p.17 Information-seeking must be one of our most fundamental methods
for coping with our environment. The strategies we learn to use in gathering information may turn out to
be far more important in the long run than specific pieces of knowledge we may pick up in our formal education and then soon
forget as we go about wrestling with our day-to-day problems.
Lewis Donohew, Leonard Tipton, and Roger Haney (1978, p.31) [Analysis of information-seeking strategies.
Journalism Quarterly, 55, 25-31.]
p.18 we will make the case that searching for information is an important part of being human,
and is something that we do on a regular basis... Every day of our lives we engage in some activity that might be
called information seeking, though we may not think of it that way at the time... the stories here involve not only
the search for information but the choice of which data to retain and consider.
p.73 The notion of information as uncertainty reduction
is one that dates back at least to the nineteenth century, according to Morowitz (1991). In the late 1940s Shannon and Weaver
popularized this connection between information and uncertainty... By the 1970s, reducing uncertainty was firmly cemented
in scholarly dialogue about motivations for information seeking.
p.86 "Decisions" are typically characterized as choices made from
among alternatives; that is, at least two options are available, and the decision-maker may select only one of them.
Faced with such a situation, the decision-maker must gather information that allows each potential choice to be evaluated
and compared to the alternative(s).
p.88 Simon (1992, p.32) makes a distinction between
problem solving and decision making when he says the problem solving has to do with identifying
issues worthy of attention, setting goals, and designing suitable courses of action. In contrast,
decision making is the activity of evaluating and choosing among alternative actions that begins with focusing on
a problem and ends with selecting from various choices.
James March (1994) agrees that decision making is a separate
and narrower activity than problem solving, and he further emphasizes that the search for alternatives and
the choice of which to pay attention to are the key components of decision making. According to March (1994,
p.23), "The study of decision making is, in many ways, the study of search and attention."
p.105 The psychologist William Garner (1962) believed that finding a pattern in information was necessary
to maintain peace of mind:
The search for structure is inherent in behavior... People in any situation will
search for meaningful relations between the variables existing in the situation, and if no such relations exist or can be
perceived, considerable discomfort occurs.
p.121 Wilson (1999a, p. 250) points out that models of information seeking typically do not embody fully
formed theories:
A model may be described as a framework for thinking about a problem and may evolve into a statement
of the relationships among theoretical propositions. Most models in the general field of information behaviour are
of the former variety: they are statements, often in the form of diagrams, that attempt to describe in information-seeking
activity, the causes and consequences of that activity, or the relationships among stages in information-seeking behaviour.
p.122 the model attempts to depict and explain a sequence of behavior by referring to relevant variables,
rather than merely indicates a sequence of events... models indicate something about information needs and sources.
p.136 "information seeking is clearly a dynamic process, with an individual's level of
knowledge changing as it goes on," along with the perception of the gap [in existing knowledge].
p.137 What motivates a person to search for information, and how and to what extent?
p.327 We have seen that a major preoccupation of humans is filtering, interpreting, and understanding
the overload of information with which they are faced... people strive toward a holistic view of their world... Satisfying
one information need may simply give rise to yet another question or problem.
