Theme Section: Adolescents of the Information Age: Patterns of Information Seeking and Use, and Implications for Information Professionals

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the field of human information behavior as it shapes and affects the provision of quality information services and products to children and adolescents. It is a diverse, dynamic, and complex field and one shaped by many situational, personal, social, and organizational factors. This review sets the theme for this issue's focus on adolescents' information seeking and use. It briefly explores some of the key themes, theories, and challenges and explores how these shape the professional responsibilities and actions of school librarians. Introduction: The Field of Human Information Behavior The focus on understanding the key dimensions of human information behavior has emerged over the past 25 years. Simply defined, human information behavior is the study of the interactions between people, the various forms of data, information, knowledge, and wisdom that fall under the rubric of information, and the diverse contexts in which they interact. Typically, the field of human information behavior addresses concepts such as people's information contexts, information needs, information seeking behaviors, patterns of information access, retrieval and dissemination, human information processing, and information use. Related concepts include sources, uncertainty, and satisfaction. Its theory building, research, and development are based on the belief that information is essential to the functioning and interaction of individuals, social groups, organizations, and societies, and to the ongoing improvement of the quality of life. Underpinning this is the belief that information has the potential to change what people already know and to shape their decisions and actions. This effects perspective of information is consistent with the Latin and Greek origins of the word: information: inform.ere informo, informare, informavi, informatus as inward forming. The central dilemma of studying human information behavior is concisely expressed by Baran and Davis (1995), a dilemma of an information-intense society that focuses on understanding how people and information come together and how information professionals respond: Each day we are exposed to vast quantities of sensory information; we take in only a small fraction of it, process and use an even smaller fraction, and then we finally store a tiny fraction of this in long-term memory. According to some cognitive theorists, we are not so much information handlers as information avoiders ... Very little of what goes on around us ever reaches our consciousness and most of this is soon forgotten, (p. 267) A key influence in the development of this field was the publication of a seminal review by Dervin and Nilan (1986). In reviewing information needs and uses research, they identified a clear shift in the scholarly and professional field of librarianship and information science from a system-oriented paradigm to a user-oriented paradigm. They characterized this shift by a set of assumptions underlying central concepts such as information, information users, information seeking behavior, and information use, as illustrated in Table 1. This set of user-centered assumptions put forward by Dervin and Nilan (1986) has guided research and scholarly activity for the last 15 years. It has triggered multiple inquiry paths that collectively have sought to identify and understand the behavioral, affective, and cognitive dimensions of people's engagement with information and how this enables them to meet their information needs and to get on with their lives as informed and knowing people. It has also put emphasis on articulating how libraries and information agencies provide more responsive service, based on an understanding of the uniqueness, individuality, and diversity, rather than on conformity and modification. As Garvey states, It becomes increasingly clear that the success of information services is more likely to be achieved through adjusting the services to meet the specific needs of an individual rather than trying to adapt the individual user to match the wholesale output of the information system. …

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