A non-linear model of information seeking behaviour

This paper offers a new, Nonlinear Model of Information Seeking Behaviour, which contrasts with earlier stage models of information behaviour and represents a potential cornerstone for a shift towards a new perspective for understanding user information behaviour. The model is based on the findings of a study on interdisciplinary informationseeking behaviour. The study followed a naturalistic inquiry approach using interviews of 45 academics. The interview results were inductively analysed and an alternative framework for understanding information seeking behaviour was developed. This model illustrates three core processes and three levels of contextual interaction, each composed of several individual activities and attributes. These interact dynamically through time in a nonlinear manner. The behavioural patterns are analogous to an artist’s palette, in which activities remain available throughout the course of information seeking. In viewing the processes in this way, neither start, nor finish points are fixed, and each process may be repeated, or lead to any other until either the query or context determine that information seeking can end. The interactivity and shifts described by the model show information seeking to be nonlinear, dynamic, holistic, and flowing. The paper offers four main implications of the model as it applies to existing theory and models, requirements for future research and the development of information literacy curricula. Central to these implications are the creation of a new nonlinear perspective from which user information seeking can be interpreted. NONLINEAR INFORMATION-SEEKING 3 A NONLINEAR MODEL OF INFORMATION-SEEKING BEHAVIOUR Information-seeking behaviour research has contributed to developments in information literacy and skills training, electronic resources, virtual libraries, and traditional resources. Much of our understanding derives from research, yet in some contexts, such as interdisciplinary information seeking, the prevalence of models based on single-discipline researchers, and the assumptions that arise from them, may act to inhibit the development of further understanding and development. This paper describes research leading to a Nonlinear Model of Interdisciplinary Information-seeking Behaviour with potentially wider implications for studies of information behaviour.