Information Research Weblog

I made an initial foray into the cellar recently, to begin the process of throwing away the accumulated junk of years. One of the things I found there may be of interest to a future historian of information behaviour research (and, indeed, of what is now called 'information literacy' research). It's a document I wrote for a UNISIST invitation meeting in Rome: the UNISIST Seminar on the Education and Training of Users of Scientific and Technological Information, 18-21 October 1976. [Clearly, a time when language was plain and straightforward and said what it meant :-)]

The paper was called: 'The investigation of information use and users' needs as a basis for training programmes' The paper is now on my Web site, slightly tidied up and with a couple of notes added. Devotees of the arcana of information research may find it interesting for (I think) the first appearance in print of the framework I evolved during a doctoral seminar at the University of Maryland in 1971, which ultimately became part of the models in my 1981 paper. The history of the evolution of the models is told in Fisher, K.E. et al. (2005). Theories of information behavior. Medford, NY: Information Today.

By coincidence, that 1981 paper has been resurrected by the Journal of Documentation in its series to celebrate its 60th anniversary. The current issue, volume 62 number 6, reprints the paper, together with a commentary by the Editor, David Bawden, and a response to that commentary by myself. I wonder what will happen at the 75th anniversary? :-)

Again, by chance, the same issue contains two reviews of the collection, 'Introducing information management: an Information Research reader' edited by Elena Macevičiūtė and myself. There's been something of a production failure here, since the two reviews are not separated, but presented as if a single review with two authors, and then the authors have been mis-assigned to each other's institution. Still, you can't have everything!