Springer Information Behavior: An Evolutionary Instinct: 16 (Information Science and Knowledge Management, 16)

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. Review From the reviews: “This compact nine chapter, 84 page text introduces Professor Spink’s approach to the challenge of information behavior. … The reference lists alone represent a serious amount of intellectual effort, and should provide a useful starting point for many further studies. … This text should find a home in the library of anyone interested in positioning information behaviour within the wider study of human behaviour.” (Allen Foster, Journal of Documentation, Vol. 67 (5), 2011) From the Back Cover 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. About the Author Amanda Spink is Professor and University Chair in Information Science in the Department of Information Science at Loughborough University (UK). She has a B.A. (Australian National University); Graduate Diploma of Librarianship (University of New South Wales); M.B.A. in Information Technology Management (Fordham University), and a Ph.D. in Information Science (Rutgers University). Amanda’s research focuses on theoretical and empirical studies of information behavior. The National Science Foundation, the American Library Association, Andrew R. Mellon Foundation, Amazon.com, Vivisimo. Com, Infospace.com, NEC, IBM, Excite.com, AlltheWeb.com, AltaVista.com, FAST