Introduction: Research and theory on the topics of information seeking and retrieval have been plagued by some fundamental problems for several decades. Many of the difficulties spring from mechanistic and instrumental thinking and modelling. Method: Existing models of information retrieval and information seeking are examined for efficacy in a…

The term "information world" has been widely used by LIS scholars in a rather cursory manner. Building upon a range of existing concepts in LIS literature, and drawing on evidence from interviews of 40 people of different social statuses, this paper offers a redefinition of the "information worlds of individuals" concept within the framework of…

Introduction: The paper proposes a model of information behaviour in crisis. No previous model has attempted to integrate information resources, information behaviour and needs of the storm-affected communities within the temporal stages of a natural disaster. Method: The study was designed as autoethnography. The data were collected through a…

The term discovery applies herein to the successful outcome of inquiry in which a significant personal, professional or scholarly breakthrough or insight occurs, and which is individually or socially acknowledged as a key contribution to knowledge. Since discoveries culminate at fixed points in time, discoveries can serve as an outcome metric for…

To be efficient and effective learners in the information age, individuals must be able to engage successfully with a wide variety of information types and formats. Becoming lifelong learners in a world in which information flows freely and defies the boundaries of traditional disciplines and subject areas, children and youth in particular must…

Introduction: The perceived information needs of teachers who specialize in reading instruction for at-risk first graders were studied and related to frameworks for the role of social context in information needs, seeking and use. The frameworks considered were: disciplinarity, role theory in work settings, small worlds and information grounds and…

Explains three cognitive models of information and the information transfer process present in the literature of library and information science, based on a linguistic analysis of phrases incorporating the word "information" from a random sample of abstracts in the LISA (Library and Information Science Abstracts) database. (17…

Introduction: Activity theory, developed in the USSR as a Marxist alternative to Western psychology, has been applied widely in educational studies and increasingly in human-computer interaction research. Argument: The key elements of activity theory, Motivation, Goal, Activity, Tools, Object, Outcome, Rules, Community and Division of labour are…

Introduction: The conceptual framework of librarianship and information science has developed rapidly over the past decade with the prospect of application in other fields. However, transfer of concepts across branches within the field remains problematic and severely limits ability to address important information problems. Requirements: A…

Introduction: The aim of the paper is to propose new models of information behaviour that extend the concept beyond simply information seeking to consider other modes of behaviour. The models chiefly explored are those of Wilson and Dervin. Argument: A shortcoming of some models of information behaviour is that they present a sequence of stages…

Presents a model of four factors differentiating significant from routine research--behavioral patterns of problem formulation, economic analyses of information seeking, psychological schemes of optimal effort, and basic dilemmas of the theory-practice gap. Within this context, four myths dominating the research process in library and information…

Cognitive Work Analysis is a conceptual framework that makes it possible to analyse the forces that shape human-information interaction. This analysis can then be directly transformed to design requirements for information systems. Its approach is work-centred, rather than user-centred, as it analyses the constraints and goals that shape…

Discusses use of the grounded theory approach to derive models of the information-seeking patterns of academic researchers. The background to the development of qualitative approaches to information studies in the United Kingdom is described, and the results of four studies of the information-seeking patterns of researchers are outlined. (Contains…

Proposes a new learning algorithm to improve the retrieval effectiveness of the search system used in the hypertext environment using an extended Boolean model with links to improve the ranking of retrieved items. Highlights include the basic retrieval scheme, the learning scheme, and a review of basic probabilistic retrieval models. (Contains 32…

Presents a broad view of information access, drawing from philosophy and semiology in constructing a framework for comparative discussion that is used to examine the information representations that underlie four approaches to information access--information retrieval, workflow, collaborative filtering, and the path model. Contains 32 references.…