Abbreviated Contents Figures and Tables Preface Introduction and Examples Concepts Relevant to Information Behavior Models, Paradigms, and Theories in the Study of Information Behavior Methods for Studying Information Behavior Research Results and Reflections Appendix: Glossary Appendix: Questions for Discussion and Application References Index

Looking for Information: A Survey of Research on Information Seeking, Needs and Behavior

When information practices are understood to be shaped by social context, privilege and marginalization alternately affect not only access to, but also use of information resources. In the context of information, privilege, and community, politics of marginalization drive stigmatized groups to develop collective norms for locating, sharing, and hiding information. In this paper, we investigate the information practices of a subcultural community whose activities are both stigmatized and of uncertain legal status: the extreme body modification community. We use the construct of information poverty to analyze the experiences of 18 people who had obtained, were interested in obtaining, or had performed extreme body modification procedures. With a holistic understanding of how members of this community use information, we complicate information poverty by working through concepts of stigma and community norms. Our research contributes to human information behavior scholarship on marginalized groups and to Internet studies research on how communities negotiate collective norms of information sharing online.

/pdf/keep-it-secret-keep-it-safe-information-poverty-information-5et4rw265t.pdf

“Keep it secret, keep it safe”: Information poverty, information norms, and stigma

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the everyday life information seeking behaviours of first-time mothers, as they encounter new, significant and pressing information needs which arise alongside their new responsibilities. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative approach combined narrative interviews with participatory methods to facilitate engagement and remain sensitive to the social context. Findings – Mothers particularly valued the experiential nature of information received from peers or family members. However, fear of judgement influenced their use of interpersonal sources, both on- and off-line. Their accounts of information seeking contained instances of confusion, tension, conflict and information overload. Feeling under pressure to be “good mothers”, they withheld information needs from others, including healthcare professionals. Research limitations/implications – There was a notable absence of younger ( < 20 year old) and/or less educated mothers in the study. This cor...

/pdf/the-everyday-life-information-seeking-behaviours-of-first-4jbfnaa8s8.pdf

The everyday life information seeking behaviours of first-time mothers

This article outlines a constructivist grounded theory (Charmaz, 2014) study of information poverty among a group of mothers of individuals with Down syndrome and/or Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)...

/pdf/re-situating-information-poverty-information-marginalization-5eyvt9x91s.pdf

Re-Situating Information Poverty: Information Marginalization and Parents of Individuals With Disabilities

Information needs motivate human information behavior. Knowledge of information needs is critical for user-centered information behavior research and system design. In consumer health information behavior research, there is a lack of understanding of how consumer health information needs (CHIN) is measured in empirical studies. This study is a systematic review of empirical quantitative studies on CHIN, with a focus on how CHIN is defined and operationalized. A search of six academic databases and citation-track of relevant articles identified a total of 216 relevant articles. These articles were analyzed using the qualitative content analysis method. We found that few included articles explicitly defined either CHIN or information needs in general. When definitions were given, they were from a cognitive perspective and largely ignored the multidimensionality of the concept. Consistent with this cognitive-centered conceptualization, CHIN was operationalized primarily as information topics, with some articles also measuring several additional attributes, including level of importance, fulfilment, amount of information needed, and frequency of needs. These findings suggest that CHIN is undertheorized. To address this gap, future studies should attend to social and emotional dimensions of CHIN, such as motivations, goals, activities, and emotions. Further, more research is needed to understand how CHIN is related to consumer health information seeking behavior and to the social and environmental context in which the needs arise.

Consumer health information needs: A systematic review of measures

This study explores the use of online newsgroups and discussion groups by people in situations of information poverty. Through a qualitative content analysis of 200 posts from across Internet groups, we identify topics and information needs expressed by people who feel they have no other sources of support available to them. We uncover various health, wellbeing, social and identity issues which are not only crucial to the lives of the people posting, but which they are unwilling to risk revealing elsewhere – offering evidence that these online environments provide an outlet for the expression of needs in situations of critical and hidden information need. To enable this analysis, we first describe our method for reliably identifying situations of information poverty in messages posted to these groups and our coding approach. Our work contributes to the study of both information seeking within the context of information poverty and the use of Internet groups as sources of information and support, bridging the two by exploring the manifestation of information poverty in this particular online setting.

/pdf/using-internet-groups-in-situations-of-information-poverty-3w0fw1y5qm.pdf

Using internet groups in situations of information poverty: topics and information needs

This paper presents an ongoing investigation into how people use the Internet in an attempt to escape situations of information poverty. We consider posts from a variety of newsgroups which indicate that individuals feel they have nowhere else to go to find information or support for concerns crucial to their everyday lives. A qualitative content analysis is performed to examine three main issues: what information needs people posting to these groups have, who they hide these needs from in the ‘real world’, and why they feel they can only express their needs online. Preliminary findings show that information on health and relationships is most commonly sought. Needs are most often hidden from parents and family, and the main reasons for seeking information online are a lack of understanding and the fact that people simply don’t know where else to go. Our work confirms that newsgroups provide a means of expression for those who feel they have no local support available to them.

Laura Hasler

Papers

Using internet groups in situations of information poverty: topics and information needs

Escaping information poverty through internet newsgroups