Re-appraising information seeking behaviour in a digital environment: Bouncers, checkers, returnees and the like

doi:10.1108/00220410410516635

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Journal of Documentation

ISSN: 0022-0418

Online from: 1945

Subject Area: Library and Information Studies

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Re-appraising information seeking behaviour in a digital environment: Bouncers, checkers, returnees and the like

Document Information:
Title:	Re-appraising information seeking behaviour in a digital environment: Bouncers, checkers, returnees and the like
Author(s):	David Nicholas, (Ciber (Centre for Information Behaviour and the Evaluation of Research), Department of Information Science, City University, London, UK), Paul Huntington, (Ciber (Centre for Information Behaviour and the Evaluation of Research), Department of Information Science, City University, London, UK), Peter Williams, (Ciber (Centre for Information Behaviour and the Evaluation of Research), Department of Information Science, City University, London, UK), Tom Dobrowolski, (Ciber (Centre for Information Behaviour and the Evaluation of Research), Department of Information Science, City University, London, UK)
Citation:	David Nicholas, Paul Huntington, Peter Williams, Tom Dobrowolski, (2004) "Re-appraising information seeking behaviour in a digital environment: Bouncers, checkers, returnees and the like", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 60 Iss: 1, pp.24 - 43
Keywords:	Digital communications, Information management, National Health Service, Worldwide web
Article type:	Research Paper
DOI:	10.1108/00220410410516635 (Permanent URL)
Publisher:	Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Abstract:	Collating data from a number of log and questionnaire studies conducted largely into the use of a range of consumer health digital information platforms, Centre for Information Behaviour and the Evaluation of Research (Ciber) researchers describe some new thoughts on characterising (and naming) information seeking behaviour in the digital environment, and in so doing, suggest a new typology of digital users. The characteristic behaviour found is one of bouncing in which users seldom penetrate a site to any depth, tend to visit a number of sites for any given information need and seldom return to sites they once visited. They tend to “feed” for information horizontally, and whether they search a site of not depends heavily on “digital visibility”, which in turn creates all the conditions for “bouncing”. The question whether this type of information seeking represents a form of “dumbing down or up”, and what it all means for publishers, librarians and information providers, who might be working on other, possible outdated usage paradigms, is discussed.