This landmark textbook is an essential primer for students and practitioners interested in information seeking, needs and behaviour, user studies and information literacy. Introduction to Information Behaviour uses a combination of theory and practical context to map out what information behaviour is and what we currently know about it, before addressing how it can be better understood in the future. Nigel Ford argues that new understandings of information behaviour research may help maximise the quality and effectiveness of the way information is presented, sought, discovered, evaluated and used. The book introduces the key concepts, issues and themes of information behaviour, illustrates them using key research studies, and provides a clear path through the complex maze of theories and models. The book is structured to move from the basics to the more complex and employs the pedagogical device of “THINK” boxes which invite the reader to think about concepts as they are introduced in order to consolidate their understanding before moving on. Case studies are included throughout the text and each chapter concludes with a round-up of what has been covered, highlighting the implications for professional information practice. The key topics covered include: Defining information behaviour and why is it useful to know about it Information needs Information seeking and acquisition Collaborative information behaviour Factors affecting information behaviour Models and theories of information behaviour Research approaches and methodologies Designing information systems The future trajectory of information behaviour research and practice. Readership: This book will be core reading for students around the world, particularly those on library and information science courses. It will also be of interest to practitioners and professional information users, providers and developers.

New Research in Information Behaviour provides an understanding of the new directions, leading edge theories and models in information behaviour. Information behaviour is conceptualized as complex human information related processes that are embedded within an individual's everyday social and life processes.

Information users and usability constitute the main building blocks of today's electronic information world. This important new text is the first to give a holistic overview of all of the necessary issues relating to information users and the usability of information services in the digital world, including user-centred design, and the characteristics and behaviour of information users. This book helps readers understand why information users and the usability of information services are important and equips them to play a proper role in designing user-centred information systems and services and to properly exploit information services for the maximum benefit of users. It covers all of the major issues, the current situation and what the various research studies from around the world show.

This landmark textbook takes a whole subject approach to Information Science as a discipline. Introduced by leading international scholars and offering a global perspective on the discipline, this is designed to be the standard text for students worldwide. The authors' expert narrative guides you through each of the essential building blocks of information science offering a concise introduction and expertly chosen further reading and resources. Critical topics covered include: foundations: - concepts, theories and historical perspectives - organising and retrieving information - information behaviour, domain analysis and digital literacies - technologies, digital libraries and information management - information research methods and informetrics - changing contexts: information society, publishing, e-science and digital humanities - the future of the discipline. Readership: Students of information science, information and knowledge management, librarianship, archives and records management worldwide. Students of other information-related disciplines such as museum studies, publishing, and information systems and practitioners in all of these disciplines.

This book presents a series of recent studies that introduce current topics and novel concepts in the field of information science. Among the chapters are discussions of the contribution of information science to society in the dual context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Agenda 2030, some negative aspects of information behaviour, including criminal activities in the dark web and the hikikomori phenomenon, the hot issues of fake news and hate speech from a library and information science perspective, gamification in libraries, and the new concepts of ‘jamography’ and ‘disnormative information’. Intended for information specialists and researchers, librarians and library and information science students, the book analyses how people use information, what their information needs are and how these needs are satisfied in today’s digital world. The book can also serve as a useful reference for the education and training of students and specialists in library and information services.

An information retrieval (IR) system is designed to analyse, process and store sources of information and retrieve those that match a particular user's requirements. A bewildering range of techniques is now available to the information professional attempting to successfully retrieve information. It is recognized that today's information professionals need to concentrate their efforts on learning the techniques of computerized IR. However, it is this book's contention that it also benefits them to learn the theory, techniques and tools that constitute the traditional approaches to the organization and processing of information. In fact much of this knowledge may still be applicable in the storage and retrieval of electronic information in digital library environments. The fully revised third edition of this highly regarded textbook has been thoroughly updated to incorporate major changes in this rapidly expanding field since the second edition in 2004, and a complete new chapter on citation indexing has been added. Unique in its scope, the book covers the whole spectrum of information storage and retrieval, including: users of IR and IR options; database technology; bibliographic formats; cataloguing and metadata; subject analysis and representation; automatic indexing and file organization; vocabulary control; abstracts and indexing; searching and retrieval; user-centred models of IR and user interfaces; evaluation of IR systems and evaluation experiments; online and CD-ROM IR; multimedia IR; hypertext and mark-up languages; web IR; intelligent IR; natural language processing and its applications in IR; citation analysis and IR; IR in digital libraries; and trends in IR research. Illustrated with many examples and comprehensively referenced for an international audience, this is an indispensable textbook for students of library and information studies. It is also an invaluable aid for information practitioners wishing to brush up on their skills and keep up to date with the latest techniques.