ellis model of information seeking behaviour

NATASHA GANDHI

MILSc. 2012-13

ELLIS MODEL OF INFORMATION SEEKING BEHAVIOR

Information seeking behavior refers to the way people search for and utilize information. It is
seen as purposive seeking of information as a consequence of a need to satisfy some goal.

It is the micro-level of behavior employed by the searcher in interacting with information
systems of all kinds, be it between the seeker and the system, or the pure method of creating and
following up on a search.

The approach to modeling information seeking behavior originates in the perceived absence of
empirically based models of information seeking behavior in information retrieval research.

Ellis (1989), Ellis et al (1993), and Ellis and Haugan (1997) proposed and elaborated a general
model of information seeking behaviors based on studies of the information seeking patterns of
social scientists, research physicists and chemists, and engineers and research scientists in an
industrial firm.

Ellis, employing Glaser and Strauss’s ‘grounded theory’ approach, derived six generic
characteristics of the information seeking patterns of social scientists.

Starting
Chaining
Browsing
Differentiating
Monitoring
Extracting

Starting:

Starting is the means employed by the user to begin seeking information, for example, asking
some knowledgeable colleague.

It comprises those activities that form the initial search for information like identifying sources
of interest that could serve as starting points of the search. Identified sources often include
familiar sources and familiar sources.

The likelihood of a source being selected depends on the perceived accessibility and quality of
the information from that source.

Perceived accessibility, which is the amount of effort and time needed to make contact with and
use a source, is a strong predictor of source use for many groups of information users (such as
engineers and scientists (Allen 1977)).

However, in situations when ambiguity is high and information reliability important, less
accessible sources of perceived high quality are consulted.

While searching these initial sources, they may point to, suggest, or recommend additional
sources or references.

Chaining:

Following up on these new leads from an initial source is the activity of chaining, which can be
backward or forward.

Backward chaining takes place when pointers or references from an initial source are followed,
and is a well established routine of information seeking among scientists and researchers.

Forward chaining identifies and follows up on other sources such as footnotes and citations of
the initial source or document. It is less commonly used, because people are unaware of it or the
required bibliographical tools are unavailable.

Browsing:

Browing is the activity of 'semi-directed or semi-structured searching' in areas of potential
search.

Chang and Rice (1993) define browsing as "the process of exposing oneself to a resource space
by scanning its content (objects or representations) and/or structure, possibly resulting in
awareness of unexpected or new content or paths in that resource space."

Browsing takes place in many situations in which related information has been grouped together
according to subject affinity.

The individual often simplifies browsing by looking through tables of contents, lists of titles,
subject headings, names of organizations or persons, abstracts and summaries, and so on.

Differentiating:

The individual filters and selects from among the sources scanned by noticing differences
between the nature and quality of the information offered.

The differentiation process is likely to depend on the individual's prior or initial experiences with
the sources, word-of-mouth recommendations from personal contacts, or reviews in published
sources.

Taylor (1986) identifies six categories of criteria by which an individual can select and
differentiate between sources: ease of use, noise reduction, quality, adaptability, time savings,
and cost savings.

Monitoring:

It is the activity of keeping abreast of developments in an area by regularly following particular
sources.

The individual monitors by concentrating on a small number of core sources which vary between
professional groups, but usually include key personal contacts and publications.

For example, social scientists and physicists track developments through core journals, online
search updates, newspapers, conferences, magazines, books, catalogues, etc.

Extracting:

It is the activity of systematically working through a particular source or sources in order to
identify material of interest. It selectively identifies the relevant material in an information
source;

As a form of retrospective searching, extracting may be achieved by directly consulting the
source, or by indirectly looking through bibliographies, indexes, or online databases.

Retrospective searching tends to be labor intensive, and is more likely when there is a need for
comprehensive or historical information on a topic.

This work was extended to physicists and chemists in studies which found that the original
model fits behavior in these fields with very little modification, the principal being the addition
of the categories of verifying and ending.

Verifying:

It involves checking the accuracy of information that is obtained by the user from the various
sources.

Ending:

Ending can defined as 'tying up loose ends' through a final search. Here the task of information
seeking is complete and the user has obtained all the required information, thus satisfying his
needs.

Ellis noted that, ‘the detailed interrelation or interaction of the features in any individual information
seeking pattern will depend on the unique circumstances of the information seeking activities of the
person concerned at that particular point in time’.

However, it is clear that ‘starting’ must initiate a process and that ‘ending’ must end it. It is reasonable to
suggest that ‘verifying’ is a penultimate stage in a process and that ‘extracting’ must follow on from a
specific search behavior such as ‘browsing’.

To conclude ‘extracting’ is not an information behavior of the same kind as ‘browsing’, or ‘chaining’ or
‘monitoring’, and ‘differentiating’ is also a different kind of behavior.

Browsing, chaining and monitoring are search procedures, whereas differentiating is a filtering process
and extracting an action performed on the information sources

The remaining behaviors do not necessarily take place in a specific sequence and may be initiated in
different sequences at different times in the overall search process. Ellis’s model, appears to sit between
the micro-analysis of search behavior (starting, chaining, extracting, verifying, ending) and the macro-
analysis of information behavior generally (browsing, monitoring, differentiating)

Ellis's elaboration of the different behaviors involved in information seeking is not set out as a
diagrammatic model and Ellis makes no claims that the different behaviors constitute a single set
of stages, he uses the term 'features' rather than 'stages'.

Though the Ellis model is based on studies of academics and researchers, these categories of
information seeking behaviors may be applicable to other groups of users such as English
literature researchers, engineers and research scientists in industrial environment.

For example, Sutton's (1994) analysis of the information seeking behavior of attorneys noted that
the three stages of legal research he identified i.e. base-level modelling, context sensitive
exploration, and disambiguating the space could be mapped into Ellis's categories of starting,
chaining, and differentiating.

The identification of categories of information seeking behavior also suggests that information
retrieval systems could increase their usefulness by including features that directly support these
activities.

Ellis thought that hypertext-based systems would have the capabilities to implement these
functions. If one visualizes the World Wide Web as a hyperlinked information system distributed
over numerous networks, one can see that most of the information seeking behavior categories in
Ellis' model are being supported by capabilities available in common Web browser software.

An individual could begin surfing the Web from one of a few favorite starting pages or sites
(starting);

Follow hyper textual links to related information resources -- in both backward and forward
linking directions (chaining);

Scan the Web pages of the sources selected (browsing);

Bookmark useful sources for future reference and visits (differentiating);

Subscribe to e-mail based services that alert the user of new information or developments
(monitoring);

Search a particular source or site for all information on that site on a particular topic (extracting).

Information Starting Chaining Browsing Differentiating Monitoring Extracting
Seeking
Behaviors

Literature Identifying Following Scanning Assessing or Receiving Systematically
Search sources of up tables of restricting regular working
Moves interest references contents information reports or through a
found in or according to their summaries source to
given headings usefulness from identify
material selected material of
sources interest
Anticipated Identifying Following Scanning Selecting useful Receiving Systematically
Web Moves websites/ links on top-level pages and sites by site updates searches a local
pages starting pages: bookmarking, using e.g. site to extract
containing pages to lists, printing, copying push, agents, information of
or pointing other headings, and pasting, etc or profiles interest at that
to content- site maps site
information related Choosing/starting Revisiting
of interest sites at differentiated, favorite sites
pre-selected site of for new
known content information

The activities of web information seeking are compared with the original information model
devised by Ellis in the above table.

Ellis's work also suggests that an IR system ought to provide more navigational routes for the
user, providing not only Boolean or best-match search strategies, but also the capacity to chain
through citations in texts both backwards and forwards in time, and with intelligent agents to
monitor additions to the database according to, say, the user's last search or an established
profile.

One can see a similarity between the models of Ellis and Kulthau which is illustrated in the
diagram below.

From the above diagram, we can see strong similarities between the two models. There is a
major difference is that Ellis specifies the modes of exploration or investigation. Ellis does not
present his characteristics as stages but as elements of behavior that may occur in different
sequences with different persons or with the same person at different times.

Thus, the two models are fundamentally opposed in the minds of the authors: Kuhlthaudepicts
the stages on the basis of her analysis of behavior, while Ellis suggests that the sequences of
behavioral characteristics may vary.

The strength of Ellis’s model, as with Kuhlthau’s is that it is based on empirical research and has
been tested in subsequent studies, most recently in the context of an engineering company.

Wilson also incorporates the Ellis’s ‘Behavioral Characteristics’ of information seeking in his
Model on Information Seeking Behavior which he was updating.

To conclude, David Ellis’ empirically-based model of common actions associated with scholarly
information seeking hasbeen influential, spurring several follow-on studies to test for similar
activities in the work of people in other circumstances

REFERENCES

Choo, C. W, Detlor, B & Turnbull, D. (1998), A Behavioral Model of Information Seeking on
the Web -- Preliminary Results of a Study of How Managers and IT Specialists Use the Web,
1998 ASIS Annual Meeting Contributed Paper, Retrieved on September 11,2012,
fromhttp://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~donturn/papers/asis98/asis98.html

Choo, C. W, Detlor, B & Turnbull, D. (2000), Information Seeking on the Web: An Integrated
Model of Browsing and Searching, First Monday, 5(2), Retrieved on September 11, 2012,
http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/729/638

Wilson, T.D. (1999) "Models in information behaviour research" Journal of
Documentation, 55(3) 249-270, Retrieved on September 11, 2012, from
http://informationr.net/tdw/publ/papers/1999JDoc.html

Ellis, D. &Haugan, M. (1997),"Modeling the information seeking patterns of engineers and
research scientists in an industrial environment", Journal of Documentation, 53 (4), p. 384 – 403,
Retrieved on September 11, 2012, from http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000007204

Information seeking behavior, (2012)Retrieved on September 18, 2012, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_seeking_behavior#cite_note-5

Ellis, D.(2005), Information Seeking Behavior,InK. Fisher, S. Erdelez& L. McKechnie, (Eds.),
Theories of Information Behavior, p. 138-142, Retrieved on September 18, 2012, from
http://books.google.co.in/books?id=ll6qzqhIj8wC&printsec=frontcover&dq=ellis+model+of+inf
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Wilson, T.D. (2007). Evolution in information behavior modeling: Wilson's model. In, K.
Fisher, S. Erdelez& L. McKechnie, (Eds.).Theories of information behavior, (pp. 31-36).
Medford, NJ: Information Today. [Slightly revised and updated October 2007] Available at
http://InformationR.net/tdw/publ/papers/2005SIGUSE.html

Bates, Marcia J. (2010) Information Behavior InEncyclopedia of Library and Information
Sciences, 3rd Ed.Marcia J. Bates and Mary Niles Maack, (Eds.) New York: CRC Press, vol. 3, p.
2381-2391, Retrieved on September 24, 2012, from
http://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/bates/articles/information-behavior.html

Choukhande, V.G. (2008), Information needs and information behavior, (1st ed.), Amravati:
Shivneri Publishers& Distributors. 294 p.

ellis model of information seeking behaviour

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