Broad Exploration or Precise Specificity: Two Basic Information Seeking Patterns Among Students

This article investigates whether information seeking patterns can be related to discipline differences, study approaches, and personality traits. A quantitative study of 305 master’s thesis students’ information behavior found that their information seeking tended to be either exploratory or precise. Statistical analyses showed that inner traits seemed more influential than discipline characteristics on information behavior. Exploration or specificity was manifested in terms of both the level and scope of information students wished to retrieve and the way they searched for it.