Researching Information Seeking in Digital Libraries through Information-Seeking Models

Abstract

There has been an increasing amount of research focus on the development of digital libraries, particularly on information seeking. A variety of information-seeking models used by library and information science (LIS) academics investigate the manner in which information is sought and transformed into knowledge, which should be taken into account during the design of digital libraries. However, in part this reflects the lack of knowledge about how these models explain user information seeking behaviors in a digital library environment. This chapter aims to address this lack of knowledge. It presents a set of information-seeking models that can be used by LIS scholars or experts to comprehend the dynamics of information seeking by users of digital libraries. The major role of this chapter is to provide a review of the existing “models” to date, and also to present a comparative analysis of the notable models that may contribute to ways of understanding the research on information seeking in digital libraries.