal run; area scanning; author searching; and database subject searching which is the strategy most often employed by information seekers including LIS professionals (Bates, 1989; Infideos [Jenna Hartel], 2022b).
The berrypicking model posits that users browse through information resources at various points of their information seeking process. In contrast to information searching, defined as a user's intentional movement toward a known target, user browsing involves moving through an information set with a less clearly defined target (Bates, 1989; Infideos [Jenna Hartel], 2022b). Each of the above-mentioned berrypicking strategies involves user browsing at various points in the process.
Everyday Life Information Seeking
"Information seeking is a major constituent of information behavior or information practices, that is, the entirety of ways in which people seek, use, and share information in different contexts" (Savolainen & Thomson, 2021, p 1506). Everyday life information seeking (ELIS) is an inclusive, heterogeneous research model of information seeking behaviors in non-work, non-institutional contexts (Savolainen, 2021). It addresses "individual characteristics and socio-cultural determinants of information seeking" in everyday life activities (Infideos, 2022). The model incorporates three dimensions including way of life (socio/cultural influences), mastery of life (individual psychological dispositions), and everyday life information seeking (behaviors employed to resolve problems and maintain one's way of life) (Savolainen, 2021).
In ELIS, a way of life is an individual's system of thinking which brings order to their daily life, (Savolainen, 2017). Components of Savolainen's (2017) "way of life" include they ways an individual budgets their time between work and leisure; the ways they consume goods; and they ways in which they approach and integrate hobbies into daily living (Savolainen, 2017). Mastery of life is an individual’s psychological orientation toward "keeping things in order" to ensure the continuation of a way of life in the face of daily problems (Infideos, 2022). ELIS purports that resolution of problems relies on the problem-solving behavior of information seeking (Savolainen, 2017).
Serious Leisure Perspective
A profound element of life, "leisure is often heterogeneous and information rich" (Hartel, 2003; Infideos [Jenna Hartel], 2021). Leisure activities of all types "engender deep self-fulfillment" and occur within the realm of an individual's free time (Stebbins & Hartel, 2012). Hartel's (2003) Serious Leisure Perspective (SLP) is a theoretical framework comprised of three umbrella leisure types: casual leisure, project-based leisure, and serious pursuits (Stebbins & Hartel, 2012).
Falling under the category of serious pursuits, serious leisure "is the systematic pursuit of an amateur, hobbyist, or volunteer core activity that is highly substantial, interesting, and fulfilling and where, in the typical case, participants find a career in acquiring and expressing a combination of its special skills, knowledge, and experience" (Stebbins & Hartel, 2012). The six qualities of serious leisure include an individual's need to persevere at the activity; a leisure career is available to the individual; the activity requires effort to acquire knowledge and skill; numerous benefits result from the activity; the serious leisure activity has a unique ethos and occurs in a unique social world; and the activity is "attractive to personal and social identity" (Infideos [Jenna Hartel], 2021).
As mentioned previously, those individuals pursuing a serious leisure career include amateurs, hobbyists, and volunteers (Stebbins & Hartel, 2012). They tend to identify and collaborate with information communities either in-person, online, or via a hybrid approach. Regardless of their subject of interest, all information communities exploit information sharing qualities of technology; intentionally collaborate with their diverse members to share information; evolve from a collective need to access and use information; challenge information access service barriers; and foster social connectedness (Christensen, & Levinson, 2003). Librarians and other information professionals proactively engage with their physical, digital, and hybrid information communities and provide them with theory- and evidence-based reference and access services, including information and digital literacy guidance and instruction.
Evidence
A blog post written as a preliminary research report for my Information Communities course (INFO 200, F21), Resource education and community outreach for serious leisure information communities addresses the information resource education and community engagement needs of a virtual information community involved in digital public archaeology investigations. In the contexts of ELIS and SLP, this global, digitally-connected, social group is comprised of serious leisure amateurs, hobbyists, and volunteers who participate at various levels in virtually observing, collectively interpreting, and crowd funding three-day archaeological evaluations throughout the United Kingdom. The inter-disciplinary evaluations involve numerous applications of cutting-edge technologies which they explain and demonstrate to their patrons using digital communications tools. Investigations are filmed and made available to community members on YouTube and Patreon, and user engagement is encouraged and expanded via proactive use of social media platforms and open-access reporting. Often these digital results inspire community members to further explore results and related topics. Libraries, archives/digital repositories, and other online information centers are logical and useful access points for such self-education.
From an LIS point of view, this virtual information community is well-served by the investigators. Comprised of thousands of Serious Leisure amateurs, hobbyists, and volunteers seeking expansive access to, and use of, the knowledge and information gleaned and openly shared from the evaluations. r individual and community research may be hindered, however, due to the propriety view knowledge ownership held by many academic and corporate institutions, scholarly databases are difficult for institutionally-unaffiliated users to access and use in meaningful ways due to cost, lack of education about using technology resources, and, perhaps most crucially, a lack of knowledge that these resources exist at all (Kenney, 2015).
This blog post acts as evidence of my knowledge and skills in Competency J, by outlining – from ELIS and SLP perspectives - the research and knowledge sharing methods which information professionals can offer to serious leisure hobbyists. These include resource education and community-focused outreach and engagement in support of participants' digital and information literacies; identifying online resources that support user queries and which are openly available to them; providing instruction on how to frame queries to search and browse; offering insight into the ways that metadata supports research and investigation; providing technology access, use, and education; and designing their physical and virtual spaces as community hubs for active learning and collaborative knowledge creation and sharing (Kenney, 2015; Lippincott, 2015; Stephens 2014).
Evidence 2: Time Team: A Virtual Information Community for Public Archaeology Enthusiasts Links to an external site.
Time Team: A Virtual Information Community for Public Archaeology Enthusiasts is a research paper (mentioned above) written for Information Communities (INFO 200, F21). A literature review and discussion, the paper examines the Time Team virtual information community’s information needs, behaviors, and everyday life experiences within the context of the social web and its impact on professional digital public archaeology (DPA) practices and values.
As an interdisciplinary group of professional public archaeologists, the team engages collaboratively with their physical and digital communities to assess, interpret, and envision past human life, cultures, and societies in geographical locations throughout the British Isles. Time Team’s information community is all about evidence in context and acknowledging that history is “an exciting conception understandable in terms of evolutionary forces” and subject to “perpetual reinterpretation” (Bates, 2018). Time Team episodes are information-gathering processes structured as events, propositions, and messages with the of conveying knowledge to the community and beyond (Bates, 2018). By recording and openly sharing its research process, and by proactively interacting with community supporters, Time Team engages in a virtual exchange of information and effectively increases access and use of its resources. This process involves active engagement by community members who share a common interest in gaining verifiable knowledge and increasing user access to it (Durrance, 2001).
This research paper provides evidence of my knowledge and skills related to Competency J by analyzing this participatory culture community from the theoretical perspectives upheld by the field of LIS. Jenkin's theory of participator culture and meaning making (i.e., fandom) is discussed, as is the way that the virtual information community is encapsulated by Savolainen’s (2017) theory of Everyday Life Information Seeking (ELIS) in which “information acquisition tak[es] place in less clearly specified contexts and activities such as hobbies". Moreover, it considers the community from an SLP orientation, assessing the community's motivations, the experiential value of the program to participants; the implications of the community's identity and members' sense of connection to it; the value of open access to information to democratic inclusivity and expansive community engagement; and the engagement model's impact on the long-term sustainability of archaeological investigations. Additionally, it highlights how this participatory information community supports equitable representation in the historical narrative and upholds the value of digital and information literacy and equity. This community is an exemplar by which Digital Information Age information professionals may identify strategies and techniques for expansive and diverse user engagement, collaborative knowledge creation and sharing, and organizational sustainability.
Evidence 3: Silicon Kids of the 70s: An Inclusive Community Memory Project Links to an external site.
Silicon Kids of the 70s: An Inclusive Community Memory Project is a theoretically-oriented, evidence-based, and standards-compliant oral history project plan I wrote for my Community Archives seminar (MARA 284, Su21). The purposes of the project include building an archives that represents the diverse voices of children from 1970’s Silicon Valley to create points of affective connection, remembrance, context, identity, and empathy for self and one another, and to exist as an outlet of expression for those voices that are absent from the mainstream narrative (Caswell, 2020). The project strives to empower and engage - in culturally sensitive and appropriate ways - with this information community by building a sustainable, standards-informed, archival collection of these memories, and to preserve them in an online, digitized repository for broad and equitable representation and access to researchers, and to assure long term preservation of – and digital access and use of – the collection so that their voices are heard and maintained as part of the comprehensive historical record.
This project plan is evidence of my Competency J-related knowledge and skills by elucidating my ability to craft a comprehensive and professional digital oral history collection that is community-created, centered, and directed; culturally and socially inclusive; and designed to create standards-compliant access points to historical memories that are absent from the mainstream historical narrative. It approaches archival collection practices that reflect the everyday life experiences (ELIS) and information needs of a diverse information community in need of the opportunity to express their experiences, share knowledge, and develop a more robust digital information community collectively and safely. As an emerging LIS professional, I am committed to advocating for underrepresented and potentially vulnerable communities by creating and promoting digital access, literacy, and knowledge sharing and creation opportunities in digital environments.
Conclusion
Effective information professionals turn to evidence-based theories and models of information seeking behavior to identify, assess, engage, and connect individual and communities with accurate, relevant, and appropriate information. While current and emerging technologies provide information seekers with expansive access to knowledge resources, they also require that users learn the techniques for optimal system querying such as Bates' (1989; 2018) model of berrypicking. Further, technology developments have expanded opportunities for digital connectivity, allowing geographically disparate individuals to form communities based on shared leisure interests and activities. Digital Information Age librarians, archivists, and other information professionals proactively identify and engage with and advocate for these information communities by offering information and digital literacy instruction and crafting information seeking behavior theory-supported policies, procedures, programs, and services which address their everyday interests and information needs.
References
Bates, M. J. (1989). The design of browsing and berrypicking techniques for the online search interface. Online Review, 13(5), 407–424. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb024320 Links to an external site.
Bates, M. J. (2018). Information behavior. In McDonald, J. D. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of library and Information sciences (4th ed.) (pp. 2074-2085).
Caswell, M. (2020). Affective bonds: what community archives can teach mainstream institutions. In A. Flinn & J. A. Bastian (Eds.), Community Archives, Community Spaces: Heritage, Memory and Identity (pp. 21–40). Facet Publishing.
Christensen, K., & Levinson, D. (2003). Information communities. In Encyclopedia of Community: From the Village to the Virtual World (Vol. 4, pp. 658-660). SAGE Publications, Inc., https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412952583 Links to an external site.
Durrance, J. C. (2001). The vital role of librarians in creating information communities: strategies for success. Library Administration & Management, 15(3), 161–168.
Hartel, J. (2003). Serious leisure frontier in library and information science: Hobby domains. Knowledge Organization, 30(3/4), 228–238.
Infideos [Jenna Hartel]. (2021). Information and leisure video series - part 1: Information behavior [Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKttSM1hVug Links to an external site.
Infideos [Jenna Hartel]. (2022a). Everyday life information seeking by Reijo Savolainen | What makes this paper great? (#9) [Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOHYw7ZJ10U Links to an external site.
Infideos [Jenna Hartel]. (2022b). The design of browsing and berrypicking by Marcia Bates | What makes this paper great? (#8) [Video]. In www.youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep5FRCzpY34&list=PLZp7Vke_WTVoMYOBuDlzIWJan3vj1je2z&index=3 Links to an external site.
Kenney, B. (2015). Where reference fits in the modern library. Publishers Weekly, 262(37), 18.
Lippincott, J. K. (2015). The Future for Teaching and Learning Librarians’ Deepening Involvement in Pedagogy and Curriculum. American Libraries, 1. Retrieved from https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2015/02/26/the-future-for-teaching-and-learning/ Links to an external site.
Savolainen, R. (2017). Everyday life information seeking. In Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences (4th ed., pp. 1506–1515). Taylor & Francis.
Savolainen, R., & Thomson, L. (2021). Assessing the theoretical potential of an expanded model for everyday information practices. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 73(4), 511–527. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24589 Links to an external site.
Stebbins, R. A., & Hartel, J. (2012). Concepts. The Serious Leisure Perspective (SLP). https://www.seriousleisure.net/concepts.html Links to an external site.
Stephens, Michael. (15 May 2014). Library as classroom. Library Journal, 139(9), p. 36. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A367965044/AONE?u=csusj&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=731efb9a Links to an external site.