Seeking Activities in the Hektor Model

An active pursuit of specific information.

San Jose State University

The process in which a person locates information to resolve a need.

Information Seeking

- Seeking
- Gathering
- Communicating
- Giving

Information Behaviors in the Hektor Model

Hektor, A. (2001). What's the use: Internet and information behavior in everyday life. Linkoping University. (Linkoping Studies in Arts and Science 240). Retrieved from http://liu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A254863&dswid=6661

What's the Use: Internet and Information Behavior in Everyday Life

A method of information seeking where the user purposefully seeks out a certain type of information. There is known intent to find this information and the searching is directed around that intent. 

Active Searching and Seeking

An information seeking behavior where a user looks through an information source without a direct question in mind, but is looking to obtain information in general on a broad subject. This behavior is direct but less focused. 

Browsing and Scanning

An information seeking behavior where a user obtains information that interests them while engaging in a different information seeking task. The type of searching is passive but is directed on a topic.

Passive Monitoring

I wonder if there should be a relation child node before this concept node that looks like this:  
Types of Information Behaviors 
- Information seeking 
- Information retrieval 

Relation child node

Information that is (verifiably) misleading, false, or incomplete. Misinformation can be created with or without the intent to misinform the public. 

Misinformation 

When an information seeker is presented with an abundance of possible sources which can be difficult to sift through. This can cause relevant information to a search query to be overlooked. 

Information Overload

Uncertainty as a state that causes feelings of anxiety and lack of confidence is expected at the beginning of the Information Search Process and are related to having only vague ideas about a topic or question to further the search. There are six corollaries to this principle.

Principle of Uncertainty for Information Seeking

Many definitions of the information-seeking process assume an interaction cycle that begins with identifying a need for information, then moves on to query specification, examination of retrieval results, and, if necessary, query reformulation, with the cycle repeating until a satisfactory result set is found

The Standard Models of Information Seeking

These dispositions describe a user's degree of engagement with the information seeking process:
- Active
- Passive
- Directed
- Undirected

Dispositions for Information Seeking

Information is valuable in the Library and Information Science world. What makes it more valuable is knowing the history behind that information. Being able to contextualize information as it was in the past and how it effects information now is an important skill for Information Seekers to learn.

Learn Before

Related

Learn After