Collaborative information seeking and expertise seeking: different discourses about similar issues

Citizens' information behavior in relation to electronic-government services: a systematic review

Purpose

Government information and services are increasingly delivered online through the Internet or other digital means. To benefit citizens, such electronic government (e-government) must be incorporated in their government-related information behavior. This study reviews citizens' information behavior in relation to e-government.

Design/methodology/approach

Following procedures for systematic reviews, this study reviews 53 papers about citizens' e-government information behavior.

Findings

The review finds that citizens (1) employ a rich set of quality, accessibility and non-utilitarian criteria in their perception of e-government; (2) use e-government in combination with offline channels; (3) choose channels on the basis of demographic and situational factors; (4) make frequent use of interpersonal sources and (5) may or may not achieve the intended outcome of their e-government information behavior. E-government information behavior has a lot in common with information behaviors in other domains, but it also accentuates certain facets of information behavior, such as the simultaneous use of multiple channels. In addition, mixed findings are common.

Research limitations/implications

Interpersonal sources, both lay and professional, are integral to citizens' e-government information behavior. Yet, theoretical frameworks for understanding information behavior tend to focus on the individual citizen.

Practical implications

On its own, e-government is most suited for simpler problems. More complex problems require an information behavior that combines e-government with interpersonal sources.

Originality/value

E-government shapes how citizens satisfy their government-related information needs. This study provides an overview of the otherwise scattered research on this information behavior.

A review of technologies for collaborative online information seeking: On the contribution of collaborative argumentation

In everyday life, people seek, evaluate, and use online sources to underpin opinions and make decisions. While education must promote the skills people need to critically question the sourcing of online information, it is important, more generally, to understand how to successfully promote the acquisition of any skills related to seeking online information. This review outlines technologies that aim to support users when they collaboratively seek online information. Upon integrating psychological-pedagogical approaches on trust in and the sourcing of online information, argumentation, and computer-supported collaborative learning, we reviewed the literature (N = 95 journal articles) on technologies for collaborative online information seeking. The technologies we identified either addressed collaborative online information seeking as an exclusive process for searching for online information or, alternatively, addressed online information seeking within the context of a more complex learning process. Our review was driven by three main research questions: We aimed to understand whether and how the studies considered 1) the role of trust and critical questioning in the sourcing of online information, 2) the learning processes at play when information seekers engage in collaborative argumentation, and 3) what affordances are offered by technologies that support users' collaborative seeking of online information. The reviewed articles that focused exclusively on technologies for seeking online information primarily addressed aspects of cooperation (e.g., task management), whereas articles that focused on technologies for integrating the processes of information seeking into the entire learning processes instead highlighted aspects of collaborative argumentation (e.g., exchange of multiple perspectives and critical questioning in argumentation). Seven of the articles referred to trust as an aspect of seekers' sourcing strategies. We emphasize how researchers', users', and technology developers' consideration of collaborative argumentation could expand the benefits of technological support for seeking online information.

Subject structure of the research area on collaborative information behaviour

Purpose

The principal aim of the present study was to identify and model the subject structure of the research area on collaborative information behaviour (CIB).

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative, inductive and exploratory approach was adopted, and the method of thematic analysis was used. This study was based on the analysis of 79 publications selected from the Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts (LISTA) database in April 2019.

Findings

Collaborative and collective information behaviours were differentiated, and the subject structure of the CIB research area was identified to contain collaborative activities oriented to both information access and content, their various conditions, means of conducting, experiences of selected communities and metascientific research on the area itself.

Research limitations/implications

The limitations result primarily from relying on the research material selected from the database (LISTA) focussed mainly on the issues of library and information science.

Originality/value

This study contributes by proposing an original model of the CIB research area representing its subject structure and providing a coherent list of subjects of interest to CIB researchers. Hopefully, it will also contribute to the harmonisation of terminology related to this research area and thus facilitate communication between CIB researchers and accelerate the cumulative development of scientific knowledge on CIB.