– The purpose of this paper is to elaborate the conceptual picture of the relationships between the affective and cognitive factors in information seeking and use.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to elaborate the conceptual picture of the relationships between the affective and cognitive factors in information seeking and use.
Design/methodology/approach
Conceptual analysis focusing on the ways in which the affective and cognitive factors and their interplay are approached in the Information Search Process model developed by Carol Kuhlthau, and the Social-Biological Information Technology model elaborated by Diane Nahl.
Findings
Kuhlthau’s model approaches the cognitive factors (thoughts) and affective factors (feelings) and affective-cognitive factors (mood) as integral constituents of the six-stage information search process. Thoughts determine the valence of feelings (positive or negative), while mood opens or closes the range of possibilities in a search. Nahl’s taxonomic model defines the affective and cognitive factors as components of a biologically determined process serving the ends of adaptation to information ecology. The interplay of the above factors is conceptualized by focusing on their mutual roles in the cognitive and affective appraisal of information.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are based on the comparison of two models only.
Originality/value
So far, information scientists have largely ignored the study of the interplay between affective and cognitive factors in information seeking and use. The findings indicate that the examination of these factors together rather than separately holds a good potential to elaborate the holistic picture of information seeking and use.
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Keywords
The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with information literacy including instruction in the use of information resources, research, and computer skills related…
Abstract
The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with information literacy including instruction in the use of information resources, research, and computer skills related to retrieving, using, and evaluating information. This review, the seventeenth to be published in Reference Services Review, includes items, in English published in 1990. A few are not annotated because the compiler could not obtain copies of them for this review.
In response to the proliferation of information retrieval systems in academic libraries since the early 1980s, librarians have created many written search aids designed to help…
Abstract
In response to the proliferation of information retrieval systems in academic libraries since the early 1980s, librarians have created many written search aids designed to help users learn how to search database systems. Written instructional material continues to increase in quantity and in importance with the rise of remote users and the advent of asynchronous distance learning. Since many users will have only written instructions to consult, it is crucial to determine the effectiveness of these materials. How useful are these instructions? Do people consult them? Do they help users make progress in their searches? There is a small but useful body of research on the effectiveness of both print and online search aids. This research points to the need to test materials on user groups. The findings from studies of novices using written instructions identify specific guidelines for creating effective materials.
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The purpose of this research is to describe a discourse analysis technique which can be used to analyze text or speech that is produced by people when discussing their information…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to describe a discourse analysis technique which can be used to analyze text or speech that is produced by people when discussing their information practices.
Design/methodology/approach
The method involves coding the phrases and sentences of this interpretive discourse into the three domains of behavior investigated in psychology and education, namely, the affective domain of evaluating and intending, the cognitive domain of appraising and planning, and the sensorimotor domain of noticing, perceiving, and executing or acting.
Findings
Samples of discourse from independent published sources were categorized and coded. In every case people's self‐descriptions of their information practices are shown to contain references to their activities in these three domains. A model is presented to depict how information behavior can be represented as a continuous processing flow of satisficing and optimizing behavior. These mental behavioral procedures are practiced by individuals in information settings as members of a group or culture, and are reflected in the verbal accounts they construct about their information behavior.
Research limitations/implications
The model of ecological constructionism, upon which the coding technique is based, needs to be tested in many more diverse contexts. Second, the model needs to address differences in types of information behavior such as searching, computing, blogging, etc., as well as different information settings and purposes of use, e.g. online shopping, doing job tasks with the computer, etc.
Practical implications
The technique can theoretically be automated and applied to the processing of large volumes of text produced daily in the online environment. The results yield a type of average digital code that can serve as an index of people's information behaviors in these diverse settings with regard to their affective, cognitive and sensorimotor activities.
Originality/value
The model or theory was constructed by integrating the concepts of “satisficing” and “optimizing” in decision making with research in information behavior, human ecology, social cognitive theory and ethnomethodology. The model is comprehensive and general enough to provide a potentially useful common topical reference chart for human studies in information science.
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The purpose of this article is to present an overview of the history and development of transaction log analysis (TLA) in library and information science research. Organizing a…
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to present an overview of the history and development of transaction log analysis (TLA) in library and information science research. Organizing a literature review of the first twenty‐five years of TLA poses some challenges and requires some decisions. The primary organizing principle could be a strict chronology of the published research, the research questions addressed, the automated information retrieval (IR) systems that generated the data, the results gained, or even the researchers themselves. The group of active transaction log analyzers remains fairly small in number, and researchers who use transaction logs tend to use this method more than once, so tracing the development and refinement of individuals' uses of the methodology could provide insight into the progress of the method as a whole. For example, if we examine how researchers like W. David Penniman, John Tolle, Christine Borgman, Ray Larson, and Micheline Hancock‐Beaulieu have modified their own understandings and applications of the method over time, we may get an accurate sense of the development of all applications.
The “Conference on Library Orientation” that eventually became the LOEX Conference began over 25 years ago in 1971. The following article looks at the history of library…
Abstract
The “Conference on Library Orientation” that eventually became the LOEX Conference began over 25 years ago in 1971. The following article looks at the history of library instruction as influenced by and illustrated by those conferences and recaps some of the major themes illustrated by articles in the conference proceedings over the LOEX Conference’s first 25 years.