Information Seeking In Context

Information Seeking

The need for information seeking can be attributed not only to human behavior but also values that people attach to their practices and to the means, and technologies available for locating information. Information can be acquired by searching for known objects or by accident or chance. Certain information is often not describable, but can be perceived via other faculties of senses. Kuhlthau(1), regards the information seeking as a sequential set of intellectual stages. According to her, Initiation occurs when one becomes aware of lack of knowledge. Next follows the process of selection in which a general area is identified and there exist initial uncertainties. After this the exploration stage begins when inconsistencies are found and confusion comes into being and doubt increases. Formulation follows as the next stage when the focus of problem is grasped and uncertainty decreases. After this it is the collection phase when pertinent information is gathered and the interest in the subject deepens. A final conclusion is made through presentation when search is completed with new understanding.
Information seeking has been attributed to the macro level trends such as institutional trends and information technology. Sometimes, the very abundance of information makes it crucial for information seekers to decide what information is enough to meet their objectives. The systematic approach to the information seeking process lies in the context based information seeking.

Information Seeking In Context

In practice, one cannot seek information outside reality. There is always a zone of relevance or a context in which it is relevant. The context may be separable scientifically, but not in practice. For example a person calls a bank for information on a loan. The information without any relevance to context could be- “A person with good credit usually gets a loan”. However as we all know, the bank will not give out this answer and will get more information from the caller- about the purpose of the loan, the amount of the loan, his/her credit history and many other things. The information that the bank gives now, will be more specific and context based.
Information seeking is the major means by which an individual is related to the information with the context in which it is often embedded. Context may be better described as the time of information seeking and the place where it occurs.


Time as a variable of information seeking in context.

Savolainen(2) described three major approaches with regards to time. (a) time as a fundamental attribute of situation or context of information seeking, (b) time as qualifier of access to information, and (c) time as an indicator of the information-seeking process.
Savolainen(2) explained that expressions such as “dynamic” and “reiterative” qualify the temporal factor of the context. Time factor also qualifies accessibility when information is accessed in hurry. Temporal issues are also involved when information seeking and judgment changes as time passes. He says that, “Ultimately, temporal factors become real as constitutive elements of contexts only through human practices. Lack of time becomes an important barrier in information seeking. Bates(3) through her berry picking model, indicated that information is picked one bit at a time. Time becomes a limiting factor in information seeking here, as only a bit of information is picked. Temporal factors routinely manifest themselves in the information seeking through media habits. Information-seeking behavior is also affected by future tasks and anticipated needs.

Space as a variable of Information seeking in context.

Savolainen(4) suggested three different approaches for spatial factors (a) physical places such as public libraries where information (sources) are available and accessible,(b) physical distance between information seeker and information sources, and (c)the ways in which information seekers perceive the information sources to be useful in relation to each other. The influence or constraint on information seeking, owing to distance and proximity, has been supported by references to spatial factors of information seeking by referring to the physical environment of information seeking.

The boundary conditions of information seeking.

When spatio-temporal factors are discussed together, it becomes extremely difficult to capture the dynamic nature of information seeking. To understand the process more, the boundary conditions or the end points of the information seeking process need to be understood.
An individual’s “information field” provides the starting point for information seeking. Typically an individual’s local information field consists of an interpersonal communication network and information terminals. Ending an information-seeking episode often involves the act of making sense of the situation or resolving the problem with information gathered for that purpose .Thus; the discussion on context based information seeking may be summarized as follows. The researcher finds himself or herself in a situation, which is a simply a set of circumstances, from which an information need arises. Context based information seeking ends at the crossroads where this researcher and the matching data intersect.
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1.Kuhlthau, C.C. (1991). Inside the search process:
Information seeking from the user's perspective. Journal of the American Society for Information Science.42, 361-371.

2.Bates, M. J. (1989). The design of browsing and berry-
picking techniques for online search interface. Online Review, 13, 407-424.

3.Savolainen, R.(2006). Time as a context of information
seeking. Library & Information Science Research. 28(1).110-127.

4.Savolainen, R.(2006). Spatial factors as contextual
qualifiers of information seeking. Information Research. 11(4).Retrieved April 6, 2008 from http://informationr.net/ir/11-4/paper261.html

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