Course Description


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LIS 9350L (Summer 2012)  An Introduction to Information Behaviour

Instructor: E. Davies

Relationship to the Goals and Objectives of the MLIS Program

Students who complete this course will be able to:

  1. draw valid conclusions based upon sound analysis of reliable data (Goal 2, Objective 1c);
  2. identify the information needs and information behaviour of a variety of user groups (Goal 2, Objective 1h);
  3. engage in a critical analysis of principles and techniques of IB research in LIS (Goal 2, Objective 1d);
  4. communicate and work cooperatively and effectively with others, including users, colleagues, employers and members of the community (Goal 2, Objective 1j);
  5. to foster opportunities for students in our program to participate in relevant areas of study in other units on campus or in the wider community, and vice versa (Goal 5, Objective 1).

Goals and Objectives of the MLIS Program

Course Description
This course is an introduction to user-centered approaches to human information behaviour and explores the information needs, seeking, sources and information use of members of various groups in different contexts. In addition, it introduces the theoretical frameworks, models and practical research methods that form the foundation for studies of information behaviour and offers students the opportunity to carry out a small-scale research study.

DISTANCE.  Enrol limit 20.

Course Objectives
  1. To introduce the major concepts, theories and models of information behaviour (IB) and help students to examine them critically.
  2. To introduce students to a wide range of studies of IB so that students may develop a broad knowledge of a burgeoning field of research.
  3. To explore research methods for studying IB and to provide students with the opportunity to design and carry out a small scale study.

Sample Content (for information only)
  1. An introduction to Information Behaviour (IB)
  2. Concepts associated with IB: information, information needs, seeking, sources and use.
  3. Research methodology and methods for IB
  4. What is a theory? What is a model?
  5. Key models of IB
  6. Key theories of IB
  7. More key theories of IB
  8. Barriers and enablers to info seeking
  9. Practising data analysis
  10. Information behaviour in the context of occupation
  11. Information behaviour in the context of role or demographic
  12. Student conference
  13. Student conference

Sample Readings
Bawden, David and Lyn Robinson. 2009. The dark side of information: overload, anxiety and other paradoxes and pathologies. Journal of Information Science 35: 180-191.

Leckie, Gloria J., Pettigrew, Karen E., & Sylvain, Christian. 1996. Modeling the information seeking of professionals: A general model derived from research on engineers, health care professionals, and lawyers. The Library Quarterly 66(2): 161-193.

Meyers, Eric M., Fisher, Karen E., Marcoux, Elizabeth. 2009. Making sense of an information world: the everyday-life information behavior of preteens. The Library Quarterly 79 (3): 301-341.


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