Beyond everyday life: Information seeking behavior in deeply meaningful and profoundly personal contexts

Abstract

Information seeking behavior research is traditionally partitioned into two realms of life experiences: 1) work or job related; 2) everyday life information seeking (Savolainen, 2010). These two spheres encompass a significant share if not majority of life's time and effort at the universal level. This paper examines information seeking behavior within two specific contexts far outside the realm of everyday life. Characterized as deeply meaningful and intensely personal with life-long impacts, these contexts may not easily fit within existing information seeking behavior framework. We use examples from lived experiences in two deeply meaningful contexts to explore the scope of everyday life information seeking (ELIS), through women who relinquished a child for adoption and from sperm donor offspring who have tried to uncover the identity of their donor. Situations like these have profound impact on the focal person; perceived information needs and search strategies directly affect processes of decision making, coping, and understanding of one's self. Continuing the shift toward a more person centric approach, we suggest information seeking behavior within some contexts should be explored as a third facet of life experience: the deeply meaningful and profoundly personal.

An analysis of natural disaster‐related information‐seeking behavior using temporal stages

“…Over the past few decades, studies in the area of ISB have advanced, moving beyond a resource‐focused to a person‐centric perspective (Clemens & Cushing, ). Numerous models have been developed to describe and explain complex relationships between a person's perceived information needs, cultural and situational contexts, information resources, systems, and intermediaries (Ingwersen & Järvelin, ).…”

Information experience in personally meaningful activities

“…As Ross says, readers are open to their environment for new reading possibilities and connections, and some reading material contributed to one's sense of identity. On the note of identity, Clemens and Cushing () found that information sought in emotional and personal situations comes to be part of one's identity. As their participant Kate said, “I'm searching for answers in my own identity” (Clemens & Cushing, , p. 9).…”

“…On the note of identity, Clemens and Cushing () found that information sought in emotional and personal situations comes to be part of one's identity. As their participant Kate said, “I'm searching for answers in my own identity” (Clemens & Cushing, , p. 9). Considered from a more general philosophical perspective, this demonstrates Floridi's () assertion that you are your information.…”

“…Frank () found that visual artists, too, emphasize browsing in their information seeking, and Mougenot, Bouchard, and Aoussat () likewise describe the information seeking of designers through personally curated sets of information sources as they look for certain moods (which, it bears mentioning, may not be articulable as a text query). In a different vein, Clemens and Cushing () present two studies on information seeking in “situations involving personal crisis, legal barriers to information, social stigma and/or significant life‐long impact” (p. 9). Specifically, they look at mothers who relinquished a child for adoption in one study and the offspring of sperm donors in a second study.…”

“…That is, these empirical results have not yet led to any greater findings. As an illustration, we can look to the article by Clemens and Cushing (), in which the findings from the two studies are discussed separately even though they are, in my view, mutually relevant. This seems to be a missed opportunity.…”