ABSTRACT
Information source selection is essential to individuals' information seeking behaviors. Existing studies have focused on the criteria seekers employ when choosing information sources, such as sources' accessibility and quality, as well as the contextual factors that shape a seeker's selection. However, existing findings are somewhat conflicting and lack in-depth understanding of the reasons behind individuals' choices. The study reported here invited 53 participants from diverse backgrounds to perform simulated information seeking tasks over a two-day period and to report their experiences and findings in an online logbook. Semi-structured interviews with 23 of them were also conducted in order to examine the issues that arose from the logbooks. Our preliminary findings present several factors associated with participants' choices between impersonal and interpersonal sources. While interpersonal sources are deemed to be more suitable in capturing the context of an information query and providing personalized information, impersonal sources are found to be more accessible under a time constraint while depicting no emotion towards sensitive issues.
- Agarwal, N.K. 2011. Information source and its relationship with the context of information seeking behavior. In Proc. of the iConference'11 (Seattle, USA, February 08-11, 2011). ACM, New York, NY, 48--55. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Chowdhury, S., Gibb, F., and Landoni, M. 2011. Uncertainty in information seeking and retrieval: A study in an academic environment. Inform. Process. Manag. 47, 2 (March 2011), 157--175. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Fidel, R., and Green, M. 2004. The many faces of accessibility: Engineers' perception of information sources. Inform. Process. Manag. 40, 3 (May 2004), 563--581. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Hardy, A.P. 1982. The selection of channels when seeking information: Cost/benefit vs least-effort. Inform. Process. Manag. 18, 6 (1982), 289--293.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Hertzum, M. 2014. Expertise seeking: A review. Inform. Process. Manag. 50, 5 (September 2014), 775--795. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Hirsh, S., and Dinkelacker, J. 2004. Seeking information in order to produce information: An empirical study at Hewlett Packard labs. JASIST. 55, 9 (July 2004), 807--817. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Lin, Y., Cole, C., and Dalkir, K. 2014. The relationship between perceived value and information source use during KM strategic decision-making: A study of 17 Chinese business managers. Inform. Process. Manag. 50, 1 (January 2014), 156--174. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Lu, L., and Yuan, Y.C. 2011. Shall I Google it or ask the competent villain down the hall? The moderating role of information need in information source selection. JASIST. 62, 1 (January 2011), 133--145. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Mansourian, Y., and Ford, N. 2007. Search persistence and failure on the Web: A "bounded rationality" and "satisficing" analysis. Journal of Documentation. 63, 5, 680--701.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Marton, C., and Choo, C.W. 2002. A question of quality: The effect of source quality on information seeking by women in it professions. In Proc. of ASIST (November 2002), 39, 1, 140--151.Google Scholar
- Mason, W., and Suri, S. 2012. Conducting behavioral research on Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Behavior Research Methods. 44, 1 (March 2012), 1--23.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Morrison, E. W., and Vancouver, J. B. 2000. Within-person analysis of information seeking: The effects of perceived costs and benefits. Journal of Management. 26, 1 (February 2000), 119--137.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Oeldorf-Hirsch, A., Hecht, B., Morris, M.R., Teevan, J., and Gergle, D. 2014. To search or to ask: The routing of information needs between traditional search engines and social networks. In Proc. of CSCW'14 (Baltimore, MD, USA, February 15-19, 2014). ACM, New York, NY, 16--27. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Savolainen, R. 2015. Cognitive barriers to information seeking. J. Inform. Sci. 41, 5 (October 2015), 613--623. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Shapiro, D. N., Chandler, J., and Mueller, P.A. 2013. Using Mechanical Turk to study clinical populations. Clinical Psychological Science. 1, 2 (2013), 213--220.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Świgoñ, M. 2011. Information limits: Definition, typology and types. Aslib Proceedings. 63, 4 (2011), 364--379.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Wang, Y., and Shah, C. 2016. Exploring support for the unconquerable barriers in information seeking. In Proc. of the 79th ASIS&T Annual Meeting (Copenhagen, Denmark, October 14-18, 2016). ACM, New York, NY. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Wildemuth, B.M., and Freund, L. 2012. Assigning search tasks designed to elicit exploratory search behaviors. In Proc. of the Symposium on Human-Computer Interaction and Information Retrieval (Cambridge, MA, USA, October 4-5, 2012). ACM, New York, NY. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Wilson, T.D. 1999. Models in information behavior research. Journal of Documentation. 55, 3, 249--270.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Woudstra, L., van den Hooff, B., and Schouten, A. 2015. The quality versus accessibility debate revisited: A contingency perspective on human information source selection. JASIST. 67, 9 (September 2016), 2060--2071. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Zimmer, J.C., Henry, R.M., and Butler, B.S. 2007. Determinants of the use of relational and nonrelational information sources. J. Manage. Inform. Syst. 24, 3,297--331. Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- Investigating Information Seekers' Selection of Interpersonal and Impersonal Sources
Recommendations
An In-situ Study of Information Needs in Design-related Creative Projects
CHIIR '20: Proceedings of the 2020 Conference on Human Information Interaction and RetrievalA recent study found that search engines play an important role in supporting creative tasks that people encounter in everyday life. However, little research has been conducted to understand how people use search engines and other information resources ...
Sojourners' Information Seeking Through Interpersonal Sources for Cultural Adaptation
CSCW '18 Companion: Companion of the 2018 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social ComputingThe need for information during adaption process among sojourners, such as international students, may potentially requires them to engage with multiple sources of information, including impersonal (e.g. internet, brochures) and interpersonal source (...
Participant reactivity in a longitudinal mixed-method study of the information behavior of people with type 2 diabetes: research validity vs. "street validity"
ASIST '13: Proceedings of the 76th ASIS&T Annual Meeting: Beyond the Cloud: Rethinking Information BoundariesParticipant reactivity -- a phenomenon in which the responses and/or behaviors of study participants are affected by their awareness that they are part of a study -- is often deemed to be a potential threat to the research validity of a study's ...
Comments