The Information-Seeking Behavior of Artists: Exploratory Interviews

Abstract

Artists make up a considerable proportion of this nation's educated professional class, but their information needs have been neglected by information professionals. The purpose of this study is to establish a framework on which future research can be built. In-depth interviews with four artists-a sculptor, painter, fiber artist, and metalsmith-representing different media disciplines are described and analyzed; that analysis suggests that (1) artists make substantial use of libraries and print materials, (2) much of this material is not art related, (3) they typically find this material by browsing within specific subject areas, and (4) they make substantial use of interpersonal sources to obtain technical information and information about developments in the local art scene. To aid future research in this area and to tap into larger, more reliable samples, these data have been used to design a survey instrument that is described in an appendix to the study.

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