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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the predictive factors of information seeking behavior of smartphone users from the cross-generational perspective. Based on existing literature, the two most popular types of information seeking behavior of smartphone users were determined: social information seeking behavior; and functional/cognitive information seeking behavior.

A questionnaire comprising 66 questions was administered online to 216 smartphone users of three age groups according to three generations: generation X, Y (millennials) and Z. Several predictive factors were examined for each of these information seeking behavior types: generation, gender, personality traits (the Big Five), daily usage time, period of ownership, various application utilization and the level of emotional gain from smartphones.

There is a trade-off between the two types of information seeking behavior. Also, men exhibited significantly more functional/cognitive information seeking behavior than women, and younger generations reported significantly higher emotional gain and social information seeking behavior than older generations. Interestingly, significant differences in smartphone apps’ utilization, information seeking behavior types and their predictive factors were found among users from different generations. Extraversion was positively related to social information seeking behavior only for generations X and Y, while WhatsApp usage was one of the strongest predictive factors only for generation Z.

This research has practical implications for information system design, education, e-commerce and libraries.

This is a first study that systematically examines predictive factors of the two prominent types of information seeking behavior on smartphones from the cross-generational perspective.

The purpose of this paper was to investigate how PhD students discover, choose and use information and literature for their research.

Eight PhD students at the Norwegian Business School (BI) were interviewed. The interviews were based on a phenomenological approach.

The use of both library databases and Google Scholar is frequent and contextual. The informants ranked the library databases as more useful than Google Scholar. Methods for keeping up to date varied and were contextual. Although formal information seeking in library databases was seen as more academic than the tracking of references, this latter method was more widespread. Students felt they mastered the tools associated with formal information seeking, which constituted a continuous activity in their research practices. Wilson’s (1983) theory on cognitive authority may give a better understanding of the findings.

Acquiring knowledge about the information practices of PhD students in a specific discipline will help libraries to improve their services and acquire relevant resources for their users.

This paper examines PhD students’ ranking of information resources, identifies preferred methods for keeping up to date and reveals in which contexts the informants use either formal or social information-seeking practices.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the research and publication trends in the articles published in the conference proceedings of the Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) since the year 2000.

We analyzed two decades of ASIS&T proceedings to uncover bibliometric patterns. This study uses two bibliometric procedures applied to the publications in the ASIS&T conference proceedings – a bibliometrics analysis using three data sources (Scopus, ASIS&T proceedings website and Scimago journal ranking) and a scientific mapping analysis using VOSViewer.

We found 3,129 publications from 2000 to 2020, with more than three-quarters jointly authored. Most authors are from the United States, Canada and China. Social media and information behavior are the top-researched areas. The top-cited journals are the Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Information Processing and Management and Library and Information Science Research.

The study will help information professionals understand patterns in recent research, which should help guide them in their future research directions.

The findings affirm ASIS&T’s move to an international association and point to the growing importance of collaborative work and social media.

ASIS&T has been holding annual meetings since the 1950s. While there have been various bibliometric studies analyzing publication trends in different journals in the field of information science, none of these studies have analyzed the ASIS&T conference proceedings.

The purpose of this book is to collect current research representing different aspects of social information with emphasis on the new innovations supporting contemporary information behavior. To begin with, we need to define what we mean by social information in general and in the area of information science in particular. It is interesting to notice that social information is a concept used and researched in many different disciplines. Besides information science, the concept of social information has been studied in biology, psychology, and sociology among other disciplines.

This study aims to propose a model for examining different effects of attitude, continued intention to use Facebook and habitual usage on social-information seeking and self-disclosure. Specifically, the proposed model aims to enhance continued intention to use and strengthen specific social networking behaviour.

This study involved a group of undergraduates, between 20 and 25 years. Most measurement items in this study came from relevant prior studies, and the questionnaire was prepared in English. On the basis of over 400 data points, all items were tested with structural equation modelling.

Two major findings emerged: attitude, continued intention to use and habitual usage affect self-disclosure; and habitual usage is the only factor that affects social-information seeking.

The proposed model amplifies the significance of attitude, continued intention to use and habitual usage. The model also affords researchers an enhanced understanding of the Facebook usage of young adults. The key limitation of this study is that it only involves undergraduate students.

This study suggests that online marketers should prepare diverse kinds of strategies, particularly to understand different behaviours of their fan pages’ followers. Specific communication strategies should be used.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the impacts of the three factors in one study. It enriches the extent to which prior studies identified and acknowledged the roles played by attitude, continued intention to use and habitual usage.

This research seeks to answer, “How do everyday Second Life users go about finding needed information?” as the primary research question.

A virtual ethnographic approach couched in grounded theory was utilized to conduct semi‐structured interviews with everyday users of Second Life, accompanied by participant observation.

Information seeking behaviors within the virtual world of Second Life were found to be rich, complex interaction with multiple facets. Five themes emerged to illuminate how users seek information.

This research took place over a six‐week period, although most enthographies last at least one year. Conclusions were drawn solely from interviews because participant observation did not penetrate a given community with enough depth to adequately address the research question.

Virtual worlds offer the promise of becoming an integrated part of the information seeking landscape for an increasing number of users. Understanding the factors influencing information seeking behavior that are outlined in this article will equip librarians and information professionals to best utilize virtual worlds and continue to create innovative, user‐focused services there.

This article extends current scholarship by offering a practical, five‐factor approach to understand how people seek information in virtual worlds. The literature is robust in description about library services and the nature of information in virtual worlds. Yet, investigation into information seeking behavior in this environment is in its nascent stages.

Reports on the results of a survey of various groups of annual report users as to the importance, or “materiality”, of environmental information to decisions they may wish to make. Also investigates how environmental information is ranked in importance relative to various other items of social and financial information. The user groups surveyed comprise shareholders, accounting academics, stockbrokers and financial analysts, financial institutions, environmental lobby groups, industry associations and other groups performing a review or oversight function. Reports the results which indicate that the majority of the annual report users surveyed believe environmental information to be material to their decisions, and that they seek the disclosure of this information in corporate annual reports. Although the results show that the users typically believe that environmental information is material, they further indicate that the majority of the user groups rank environmental information behind traditional financial information such as profits, net assets, cash flows, and dividend payments.

Despite societal investment in providing health information to young parents, little is known about the health information practices of young parents themselves. The purpose of this paper is to explore young parents’ health information practices in context.

This constructivist grounded theory study investigates the health information practices of young mothers and fathers (age 16-23) in Greater Vancouver, Canada. Data were collected over 16 months via individual interviews with 39 young parents (37 mothers, 2 fathers) and observations at young parent programs. Inductive analysis was iterative with data collection.

Young parent health information practices emerged, clustering around concepts of information seeking, assessment, and use, with sharing conceptualised as a form of use. Many young parents were sophisticated information seekers, and most were highly networked using mobile technology. While access to information was rarely a barrier, assessment of the large quantity of health-related information posed challenges.

These findings are not generalisable to all populations. Newly identified information-seeking practices such as defensive and subversive seeking should be explored further in future research.

Rather than focusing on quantity of information, health and information professionals trying to reach young parents should focus on fostering information literacy skills and building relationships as trusted information providers.

Young parent experiences of social marginalisation influenced their information practices and should be taken into consideration.

This first investigation of young parent information practices can guide services and resources for young parents, suggests that sharing might be conceptualised as a subset of use, and highlights new information-seeking practices by marginalised individuals, such as defensive and subversive seeking.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the triggers, strategies and outcomes of collaborative information-seeking behaviours of researchers on the ResearchGate social networking site.

Data were collected from the population of researchers who use ResearchGate. The sample was limited to the Ph.D. students and assistant professors in the library and information science domain. Qualitative interviews were used for data collection.

Based on the findings of the study, informal communications and complex information needs lead to a decision to use collaborative information-seeking behaviour. Also, easy access to sources of information and finding relevant information were the major positive factors contributing to collaborative information-seeking behaviour of the ResearchGate users. Users moved from collaborative Q&A strategies to sharing information, synthesising information and networking strategies based on their needs. Analysis of information-seeking behaviour showed that ResearchGate users bridged the information gap by internalizing new knowledge, making collaborative decisions and increasing their work's visibility.

As one of the initial studies on the collaborative information-seeking behaviour of ResearchGate users, this study provides a holistic picture of different triggers that affect researchers' information-seeking on ResearchGate.