Digital Consumers: Reshaping the Information Profession

Citation

Tammaro, A.M. (2009), "Digital Consumers: Reshaping the Information Profession", Performance Measurement and Metrics, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 151-153. https://doi.org/10.1108/14678040911005482

There are many futuristic books but the main characteristic of this anthology is that it describes the current information seeking behaviour of users. This is significantly different information seeking behaviour from the classic information seeking as evidenced by Wilson (1999) or Ellis and Haugan (Ellis, 1989; Ellis and Haugan, 1997).

Based on the evidence derived from both investigations and observations the book shows the exodus of the information user from the physical space to the virtual space and the opening up of information resources to millions of people who once had poor access to them. The main argument of the editors is that this form of information seeking has more in common with the behaviour of shoppers that with the traditional library users, and for this reason they speak of consumers rather than of users.

The change of information seeking behaviour is due not to technology, but to the fact that there is a rich market of information and obtaining information is part of the shopping experience. The new context is described by Richard Withey in “The digital information marketplace and its economics: the end of exclusivity”, who says that the business models of the information industry, based on the exclusivity created by the ownership of the printing press, is over. Chris Russell in “The e‐shopper: the growth of informed purchaser” affirms that e‐commerce is now the dominant pattern. Barrie Gunter, in two chapters: “Trends in digital information consumption and the future” and “The psychology of the digital information consumer” identifies the changes which might impact on the human computer interaction on line. He explains that digital information consumers will have even more choices to make than ever before in terms of sources of information, commodities and services, and they will also become producers as well as consumers.

What is the new information seeking behaviour of the digital consumer? The central chapters of the book focus on two communities of users: scholars and young people. David Nicholas, Paul Hungtington, Hamid R. Jamali and Tom Dobrowolski in “The information seeking behaviour of the digital consumer: case study the virtual scholar” analyse the findings of the Project CIBER, identifying the 13 individual traits[1] characterising the new information seeking model. In a scholarly environment most of information seeking is virtual and the project has examined the footprint that people leave after a visit to a site for a wide range of users, including staff, students and researchers. The authors evidence that:

The behaviour is active (frenetic), volatile and viewing in nature and requires a radical rethinking information provision and delivery to the digital consumer. Surprisingly it is not centered on viewing the full text document.

Some factors are yet to be understood by professionals. The authors say that users are closer to the publishers than to the libraries. Librarians are less well informed on information behaviour than publishers, which explain the fights with publishers. For example, the new information seeking behaviour looks for search engine searching and finding sites using Google or other federated searching tools: this short circuits the home page, giving easier access to the product. Digital consumers often use just a single word for searching, obtain much broader material in reply, with a growth of number of pages visited as they also view irrelevant links. Publishers prefer the big deal, with no boundaries to international usage, at least as they understood this information seeking behaviour. Another factor is that a wider range of people is being brought into the scholarly net, and this is suitable for bouncing great diversity since one size does not fit all.

Peter Williams, Ian Rowlands, Maggie Fieldhouse in “The Google generation: myths and realities about young people's digital information behaviour” look at information behaviour of young people who augur a new way of seeking for information. They note that when professionals speak of future libraries, they are usually thinking of information delivery and not information seeking. The authors advise instead that professionals have to focus more on information seeking, and hold three assumptions about the behaviour of young people:

1. 1.

   they represent an homogeneous body;

2. 2.

   they are all equipped with the last technology and are able to use it; and

3. 3.

   they are happy to invest time in finding resources.

There is the need of further studies on the information seeking behaviour of young people. They are the scholars of the future, and will use the future libraries together with social web opportunities.

The change of information seeking behaviour has many implications for information professionals, but their approaches may be different. Michel Moss, looking from the point of view of an archivist, in “The library in the digital age”, suggests that an “archival paradigm” might more accurately reflects the ontology of the digital content. From this perspective, the professionals should return to collection development, leaving resource discovery to the search engine. Is this nostalgia for an ordered past?

Another approach is described by David Nicholas, who in the conclusion of the book asks: “Where do we go from here?” asserts that information professionals have to wake up to the realities of the second digital revolution, which is already being colonised by other disciplines, and has implications which address the way information professionals live and do business. It is the professionals' duty to be smart shoppers who play the market and offer to the consumers what they want, but not spending time and money on the wrong things.

We can argue that the scenario presented by this book is really challenging for traditional information providers, nurtured in hard copy paradigm. Libraries should continue to drive access to knowledge, but how are they to do this? The response from this book seems to be that, to afford this challenging change, is not sufficient to apply the technological tools. Professionals need to have an interdisciplinary approach and find creative solutions.