Information Seeking Behavior Carol Kuhlthau and Marcia Bates

¶ … Behaviors to Improve Customer Service Library scientists are confronted with patrons with a diverse background in library usage, as well as experience in accessing information from online resources. Understanding how people interact with information and theories such as Marchionini's Information-Seeking Process and Kuhlthau's Information Search Process can help practitioners provide better service to patrons.

To this end, this paper provides a review of the relevant peer-reviewed and scholarly literature concerning these issues, followed by a summary of the research and important findings Some people walk into learning resource centers fully equipped with the skill set needed to intuitively navigate their way through the ISBNs, Dewey Decimals and the Internet maze to find precisely what they need and many information-seeking models assume this level of expertise for all students.

For instance, Savin-Baden and Wilkie (2006) report that, "Many information-seeking models approach students as experts, who are completely aware of what they are looking for and who can recognize the correct answer amidst of dozens of others" (p. 173). Other patrons, though, who may not know the difference between fiction and nonfiction, will likely require substantial amounts of librarian assistance each and every time they visit a library. This latter view is congruent with Marchionini's information-seeking model.

In this regard, Savin-Baden and Wilkie (2006) emphasize that, "There is reason to believe that students who have just started studying a certain domain could better be viewed as novices, who have a general idea about what they are looking for, but still largely depend on the results of their search queries to further refine their search question" (p. 173). From Marchionini's perspective, the information-seeking model should be iterative in design, with each additional component informing previous components (Marchionini, 1995).

Irrespective of the level of expertise possessed by patrons, though, most people go through a series of steps to find what they are looking for that describe their information-seeking behaviors. According to Marchionini (1995), this information-seeking process can be broken down into several subcategories: (a) the recognition of an information problem, (b) the defining of the problem, (c) the formulation of a query, (d) the execution of a search, (e) the examination of the results, and (f) the extraction of information (pp. 51-57).

By contrast, Kuhlthau (1994) formulated her Information Search Process consists of seven stages which include tasks, thoughts, feelings, actions, and strategies that students commonly experience. According to Taylor (2006), "The tasks are listed, but only some of the feelings, actions, and strategies are included as examples" (p. 89). The seven stages of Kuhlthau's (1994) Information Search Process are (a) initiating a research assignment; (b) selecting a topic; (c) exploring information; (d) formulating a focus; (e) collecting information; (f) preparing to present; and (g) assessing the process (Taylor, 2006).

Conclusion In the Age of Information, research skills have become part of the skills set needed to achieve.