Introduction

Much research into information behaviour has focused on seeking information to satisfy some ‘information need’. The typical scenario is one in which a person becomes aware that they need to know something to help solve a problem or learn about some topic of interest, and this leads them to engage in information behaviour in order to acquire relevant information. Although (as will be explored in the Summary at the end of the chapter) there are starting points and drivers of information behaviour other than ‘information needs’, they have nevertheless formed the focus of a considerable body of research over many years which has provided useful insights into information behaviour.

In much early research into ‘user studies’, information needs were inferred from the types of information sources particular groups of people made use of. Later researchers became much more interested in the psychology of information needs – particularly in the intellectual (cognitive) processes underlying them. Even more recently, there has been a bourgeoning interest in sociological aspects of information behaviour, which brings a different and complementary perspective to what constitutes information needs. There has also been increasing interest in information behaviour that is not geared to satisfying a need for information, but rather to avoiding information. As will be discussed in the Summary, such needs are still related to information but not in the sense of needing or seeking it.

Information needs

Early Theorists

An early writer on information needs was Taylor. His seminal work (Taylor, 1962; 1968) is particularly interesting in that he distinguished between four different levels of information needs and their articulation. These continue to inform current research, including that of Cole (2012), whose recent work on information needs will be introduced in the next section, ‘Information-related needs’. Taylor differentiated between four levels of need: