Understanding Human Information Behavior

This introductory textbook aims to provide undergraduate students in information science and related disciplines with an applied grounding in information behavior. The book’s primary focus is to provide explicit links between information behavior and the careers that students will pursue within the information professions. With a deeper understanding of information behavior, students will be better equipped to address the many types of barriers that frequently prevent people from effectively and efficiently accessing, understanding, managing, and/or using the information they need in the “real world.”

The first six chapters of the book provide students with the fundamental building blocks of information behavior, introduce them to important related concepts, and provide a deep dive into information literacy, digital literacy, the digital divide and digital inclusion.

Chapters 7 through 12 introduce students to the scholarly communication system, providing guidance on how to find, read, and critically evaluate information behavior studies. Also explored in these chapters are the various methods used to investigate and understand people’s information behaviors. Topics covered include research design, research methods, research ethics, user needs assessment, and human-computer interaction and associated design methods. This part of the book also covers some of the major information behavior models and theories that have been developed to describe, predict, and/or explain people’s information behaviors.

In chapters 13 through 16, the authors provide an in-depth look into their own information behavior research areas, including consumer health information behavior and health justice; youth information behavior; legal information behavior and access to justice; and information behavior in libraries.

In the final chapter, students are first introduced to a wide range of careers within the information professions and then taken along on a deep dive into 10 specific jobs, with a special focus on the thread of information behavior that pervades the roles and responsibilities commonly associated with these positions.

Each chapter begins with one or more scenarios illustrating concepts covered in the chapter and ends with discussion questions.