An impressionistic mapping of information behavior with special attention to contexts, rationality, and ignorance

• Published in: Information processing & management Vol. 45; no. 5; pp. 593 - 604
• Main Author: David Johnson, J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01-09-2009; Elsevier; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Context; Contexts; Exact sciences and technology; Human information behavior; Ignorance; Information and communication sciences; Information literacy; Information processing and retrieval; Information retrieval. Man machine relationship; Information science. Documentation; Information seeking; Information seeking behavior; Information seeking behaviour; Irrationality; Mapping; Research process. Evaluation; Sciences and techniques of general use; Studies; User behavior; Ignorance; Information seeking; Irrationality; Human information behavior; Contexts; Context; User study; Information retrieval; Searching behavior
• ISSN: 0306-4573; 1873-5371
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ipm.2009.04.005

Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in human information behavior in part attributable to the rapid development of the Internet and associated information technologies. Concomitantly there has been substantial growth in theoretic frames, research, and substantive models. However, these approaches have often been fragmentary, dependent on the goals of disparate disciplines that are interested in differing aspects of information behavior. They often have been rooted in the most rational of contexts, libraries, where individuals come with a defined problem, or information technology systems, that have their own inherent logic. Attempts to extend this work to everyday life contexts often run into disquieting findings related to the benefits of ignorance and the seeming irrationality of human information behavior. A broader view of our social world leads us to richer policy implications for our work. We live in exciting times, in an increasingly flattened world, where the ability for people to assimilate information they find into coherent personal strategies is perhaps the critical modern survival skill.