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This chapter introduces the concept of information seeking , along with various theoretical models and conceptual frameworks. The act of seeking information is seen as one that is fundamental to human behavior, and because of that, information seeking is conceptualized with respect to a person and their needs, irrespective of any system or the availability of any information. To put information seeking in perspective, it is shown as a subset of information behavior , which incorporates any and all kinds of interactions people have with information. On the other hand, information retrieval is seen as something more specific and system-oriented. A number of foundational models of information seeking are reviewed here, followed by a description of a set of models derived from those foundational works. These models consider the motivations behind seeking information, the nature of the information sought, and the context in which this process occurs. Several of these models also identify stages or steps of a typical information seeking process. The chapter finishes with a recognition that most times information seeking is studied considering an individual, disregarding social and/or collaborative aspects of information seeking.
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Shah, C. (2017). Information Seeking. In: Social Information Seeking. The Information Retrieval Series, vol 38. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56756-3_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56756-3_2
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