What we know about information seeking and use and how research makes a difference in our knowing1

Abstract

This paper summarizes what is known about everyday health information seeking and use, as supported by empirical research largely conducted during the 1980s and 1990’s. It draws implications for research and system design applicable to the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) MedlinePlus web portal and data base of consumer health information. Its focus is on the two academic disciplines that bear most directly on information seeking and use, each with different perspectives. Communication (COMM) whose orientation is the study of messaging and the effective transmission of information, and Library and Information Science (LIS) whose focus is on meeting user information needs. Although there is very little overlapping literature, Dr. Dervin’s career was spent working across these two research genres. She is known most prominently for her Sense-Making Methodology. Dr. Dervin supports the view that there are more commonalities than differences between the two disciplines, and that research focusing on the commonalities provides a better opportunity for accounting for more variance in human information seeking than the highly compartmentalized approaches that dominate the study of information seeking. Dr. Dervin’s first-person review of these literatures was commissioned by NLM in 2001. It remains relevant today both for its critical insights, and as an historical resource. It is published posthumously in 2023 in tribute to Dr. Dervin on her recent passing.