Abstract :
This paper offers a new, nonlinear model of informationseeking
behavior, which contrasts with earlier stage
models of information behavior and represents a potential
cornerstone for a shift toward a new perspective for
understanding user information behavior. The model is
based on the findings of a study on interdisciplinary
information-seeking behavior. The study followed a naturalistic
inquiry approach using interviews of 45 academics.
The interview results were inductively analyzed
and an alternative framework for understanding information-
seeking behavior was developed. This model illustrates
three core processes and three levels of contextual
interaction, each composed of several individual
activities and attributes. These interact dynamically
through time in a nonlinear manner. The behavioral patterns
are analogous to an artist’s palette, in which activities
remain available throughout the course of information-
seeking. In viewing the processes in this way,
neither start nor finish points are fixed, and each process
may be repeated or lead to any other until either the
query or context determine that information-seeking can
end. The interactivity and shifts described by the model
show information-seeking to be nonlinear, dynamic, holistic,
and flowing. The paper offers four main implications
of the model as it applies to existing theory and
models, requirements for future research, and the development
of information literacy curricula. Central to
these implications is the creation of a new nonlinear
perspective from which user information-seeking can be
interpreted.
