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Information source horizons

Monday, 26 September 2016

Assigned reading

We'll talk about source selection today and some of the ways that people move through selecting sources.

What do we know so far?

Knowing more about people's information need allows us to:

  1. anticipate information behaviors;
  2. design systems and services to support those behaviors.

But, knowing about the criteria that people use in selecting information sources allows us to:

  1. design and create better sources;
  2. help and support the selection of useful sources.

Information Source Horizons

Information source horizons mapping is a method for eliciting where people go for information and how they decide to move from one source to another (missing reference). When we move from one source or set of sources to another, the sources available to us appear to change. We call it a "horizon" because there are always other sources out there, within sight, if not in reach, no matter where we are. This should sound similar to Dervin's conception of horizons in the context of sense-making and sense-unmaking.

Sonnewald, Wildemuth, and Harmon found that people mention sources that can be describe in a typology that includes the following (from most to least frequently):

  1. Internet,
  2. Faculty,
  3. Friends,
  4. University library,
  5. Experts,
  6. Information places (missing reference).

Savolainen extended this concept of information horizons by placing the sources into three zones that radiate away from an individual seeking information. Savolainen's typology of information sources is as follows:

  1. Human sources (friends, family, colleagues, experts, etc.);
  2. Networked sources (Intetnet, listservs, etc.);
  3. Organizational sources (libraries, health centers, etc.);
  4. Print media (books, newspapers, magazines, etc.);
  5. Other sources (regulations, protocols, etc.) (missing reference).

There is clearly some overlap between these two typologies. The addition of proximity in Savolainen's horizons allows for us to start to see how context has an effect on where and how we seek information. Different information seeking tasks will mean placing sources in different arrangements and proxmity to one another.

Map your horizons

To demonstrate this, you can look at your own information horizons for different tasks. The template for the map can be downloaded here.

Create maps for two different tasks:

  1. A work task, like being assigned to research a new policy or technological solution for a problem related to your job.
  2. A personal task, like something related to a hobby or recreational activity.

Compare and contrast the two maps. What is similar? What is different?

Do you put human sources closer or further away? Why do you think that is? Is that different in each of the maps.


Information source horizons - September 26, 2016 -