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29
Information Encountering
Sanda Erdelez
School of Information Science and Learnin{ Technologie.s
University of folissouri,Columbia, USA
sanda@)missouri.e du
Thc concept of infornratiun elrcourrtering (IE) was introducetl irrto the
infbrrnation behavior literature by Erdelez (1997), based on her
rescarch of accidental acquisition of infbrmation among I 32 information = l,
users in an acaclemic environme'nt (see http:fiinfoencountering.com). --t
While infirrmation behavior resc,arch has traditionally focusecl on horn'
people actir-cly seek information, Erclelez and scvcral other authors,
such asWilliarnson (I998) audTom,s (2000), brought attention to oppor.
tunistic acquisition of information (OAI), *'hich is a common behavior in
a moclern environment saturated with information and pervasire tech,
nologies {br its proces.-ing and accessitrg.
Erclelez's initial research e{'fort focused trpon identifyinq and describ.
ing the charactcristics of IE, defined broadly as a nenorahle experience
of unexpectecl discovery of useful or interesting information, She pro,
posed a conceptual frame*'ork for facilitating systematic study of IE
with three key elements: characteristics of the information user, charac,
teristics of the information environment, ancl characteristics of the
encountered information. Erdelez also clescrilrcd four tcntatil'e cate,
gories of information users based on their perceptions of IE experiences:
super.encttunterers, erlcotnlt€rers, occesiortttl encounterers, and ttotr,
(t"t(:0unterers .
In her follorv,ul: rvork, Erdelez (2000) acldressed the charactcristics
of the Internet and the Web as IE environment-\. The information rich,
ness of the Web and the ease of rnanipulation of electronic inlbrmation
might seerrl to be advantager:us for IE. Erdelez, horl'el-er, reported that
tiris may be true only {br users at the nriddle and lowcr end of thc IE spcc,
trunl. The super-encounterer.s in her study reported a high lcvcl of
apprchcnsion about thc \Vcb as an IE environmcnt. A rclated study by
4.
;rt t .
, ii I'
179
180 Theories of Information Behavior
Erclclez- [c Rioux (2000) cxplorcd thc usc of thc- Wcb for encount('ring
information usefirl to other pcoplc.
Through thc above empirical research, Erdelez confirmccl that IE i-s
an integral elerrrent of uscrs' ovcrall information behavior and a very rich
topic {br study. After adclitional conceptual rcfining, firdelez recentlv
identified IE as a spccific type of OAI and definccl it as an instctrtcc of'
at'tidentul discouery oJ' inJbrmation durhtg u.n actit:e search Jbr sonu
other inJitrnvrtiort. This view of IE, while narrower than the one pre,
sentcd in her initial study, allorn's for the presence of other tlpes of OAI
that yct need to be identified ancl defineei. Figure 29.I illustrates the
nested position of IE in the context of OAI, and within information
acquisition and information beha'i'ior in general. Figure 29.I also incli,
cates that OAI, as a tlpe of information acquisition, is on the same hier-
archical lcvel as pnrposive infornration sceking, Such placement of OAI
in rclation to information seeking has been supportcd in -several other
moclels of Ii], such a-. Wilson's Model of information behavior (Wilson,
I999) and \\llliam.son's (I998) Ecoloqical model of in{brmation use.
ligure 29. I Posrtion ot "pponrnutil rlq",ri i." "i;i;'.;i;" ."d ri".-ror"
encountering within the conceptual model of information behavior.
ll.lF r-r RIvl A T I r.r l,l
BEHAVII.IR
Other f,-trms ni
inf i rmat i': n lr g[ :3r.ri6 I
Itrfrrr trratiolr
nc{lilisitiorl
I nt e ritic' ri a | ;r r q u i ::iti r-r ti
ui irilirrrnatiBn ie.9.,
inf o rt n ;rt i r-i n se e kiri gi
t-t;r1r ort rlrristic
.rc(lubili{}n lif
ittf r'rt trrnliorr lt-t[11
Other torrn::
,ri oA.l Itrfrrl trr.ttintr
encr)tt|ttet i||{
information Encounlering 181
Building upon thc more spr,cific dcfinititxr of IE, Erdclcz (in prcss)
developed a functional model of IE, identifying several stcps that occrlr
during an IE exlerience: noticing, stappittg, exanining, cal)t1tring, and
retuning (see Figure 29.2)"
RETURNING
CAPTURING
a
t
I
+
It
EXAMINING STOPPING
I
.'l
I
lnformation eRcounter
related to some backgro
interest/problem/tas k
NOTICING
<-lnformation seeking
related to the foreground
problem
Figure 29.2 A functional model of information encountering.
Al^+^. -T-ni- i. -^ ,,^1.+^l ,,^..i^^. ^{ rA^ -^-l^l f.^* l^.,^.+i^.+i^^ ^{
r\u(c. I t[) r) atl uPUdtgu vcr JrvrlJ ur ilrc rrruucr rrurrr rrrvgJLIS4Llult vl
information encountering in the controlled research environment,"
by S, Erdelez , lnfarnation Processlng & Monogement (in press).
Copyright 7004 by Elsevier Ltd. Adapted with permission,
Willianrson, K. ( l99B). Discovered by chance: The role of incidental
information acquisition in an ecological model of inforrnation use,
Librory and lnformation Sclence Reseorch, 20(l),23-40.
The modcl assumcs the existence of. I) an initial information, sceking
task that is related to the user's "foreground problem," and 2) one or
more "backgrouncl interest/problemsftasks" that are not actively
acldressed Lry the user's irr{irrrlation seeking behavior. f)uring an episode
I
I
I
ing
und
182 Theories of Information Behavior
of informaticn cncountcring, a sr.vitch occurs in uscrs' attcntion from thc
foreground problem to the background problcm.
Each step of the modcl invohcs a combination of cognitive, affective,
and behavioral proccsscs that may bc applietl as a uscr I) secs informa-
tion potentially reler.ant to the background problerrr, 2) intemupts thc
original search process to examine the encountcred infbrmation, 3) saves
the information that is cleerned to be worth saving, and 4) returns to the
initial information search for the fbreground problenr. While the motlel
presents one simplified and cornpletc episode of IE, natural occurrences
of IE come in many variations (e.g., int.ermptions and looping), which
are influenced by the user's individual differences ar-rd the context of the
overall situation.
Methodologics for studving IE ancl other t;pes of OAI have been
firmly based in qualitative approaches. Of key irnportance has been the
capabiiity of qualitative rcsearch--such as in-depth inten'iewing-to
capture rich descriptions of u.sers' OAI erperiences and to create a
shared conceptual understanding ancl opcnness of communication
between the researcher and the respondents. Erdelez (1997) and
Erdelez & Rioux (2000) also used sun'eys {br both pre-screening of the
study participants ancl fcrr thc collection of morc structurcd data about
users' perceptions about their IE experience's. Some uther researchcrs
who also rclied on a combination of qualitativ-e research methods arc
Williamson (f 998) ancl Foster and Ford (2002).
Building upon carlier effort.s by Tbms (2000) and Llampos and ele
Figueiredo (200I), Erdelez (in press), in recent research, explored the
possibilit,v of stuclying IE in a controlled research environment. She
atternpted to induce IE in respontlents, using a re.search setup that
manipulated the prescnce of a trigger for IE experienccs rvhile control,
ling the user's background problem, foreground problem, and the infor-
mation cnvironmcnt. Expcrimcntal rcscarch in IE could increasc the
understanding of the preclictive porver of various elements of Erdelez's
conceptual liamervork, especially regarding the impact of individual dil)
f'erences antl the characteristics of the information environment on the
occurrence of an IE episode. However, many challenges in experimental
research design and instmmentation would first ncccl to be ol-ercome.
Information encolrntering and the c'volvinfl methods for its study out,
line the still insufficientlv explored teruitories of OAI, infbrmation
Information Encounterino 183
acquisit.ion, and information bchavior in gcncral. IE may al-so enrich con'
ceptualization of ser.cral other evolving francworks and theories of II],
such as: . Princi!:Le of least elJbrt (Zip{, 1949), especially in terms of
showing that through IH, users are rewarcled even when
there is no apparent invr'rstment of effort to search for some
in{brmation.
' I Et,eryduy ltfe *fbrnrertion ltehutilrr, as itr Savolaitren's
(I995) evervclay information seeking, F-i.shcr, Dumancc, and
Hinton's (2{}04) information grouncls, and Williamson's
(I998) ecological model of information use that
clemonstrates that everyday information needs become
intert'rvinccl rvith work,related needs through IE,
' Pcrsonal inJbrnatior"t rnana.genrsnr, as in Jones (20t)4),
r.r'hich brings attention to similarities and differences in
rnanaqing information acquired by encountering vs.
purposcful infbrmation secking.
' .\{ ul ti'
lt rrx:es.rirrg itt info rnt at ion be hauior, inclucling
research on multitasking information seeking and informa,
tion searching processes b1'Spink et al. (2002) and the study
of task .srvitching and lrterruptions by Czerrvinski et al.,
(2004).
Information encountering is not in itsclf a fullv developed thcory,;
however, the frarnework introducecl by Erde]ez frrr the study of IE pron,
ises to provicle several key ingredients fur theory building in informatiou
behavior research. A theory that builds upon the IE view of information
behavior will neecl to accomnodate the interplay betrveen purposeful
and opportunistic acquisition of information and help explain informa,
tion behavior in a nattrral ancl holistic wav.
Campos, J., & de Figueiredo, A. D. (200f). Searching the rinsearchable: Inducing
screntlipitous insighcs. Irr R. \I'bber & C. Oresse (trd.). Procce dtngs t,l'the l\irrAslro/;
Progrant at. the Fourth Ittternat.iotwl Conf tn:tvt ttn Cust.Busei Reusitrtittg,ICCBR
?001, tchnical Notc AIC-OI.003. \lashington D,C.: Naval Rcscarch Ldroratory,
Navv Center lbr Applied Research in Artilicial Intelligence.
184 Theories of In{ormation Behavior
Cz-erwin.ski, M., Horvitz, E., &Wilhite, S. (?004). A diary study of task switching and
interruptious. ln I'roreetlings of the 2O04 ConJbrenct on Hutnant Fattors in
Computitrgsqsterns fup. I75,I82). NewYork, NY: ACM Press.
Erdelez, S. (f997). Information enconntering: A conceptual framework for accidental
information cliscor,-ery. In P. Vakkari, R. Savolainen, & B. Den'in (eds.),
Information Seehing in Context. Protcedings of Internctional Confcrence on
Rcsearch in InJbrmntion Nceds, Scehirg awl Use br Dilferant Contexts fup. aI2-
421). London: Th14or (iraham.
Erdelez, S. (2000). Towards understanding information encountering on ther*'elr. In D.
H. Kralt (Ed.). Prorce dings of the 63rd Annual Meeti.ng af the Anteritan Saciety
Jbr Infonnatitnt Science fup. 363-37I). Medford, NJ: Inlbrmation Today.
Erdelez, S. (in press). lnvestigation o{'infbrmation encountering in the controlled
rcsearch environment. InJbrmatiort Protessittg r M anagenent.
Erdelez, S., {s Rioux, K. (2000). Sharing irformation encountered f<rr others on the
Web. 'I'fu Neu, Reuiew af Information Behaliar Research, I ,219,233 "
Fisher, K^ D., Durrance, J. C., & Hinton, M. ll. (2004). Infornration grounds and the use
of neecl-basecl sen-ices bv immigrants in Qreens, NY: A context-based, outcome
evaluation approach. Journal ofthe Anurican Socieul for Information Sciera:e and
Tbchnology, 5 5, 7 54,766.
Foster, A. 8., & Ford, N. (2002). Serendipity and information seeking: An enpirical
study" Jounro I aJ' D ocu,nznttettan, 5 9, 3)I -3 40.
Jones, W. (2004). Finders, keepers-i The present and future perfect in support of per.
sonal information management. Firsf Monday, 9(3). Retrier-ed March 5, l0t)4,
from hrp:f fwww.ff rstmonday.orgfissues/issue9-3fjones/index.html
Savolainen, R. (I995). Everyclay life inforrnation seeking: Approaching information
seeking in the context of "u'ay of life". Librcry and InJbrmation Science Research,
t 7,259.294.
Spink, A., Ozrnultu, S., 6t Oz.rnultu, H. C. (2002). Multitasking in{ormation seeking
and searching processes. 'Jounml of the Amcrican Saciety far Infanwttion Sciente
and'[ithnology 5 3, 639'65).
Toms, E- G. (2000). Understanding and facilitating the browsing of electronic text.
Internzstional 'Jourrutl of Human-Computer Strrrfies, 5 2 , 423452.
Williamson, K. (I998). Discovered by chance; The role of incidental information acqui-
sition in an ecological model of information use. Librarq and Infornwtiott ^9deru:e
Rescarth, 20tI), T.$.
Wilson, T. D. (1999). Models in inf<rrmation behaviour research. Journal of'
D ocurncntztion, 5 5, 249.27 A.
Zipf,G.K.(i949). Hutnanbehauiorantltheprbu'ipleof lea.stffirt:Anintntduction
to human ecalogy. Cambridse, MA: Addison-Weslev.
