7:30 – 1:30 Writing

• More on libraries and serendipity. Found lots, and then went on to look for metions in electronic retrieval. Found Foster’s A Nonlinear Model of Information-Seeking Behavior, which also has some spiffy citations. Going to take a break from writing and actually read this one. Because, I just realized that interdisciplinary researchers are the rough academic equivalent of the explorer pattern.
• Investigating Information Seeking BehaviorUsing the Concept of Information Horizons
  • Page 3 – To design and develop a new research method we used Sonnenwald’s (1999) framework for human information behavior as a theoretical foundation. This theoretical framework suggests that within a context and situation is an ‘information horizon’ in which we can act. For a particular individual, a variety of information resources may be encompassed within his/her information horizon. They may include social networks, documents, information retrieval tools, and experimentation and observation in the world. Information horizons, and the resources they encompass, are determined socially and individually. In other words, the opinions that one’s peers hold concerning the value of a particular resource will influence one’s own opinions about the value of that resource and, thus, its position within one’s information horizon.