Information behavior has emerged as an important aspect of human life, however our knowledge and understanding of it is incomplete and underdeveloped scientifically. Research on the topic is largely contemporary in focus and has generally not incorporated results from other disciplines.
In this monograph Spink provides a new understanding of information behavior by incorporating related findings, theories and models from social sciences, psychology and cognition. In her presentation, she argues that information behavior is an important instinctive sociocognitive ability that can only be fully understood with a highly interdisciplinary approach. The leitmotivs of her examination are three important research questions: First, what is the evolutionary, biological and developmental nature of information behavior? Second, what is the role of instinct versus environment in shaping information behavior? And, third, how have information behavior capabilities evolved and developed over time?
Written for researchers in information science as well as social and cognitive sciences, Spink’s controversial text lays the foundation for a new interdisciplinary theoretical perspective on information behavior that will not only provide a more holistic framework for this field but will also impact those sciences, and thus also open up many new research directions.
Information Science and Knowledge Management, Vol. 16 Editor-in-Chief J. Mackenzie Owen Editorial Board M. Bates P. Bruza R. Capurro E. Davenport R. Day M. Hedstrom A.M. Paci C. Tenopir M. Thelwall For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/6159 Amanda Spink Information Behavior An Evolutionary Instinct 123 Professor Amanda Spink Chair in Information Science Department of Information Science Loughborough University Ashby Road, Loughborough Leicestershire LE11 3TU United Kingdom
[email protected] ISSN 1568-1300 ISBN 978-3-642-11496-0 e-ISBN 978-3-642-11497-7 DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-11497-7 Springer Heidelberg Dordrecht London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2010920730 ACM Computing Classification (1998): K.4, K.3 © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover design: Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd., Pondicherry Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Dedicated to Peter for his love and support Foreword This book is a synthesis of the information dimension of human behavior from an evolutionary perspective. It is based on a premise that information behavior is a crucial everyday human activity for all humans since the early days of human evolution. It addresses a number of fundamental questions not only scientific but also philosophical and hypothetical. In that sense, the book is an invitation for further research in a number